Category: our albums

we have recorded a few albums over the years; so we have created a guide for you.

We rate our recordings part 1. 15-11

Post author By creepingash
Post date March 17, 2018
1 Comment on We rate our recordings part 1. 15-11

By 2004 we were reguarly sending off demo CDs

We are just about to release our latest recording; Everyday Heroes will be our 16th recording that we released over the last 23 years. While we have never had any success commercially we are proud that we’ve been lucky enough to record many moments from our rock career so far. Check out our bandcamp site for the two singles already released from the EP.

The last two decades have seen us visit studios, dig out four tracks, fling mics around music venues and hire country retreats to capture whatever creations we had come up with.

It’s been an interesting adventure so far with a wide range of results. So the four of us sat back an attempted to put it all together by rating them from our proudest creation to something we’d put down as experience. It was an interesting debate over a cup of tea. How rock and roll are we?

We present you a look at our recordings from 15 to 11. Nearly all can be heard free on bandcamp. Part 2 will be here soon, keep an eye out for it.

15. Cold Calling EP. (2004)

We put together a 4 track EP as a demo before the launch of our 2004 album One More Solo.

Pabs

2004 was an exciting year for the band; we were reforming after a 4 year hiatus and we were frequently recording at Derek’s old flat just outside the centre of Falkirk, I just remember having a great time there, drinking beer, eating Subways and recording all our old albums again. The Cold Calling Ep was released prior to the album One More Solo. It was also a demo of the album and had only track that did not appear on One More Solo which is why I rated this low.

This Is The Last time, written by Sllablo, a side project that Derek and I had worked on was a song of the same rock vein that can be heard on Solo. It’s a raucous number that I really enjoy and hindsight would have probably said put it on the album and take another track off. However I’m not sure what our thinking was at the time.

Cold Calling, Easy Way and Trying To Grab Hold were also included. The EP got a rather average review in the Daily Record which in some ways was fair. Before these recordings were re-mastered the music was muddy in tone but they are fun songs Cold Calling is of its time, influenced by much of the music scene at the time, the clean riffs of Doves and early Coldplay are present. Easy Way has always been a favourite of the band. Trying to Grab hold always transported me back to grabbing a guitar and sitting it a fireplace with beer and rum

The Cold Calling cover is perhaps one of our best, its a bit like a catchphrase with the phone nestled in the freezer.

Derek

Cold Calling is a good EP, it got us back going again so I will always have a soft spot for this record.
Stu

Great cover photo.We used a blue bulb and the photo turned out bright green! Good taster for the full (One More) Solo album.

Loved the inside cover for this e.p. with the four pics of us even though I was taking it way too serious and ended up looking gormless :D. Easy way is a great track.

14. Official Bootleg 2 (2009)

Our second collection of rare recordings and demo tapes that we never intended to put onto our albums but didn’t want to go to waste. It includes live recordings, radio interviews and unreleased tracks.

Pabs

I recall Derek being a bit reluctant for this to be released as it didn’t have the same variety of recordings that the first bootleg had. However I had CDs and tapes lying around the house, and as Im a worrier I thought “what if the tapes or CDs stopped working and we lost the recordings?” So I went ahead and made up the bootleg.

Derek

I don’t think there is nothing wrong with Bootleg 2 in my opinion I just feel that Bootleg 2 has two many versions of songs that are already on our albums, and they are better versions.

Pabs

I do agree with Derek’s comment, however I feel there are many good moments on Bootleg 2, not least Side by Side. How can I not mention the song that my wife and I had for our first dance at our wedding. I was so grateful to the band for helping me make a unique song for our day.

There was also rough 4 track recordings from a family BBQ that we played, they bring a smile, and I really like the first version of Breathing Space. The re-recorded version of Easy Way which was to be released as a single on Bracken Records is interesting, it just didn’t have the feel of the original. A bit like the whole album to be honest.

Stu

Some good stuff on this album. Side by side is a belter of a song. Radio interviews are good listening back to. Not as good as bootleg 1 but great lost versions of songs and ideas that didn’t quite make it onto album’s.

Love side by side, one of my favourite tracks. I wasn’t in the family barbeque recording as I wasn’t there. Agree with the re-recording of easy way losing something, think Del may have used a double bass pedal on the original recording.

Pabs

Yes that’s right he did; i just think the whole feel of the original version was better.

Stu

The recording of Easy Way I was away on holiday. Straight back from my break I turned up at Deeks flat and knocked out my guitar parts as you guys had done the Rhythm track. This is probably why it had a different feel as we are always together when we record normally

13. Live at the Lodge (2009) (not currently released)

A live acoustic album of cover songs that we recorded at the end of the Quiet Act sessions back in 2007.

Pabs.

I could not be bothered recording this; it was the end of the Quiet Act sessions and i was absolutely gutted to be heading home and I was immensely hungover. We had spent the previous day drinking at the Baddachro Inn before Greg and I spent much of the night sitting by a fire in the garden before being freaked out by the bellow of a male stag.

We’d been in the pub all day. I was in no fit state to record the next day. Pabs

This is my least favourite recording, the Cold Calling EP is bottom of my list only because it’s obsolete but Live at the Lodge never added anything to our roster of music.

Derek

Live at the Lodge was great fun to do but it was really a wee recording for us that takes me back to my favourite lodge.

Pabs

I’m quite surprised that this was Derek’s favourite lodge (that we recorded in), saying that he did have the biggest bedroom, which he always manages to snatch! Favourite recording lodge is a whole new blog, but I loved the last cottage that we used for Weird Decibels 2

Stu

Good wee live acoustic covers album but the best bit is an full band version of Glass People. Instant classic.

Yeah, Glass People saves this record. Brings back good memories though with that big picture window.

Pabs

I forgot about this version of Glass People! We should have this on another record…

Stu

Agreed. Should go on Bootleg 3!

12. Coldhome Street (2000)

Recorded in a mixture of studios and on a 4 track tascam the sound quality of Coldhome Street doesn’t do it justice. The band were also in limbo; still smarting from the Big World scam, we disappeared from the scene, hid in our practise room and recorded. This is the only official album release in our bottom five,

My least favourite album only due to the sound quality. Some great songs on there such as I Tried to Fly, and Sun Shines Brighter which would have been great with a higher quality recording.

A basic setup, four track and a mic passed around the room

Derek

I think this is an underrated album that’s often not given the credit due to the recording; it was on a 4 track an we were four experienced guys (one which wasn’t really there). The album has some good songs though.

Stu looks dejected as we struggle to finish Cold Home Street

Derek has time for a beer

Pabs

I’m not sure what Derek means by ‘one which wasn’t really there’ I think he might mean Stu who had lost heart at this point. He wanted to gig and rock out, we were just moping in the studio. Yeah the recording is pretty bad but i still try to work out how i bounced all the drums and bass onto one track then added the guitars and vocals. Not many young musicians would even consider that these days.

Of the four of us i rated Coldhome Street the highest. It was the only full album we had at the time when Stu left and I believed the band was finished. So all I had was a 6 track demo and this album to listen to. I played this a lot and discovered a lot of hidden parts in the songs.

The songs are fun, at times they make me laugh and some of the lyrics I penned. Especially Pearl Necklace!

I remember Stu and I used to reminisce about this album, we listened to it a lot as we started to plan the ‘best of’ acoustic album as we truly thought that there was no chance the band would get back together.

Stu

Used to love listening to this album as it was the only fully recorded album we had at the time. I don’t think it has lasted the test of time compared to our other recordings hence why I rated it so low.

Musically I wasn’t in a happy place during the recording of this album and as Henry Senior rightly points out, I lost it during this period.

Pabs

I wouldn’t say Stu lost it…It creeps up on you, going to the same room, doing the same things over and over. We just got jaded. We learned a lot from this time and we needed the break. We came back to do One More Solo 4 years later and we never looked back. However my Dad does keep reminding Stu that he lost it back then!

Stu

I managed to find my form when we got back together and them some!

11. Weird Decibels 1.5 (2013)

This turned out to be a stop gap between Weird Decibels 1 and 2. A lot of the tracks were lifted from the podcasts we did at the time. They turned out to be good live acoustic versions of songs that appeared on Weird Decibels 1. Some unreleased tracks on there as well.

Pabs

I enjoy listening to this record, it feels like another bootleg but it was more a compilation of songs that became a kind of Bandcamp exclusive. We never cut a CD or printed off sleeves for WdB 1.5. I really liked the podcasts live versions of songs like Wonder.

The podcasts were fun and produced some good recordings.

There are a couple of songs from the WdB 1 sessions that we didn’t put on the album. Buddy, Rusted and Bullet. When we started writing WdB1 we never intended to leave songs on the record, however as rehearsals progressed we kind of knew that these songs weren’t going to make it.

Stu

What an amazing guitar solo in Buddy and it never made the album!

3 great songs that never quite made the final cut and some cracking alternative acoustic versions. A great little listen and one for the complete ists.

Rusted. Great song. That is all.

Part 2

Tags diy scene, grassroots music, grunge, home recording, music, recordings rated, rock music, scottish rock music, underground music

Hamemade Records music our albums quiet act

Quiet Act 10 years on

Listen free on Spotify.

Experience can be a wonderful thing you learn that for every failure there can be success, for every disappointment there is joy and for very lull there are peaks. I can say this now, as a singer who has sung verse and chorus for over two decades I now have the advantage of experience; although I no longer have the distant time of youth. Back in 2008 it was a very different story.

The original Quiet Act did not have the band name on the cover, by this time we were disputing the name Weird.

Around 2006 and 2007 Weird Decibels were very much forgotten around the music scene. We were playing an increasing number of cover sets and slowly edging towards the well paid but soul destroying cover scene, Behind The Wall (which thankfully has recently put on a number of local events for original bands) was, at the time, notoriously reliant on cover bands.

I was a guest of many weddings in those years, I’d be sipping away on some overpriced beer listening to some well played but empty attempts of whatever chart hits happened to be popular at the time. I’d look at the band, some would clearly be enjoying the night, after all getting paid a few hundred quid for playing music, not bad… Others would have that dead look in their eyes as the robotically strummed the guitar that they once had a passion for.

Although I felt we were slipping this way in the mid 00’s we were still writing and recording our own material. Riot Act and Quiet Act were released within a year of each other, partly inspired by Foos Fighters double album In Your Honor. (which I feel was also a band going through the motions, in my opinion the 2000’s were pretty poor for music).

Riot Act had come and gone, we didn’t play many gigs to support our 2007 album. We reflected on our next move and Derek suggested an acoustic album. This would be a huge departure from our usual brand of rock. I felt Stu was a little reluctant to switch off the distortion, I was fairly open to the idea. Surprisingly Greg just went with the flow.

Writing the Quiet Act

It was never documented how we wrote the album but it was a fairly quick process, we had a number of songs written. Playing a full set of acoustic numbers was alien to us, it was known that we’d always have a quieter song on our albums but never a full set. Lyrically Quiet Act delved deeper into songs of alcohol and guilt. Riot Act was the night out, Quiet was the morning after.

Back then I was in my early 30’s, married and settling into a modest house on the outskirts of Falkirk. The rest of the guys were still living just outside the town centre (Greg, Stu and Derek all lived fairly close to each other although Stu would soon move away around this time). The booze culture was flowing and there were many party nights. Life had taken the expected course, the house, the car and the microwave.

While the lyrics were were still flowing out of the pen the stories were drying up. I still had many things to say through my songs but i’m not sure i wanted to tackle them at that time, so I took the easy way out and mainly reflected on the boozy aftermath of nights out. It wouldn’t be until many years later that I would find a new way to write lyrics.

No amps this time just go ol’ acoustic guitars

We stuck to our tested formula of writing the music. I would create and idea and the band would develop it. It was not the more collaborative method we use today. So I’d be writing solo albums and music for the band. Naturally spreading I was spreading these ideas a little thin. (As I write this I find myself being rather harsh on Quiet Act, and I was for a while, but listening back its not as bad as it seemed at the time. There appears to more depth to my thinking than I thought.)

With the songs not written I turned my attention to the recording. This is where I started to become more enthusiastic. The year before we had headed out to a remote corner of Scotland to record Riot Act and it was a fantastic experience. The thought of doing it all again was fantastic. I spent hours trawling through a printed catalogue of castles and cottages doing research, trying to find if the property I was looking at would be next to no other being. I toiled for days and then weeks before finally my caught a beautiful small cottage nestled discreetly near the shores loch Gairloch. Sealladh Na Mara, a glimpse of the sea was calling us. We packed the van and headed off.
The Recording

On the 1st of September 2007 we packed all our modest musical belongings into a hire van. We left around half the van for our carry out and food. The excitement was palpable , this was something different for us. We were getting away from the daily loop of work. All the cover gigs had paid off and now we were able to pay for the hire of the cottage and record the album.

It was a long journey, very much similar to the trek we had for Riot Act however this time we were heading further north. This would be our longest recording trek to date.

The single story cottage, ‘sealladh na mara was perfect for us at the time. The living room had a wooden finish with large glass windows that stretched from floor to ceiling that overlooked the sloping garden that disappeared into the trees. Beyond the thick growth was a glimpse of the loch and Gairloch beyond it. It would be in this room that we would record a majority of Quiet Act.

Using a Tascam 2488 and a selection of cardioid mics including our shiney new rodes (the NT2A) we set up in two rooms. The drums were hustled into the corner of the room, the ceiling was a bit low but the reflective nature of the room lended to a nice open roomy sound. In the kitchen was a makeshift control room with the Tascam 2488 a the centre. A mesh of mic leads from the living room snaked through the serving hatch. Further along the corridor were two drunken musicians Greg and Stu, who during the setup, had been sipping cider in the Autumn sun.

The recordings went well with each song only taking a couple of takes; Derek grew increasingly frustrated at the antics of Stu and Greg but we soldiered on and capture the drums.

All the other instruments were recorded in the living room, much of them picked up by various paired Rode NTA2 formations. Additional work was done once we had returned home and much of the mixing was completed in Falkirk. Kevin Byrne lended an ear to help finish off the mixing, it was useful having a fresh set of ears.

10 Years On.

Quiet Act was more of an exercise for me to explore new studio techniques including better use of EQ. I was cutting more frequencies than boosting and this really helped the sound breath. As an album Quiet Act stands on its own right in our collection.

There are a number of tracks I’m really fond of now. Who Are You is not a cover of the Who song, instead its about four guys reaching an end of one chapter in their lives and heading to another. The music fame dream was distant now and we turned to face a normal life in an average Scottish town accepting that we were fairly content with what we had; albeit with a slight taste of regret.

Woman in My Dreams is hardly ever mentioned these days but it was one song that I felt i had mixed well and that maybe i was string to learn how to record and mix. Buy You A Cape and Breathing Space is the angry strike out section of the album, Grand Day Out celebrated many of our days drinking in either Glasgow or Edinburgh (where the song is based). The second half of the album is laden with guilt and feels like a rather sobering Sunday morning.

It is completely different to what we have recorded before, however it refreshed our musical palette and paved the way for Weird Decibels 1 and a whole new era for the band.

Tags acoustic, alternative, foo fighters, in you honor, indie, music, quiet act, quiet act 10, Rock

our albums riot act

Riot Act is 10 (part 2 recording)

Post author By creepingash
Post date August 22, 2017
No Comments on Riot Act is 10 (part 2 recording)

There are defining moments in every band; a time where the bond between musicians can be strengthened and the foundations laid for a more positive future. The recording of Riot Act was one of those moments.

The cottage (centre) surrounded by breathtaking scenery

I packed up my old Ford escort with recording gear, my new Tascam 2488 was carefully bundled into the rather ample boot of the old Maroon car. The rest of the gear was flung in any available space.

I met up with Greg, Derek and Stu. Stu would ride shotgun in the Ford, Greg and Derek would team up in the transit hire van which was packed with enough food and beer to sustain a small country (that likes its drink).

We headed off up the A9 through the epic Cairngorms. Stu switched on the radio and we were greeted with a radio station that I had never heard before. Gone were the annoying presenters, absent were the frustrating adverts, instead Stu and I were treated to track after track of solid rock. ‘Stu what is this station’ I asked? Stu had no answer; he just made the devil sign and smiled. ‘Well wait until we tell Greg and Derek about this radio station!’ I smugly stated. However I did get frustrated as the music would briefly fade away most notably as Gerg and Derek’s van fell behind.

We stopped for petrol in Inverness. I jumped out of the Ford and ran over to tell Greg and Derek about our discovery. As I explained our find, they started to roll of some of the music that we had heard. Alice in Chains? Yes I said. Guns and Roses. YES I said, did you find the station as well? Nah, said Greg, it’s my iPod I had it set up to a radio transmitter. They both chuckled as they walked away to grab a sandwich.

The road to the Riot Act sessions could not have been calmer

As we drove on from Inverness towards Cannich I started to realise that we had booked a cottage rather far away. As time passed we were soon sharing a single track road with sheep and eventually deer; then it became clear just how breathtaking the Cannich valley was. Further in the distance, sheltered by some trees, was the Leattrie lodge. It looked just like the brochure, that is until we drove up its steep drive and saw it looked a little run down. Just perfect for four lads who wanted to play loud music and drink a lot of alcohol.

The excitement was palpable, a whole week surrounded by the hills of the beautiful valley. The guys charged into the cottage and as I heard their excited voices fade the deeper they got into house I could hear the silence of the valley and a river far in the distance.

I turned and headed into the lodge. It was modest, it had small rooms that ran into a narrow corridor. The living room was open plan to the kitchen. This was the biggest area and I suggested we record here but Derek pointed out we’d be dining in this room and we’d have to dismantle the drums every time we wanted to eat.

We headed upstairs, the bedrooms were small but Derek’s room was a little longer. There was no escaping the ceiling, which due to the nature of the upper level of the cottage, sloped inward, For some reason we decided to set up the drums upstairs. It would prove to be a mistake.

Once all the gear was dropped into the nooks and crannies of the small lodge we started to pack the fridge with beer and had our first meal. I unpacked the Tascam 2488, marvelling at my new purchase. 24 tracks of digital recording. I carefully laid my first condenser microphone; a cheap Stagg, basically a budget version of microphone that I liked. I had recorded the Armour is Broken (a solo lp) with this mic.

As the light faded on the first day Greg lit the fire and we opened our beers. We wouldn’t be sober for the next 6 days.

We recorded Riot Act in batches. Drums and bass for 3 or 4 songs and then we’d layer the guitars and vocals. We’d repeat this process until we had all the tracks down. The drums were crammed into the biggest of the bedrooms upstairs, the low ceiling made the drums sound a bit flat not that I was aware of this at this time. I used various methods to split the signal of the guide tracks and sent a feed through to Greg and Stu who were in another room. It was a crude method but it worked.

Derek has fun but the room wasn’t suited for drums

The small rooms lended well to a tight guitar sound which translated fairly well on the record. The bass was a direct input. All of the songs were recorded this way with the exception of Weekend All Over My Face where we used Stu’s practise amp to record the bridge that worked really well and room mics for Only Had A Shandy, but that’s another story.

The vocals were sung in another bedroom where the windows overlooked the valley. I remember the guys headed off to the small village at the foot of Cannich. I was left alone to sing It’ll All Work Out In The End. I’ll never forget that afternoon. Alone in a remote part of Scotland, I was singing a song about hope while my head was full of troubles. My late father in law was very ill and it was the first time I was truly alone to think about it. The emotion would spill onto the record.

Every night the fire would crackle and beers would be drank. The laughs would get louder as the darkness surrounded us. Greg would often go out for fresh air… Sometimes I would join him in the darkness of the night, it was breathtaking, There was no orange glow from any nearby cities. Whenever the clouds cleared, stars would hang in the black sky and I’d sway as I tried to focus on the patterns above.

During the day, at down time, we would hang around the outside of the cottage. At times the weather was good. Sometime we’d go our own way and take a walk. A week in a small cottage with the same guys could be cramped and you needed your own space. Greg and Derek took this to a different level. Literally.

walks led to beautiful country

They headed up the hill that was our back garden. When I say a hill I mean a proper hill climb, the cottage had no fences or boundaries. The hill rose far into the distance, Derek and Greg filmed the adventure, off they went climbing higher and higher. Stu and I would look up, the pair of them getting smaller.

As they reached the top, flakes of snow started to drift in. Most people would head back. Not Derek, he stripped off and shouted ‘I’m naked at the top of the hill!’ and went off on a merry dance much to Greg’s amusement.

Life in the valley of Cannich was serene, we were visited by a cuckoo on a number of occasions and I managed to capture our visitor on record. The days and nights merged into one long party, recording, beer, jigsaw puzzles and music. At night greg’s fire would continue to crackle as we took stock of life in the band and life in general. We were in our thirties, married or getting married but without kids.

Thursday was a special day, I did a half day of recording and settled down to a BBQ in the small woodland next to the cottage. It was the last change to have a proper night of booze. As I wandered into the woods to gather some firewood I heard an almighty explosion.

Riot Act… lard bombs aside it was a peaceful recording…

I ducked and turned towards the flash of light…peering through the trees I was trying to make sense of what happened. Then I heard Greg laughing, with Derek proudly standing over the fire ‘Lard bomb!’

Then came the dueling banjos, Stu and I pulled the best banjo posies with sticks, only for Derek to snatch mine and fling it in the fire. He redeemed himself with the BBQ’d chicken which was simply wonderful.

The sun slowly set as we got merrier, I left the gang and headed back into the house to set up some microphones. When I was ready I asked the guys to come into the living room. I gave Stu a guitar and some headphones. He played along to the end of Only Had A Shandy as the rest of us sang a drunken chorus of random words. Derek and I spilled over the couch into the floor, mics came crashing down. It was all recorded.

The night grew longer as we gathered around the now small fire out in the woods. I can’t remember what we talked about but it was probably deep and meaningful. We all headed into the cottage except Greg who waited for the sun to rise on the final day.

a beautiful moment from the riot act sessions

When I awoke on the last morning with alcohol on my breath and hunger in my belly sadness crept into me. I was hungover and despondent that our recording week had come and gone so quickly. A long quiet drive awaited us, the party was over, our jobs awaited our return on the Monday.
So we set off home; there was a subdued mood in the car as Stu stared out the window. I muttered with anger as a Ford Transit overtook us. As I was about to slam my hand on the horn I saw Derek lean out of the van’s passenger window with a big smile, Greg wearing a smug grin as he was overtaking me.

It was a wonderful experience that changed the band for the next ten years. We hired another three cottages after this one. Each growing in size but we never quite matched the drunken madness of the first time.

Tags alternative rock, grunge, home recording, music, recording on a budget, riot act 10 years, Rock

Hamemade Records our albums

HMR CD 030

CD 030

“I want to look up to a shelf and see it full of our own CD’s” Derek once said this to me as we were putting the finishing touches to an album years ago. I can’t remember which one but it was early in our career and I thought it was a wonderful target to have. Some 17 years into its existence HMR or HameMade Records has now reached its 30th release.

We are not signed to any label, we have, for various reasons, been ignored by the record labels so we decided to catalogue our own releases and this directory became HameMade Records or HMR. Before the taxman knocks on the door HMR is not a record label or a company, but you never know someday we might just make it official. So below is the catalogue and a look at each release; I hope you enjoy this look back at our work so far.

CD001 P H Smith ‘Twist And A Turn‘ LP 1999/ re 2001

Things are a little back to front in the early years of HMR my solo career started after the creation of Weird but before the start of HMR. The label (let’s give it that title for now) started when I converted my early solo records from DCC tapes to CD. The first conversion was my third solo record ‘Twist and a Turn’ which was an undisciplined record but a guy in his early 20’s starting to find his songwriting guise. It was also my only ‘break up album’; thank goodness.

CD002 P H Smith ‘Monkeys On A Stage‘ LP 1999/re 2001

The second HMR release was my second album the lop sided ‘Monkeys on a Stage’. There were some good moments on this album and some bad, experimenting is so important in music and when you have nothing to lose you take risks. But this was a bit of a mess.

CD003 P H Smith ‘Gods In The Kitchen‘ LP 1998/re 2001

Debut solo record ‘Gods In The Kitchen’ is not great but it was essential to start cutting my recording teeth. Had some good moments like the desperation in the track ‘Isolated’ but I’ve no idea what I was trying to achieve with ‘Gods In the Kitchen’ (the title track) and ‘Eve’s Song’ (sorry sis) messy songs.

CD004 Weird ‘Cold Home Street‘ LP 2001

A walk in Beecraigs would turn out to be the cover of Coldhome Street. Weird Decibels most challenging album

The first HMR release from Weird (Decibels) was our third ‘Cold Home Street’ which is arguably Weird Decibels poorest album although it does have its moments. It’s a pity the recording was pretty bad. It’s fair to say that HMR got off to a slow start!

CD005 P H Smith ‘Let Autumn And Winter Pass‘ Single 2002

Armed with a new digital tascam 788 the work load did not ease and this song was the only single released from ‘The Armour is Broken’ it also had the errie B-side ‘The Armour is Broken’ this time experimenting went well but this tale of an android getting attacked by his enemies was too abstract to appear on the album.

CD006 P H Smith ‘The Armour Is Broken‘ LP 2002

These moments are why I write and record music. Occasionally you hit form and I feel that I did in 2002. It had moments that I still enjoy today, ‘Let Autumn and Winter Past’ and ‘Frayed Ropes’. You write music to make music you enjoy listening to, I’m not ashamed to say I enjoyed listening to this record and the CD accompanied me on my long walks with the dogs in Killin. God I miss the boxers…

CD007 P H Smith ‘Scraping The Barrel’ LP (b sides) 2003

This was a double CD full of rough recordings B-sides and throw away recording from the early 4 track era. Some interesting stuff. Again it is so important to be able to experiment and discover your musical tastes and ability. There are many moments on this record that would challenge even the most liberal listener! Not released

CD008 Weird ‘Whapper Stormer’ LP 1995/2004

Star Wars has always been a big influence on Weird Decibels

In 2004 we finally got round to recording the album we had written in 1995 the rumpus grunge infected Weird debut ‘Whapper Stormer’. HMR’s 8th release was the first album we made. This album remains a favourite of mine some 21 years after it was first created. There is an innocence about it; however it does remain sharply observant.

CD009 P H Smith ‘Mallaig ep‘ EP 2004

After the ‘Armour is Broken’ I got a bit of that old ‘writer’s block’ and scrapped an album that was in the works. The only tracks to survive the cull ended up in the ‘Mallaig EP’ which had a nice track called ‘The Morning’ and ‘Tied Down and Useless’ was not too bad but the EP trails off towards the end.

CD010 The Seventeenth ‘The Unit Manager’ EP 2003

Things are a little confusing here as the HMR catalogue numbers and release years seem to not relate. Thinking back the Seventeenth EP’s were recorded around 2001/02 but took ages to eventually surface. There was also a reluctance from Jon to add the Seventeenth recordings to the HMR roster; this explains why the 1st EP is not in the catalogue. When he left I catalogued EP2 and 3 which perhaps explains the strange order. Not a bad EP, nice tunes that are not recorded particularly great.Hopefully we’ll be able to re-release this.

CD011 The Seventeenth ‘ep 3’ EP 2003.

The final release from the Seventeenth a rather good EP that highlights the disappointment I felt that The Seventeenth did not do more in our 4 years together. ‘Hindsight 2002’ is a highlight. Hopefully this will be re-released soon.

CD012 Sllablo ‘9 Hours’ LP 2004

the most fun I’ve had recording. This new artist to the HMR roster was Derek and I having a lot of fun recording music. A very limited release and now one of HMR rarest recordings.

CD013 Weird ‘Cold Calling ep‘ EP 2004

I can’t recall why we released an EP which had 3 albums tracks and 1 additional song ‘This Is The Last Time’ which was taken from the Sllablo album. This EP was perhaps a demo that was to be distributed to eager record companies around the world.

CD014 Weird ‘One More Solo‘ LP 2004

Now 14 releases into HMR’s existence and the shelf was now half full; Weird’s comeback One More Solo’ is a whole lot of fun with a whole lot of bass! ‘Waiting On the Sound Of Your High Heels’ remains one of our most widely known tracks. ‘The Ending’ and ‘Easy Way’ help, define this record.

CD015 K Byrne ‘ep’ EP

Great 4 track EP from Kevin Byrne recorded in two sessions; criminality Kevin did not record anything after this despite several nudges from me. (he did go on to have a massive influence on Morningday). Final track ‘Feeling Like I Can’ is a HMR highlight.

CD016 Weird ‘Official Bootleg’ LP (b sides) 2005

I was brought up with bootlegs, my Dad loves them and he played Grateful Dead LP’s throughout the years as my young ears listened. I waited years for someone to bootleg us but it wasn’t happening so I did it myself. I waded through a box of tapes and CD’s and found some wonderfully quirky recordings including a four track capture of us playing at a BBQ ( I think that’s on Bootleg 2). There was radio clips and live performances lying unattended for years. It was wonderful putting this together.

CD017 P H Smith ‘Fortune Favours the Brave‘ LP 2005

A theme that was with me for many years

A rather pedestrian LP from myself as my solo career treaded water. I was getting fed up with the guitar singer setup. It’s not all bland there were some good tracks ‘Don’t Go Far’ being one.

CD018 Weird ‘Firkin Outburst‘ LP 1997/2010

Drinks on the cover and drinks in the album. This is a wee table in the quiet corner of Firkins

Another ‘finally getting around to recording an album’ record. Firkin Outburst was recorded on several different studios and machines. I stitched it all together, we had to watch old videos of our rehearsals to remember some of the songs. Dam alcohol.

CD019 Weird ‘Riot Act‘ LP 2007

That’s real blood. Punching walls not recommended. Probably one of our best covers

During these years Weird reduced their live appearances and played a lot of cover songs however we still had time to release the ‘Acts’

CD020 Weird ‘Quiet Act‘ LP 2008

Weirds first fully acoustic album and is rarely mentioned by our loyal listeners. It was also the first Weird album not to have the band name on the cover. This caused a ruckus, I hated the name. Adding Decibels has helped! Its an album we had to do; it would help focus our creative minds for what lay ahead…

CD021 Sllablo ‘The Weekend’ SP 2008

No cover art

More focused follow up to the first Sllablo; it had some good tunes including ‘ The Window’. We never officially released this mini album.

CD022 Weird ‘Official Bootleg 2’ LP 2009

Another collection of demos, b-sides and an interesting re-recording of ‘Easy Way’ perhaps not as dynamic as the first bootleg. Not released.

CD023 P H Smith ‘Creeping Ash‘ LP 2009

My 6th solo record had its moments. I couldn’t resist starting another album but this was a struggle to finish and after I had finished I swore I’d never record another acoustic album.

CD024 Weird ‘Live at the Lodge’ LP 2009

This album was a live recording of cover songs; on the last day of the Quiet Act sessions we set up the mics and hit record. A fun record that we have never released but it was included in the HMR catalogue. This was not released.

CD025 Weird ‘Live! Tonight! Not Completely! Sold out! LP 2010

Our first recorded gig up at the Argyll that Derek had owned for a while. A mixture of original and cover songs. The sound was not the best but it had feeling. A limited release.

CD026 Weird Decibels, ‘Weird Decibels 1‘ 2012

Our best album? Its a big maybe! the cover art is straight to the point.

It’s hard to know where Weird Decibels 1 came from; it hasn’t changed our fortunes we are a still an unknown band but it changed a lot of things for us. We had written a great album, ‘Wonder’, ‘Speak’ and ‘Joker’ were credible singles and the ‘Wonder’ video went down well within our community. We played a number of shows in Glasgow and it felt great to be back on the scene. We even added ‘Decibels’ to our name (try typing Weird into a search engine…). We were still writing songs in the same room, so I guess we hit a run of from. It was after Weird Decibels 1 that I was convinced that your best work does not have to be in your early years. This is a great album, the recording is also one of our best if a little harsh. Remember we do all of this ourselves hence why it’s HameMade.

CD027 Paul Henry Smith with Kevin Byrne and Jemma Burt, ‘Morningday‘ 2014

Despite promising never to write another acoustic album I could not resist. I had a new studio and it gave me fresh enthusiasm to record songs. Halfway through the sessions the writer’s block came back with a big old bang. I remember on a cold December staring out into the garden, my guitar resting on my lap, I thought is this it? I worked through it; armed with a sampler I started to programme beats which gave me a new angle in which to write songs. Then I hooked up with Kevin Byrne and Jemma Burt (now Quinn!) to record Morningday. They were vital to pushing this album in an enitrely new direction. An album i’m immensely proud of.

CD028 Weird Decibels.’Weird Decibels 2‘ 2016

After a quiet two years 2016 brought in a flurry of celebrity deaths and HMR records. The first of the year was Weird Decibels 2. A short album that was extremely difficult to write. Naming the album Weird Decibels 2 was the first mistake; we had the mindset that this was a follow up to Weird Decibels 1 when really this was an album on its own right. With lots of hard work we turned it around and it proved to be a great wee album with one of our most accomplished sounds to date. It was also our most expensive album to date costing around £400!

CD029 Smith & McCairney. ‘Hero or a Villain‘ EP 2016

With the arrival of children (and jobs) comes ‘downtime’; there were nights when Weird Decibels could not make practice. Stu and I were lucky enough to be able to meet up and experiment with riffs and the sampler. We recorded 5 songs and these lay around for two years until Stu pushed for the record to be finished. When I attempted to mix it things were not as good as they could be so que a few re-records and completely new ideas for the old songs. Stu and I were so pleased with the result; ‘Hero or a Villain’ has an accomplished sound that while not quite up to professional standards, does show that we are making progress and we learned a lot from this record.

CD030 Weird Decibels ‘Live at the North Star’ 2016

Sometimes I over do it. We played a gig with The Sonic blue and Rabid Dogs. The soundman let us down do I was tasked with doing the sound of the night, I also decided to take the desk. I recorded three bands while monitoring the live sound; far too much. We played pretty band that night but I salvaged some of the songs and this album was born which while a little loose, has a lot of passion.

HMR releases without a CD catalouge number.

Weird Decibels, Weird Decibels 1.5

Paul Henry Smith with Neil Logan. Self titled EP

Paul Henry Smith ‘The Man Who Learned to Live Without a Heart’ EP

So it’s all fun, a lot of hard work and it’s all Hamemade.

Pabs

Tags acoustic, home recordings, jon shaw, kevin byrne photograhy, paul henry smith, Rock, sllablo, the seventeenth

music our albums

One More Solo

To celebrate the re-release of One More Solo on all digital platforms including Spotify we have a look back the album.

This story can be found on this Bandcamp page but i thought I’d update it for the blog

i can see my future i see it EVERYDAY!

I loved my time in the Seventeenth, I can say that now as it’s been over 12 years since the band split. However at that time it was a different story. The Seventeenth were going nowhere, songs were hard to come by, Jon and I weren’t getting on musically and Stu was back on the scene.

There was also the small tale of a tiny HMR (Hame Made Records is our hobbyist record label) band called Sllablo. This was a collaboration between myself and Derek at a time when the Seventeenth were struggling to write songs. Born from frustration, we wrote and recorded a rather fun lo fi album in 9 hrs. Now you are quite within your rights to ask what the hell this has to do with Weird. Put simply, Sllablo proved that Derek and I could still hammer out simple tunes. It was to be the catalyst for the (regretful) end of the Seventeenth and for the second era of Weird.

we played a lot of gigs in support of OMS

We had no plans to reform Weird; we wanted to start a new band. Myself , Stu, Derek and Greg were all present and correct for our first rehearsal with new musical buddies Chris (Taz) Burt (brother of Jemma who appears on several HMR records) and ex Foam god Kevin Byrne (again another HMR regular).

The six of us booked a slot in Hallglen community centre and wrote a couple of songs ( the Weird versions appear on the extremely rare Official Bootleg 1).

We decided to move our rehearsals back to our old practise room. Other commitments kept Taz and Byrne away from practise so we, the original four from Weird, found ourselves back in the room. We wrote a song called Stand For Your Rights and I’m going to use that tired old cliché, it rocked.

We were back together after a 4 year break. I could not believe the hunger we had rediscovered. One More Solo wrote itself, it was too damn easy; it was to be one of the finest era’s of the band. We recorded the album on a digital 8 Track a Tascam 788 at Derek’s flat. We build a basic vocal booth out of egg cartons. It was a time of beautiful recorded naivety.

Kevin Byrne takes one of his many pictures to feature in the Falkirk Herald with this article about OMS

One More Solo has many songs we still play live today, Waiting on The Sound Of Your High Heels is a live favourite, Cold Calling, Whiskey In My Head and band favourite The Ending always find a way to get on the set list. Fighting With Forever and Hanging By A Thread show our harder edge with the flip side Trying To Grab Hold redefining the term laid back.

the only release from OMS

We gigged this record a lot, driving around Scotland in my old automatic Vauxhall Carlton that we called ‘The Vulture’. We could fit the whole band in this wonderful car. We met many bands some who became our friends. Kranksolo, Roller and Popup to name a few. We travelled to the world famous Cavern club in Liverpool to play.

Weird Decibels live at the Cavern

It was the track Easy Way that had us flirting with record label success, This angry kick against modern life struck a chord with a small indie label called Bracken Records (now called Fruit De Mer Records).

In my humble self serving opinion One More Solo is a wonderful record set in a brilliant time. The end of our youth if you like. A time when you could play a gig whenever you wanted, now we have to get babysitters or shift swaps! Listen to the end of Bit Part Optimist Greg has just nailed his bass part in one take, listen to the drunken lads clap, whoop and laugh at the end. This was what it was like at the time. A big party.

Now, I can see my future, I see it everyday

2016

Since this piece was written OMS had a bit of a makeover. The original album was muddy in tone so I attempted to clean it up to some limited success. I found some old CDRs with alternative mixes that worked well. Dereks hated the long fades and to be honest it did show a lack of restraint and discipline; the ‘remaster’ now sounds a bit tighter.

We played a few shows in 2016 and still people (Wilson mainly!) shout for High Heels and for some reason we don’t play it (this will change). I listen back fondly on tracks like the Ending and Tried to Grab Hold two reflective moments on the record. The rest of the disc is balls out rock apart from the alternative mix of cold calling which has a dreamy echo flooded fade out.

Weird Decibels has barely transcended further than our beloved friend and family; One More Solo was no exception. It was a fun album and we made some friends along the way. The fact that our wonderful listeners think this is one of our best sits fine with me. Now that it is on all the digital platforms hopefully this little rock record will find a new audience and join Wilson in shouts for High Heels!