Second Session 15th -29th November Part 1
4 January 2010
The second session began the day after I returned from our US tour… I get jet lagged quite fiercely on west to east transatlantic trips so the first few days were a blur. Emery arrived on the Sunday, we hung out and chatted about what we had to do, made a list, and then began on the Monday. Some still niggling technical issues were ironed out over the first couple of days. My friend Michael Ilbert, who works out of Hansa studios, let us borrow some essential leads until we had some of our own made up. I noted that they had timpanis in there. We would return to Hansa at the end of the 2 weeks to track these big drums and get some other things done.
We began with the song we abandoned at the end of the previous session. This would eventually be a duet with Neko Case. As I said before and will saaaaaay again, Neko is an american female singer songwriter. I met her in Berlin earlier in the year at her show. I asked if she would like to do a duet. She said “Ja” so I wrote this specifically. We sped it up a little… I re recorded my acoustic guitar, an old 1940′s Martin.
We double tracked it and then made a rhythm track of harmonic strumming, where you strum the strings while moving your finger up and down the fretboard. Then I played and arpeggio guitar over the top
The next song we recorded would end up being the first song on the record. It’s piano led. I called around for a tuner who turned up 40 minutes later and tuned the piano. Here is the piano. It’s a Yamaha. According to the tuning man, it’s a very good one. Nice. Oh yeah and I think Nigel used this alot on early episodes of From The Basement.
This piano line was very difficult. There were alot of subtle changes and I was in black key territory which, as a non piano player, made it impossible. I played it for 2 hours and then we went out for a drink to get away from it. When we got back I managed to nail it. Then I fell asleep on the couch upstairs.
Emery took my drum line and transformed it while I slept. The next morning I listened and it was like hearing a new song. Cool. We had our opening track.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
i’m not sure about what i’m feeling..i’m glad fran has a solo record and it means there’s an opportunity that maybe he’ll come to my homeland(indonesia) to promote his album, but in another side i’m very sad that Travis will have hiatus and maybe for the worst thing happen, fran quits from Travis (i hope not) and it means Travis will never ever play in my homeland..whatever happen Travis is my favorite band ever and i hope Travis is forever..
cheers,
mita
‘Black Key Territory’ sounds like a 80′s Bowie album.
pssst…Clay built the Empire State Building there? (right below the Piano) x-)
got the same piano here
, Yamaha is inbetween but also warmer 
It’s a good one but nothing against a Bösendorfer concert piano ….which is warmer…compared to a Steinway
Like a Gibson compared to a Fender (Bösendorfer-Steinway)
Very much looking forward to that track…
I am always amazed by the level of fiddling that goes into making a record. If you don’t already, you should check out the ongoing series of interviews with XTC (usually Andy Partridge, but sometimes others) on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/xtcfans . Andy, in particular, has an amazing power of recall (or else kept impeccable diaries) about all of the intricacies put into their recordings.
Oh all that sounds really exciting! Thanks for sharing
Julie xxx
Thanks Fran. It’s very interesting to read. And I think it sounds great. I can’t wait to hear it!
Does this mean you’ll be giving us all the background to the songs on this future masterpiece, like you did with “Ode” ???? I find it very interesting reading how it all comes together
sounds fantastical and Neko Case is amazing. (I live in Seattle)
Violin + Piano + McCartney… what’s next!? I can’t wait to listen to everything.
Getting McCartney on bass – how amazing is that?! What a great present you presented him with! Hey, maybe you can look up a guy called, Noel Gallagher – you may have heard of him?
He may be looking for a collaboration! Good luck and can’t wait to read/hear more!
so excited, can’t wait to hear what it sounds like… thanks for sharing all this, fran! liebe grüße ~
Love the piano songs. They sound touching (IMHO)
Neko Case is pretty rad I’m looking foward to hear that
Thanks for sharing Fran!
Thanks for asking Neko to sing with you, can’t wait to listen to that.
Hey,this bloke might have been handy on the piano
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceu6BWO4b84
fran, what’s an “essential lead”?
It was only a few minutes ago when I got the news about Mr. Healy’s solo album, and there couldn’t be any better news for me So Fran Healy, you made my day brighter (and it’s really grey outside!)
I can’t wait ’till the album comes out!!! Thank you for updating the fans about the process of making it, I’m sure going to stay tuned.
Good luck! and lots of love from Israel!
Chen.
2x RCA to bantam leads and two bantam to jack leads. Don’t ask… Emery was saying all of these technical words and the words jack and bantam and rca stuck out…what he used them for I don’t know but they are still sticking out of some holes and I can still hear music so something must be working.
Hey, do something slow song only with piano, this is best!:) I want Some Sad Song play on my burial…It’s pessimistic.
post some audio samples Fran!
This site’s been such a humble sharing from a splendid person of great musical value..and that guitar above has really been rocking for some time..hope it keeps doing it for more and more time !
That Martin is a real beauty Fran,I prefer that, to the big 12 string you sometimes play. Suppose for different songs you needed different guitars.
Anyway the solo album is a great move i think, to take a break from the band. I wouldnt be surprised if Noel or Chris will be next to release solo records.
You might start a trend lad!
[...] considerazioni a volte un po’ più tecniche, a volte [...]