I am a father and husband and love family holidays in the tent visiting Scotland which is perhaps the greatest country in the world. I love music and play in Weird Decibels as well as solo. I love video games but have yet to blog about that.
We went for it anyway, back in with PM promotions it was nice to have a gig to look forward to. Jim’s Bar is a little sauna two flights of stairs up from the main stage that we played twice a few years back.
It’s been a while, Derek had a bad injury to his ankle then he got married so the first half of 2014 has been a quiet, subtle year for the band. I say subtle as we’re halfway writing wdB2. We cancelled the Pivo Pivo gig for this so we had high hopes for the Saturday show.
Stu brings in the red
On arrival we opened the door and I could swear we stepped into an oven, it was so hot. Air conditioning was non existent, Jesus I was sweating taking my Guitar out of its case. We met a guy from PM promotions called Jim and he was nice. He was welcoming, told us what time we’d be on and introduced us to the sound guy, who was younger than my car (an old beaten up ford). The sound check was quick as it always is, it sounded OK on stage, I asked for a couple of changes thinking the young dude would fiddle with his knobs but later I would find it was not to be. Jim took us up another four levels to our changing room which had a fridge for the beer but we’d never use it,
After sound check we headed off to the west end of Glasgow, Ashton lane, we had a burger a beer and a seat in the sun. Fantastic. I had a great feeling about the gig.
We headed back to the venue, I was a little fuzzy from the beer I had. We caught a fine set from Augusta Fireball, two guys around our age playing in front of a white screen that displayed various pictorial moments including the colourful moment J F Kennedy’s head met a bullet. I’ve not seen the image for a while but it unsettled me. It was slightly distracting from their music which was excellent. We were up second.
Our faithful turned up and cheered the loudest. To be honest I’m not sure why we were on second , we had perhaps the biggest crowd on the night.
Set list
Miss A
Speak
Joker
Kill it! Kill it!
I Hear The City
Wait
Wonder (replaced by Waiting On the Sound of Your High Heels)
Greg slams the bass
It was the hottest gig I ever played, nearly fainted hitting the high notes of Joker. Our crowd were there but there was no one else apart from the other bands. The sound on stage was muddy, the young dude hadn’t made the changes as asked. Disappointing.
Every song we played was interrupted by the moving drum kit. Derek would would run off to find some gaffer tape so I would try my best to entertain the crowd.
Derek fixes the kit as i talk shit
I enjoyed it though. I loose it every time we play there is something about playing live that makes me reach into me deepest feelings and pour them out. As RM Hubbert would say its a kind of therapy and you don’t need to pay for it. We were getting ready to play Wonder and I had piled praise on Jemma for helping us on wdB1 when from the bar I heard the shout of ‘play high heels!’ Sounded like Wilson and Byrne. Then I heard ‘gonna remove the tattoo! I looked around, Derek stared the click and we rolled into High Heels.
After us were a Perth band called Bedford Rascals, they were young and they were nuts the singer burst his hand and bled over his bass, that was the most rock and roll moment of the night. The headlines All Suns Blazing had a fine set of blistering blues. Really impressed. Unfortunately for the guys the heat had got to the crowd and most had left apart from the faithful.
I cant call this gig a classic. It wasn’t, in many ways it was the kinda gig you have to play to help you appreciate when the next amazing night come along.
By the time you read this we are about to, or will have played Jims Bar at the QMU in Glasgow (june 21st 2014), So below is a recount of some of our gigs, in no particular order we include the finest, the worst and the strangest moments from our time on the stage.
Greg at the ABC2 2013
Classic. 1996 Martell Falkirk Battle of the Bands Quarter Finals. We had just started playing and our heads were full of dreams. Greg, Stu and I had just left school to go to college and Derek, the youngster was still growing cress on the carpet of the common room in Larbert high School. Three teenage kids and a fresh 20-year-old took to the stage to one of our biggest and most eager crowds. The place was packed, i couldn’t see anything from the glare of the lights but every time we finished a song the place erupted. It was the start of our dream.
Weird. 1996 A Field in Crossgates.. Chris from Cage phones us. ‘Hey guys want to stand in for us? Its a biker rally festival in Crossgates’ I thought biker rally = really drunk moshers + our brand of rock + festival = riot of a gig. When we turned up, it was a field full of cow shit. We were directed to the ‘stage’. The power generator was louder than us. The crowd was a single mother bouncing her baby up and down on her knee. The rocking bikers stayed outside playing spin around the stick whilst drinking whiskey. Stu and Derek were happy though, they sat and ate a bag of onion rings and drank cheep beer…
Great Gig. 2013 Oran Mor, Glasgow.
A pensive Weird Decibels
Superb gig in the basement of Oran Mor. We supported Life On Standby who are now doing very well, that night they played a fine set to a growing audience. We went on halfway through the night. It was a great crowd really up for it. Our album Weird Decibels 1 was doing well and we were getting into the swing of playing it live. The sound was simply amazing, one of he best live sounds we have ever had. Annie Walker was kind enough to take some brilliant photos and through this gig we got a slot on the Third Classic ticket radio show run by Tommy Clark. One of those great nights.
Bad gig. The Cathouse Glasgow. A pay to play gig. Hate them. These days they still do them but in a more subtle way. We sold a few tickets and paid to play only for the bouncers to refuse entry to most of the people who had travel through to see us. Derek was raging, he can be heard venting his anger on a live recording which appears on our official bootleg. The place was nearly empty, it was a real setback for the band.
Great Gig 2009, The Argyll Falkirk.
Derek setting up the kit for Tonight Live Not Completely Sold Out
In the ‘slender’ years between ‘Quiet Act’ and ‘Weird Decibels 1’ we were writing the new album and played a handful of gigs at various venues around our home town of Falkirk. Derek owned the Argyll pub at this time so it was an ideal opportunity for us to organise our own gigs. This meant we could use all our own gear and record our performance. We recorded this gig in question, this would eventually become ‘Tonight! Live! Not Completely Sold Out! A mixture of covers, old songs and four new tracks that would appear on WdB1. It was our faithful crowd who have followed us from day one and it was a great laugh. Keep an eye on Bandcamp, I’ll upload these tracks very soon. https://weirddecibels.bandcamp.com/
Weird but brilliant. around early 2000’s My Parents Garden at a BBQ. A gigs a gig! Stu reminded me of this one. My parents held a BBQ every year and asked us to play a wee acoustic gig which we happily agreed. I took down the 4 track and flung a few mics around. The gig started well with cheers and laughs, that is until we played the Ace of Spades on acoustic guitars! The recording was great until my Dad started trying to break a big block of ice cubes which was picked up on the recording, and yes it was out of time…
Classic Gig. Around 2005. The Path Tavern. Kirkcaldy. The venue may be closed and turned into a restaurant but the memories will remain. We played with Kranksolo, our two bands formed a fine friendship and shared a few gigs. 13 Tombs supported. They were superb, the singer had these massive boots that lit up. He looked like dynamo from Running Man. It was a small but fantastic crowd, they dug our music which at the time was One More Solo. We sold a few albums and we were even asked to sign them! Greg drove us back in the ‘Vulture’ old Vauxhall Carlton automatic. It took all the gear, three drunk band members and a sober bass player.
Bad Gig, But Great experience. Around 2005. The Cavern. Liverpool.
Weird Rock the Cavern, the easy way…
Contradiction perhaps but this was one of the most memorable experiences for the band. We even saw the ‘Beatles’. In our desire to expand to other countries, starting with England Greg managed to get us a gig in the world-famous venue the Carvern home of a band called the Beatles. Quite good actually. On the road down Derek nearly broke his hand when Greg decided his stricken limb looked good as a door stop. It was a Back To The Future moment when Kevin Byrne was considered to stand in. The gig itself was empty, everyone was watching the Beatles, we discovered that night that most people listen to music they are familiar with. One the road back I needed to pee really bad as we had been drinking all night. I’m not sure why I’m mentioning this but it is scorched in my memory how long Greg made me wait… Thanks to Neil Henderson and Kevin Byrne who came down and took the photos.
Great Gig. 2013 ABC 2 Glasgow.
Rocking the ABC2
2013 was a great year for us live, the ABC 2 was a great gig. the sound the crowd and our performance ensured a great night. It was the first time we actually had a proper merch stand. Yes we have been together nearly 20 years but it takes us time to catch on… It was at this gig we played a brand new song Miss Asphyxia from our future album Weird Decibels 2. It seemed to herald in a new chapter for the band. The fact that it went down well was fantastic. There is a back stage room with a fridge which 5 years ago we would’ve filled with beer, however…it was not to be.
We are a small but perfectly formed rock band, there are no major venues with packed crowds. However we love playing live and every Monday when we return to our jobs, surrounded by the sound of keyboards typing furious emails and office workers sniping we can look back on these times with pleasure and indeed look forward. We never know what is around the corner, maybe when we step from backstage one day and see a wee venue packed with our friends and our fans. We play live 22nd August 2014, 13th Note Glasgow. Make an unforgettable night with us.
I finish with;
Ten Facts about Weird Decibels live
Waiting On the Sound of Your High Heels Baby from One More Solo is our most played song.
Dave Broon was our manager for a night, at a gig in Edinburgh, he paid us with a beer. Legend.
A couple got ‘frisky’ when we played ‘Glass People’ at McSorley’s in Glasgow.
The venue we have played most is still the Martell, Falkirk.
Our sound checks take 2 minutes. Plug in. Play.
I have broken one stage (the Martell)
Derek winds the band up by getting changed into gig clothes during the walk on music.
Stu averages around 3 devil signs per song, one during solo. God.
Greg doesn’t need a setlist as he does not know the name of our songs.
Phil and Juls Sampson have been to the most Weird Decibel gigs. Legends. In fact all of our hardcore fans are brilliant people.
Wilson, our friend and a fan of the band has a Weird Decibels Tattoo. Nothing to do with gigs. But thought I’d mention it.
Pabs.
Phil, one of our greatest fans and a friend of the band.
Glass People is track 10 from Whapper Stormer our first album.
This is the Story of the Song. Glass People was written around 1994/5 inspired by the rock nightclub scene at Pennies. We went there every Saturday for a few years.
Rain was a recurring theme in Whapper Stormer I wrote many of these songs around 1994/5. There was localised flooding and the Dawson Mission next to the river Carron was hit, that inspired the Rain. Many of our Saturday nights were spent down at a rock club called Pennies. It often rained. We’d get soaked on the walk down from Falkirk town centre to Pennies but we’d soon be dry in the muggy atmosphere of the club. Smoke would fill the room obscuring the DJ who would flip CD’s in the booth huddled in the corner of the dance floor. Nirvana had been around for a couple of years but were still popular, Rage against the Machine always played, Blur, Pulp, Elastica, great tunes. We all had Doc Martins, checked shirts and long hair. We moshed to Smells Like Teen Spirit although occasionally the DJ would cheekily play a rap version instead. Dick.
for the night I was going to witness, people who are desperate to escape all that lies before them
We were all in our late teens and early twenties. Most of us had been average at school. Personally I had wasted my education and went to college to stall the inevitable step into an unknown world. As a group we were close then, most of us took comfort in each other and the shared fear of having no idea what to do with our lives or how our lives would turn out.
all are congregated, maybe not at church but a place we can worship our freedom and our choice
I’m speaking for myself here but I don’t think many of us went to church or practised our religion. I certainly did not. Pennies was our ‘church’ a community that would meet every week to dance and drink or take drugs perhaps all three. There was a level of tolerance in our scene, many of us didn’t fit in at our earlier social settings. School alienated at lot of us. We were free from that.
the only place where I can let go for recreation, but I noticed, I noticed something spectacular, so spectacular
The lead up to the chorus, one night I probably had too many drinks but I remember the lights cutting through the smoke and the silhouettes. There were tears on many of the nights. The grunge era promoted an outward pouring of emotion. Sometimes it seemed people were trying to out do each other, to see who could be angry or the saddest, myself included. I thought I could see through people, hence Glass People. However looking back my opinion was naive as I’m sure many of my old friends had real issues that I was ignorant of.
glass people, looking so polished, looking so clean, looking so sweet now, perhaps it should’ve been, glass people
A simple descriptive chorus of ‘Glass People’
you wanna know where I witnessed. it was around a rectangular table in a lonely corner, there were a few beacons sitting there
Where the first verse describes Pennies and sets the scene, verse 2 focuses more on the area where we sat, it was often in the corner near the bar where they severed draft Tenents Special. Cheap beer. The glass theme is still present. We would sit around these basic rectangular tables and drink, roll cigarettes and dance when our favourite tune come on.
and on the table, a few bits of paper, glasses, generally, I looked around and I saw them, I saw them slipping so far away
We’d tear up beer maps, scatter them about the table. There would be Rizzla papers crushed and disregarded. This is the line that often transports me back to that time. That last part of this line describes what would happen at the end of the night, we’d slip away to smaller groups, some of us drunk some of us high. As the years went by we’d slip away into our lives never to return to Pennies. The lights would be switched off, the floor would lie empty and the doors would be closed.
As I reach the twentieth anniversary of first stepping up to the microphone to be lead singer of Weird Decibels I look back on the past two decades with a sense of achievement that the four of us have written and recorded seven albums with another one on the way. I feel lucky to be able to write songs (a few great, some good some bad and some awful) it is something I take for granted and I cannot understand when people say they cannot write songs. Then I remind myself that I cannot do the things others take for granted. Derek thinks the drums are easy… Stu pulls a solo out of the hat and the Bass I recorded for the album Morningday made me appreciate just how good Greg is at his chosen music discipline. Anyway the bottom line is I have to write songs all the time, for I fear if I stop I will lose the only skill I have. This brings me to the ‘solo career’, my mistress in the Weird Decibels marriage.
You may wonder why I express guilt at creating music without the band. There are a number of reasons. The main one is I’m not creating music with the guys, something I swore I’d do so long as they let me. The second is some of my best work (you may disagree) has been on my own where it should be with the guys and sometimes I think I spread myself too thin. There is only so many albums you can write and they should always be the best that you can create. So I’ll take you on a wee tour to see how the solo albums fit in.
Solo albums are a lonely experience. Lewis keeps me company
The first was ‘Gods In The Kitchen’ a rather rough acoustic album recorded 1997 on a four track, this would be just around 1997’s Weird’s ‘Firkin Outburst’, at this point the band was beginning to lose its way (although its a good record). Next was 1998’s ‘Monkeys On A Stage’ another sketchy acoustic album. 1999 saw ‘A Twist and a Turn’. Three albums in quick succession. At this time Weird were about to end their first era and release ‘Cold Home Street’ in 2000. 2002 saw ‘The Armour is Broken’ the first solo album (and perhaps last) that I was insanely proud of. Around this time I was in the Seventeenth were our writing was frustratingly sporadic. The writing slowed.
However 2004 saw the return of industrious writing and the second coming of Weird and ‘One More Solo’ around this time Derek and I recorded Sllablo’s 9 hours. My fourth solo lp ‘Fortune Favours the Brave’ arrived 2005 as Weird leaned towards covers to pay for the ‘lodge’ albums Riot/Quiet Act which would arrive 2007 and 2008 respectively. This phase was lean lyrically, songs of drink, ennui and Eurovision… Things went quiet for Weird after the ‘Acts’ so 2009 saw the release of ‘Creeping Ash’ my 6th solo acoustic album. After this record I swore never to write another acoustic album again.
2012 saw three years of focused writing to create Weird Decibels 1. I could not believe it had been a four-year gap between Quiet Act and WdB1 It is however arguably our best record. I had sickened myself of the acoustic guitar and had been listening to a lot of early Metallica and Megadeath so lyrically it was a lot stronger than previous albums. This brings us to 2013. We had started writing Weird Decibels 2, Derek sustained an injury and I had writers block, The band now had down time and I had to find a way to write songs again. In December 2013 I sat staring out the garden thinking that I was finished writing songs. So I played the guitar and listened to RM Hubbert until my fingers blistered. I record it all into a Nexus 7 and Morningday started to take shape. A full five years since my last solo record.
Kevin Bryne on drums and Jemma Burt Piano/Violin have helped shape Morningday
Morningday is still unfinished and I have the usual concerns of how it will turn out. It’s more than a solo album Kevin Bryne (drums) and Jemma Burt (piano and violin) are very much involved. Its strange having a full band sound without Weird Decibels. Morningday started out acoustic but it grew into something different and refreshing. All my energy has went into it which is where the guilt comes in. However I conquered the writing block. I feel recharged and ready to put everything into Weird Decibels 2 which will be the 17th studio album of which I’m a part of. Chuffed with that!
Congratulations to our very own Derek and Ann for finally tying the knot in Cuba! He’ll be back behind the kit soon with an extra ring…
Its been a quiet spell for the band, so during this time I have been working on a solo album and its nearly done. I hope to have it uploaded to the big bad web soon, probably via Spotify et all. Its great making music buts its better in a band!
We have a gig next month at Pivo Pivo Glasgow 24th June. New podcasts will also be recorded as we look back on twenty years together. We’ll strip each album down talking about how we wrote and recorded them. So listen out for them soon.
There will be more blogs soon, once the solo album is out. Its called Morningday, I’ll have more details soon. Until then take care.
Stu leaves band, Weird become the Seventeenth, 4 years pass, Stu comes back, Weird write kick ass rock album.
Guitar shines in the light.
2004 Facebook launches , Ireland bans smoking in pubs, Greece win the Euros and Weird make a comeback. It was never going to work…
Facebook that is.
The Background, let’s rock this shit.
When Stu returned to pick up the guitar there were grins all round the room. It had been four years since we had thought Weird had had its day and the bands legacy would be a couple of EPs and a ropey album ‘Cold home Street’. I had already been working with Stu on various projects having met him at Behind The Wall by chance. Amongst our new musical projects was an idea of a Weird ‘best of’ but in acoustic form. We had recorded Glass People first, that would appear on Whapper Stormer. I had mentioned to Greg and Derek that Stu and I were playing again. Strangely we decided against reforming the band and instead approached Kevin Byrne and Chris Burt with a proposal to start a new larger group. Other commitments prevented both Kevin and Chris from attending practise and myself, Derek, Greg and Stu found ourselves back in our old practise room with only a handful of songs from the big group practises. However Stand For Your Rights was written that very night and suddenly the desire to reform and write a new album was back.
The rock in the rock band was back…
Writing an album the easy way…
We wrote the album quickly. There was no pressure to evolve our sound as we were simply back to enjoy playing music. The songs are generally simple 4 chord progressions that the quo would be proud of. The songs had a great feeling though, from the shouty anger of Easy Way, the smoke hazed Trying To Grab Hold to the darkness of The Ending and its middle 8 that we have yet to better. We all felt part of the writing of the record and the solos were back. Now the challenge was to get the energy of the songs recorded.
Album prepped and ready to go. Tune up Bo!
One Take Jake.
We recorded, mixed and mastered the entire album ourselves. In 2004 we had very little equipment. I had a Tascam 788. My first digital recorder. A Stagg condenser microphone that was used for everything from the mono overhead drum kit sound to the vocals and guitars. A Shure sm58 was used on the snare and I have no idea what was used on the kick. The drums were recorded in Derek’s biggest bed room in his flat. It had high ceilings and the shape of the room lended itself to excellent acoustics. To this day it is still one of the best rooms I have recorded a kit in. The bass was in the smaller bedroom, guitars in the kitchen where the floor was wooden so a brighter sound for the guitars and a vocal booth in the tiny corridor. Egg cartons were used for acoustics, and as I stood and admired our little booth I had no idea that I had no idea what the fuck I was doing.
I’ve nailed this…
The recording went well, the songs were well rehearsed. We recorded much of the album in the flat in around three separate weekends. We drank a lot, ate a new thing called Subways. My favourite was the foot long meatball. (Still is) We had everyone around at some point to sit and drink, smoke, eat and drink. Gav McVicar, Kev Bryne and Dave Broon can be heard cheering as Greg nails a bass line in one take. Such a fun time, it spills onto the record despite the many dark moments that the songs have. Then there was the biblical rain. The heaviest rain I can recall, washing my old Renault that was sat outside. It was flooded. So I had another beer and recorded the rain that can be heard on the fade out at the end of the album.
So we gigged OMS, until our fingers bled.
We have never gigged an album as much as we had OMS. Sometimes playing twice a week which is a lot for us. Even more impressive given that our jobs were already starting to grind us down. We gigged Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh, Falkirk and Kirkcaldy. Kirkcaldy was simply brilliant. The Path Tavern. We met a band called Kranksolo on our travels, fucking loved that band and they became firm friends. They invited us to play the Path. The Krankies were a riot. One of the support acts had these huge shoes that lit up and a huge spiky hair. They were camp metal. 13 Tombs. Brilliant. We drove around in a big blue automatic Vauxhall called Vulture. The Cavern was good as well. Beatles played there you know.
Gigs. The Cavern in Liverpool was a highlight.
reception and Legacy.
OMS generally went down well with our faithful. We still play Waiting On The Sound of Your High heels Baby and our clan love it. the Falkirk Herald were kind in their review, the Daily Record went meh and looking back I can see why. One More Solo is one of our best albums, the fun we had during that era will be hard to match. The original recording just needed a bit of mastering.
OMS circa 2004/5 was a fun time for us.
Ten Years On. The remaster.
A lot of remasters are awful cash ins that add nothing to the original recording. It wouldn’t be hard to improve the sound of OMS. The original was mixed and mastered in my living room on a pair of huge Celef speakers designed for hi fi use. I got it all wrong. The mix was buried under a sludge of low and low mid frequencies. Every song faded forever which Derek kindly pointed out on a daily basis for years. He had a very valid point.
Ten years on I put the CD into the D3200
Unfortunately I could not strip the songs back to tracking level as they had not been backed up… So there are limitations to what I could do, most remasters are the same. Get it right at the source as they say. These days I have a wee bit more knowledge, a set of budget monitors and basic sound acoustics in a purpose built studio. When I played the original recording it was glaringly obvious what needed fixing. I applied huge EQ cuts to the lowmid bass frequencies which opened up the mix. The guitars have come through quite well. I’ve added some dynamics to the mix. Easy Way has a gain of 1db at the chorus. The things you learn! Cold Calling has a new mix that I found. Cold Calling has always been poor recording. One of those songs that worked well live but on record it suffers. Fade outs have been cut and edited better. Not a huge difference but an improvement. The remaster will be yours absolutely free via download at our online album hub that is https://weirddecibels.bandcamp.com
How much do I love WordPress on android its a riot…
I hope you enjoy One More Solo, its reached its cheeky tenth birthday. Treat it well or it might rebel on you. Its an angry wee bugger.
Weird Decibels 1 has many good songs (in our humble opinion of course) but Wonder, Joker and Speak have always felt like singles. We had an idea for Wonder fairly early on so that video came first. Joker has had several ideas that we either too ambitious for a zero budget or the logistics of getting the right people together didn’t happen. It will though. Speak kinda hung around waiting for an idea. Derek rightly pointed out that we needed to get a new video out and he suggested our faithful practise room owned by the most understanding of landlords Fraser Law aka Beany. We get a free reign of the room so its been our home for nearly 20 years. Derek suggested we shoot a simple video there, and get it uploaded quick, however the idea started to develop.
The room is brilliantly ramshackle, it’s a homely basement with an underground feel. A perfect setting for an underground band shooting a budget film!
After the drums intro Speak breaks into a guitar riff with individual notes. I remembered the White Stripes video The Hardest Button to Button, I thought some pictures on the video would be cool, a picture for each note. Below is a still from that wonderful video.
It worked really well, firstly with the guitar picks, then leads and pedals. Look for the picture of Pabs turning up his amp after Stu. That NEVER happens.
Pic above. One of the many stills used for each note of Pabs guitar riff.
For the verses we decided to mix things up, Stu singing, Derek on lead guitar, Greg on drums and myself (Pabs) on bass. For those who know the band there would’ve been a few head scratching moments for those that didn’t, well everything would be normal until the chorus. Myself back on vocals, Stu on lead, Greg on bass and Derek on drums. A simple goofy idea.
Yep straight from the Smells Like Teen Spirit vault. The middle 8 sees me screaming into the camera Kurt Cobain style, another mod to our musical youth.
The second verse was a complete surprise for the band. Greg took the outtakes and inserted them into film. Inspired. It gives the video a human edge and is rather funny when Greg fails in his drum stick whirl.
The solo is a classic Stu gig pose that we finally have on film. Stu and I stopped short of doing the back to back pose normally pulled at gigs. I had my moment now it was the turn of the guitar hero.
For the ending we returned to the still pics for every note. This time we had the band sitting on the old practise room couch. It was a nod to the back cover of Whapper Stormer, our first album. We had no one to take a band pic so we took a photo of the couch then using Photoshop we placed the band into the picture. This idea worked well for the end of the video.
How We Shot The Video
We simply used HD camcorders and Derek’s posh camera. The moving scenes were simple to shoot. The photographs were more challenging as we did not want the light to change too much, so we grabbed some sheets and covered the lights until Derek was happy, and continued to hold the until our arms ached with lactic acid.
The pic above sees Stu goofing around, the shadow on the right is one of the covers slipping down. No expense spared!
We shot the video in black and white to go with the same colour theme of the album, however Joker, the next video may get the full colour treatment. Who knows!
Editing
We thought this would be so easy to edit and upload but it turned out to be a nightmare in comparison to Wonder. The high def photographs sapped the RAM out of Greg’s poor old PC. Some more RAM a new video editing package and a new OS later and Greg’s hard work paid off.
The Reaction
So far so good! For a small band with around 30 hardcore followers its great knowing that hundreds of people are watching our videos. It is a new audience for us and we are reaching new corners of the globe. So thanks for watching!
Weird Decibels 1 is actually a 2012 album, 2013 was the year we promoted it. Some of the songs were written back in 2009. So our thoughts turn to the next set of songs. We started writing last year but the writing was in fits and starts. Ms Asphyxia has been played live, a few others are holding on, Kill it! Kill it! Standing on a Viewpoint but its fair to say life got in the way and writing halted.
We’ve booked a weekend break in a lodge in Oakley. We’ll take the acoustics and a load of beer and wine, the studio and a dose of hope that inspiration will take hold and some songs will be born. I can see this being the way we write our songs in the future.
….when One More Solo turns ten.
Its hard to believe our ‘come back’ album is ten years old. This is the first album we recorded when Stu rejoined the band. The album was easy to write, we were invigorated, the 2 year break (myself, Derek and Greg joined Jon Shaw and formed the Seventeenth) helped refreshen our outlook. We recorded this album at Derek’s old flat on a Tascam 788. We had one or two mics the best of which was a Stagg condenser. We made a vocal booth from egg cups and it was mixed on my hi fi with two huge Celef speakers as monitors. I’ve learned a wee bit more about sound production. The album has been remastered, it sounds a bit better, more clarity and more dynamics and less guitar ringing! (Derek is gutted) Its a simple remaster, it will sound a lot better on its 20th anniversary when I finally work out how to use multi band compressors. The One More Solo remaster is out soon and will be free to download.
…. Weird Decibels playing live.
Derek is injured so we won’t be playing live until at least the spring. We hope to play new venues and new cities, maybe even new countries. Playing live made 2013 special for us and we met a lot of great new friends. I’d definitely like to re visit the 13th note I love that venue. Another gig in England would be nice…
….when music videos are once again all the range.
Wonder was great in 2013 but we left it too long to record its follow up so this year we’re going to have more content on YouTube. The Speak video will be first, then a video for Joker. We hope to have the film Making of Weird Decibels 1 finished and uploaded into episodes on YouTube. We’ll give video podcasts a shot as well.
…. a new Podcast series.
The podcasts have been popular. Thanks for listening. This year we will reminisce. We hope to have some friends from old Falkirk bands guesting in our pods, some live performances. A look at one more solo and general silliness. Look out for the podcast from the writing weekend where we’ll hopefully have a brand new song or two for you to hear in acoustic format.
…. social networking???
I’ve no idea where social networks are going. We’re signed up to all the major players. Updating them all is a pain in the arse. Engagement is the key… Is Facebook declining? Is MySpace back? Is reverbnation the hub? Is Bandcamp ever going to improve their search algorithm? There is a part of me that says word of mouth is best. I’m at a loss. Where is the best platform for our band? YouTube? See above.
….the solo album
I am writing a lot of songs at the moment. I trying to write my writers block to death! ( writing as much as you can kills block ) Some are for the band others are for me, mainly the tunes that wouldn’t work with the band but I don’t want to throw away. Seriously around early December I was staring at a blank page holding the guitar and nothing was coming. That thought. Is this it? Is this me finished? I played and played the guitar, staring out into the garden. Then stuff clicked and I recorded everything onto the tablet. I took the best ideas and have laid them down but its getting harder, so I have to work harder. Hopefully my 7th solo record will be out this year. However my priority remains Weird Decibels 8th!
…. I will expand ‘Pablo’s unsigned adventure’
Bandcamp, it was a random search and I stumbled upon the Spanish band 9M Lied. Loved their recordings and I decided to write about my favourite unsigned bands. Its not easy, there is so much content on the internet and its frustrating trying to find the hidden gems. The criteria? Unsigned. Not recommend by staff ( I don’t trust this). Not the most popular. I want the bands that are ignored or just starting out. Recommendations welcome. Hopefully I’ll get one new band a month.
…. Fail to hold back the stream
I love CD’s. Want to explore vinyl. You cannot match the sound quality of these physical formats…yet. But i cannot afford it. Bought 5 CDs last month, (still waiting for their arrival…) Cost me a small fortune. I have Spotify premium. ( another can of worms) For now its great but I feel weird using Spotify knowing how much we as artists get paid per stream. Anyway its feeding my music appetite this year as it did the last.
So enjoy your music in 2014 my big hope? Well we get signed, but seriously? A new scene, a fresh batch of new bands. Fingers crossed.
At rehearsal we recently played through our entire first album Whapper Stormer as part of our preparations for our 20th anniversary celebrations in Feb 2015. It got me thinking about bands, their longevity and the law of diminishing returns. Is early output an artists best?
When thinking of this subject I thought of some of my favourite artists and some others. Let me begin.
Case 1. Nirvana. 1st album Bleach. Best album In Utero 3rd studio release.
Case 2. The National. 1st album The National. Best album Trouble Will Find Me, their most recent.
Case 3. Oasis. 1st album Definitely Maybe. Best album. Definitely Maybe.
Case 4. Guns n Roses. 1st album Appetite for Destruction. Best album Appetite for Destruction.
Case 5. Radiohead. 1st album Pablo Honey. Best album. Ok Computer.
There is one band on the above list that did not achieve overnight success that the others enjoyed. The National. Slowly they have been building their music, and slowly they have been building their fan base. All the others, bar Nirvana had stratospheric success with early output and have since struggled to match this with later works. Radiohead had huge creative problems after Ok Computer and opted for Kid A which was great but not in the same league as its predecessor. They hit a high with In Rainbows, their peak lies with their difficult third though. Oasis produced one of the greatest debuts of all time then rarely recorded anything of merit thereafter. Guns n Roses had an agonising death after the wonderful Appetite.
So what has this to do with a small band like Weird Decibels I hear you scream at your tablet/laptop/mobile phone/PC and maybe, just maybe surface…
Pabs tries a new approach to song writing.
I prefer their earlier stuff. This is an expression I had fretted over for years. When we had written Whapper Stormer we were a fresh faced young rock band with ideas pouring out of our finger tips. Whapper had found a small audience of people who really enjoyed it, including a radio DJ who loved The Rain and Vancouver. A year later we had recorded some of our follow up album, the slightly lazy drunken romp that is Firkin Outburst. We handed this DJ our new demo and in the very pub the album is name after I asked him what he thought. His answer? Well I think you know by now….
I stormed out the pub in anger, seething our new songs had not received the praise that our debut collection had mustered.
In the following years we wrote songs of varying quality, another 5 albums would be produced. The other guys would ask me what my favourite album was. Without fail I’d say Whapper Stormer, for the lyrics, the music and the youthful exuberance. Then from 2008 we started to write Weird Decibels 1.
Our best album to date? Time will tell...:-)
Derek is quoted saying we had to do Quiet Act (our first fully acoustic album) to write Weird Decibels 1. He’s right. We had a renewed enthusiasm for writing. So many things came together. Our music, my lyrics and the gear we had to record it. A year ago I knew we had written one of our greatest albums. For months I was not sure if it was better than Whapper, a year on and several listens? Its my favourite.
So what Is the point here? I hear you ask.
We are a small band, very small. We have our little patch on the huge quilt of music. We have no pressure to make a living out of music, we can write what we want when we want. We have been together so long it was likely we would hit another creative peak.
Any band that is allowed to breath, grow within itself without the pressure of producing an even better follow up to the last will always prosper. In this new age of self released music, small artists will produce music the way they want to smaller but more enthusiastic fans. I hope these bands will glow for many years instead of burning out and fading away…
weirddecibels.com 