Tag: acoustic

It (Was) A Grand Day Out.

Post author By creepingash
Post date June 22, 2019
No Comments on It (Was) A Grand Day Out.

Pabs looks back at how we created and recorded our unplugged album Its A Grand Day Out. Available to buy and download stream from Bandcamp. Alternatively you can stream on all digital platforms including Spotify.

Words Pabs

Photographs Kevin Byrne (cover art, station hotel, Larbert station), various (studio)

Nearly two years ago I celebrated my 40th birthday, my how time flies. Amid the generous presents there was a gift voucher for some studio time at a place in Edinburgh. It was a great idea for a present but it got me wondering what could be achieved in 6 hours. I’m terrible for procrastination and didn’t book the studio for months. Time was passing and the voucher was due to expire. So I got thinking again.

An album would take weeks, and EP probably a weekend, certainly more than the six hours on offer. So I thought about a live studio performance, recorded professionally. It would be a great opportunity to capture our live sound. I contacted the studio from where the voucher originated and enquired if they would be able to facilitate the band playing live. They couldn’t. They did offer to move us to another studio outside Edinburgh but I didn’t feel this was an option. I suggested a refund for the voucher but the studio wouldn’t budge. I then suggested we strip back to an acoustic album. They agreed it could be done so the band started to prepare.

A couple of weeks before we were due to record the studio contacted me to say they were pulling the plug. Thankfully, perhaps in mind they were letting us down, they offered a full refund it was a turn of luck that I was waiting for.

So with the money safely back in the bank I wanted to fulfill the gift that was given to me and started to look around at studios. After a few emails I to some engineers I decided to go local and contacted Andy Taylor at Homegrown Productions in Larbert. He was happy to do the project but i’m not sure he was aware of how many tracks we were planning…

I visited the studio and met with Andy, a friendly chap who was happy to advise about the project. He was a little surprised when I suggested that we would be recording 15 tracks, I think he was expecting us to do a lot less. He offered some good suggestions, like different sticks for the drums and one really important point was practise, practise, practise.

The feel of the studio is great, hidden away on a working farm just outside Larbert, you would miss it if you weren’t looking. Its well decked out, a comfortable control room, a live room and an additional area for guitar work (we wouldn’t need this). There was a mixture of analog and digital equipment. I guess I have missed the experience of recording in a professional studio and letting someone else do the work. We agreed a booking, now it was up to us to get the heads down.

Picking the Songs

We got together and had a look through the albums to see what would work with the distortion switched off. There were a few obvious choices and some surprising picks as well.

Songs like ‘Vancouver’, ‘The Rain’, ‘Just For Today’, ‘Culture Creature’ and more recent tracks like ‘I Hear the City’, ‘Wonder’ and ‘Curtain Hits the Cast’ were picked. One thing that was quite obvious for the band was the high number of Whapper Stormer songs that were filling the set. So we looked again and found some of our forgotten favourites. ‘Flame’ has always been one of those songs we regretted not getting properly recorded. It was never mixed as we ran out of studio time. We put the track on Coldhome Street and that was never officially released (although if you are curious it is on our Bandcamp page). When we played at practise it sounded really good, it hadn’t aged much, although the lyrics were written by a heartbroken 21 year old and not the hand of someone of nearly 42 years so that was quite a strange experience stepping back into my old awkward shoes.

‘Side by Side’ was another song we hadn’t officially released (again you can find it on Bootleg 2 on Bandcamp). It was nice to play this track again. ‘Cold Calling’ was a little rusty but once Stu and I synced in it worked really well. Then Derek suggested ‘Industry’.

One of our more heavier numbers I didn’t think It would work but it did. The mood was still there, the intensity of the track was still evident. Now we were growing in confidence and curiosity, we tried ‘Educational Suicide’ but that didn’t work, we briefly tried ‘Three Days Ago’, again that didn’t fit in too well.

We were settling on songs but one was missing, a song that defined the early 2010’s for us, ‘Wonder’. It sounded good on the podcast version and went well when we practised it so it was in. Towards the end of our sessions the Rain was dropped, one of our best known songs from the early years. I was disappointed but the rest of the guys didn’t think it was going to fit with this volume of songs.

On the Day.

There is no denying that it was exciting to be going back into the studio after all these years. As much as I love DIY recording it was nice to think that someone else would be at the helm. We turned up to the small studio on a fairly overcast day broken by the cold winter sun. A sharp breeze passed the imposing wind farm nearby, the large white colossi steadily turning. Stu parked rather oddly and I couldn’t help but chuckle. Then Derek with his large SUV rolled onto the edge of Andy’s lawn. Car parking is not our strong points.

We entered into the control room, the desk was fired up and ready to go. We headed into the live room and started to set up. There was a jovial atmosphere, it was great to hear band banter flowing again, we don’t do this enough, I thought.

I look on as Andy sets up. It was strange to let someone else do all the work!

Andy entered the room after briefing introduction he got to work on setting up the sound. This was when I began to wonder if we were stretching the session too far. However it didn’t take us long to set up, after a few soundchecks we were good to go.

Playing through the first songs was straightforward, we had tea and coffee so it was all going well until the first mistake. Nerves started to creep into us all and we had to retake a couple of songs. We soldiered on, time was now an issue, we were aware of it and I think it was affecting our performance. There was one song, ‘Sky is Falling’ I think, where I completely forgot the vocal melody despite playing it for weeks on end. Our minds were just going blank as we reached into the 4th hour of our session. But we got there, a little bruised and battered, 15 songs recorded live. Now for the quick mix, could we really finish this album in 2 more hours?

This was where I was trying not to impose on Andy, I forgot we had just over an hour to mix 15 songs. Now I realised how lofty my expectations had been. I guess because I’ve recorded the band so many times that I thought it was possible. I suggested some mix changes during the first song, put the vocals up, nah drop them again, essentially I was now doing what I do in the home studio, spending an age mixing, however time was something we did not have.

So I reluctantly stepped back and opened my first beer and let Andy do his thing. 20 minutes past our time we had a CDR with the raw mixes. I had mixed feelings now.

Work starts on the mixes.

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Old Friends back in the Bar

After a healthy wee cheese and ham roll from the shop next to the pub I was ready for a fair few pints and some catching up with the band. We dropped all the gear off at Derek’s and headed around to the Station hotel for a couple. Our good friend Byrne turned up for a blether. We didn’t stay long however, we headed back to Derek’s, the guys were eager to hear the CD. I just wanted a beer.

After a few laughs and drinks by the fire we spun the CD. Already I was picking at it, what was I really expecting to achieve in 6 hours? 15 songs? An album completed? It sounded pretty good but not finished. It sounded thin, lacking in presence, my high hopes for this album were fading, but the guys around me were loving it, I didn’t have the heart to tell them at that time I wasn’t happy.

I spiralled into a bit of a downer for a few weeks after it. It was a long winter for me, I just wanted to shut myself off from everyone. I logged off the internet for nearly 3 months and didn’t go near the acoustic album. I still wasn’t enjoying the record, but the performances were good. Perhaps revisiting the mix would work. We still had some money left from the gift voucher and the guys were happy to put some extra cash into the record.

Some weeks later I returned to the album and started to take notes. I asked the rest of the guys to give me their opinion of the songs. They were generally good, one or two tracks were in danger of not making the final cut. I contacted Andy to explore further mixing.

The extra studio time comes to the rescue.

Springtime had sprung, green was returning to the trees and the last of a fairly mild Scottish winter was fading. Optimism was back in my thoughts, I had booked in another 4 hours of mixing and would be attending the studio with Andy during the May weekend. The mixes went really well, he had already started to work on the songs by the time I arrived at the studio. The tracks needed subtle tonal changes, in addition, turning up Stu’s solos and integrate guitar parts worked wonders for the feel of the album. It was now vibrant and full of personality. It was good too have input into the mixes. Andy is so laid back, he listens to all suggestions and will gently disagree if you suggest something that won’t work.

As this was a live session all 15 songs responded well to the tonal and fader adjustments so it turned out mixed a lot quicker than anticipated. There was also a desire not to lose the live feel of the record.

Mastering was booked next. I decided to step back for this. It was a subtle master, with Andy leaving a significant amount of dynamic range. Hearing the single (the Ending and Trying to Grab Hold) it makes sense, there is a good dynamic range in the streaming sound.

The Photoshoot.

Pic Kevin Byrne. WdB with some of our lifelong friends.

Kevin Byrne is a great friend, always happy to help the band and he, like many of our friends, has been there from the start (in 95!). He takes a guid photo. We needed a theme for the album, ‘Its a Grand Day Out’ so we decided to head to the pub, the Station hotel, which, as its name suggests is next to Larbert train station. The idea was to invite our lifelong friends and have Kevin shoot pictures as we got drunk. It worked quite well, there was a brilliant portrait taken of us before we left the pub.

Kevin with Greg. Kevin has taken many great photographs for us.

As we passed the station I suggested we take some shots on the platform, after all most days out start and end at a train station. These shots were superb and one made it to the cover of the album. The guys suggested releasing a couple of singles, so I looked through the photographs that Kevin had taken but none seemed to fit. Kevin stepped up and took some stunning shoots. My favourite being the speeding train blurring past the static platform, we used that for the Ending.

Pic Kevin Byrne. Brilliant picture of the station hotel where we had a few drinks after the recording session.

After the original photoshoot had taken place we headed back to Dereks and drank into the night. Surrounded by friends, listening to vinyl and building beer towers. It felt like the old days that we used to have. We celebrated into the morning hours, after two years of highs and lows we finally had the album we wanted.

Pabs

Coming soon, the track listing and the story behind the songs.

Click here to buy the album. All monies goes towards future recordings.

Tags acoustic, alternative rock, falkirk music scene, live in the studio, live music, lo fi, music, scottish music scene, Scottish rock, summer tunes

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

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

the making of weird decibels 2 writing

Writing Weird Decibels 2

Pictures by Mr Kevin Byrne

Writing Weird Decibels 1 All Over Again

We started creating Weird Decibels 2 in March 2013 you can read about the first session here. We got many things right when creating our new album but one of the few mistakes we made was the title, Weird Decibels 2. The name put an expectation on us to write an album every bit as good as its predecessor. So when the pen hit paper and the guitars were strummed we were unaware that we were writing the same album all over again.

The three songs from this session were Left/Right ( a father son politically themed song), Rain Parade and Feet First my description at the time?

‘They are quite dynamic, influences so far point to The Pixies, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. We’re not going quietly!’

Despite our early enthusiastic approach none of these songs would ever be recorded.

In April 2013 we had another update (read here) and at this point I start to voice concerns about our new songs, in particular Feet First which I thought was ‘too commercial’. A creeping doubt was emerging that we were not writing particularly strong songs, sure we enjoyed them but they didn’t have the ‘look around the room and grin’ feel that we have when we stumbled upon a great idea.

‘The Stalker Song’ made an appearance here, written about a young man who falls for a woman he sees on the bus. This song would be quickly apprehended and sent down the lost ideas vault.

Here is a wee description I noted at the time.

‘So here we have a guy who gets the same bus every day and at the next stop is a girl who gets her bus everyday. He falls in love with her, he feels like he has known her all his life. He’s a loner doing the same thing day in day out. She simply fills her commute with the usual check on her smartphone. One day he follows her home. I’m not sure where to go from here, my character isn’t a violent guy, just lonely but he has really strong feelings for this girl he doesn’t know’

Stu and Derek show beer and guns.

Jemma Burt and Craig Elder were approached to appear on the album but for various reasons this wouldn’t happen. I guess this was a mixture of time and the desire for the four of us the be the nucleus of our 20th anniversary album.

Derek added his insight to the writing of the album you can read that here. He also shares his concerns about the changes that needed to be made but there is no hiding his delight at starting a new album

As the summer of 2013 moved in and the sun hung in the sky (highly unlikely) we wrote more songs.

Another song, inspired by Alice In Chains, called ‘Miss Asphyxia’ had been floating around for weeks and is first listed during this practise.

‘Small Hands’ would appear in June, by July I was really excited by it. I has asked the guys if they had received my email of a new idea in a 3 / 4 timing, Stu was the only one who listened to it. I carried on regardless and played a hyper riff that I had named ‘Kill it! Kill it! A few minutes later it was our latest song. I described it as my new hope for Weird Decibels 2, we all looked around the room and grinned.

By September 2013 writing was becoming stagnant, however Stu had a new riff that we were attempting to put some music to. At this point it remained untitled. We also agreed on no deadline for the album, perhaps aware we were nowhere near to recording it.

As the masks and costumes of Halloween were don October was the month we made a big decision. We ditched nearly all the songs from the first 6 months and we agreed that the practice room was no longer a place of creativity. it was a dark moment as we sat in silence on the old couches, cold creeping back into the year.

The Marvels

We had decided to keep just Miss Asphyxia and Kill It! Kill it!. Now that we were back to just two songs I had doubts another album would ever happen. So we sat and looked at each other and said. ‘Lets book a wee lodge, take some guitars, a shit load of beer and see what happens’.

Oakley Writing Sessions

Just 20 minutes from our home town is a beautiful little cluster of cottages nestled within the grounds of a stately home. This grand building stands in Oakley a small settlement just outside Dunfermline. So with heavy hearts we headed to Fife.

The lodge was wonderful; with an open plan living room and a fridge nearby it allowed the band to sit in ample space facing each other with our guitars ready to see what tunes we could write. (Blog)

Derek had brought the keyboard as he was keen to try something other than the drums. He had suggested we head up to the lodge without any ideas, basically a blank page.

Beers keep out the cold

Well I tried to do that! However I had a couple of ideas floating around my head; I wanted us to hit the ground running and build on any momentum.

We arrived the Friday night and I set up the desk and loosely placed a few mics around the room and set up the Blumlien microphone technique to capture the room sound.

With the headphones places I could hear that we had a nice sound so we grabbed a beer and launched ourselves into writing; well I say launch. We had a beer or two and talked about television and monty python quotes.

Friday 31st January 2014

Little Thoughts Lost which we wrote with some keys over the top. the song on the recording hasn’t change much. I Hear the City was also born on that crisp night, slightly faster in tempo back then other than this it hasn’t changed too much. Derek had suggested ending on a G but Stu said this was too happy!

By now we were for more positive about writing our new album and after a few Tsingtao’s we had another go at City this time more in line with the album tempo and it turned out pretty well.

Towards the night we engaged in some more joyful band banter then wrote another song called Hit me. A depressing little number that did not really make it past Oakley.

After a round of applause for Stu’s beard and a word from his sponsor we scooped a few more beers.

Saturday the 1st of Feb 2014

Four cracking cooked breakfasts wolfed down and coffee slurped we were ready to get the writing caps on again. Kevin Byrne was on his way, camera and mandolin in hand we chapped on the door and was welcomed into the warmth of the lodge as the fire crackled in the middle of the room.

Quoted Not Voted arose from the fumes of alcohol on Saturday afternoon, this is the weaker version which lacks any significant verse vocals this was the 4th song we had written,

Digital takeover, one of those nice riffs we could never finish was attempted on this day. Curtain hits the cast offered a little humour as I tried to play the intro riff (which we’d later drop) several times much the amusement of my fellow musicians.

Oakley: I Hear The City, Digital Takeover, Little Thoughts Lost, Curtain Hits the Cast, Quoted Not Voted, Hit Me.

Heights Session Saturday 22nd November 2014

setting up the heights sessions. pics Greg McSorley

Heights: Smash the Glass, Almost Beautiful, Car Crash, Once More With Feeling, Away Home.

A few months of practice passed and we polished off the work from Oakley. We had a desire to go back to another lodge, possible the same locale but time, money and real life would get in the way.

Undeterred we decided that a Saturday up at my place with the studio set-up would be a suitable option.

That morning we attended the funeral of our friend Chris Mason; a huge influence on the band. Afterwards there was a sombre mood to the writing. We turned the LED lights blue in respect of the colour of lights Chris had on his Christmas tree which he never took down!

Derek on the keys

Later, while Stu was watching his beloved Alloa getting thumped by the mighty Bairns (Falkirk FC), we set up and cracked open our first beers.

Again I had a couple of ideas floating around my head. Both The Dancer and Almost Beautiful were sketched by the time Stu arrived. Now that we were all together the songs would be finished. The Dancer sounds intense during these sessions and we lost this feeling for a while; luckily we got it back for the final album version.

Away Home was a long song, it didn’t make the final cut. Its another brooding song with a slightly different structure to the fast punchy pace of Weird Decibels 2.Perhaps this would’ve survived during a different time in our writing career.

Car Crash was another nice sounding song. Sadly it didn’t stick, it had a Americana feel which I guess we are not ready for. The version recorded has a nice mouth organ piece over the top of the guitars.

Stu arrives to write!

Deeper into the night Stu and Greg launched into a jam, it was a heavy riff and I struggled to get a melody for it, I sang in a different style and sounded alien on the take. Indeed it would be many months before I cracked it. That song would become Once More With Feeling.

The Shore on My Soul and It’s Who You Know, final writing. January 2015.

As usual I fretted about the lack of songs for the album and I played the guitar for days recording every single idea I had. I brought two ideas down to the room. One song took an age to write another happened instantly.

What started off as Shore on My Soul would eventually end up being Medicine. It developed over a number of months; the ending just grew into a jam and remains one of the best endings we have carved out of our sonic landscape.

It’s Who You Know had the grins from the start. We built this song on a wee into riff and i was amazed that we could still write songs like this quickly. I really felt that this was the last song we would write for the Weird Decibels 2 sessions. We were happy with what we had; a couple of years hard work, a few false starts but now finally we had an album to record.

Tags acoustic, albums, alternative, Falkirk, falkirk. music, music, recording, Rock, the making of weird decibels 2, Weird Decibels, weird decibels 1

review of the year weird decibels 20th celebrations

review of our year 2015

(featured image by Kevin Byrne)

Pabs looks back on 2015

What a year its been for both Weird Decibels and Pabs solo music. Many highs and to be honest a few lows but a great year.

January.

As the bells sound for the new year and 2014 turned to 2015 I remind myself that in February it will be 20 years since we first stepped into our Grangemouth practise room. Simply unbelievable.

2nd January

The band head out to Linlithgow to choose a lodge in which to record the new album. We chose Kelso simply for the massive room that would allow for a great drum sound. What an inspired choice it was to be.

26th January

Tommy gives us a wee play on the Third Class Ticket ahead of our show at the Buff Club; he has supported us all year and his show goes from strength to strength.

31st January

We play the Buff Club in Glasgow. This was one of the strangest gigs we played! Look at the stage! We enjoyed it although it wasn’t our best performance.

February

8th February we turn 20 years old. We forget that this is an achievement; I guess as we’re all good friends it seems normal that we play music together.

19th February

we get a nice article in the Falkirk Herald to celebrate our time together. James Trimble has done us proud over the years.

21st February

We release the single version of Easy Way; never heard before until now. This was the version we sent to Bracken records which would never be released. Look out for more rare tracks in 2016 and beyond. There are loads!

28th February to 6th of March

The reason we picked this place was for this set up

A stunning and breathtaking property

This was used to record both the bass and the drums at the same time.

We record some of Weird Decibels 2 over a week in Kelso. Here is the story part one two and three. This was one of the best weeks in the bands history.

March

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Live at the Tolbooth Stirling

March 6th

Pabs plays the Tolbooth in Stirling. A fantastic night for our singer who was lucky enough to be supported by friends and family as the headline act didn’t bring many people!

April

We continue to record parts for Weird decibels 2. Mixing starts; this turned out to be a long drawn put process despite our attempts to avoid this. Pabs went back onto shifts which helped but eventually he went back to day shift and juggling mixing, family life and work became difficult.

May

10th May we shoot the video for Its Who You Know at the Three Kings Kevin Byrne, Chris Wilson, Chris Burt and dale Ashworth all did us proud in this video which is nearing 500 views.

28th May Tommy Clark is first to air the new single on the Third Class Ticket.

29th May. Our new single its Who You Know released to the world. It went down very well; its since been remixed and will sound even better on the album.

June

6th June we discuss the possibility of a deluxe version of Weird Decibels 2, over a few beers naturally… We had written so many ideas and recorded many practises as we wrote the album.

July

22nd July Stirling DIY Collective do a nice piece on the single. The Stirling scene turned out to be brilliant for Weird Decibels and Pabs this year. Big thanks to all at Stirling DIY collective and Kenny Bates.

August

August 18th and we set ourselves a deadline for releasing the new album. It would be missed. I will now be out 2016.

August 29th we play a superb gig at the Record Factory

September

Heavy mixing and mastering session begin to take their toll…

October

3rd October Pabs plays the Stirling Tolbooth

10th October we release part 1 of our top 50 songs feature.

16th October part 2!

17th we play a great gig at Oxjam Stirling.

23rd October we get a wee mention in the Stirling Observer.

25th October part 3 of our top 50 countdown is uploaded.

27th October Deadline for Weird Decibels 2 missed.

31st October part 4

November

Lets raawwwk. pic Byrne

1st November shooting starts for the new video for Kill it Kill It released next year. Thanks to Kevin Byrne, Ruari Pearson and Chris Wilson.

2nd November our new range of tees are launched!

7th November we reveal our favourite song that we have recorded. A surprise result!

7th of November we play a fantastic gig at North Star with Buzzards of Babylon to celebrate 20 years together.

13th November Weird Decibels, like all fellow bands and musicians, are shocked and saddened by the awful events in Paris, including the massacre at the Bataclan where the Eagles of Death Metal were playing.

18th November Weird Decibels and Pabs solo work are nominated for best song, acoustic (pabs) and best rock act alongside many other talented Falkirk hopefuls for the first AMiF awards. Still time to vote!!!!!

18th November Pabs and Stu lay some new alternative takes for Weird Decibels 2.

December

The famous cover now all over the world!

‘we tried to get it out for the 20th anniversary gig and it became a rush. I wasn’t paying attention to the sound and was determined to get it released.

Derek had listened to the masters on his earphones and voiced his concerns, I lost it! I was fed up, I wasn’t spending time with the family, work was hectic and I was coming home to mix. I nearly canned the whole lot. I walked away from the album and the band.

Stu came up to visit and we had a coffee and a blether. I returned after three weeks and felt great. I could hear all the problems with the sound and EQ’d them out. Now the album has the clarity it was missing. ‘ Pabs.

Pabs takes a three week break from mixing; comes back fresh and sorts out the frequency problems that had been causing issues. Album now sounds epic.

5th December Our first album Whapper Stormer appears on all digital platforms including Spotify.

Tags acoustic, albums, alternative, bandcamp, buffclub, buzzards of babylon, Falkirk, falkirk. music, gigs, live, oxjam stirling, record factory glasgow, recording, Rock, stirling diy press collective, tolbooth music development, tolbooth stirling, Weird Decibels

Gigs weird decibels 20th celebrations

Gig Diary. 20th Anniversary gig at North Star, Falkirk 7th Nov 2015

Post author By creepingash
Post date November 9, 2015
1 Comment on Gig Diary. 20th Anniversary gig at North Star, Falkirk 7th Nov 2015

Pic by Kevin Byrne

Gig Diary.

thanks to Kevin Byrne, Juls Sampson, Gary Ivady and Kirsty Smith for taking photos/videos some of which are posted in the blog.

Upstairs Downstairs

The ever laid back Greg McSorley. Pic Byrne

I burst through the front door of the house exhausted after another day in the office. It was the end of a long week; now I had to jump from one life to another. You can’t beat being the frontman of Weird Decibels but before that I needed a wee 20 minutes nap on the couch. It wasn’t to be.

Mince and tatties in the microwave, I rushed upstairs to grab my gig bag, rushed back downstairs to grab a black tee shirt out of the dryer then back upstairs to check if the printer was working as I frantically tapped my last gen ‘smartphone’ to try and type up the set list.

Then I stood alone in the living room and tried to calm myself down; it worked for a minute as I ran back upstairs to grab mic leads then back downstairs when I heard the microwave ping!

Fed, watered and prepared I heard the doorbell ring and the ever laid back Mr Greg McSorley, 20 years served Bass player, and band gear fixer presented me with his usual enthusiasm for our latest gig. This time it was to be special.

I flung my gear into the back of his car and we set off on the thankfully short journey to North Star in the centre of Falkirk. It had been the best part of four years since we had played locally.

Snappy Singer

Stu and Derek were calmly setting up as hurricane Smith bashed through the doors with two guitars and a bag of leads. Two sighs later I flung the gear down and with my hands on my hips, I surveyed the scene. North Star looked the part, it was cosy and the tables had been neatly stacked away. I looked down at the empty floor and hoped that the free entry would tempt our loyal fanbase to fill this place.

Some diners were carefully tucking into their pizzas as I started to set up with the guys. It took a wee while to get the balance of the guitars right. Stu grew increasingly worried as he had to turn his guitar amp down 1. That’s -10 from the usual recommended rock level…

We balanced the guitars and then adjusted the bass slightly, Craig was dealing with the vocals and acoustic guitar which he mixed in well. Although there were no monitors on stage but we’ve played many gigs like that so it wasn’t a problem.

setlist

Setlist north star

Home sweet home (Riot Act)
Kill it Kill it (Weird Decibels 2)
Educational suicide (Whapper Stormer)
Show your face (Whapper Stormer)
Joker (Weird Decibels 1)
Just for today (Whapper Stormer)
The rain (Whapper Stormer)
Speak (Weird Decibels 1)
Miss Asphyxia (Weird Decibels 2)
The Ending (One More Solo
Culture Creature (Firkin Outburst)
Glass People (Whapper Stormer)
Medley (Mix of One More Solo, Firkin Outburst and Riot Act)
Wonder (Weird Decibels 1)
Sofa girrrrl (Whapper Stromer)
It’s who you know ( Weird Decibels 2)
Vancouver (Whapper Stormer)
Cold calling (One More Solo)
Rosie (AC/DC)
*last minute request Deliverance (Weird Decibels 1)
High heels (One More Solo)

Our guests

After all the soundchecks were done Kevin Byrne kindly stepped up to entertain the crowd; he played a few acoustic songs which went down well with the audience.

It was fast approaching quarter to nine and the incredible Buzzards of Babylon, great friends of ours, took to the stage. By now numbers were starting to grow and the placed was getting warmer. The guys rocked through a tight and dynamic set with some hilarious banter from their captivating front man Rab Dempsey. A superb set from these guys. Suddenly it was game on!!

More people piled through the door (some literally) as the charged atmosphere added to our excitement. Nerves were kicking in now, we hadn’t played a lot of these songs live for years. I forgot the riff to Home Sweet Home just minutes before we were due on. I was snapping at the guys as the adrenalin was flowing. Guitars weren’t tuning and the mics were squealing feedback.

However when I hit the B chord of Home Sweet Home it all clicked in. The sound settled for a while and we burst into the opener from Riot Act. It was an apt song for playing back to our hometown of Falkirk after a few years trying to spread our name in Glasgow.

Going Back to the 90’s

The first third of the set flew past; after new single Kill it Kill it was nailed I placed the guitar down; in that moment I was transported back to the Martell in 1995 when I was simply a vocalist. We played Educational Suicide and Show Your Face Soon. It was brilliant to be able to run about the stage without the guitar.

I loved singing Just for Today and Vancouver as well; the heat was building and I was gulping more water in between the free beer supplied by the venue (nice touch North Star).

The Ending was a bit wobbly, Greg couldn’t quite nail it and it took us until the end to find our feet. I made a hash of the end as well. So yeah there were a few mistakes on the night but what the hell, it was fun.

I lifted the trusty old Tanglewood which was nestled in its rack; this was the first guitar I had bought and became fused with our late 90’s sound. Culture Creature was the best song to come from that era. It sounded good although I didn’t nail the solo. Stu managed to carry us through that part. Derek and Greg kept things solid.

Glass people was next; the first time in perhaps 15 or so years the public it was pretty much spot on and once again the indefectible Stu nailed the solo; the chatter in the venue had lowered to a murmur as the crowd took in his playing.

The mood was changing though, restless perhaps, it was time to turn it up a notch so we played our first ever medley.

The Medley

We had many requests from our kind kind listeners; these included Hell Never Felt So Good, Underachiever and Fighting With Forever. We wanted to fling in Brought A Gun and the Nirvana version of the Vaselines Molly’s Lips before leaving the guitars to ring into Wonder.

As we switched from Hell to Bought A Gun I screwed up the change; with a shake of the head from Derek we soldiered on and got the rest right much to the delight of our listeners who were pleased with the new take on old songs.

The Final Straight

Sofa Girrrl was a riot; by this time I had a few beers and was trying to get the crowd to sing along to songs they might not know. So I dived away from the stage in search of some backing singers and a special dancer. Rooz stepped up and we Sofadanced through the 3 mins of punk. A superb moment.

New song it Who You Know burnt out the last strings of my vocal chords but the guys were now in full rock mode. We reached Rosie, our 2nd last song, or so we thought. The chants of (the much missed) Dave Broon echoed through the Star from our friends as Derek and Stu started our famous cover song.

After the guitars rung out my father stepped up to the stage, ‘you need to play Deliverance! There is a guy from Stockport here just to see you!!’ That guy turned out to be Falkirk bairn Harry Watson who had traveled 234 miles to take in the sights and sounds of his home town.

After Craig kindly allowed some more time (past 11pm now..) we launched into Deliverance. I disappeared into the crowd, guitar in hand. Stu was in stitches wondering who was going to sing the choruses!

We ended with one of the most requested songs in our history, it’s always the same voice that shouts for it! High Heels, Wilson’s favourite ended a superb night for us. As Stu And I played back to back during the solo it felt great to be on a Falkirk stage again. I went out into the audience and I was surrounded by people that had came to see us. It was a great moment.

The Merch stand is open!

Merch did well, Derek set it up rather nicely, a great effort. We sold a number of Tee’s that Greg had spent hours making. We shifted a few of the back catalog CD’s as well. Thank you everybody.

The Buzzards were Buzzing!

Rab asked for a guide to Falkirk pubs that would be open until 3am I gulped… the adrenaline was seeping away, and my bones were aching. These guys meant business. Greg was the only Decibel to rise to the Buzzards challenge. They stayed up to 3am downing shots and proving that Stu, Derek and myself may have to brush up on our rock and roll skills.

The Greatest of Nights.

A fine night in the North Star. Pic Byrne

It was a great night at North Star. It’s a neat wee venue for bands to play and we would like to thank Craig for having us on. Both Kevin and the Buzzards were brilliant, the latter clearly looked like they were out for a party all night and morning. The crowd was brilliant as well. Many of you turned up to support us and it was nice to see the place full of much loved friends and family.

So thanks once again for your support. As we say so long to our first 20 years and look to the years ahead.

With a new album due soon we must acknowledge that it would never have happened without you. Our wonderful Weirdos..

Tags acoustic, albums, alternative, buzzards of babylon, Falkirk, falkirk. music, firkin outburst, gig diary, gigs, live, live music, live music falkirk, live scene, north star falkirk, weird decibels 1, whapper stormer

Weird Decibels 20 years

50 weird decibels songs as chosen by the band. part 5. the top ten.

Post author By creepingash
Post date November 7, 2015
1 Comment on 50 weird decibels songs as chosen by the band. part 5. the top ten.

So here is our top ten songs from the last 20 years. Lets hope the next 20 years bring as many good memories, and tunes.

Drink makes you 'cuddly' — Drink makes you ‘cuddly’

10. Trying To Grab Hold. One More Solo 2004

Pabs voted it in 18th place out of 20, Stu N/E (didn’t vote for this) Greg 9th Derek 7th

A real favourite with Greg and Derek, Trying To Grab Hold is one of the most laid back tracks we ever put down. Reminiscing is something I find myself doing on a regular basis; the early days with the band were a riot and sometimes I wish we could turn back the clock and change some of the decisions we made.

The second verse; ‘summer breeze whispering we were laughing, watching the red sky fade to black, then we would gather, around a fire and talk about this and that’. Im convinced that I’m recalling the time that Greg, Derek And I went to T in the Park at Strathclyde in the mid 90’s We had camped in a site away from the festival and there was a group of revellers around a fire passing around a guitar singing various well known songs.

I sat, drunkenly swaying, one eyebrow raised, awaiting my turn while taking in the folky atmosphere. When the guitar reached my eager hands I started belting out a song we have long forgotten called Brilliant at the top of my wayword voice. A silence descended over the rest of the circle

In my self absorbed gleeful bliss my eagerness grew; I was about to hit the second verse when the guitar owner promptly asks for his guitar and storms off! The three of us laughed our hearts out that night.

Like I say it was good times and Trying To Grab Hold is looking back at these days that seemed a bit less complicated.

This was another song recorded at Derek’s flat, at the end of the track you can hear me leave the vocal booth made of egg cartons. You can hear Derek explaining to Gav McVicar that we were always looking to try new ideas. I kept that in to give us a sense of those recording sessions.

A really nice song.

9. Vancouver. Whapper Stormer 1995.

Pabs 5th Stu 3rd Greg NE Derek NE

I lay the vocals for Vancouver at Split Level

Yet another split opinion between the band. Early favourite Vancouver was rated highly by myself and Stu. Vancouver is somewhat surprisingly is pegged down at 9.

One of the first three songs we created; Vancouver is about Kurt and Courtney, the John and Yoko of my generation. I remember being obsessed with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain. Like millions of others I watched his helpless dive into a heroin abyss.

It’s strange starting a band only to hear your favourite artists moan about how much they hate the fame and fortune they have found. I guess we’ll never understand what it is like to see the music world from these lofty heights.

For the lyrics of Vancouver I imagined this world; placing myself in the shoes of Cobain and others. The song is called Vancouver because it was an easy place with which to rhyme with other cities like Hanover which I could rhyme with hangover. Then it was easy to link it in with ‘the Camera the microphone it’s blown your cover’.

I love these lyrics, some of my best, even after all these years I still have a fondness for them; I just don’t write like that any more. It was another melody that I had in my head. I would sing it and Stu would play the tune.

The line ‘you try to make yourself look bad, but you only look better.’ was an observation made about artists those days. They would descend into deeper trouble and yet still manage to look cooler in the eyes of their young impressionable audiences.

Vancouver was recorded at Split Level studios, this was our first proper studio sessions and one of our best. Neil the engineer did a really good job with the production. It was brilliant walking past the massive desk into the vocal booth. I felt like we had arrived!

Vancouver was a live favourite in the early days; it was always well received at gigs. It was a setlist regular for the first few years before we laid it to rest; I do recall us getting a bit tired playing it which in hindsight is no longer a concern I have; If we are lucky enough to have someone love our songs then I’ll play them . A truly wonderful Weird Decibels song.

8. The Rain. Whapper Stormer 1995 Stu’s top track

Pabs 7th, Stu 1st, Greg NE, Derek NE

‘I love the rain cause it’s got loads of wah wah and a huge end and it’s a classic.Takes me right back to the martell gigs.’ Stu

Stu loves the Rain. The recording at Split Level worked out really well

First there is the splash of the cymbals, then Stu & Greg launch into the riff before I sing the word ‘The Rain’. Once again we have a band divider. Another surprise as the Rain, an early favourite for top track drips in at 8. Recorded in at the same sessions as Vancouver, the Rain is one of the most refreshingly original songs we have ever created.

The lyrics were written during the massive rainstorms of 94 when the Dawson mission near the Carron Works was flooded. A religious building at the mercy of the heavens (well the river Carron).

In 95 I was only 18 and I guess that I leaving high school to go out into the mercy of the big bad world was worrying me so I went for another two years to Falkirk College. It’s a huge change especially when, like me, you don’t have a plan for the future.

Back then I wasn’t aware of the magnitude of my lack of direction and how it would effect my future. This explains the chorus ‘Stored in houses known as clouds, leaves the clouds and hits the ground.’

Throughout the verses are lines that have little relation to each other that, ‘the rain’. I’ve always liked walking in the rain and I remember the velux window in the ceiling of my room in my old house. When the rain fell it was a beautiful sound.

‘the rain, a beautiful sound on the window pain, a musician who has no composition’.

As Greg and Derek maintain a nice groove; Stu lets a nice lead flow over the lyrics. Neil at Split Level added a little FX onto the guitar which gave the guitars a liquid feel.

There is a pause in the song for a middle 8. Then it builds to the double distorted guitars and loud vocals.

Educational Suicide, Vancouver and the Rain became the original three we wrote at our first practises. They were played relentlessly during the early years and gained attention from Central FM who were excellent at supporting local acts back then.

Eventually as we tried to move away from the early dominance of Whapper Stromer we would stop playing them. A classic Weird Decibels track. Makes you wonder what came on top!

7. Glass People. Whapper Stromer 1995

Pabs 8th, St 9th, Greg 12th, Derek NE

Amazingly we recorded a full band version of Glass People here; no one has heard it yet…

The finale of Whapper Stormer Glass People is one of our longest songs; originally a full band track, the album version features Stu and I on acoustic guitars for the one and only time in the history of our 7 albums (and our upcoming 8th).

Glass People was written in my head over many Saturday nights at Pennies, the run down alternative disco that was hidden away down the old Coasters ice rink. We had wonderful times in there. Every weekend we would head down and join our music community. All the songs of the times would play and strong friendships were forged.

No matter where I went I always found that there were people I could ‘see through’; there was a big act hiding the real person under the surface, hence Glass People.

‘It was a rainy night,for the night I was going to witness

people who are desperate, to escape all that lies before them,

all are congregated, maybe not at church but a place we can worship

our freedom and our choice, the only play where I can let go for recreation

but I noticed , I noticed something spectacular.

Glass People’

For the few hours that Pennies was open every weekend we did feel like we could be ourselves. Most of us didn’t really embrace the night clubs in Falkirk, it just wasn’t our scene.

Glass People was the first guitar riff that I had written for the band. The chord progression, Dm, open F, C to G was easy to play!.

At the time of Stu’s hiatus we bumped into each other in Behind the Wall. After a few pints we reluctantly accepted that the band may never get back together so we decided to start working on a ‘best of’ acoustic album. The first track we recorded was Glass People. During the wintery recording session it snowed, we strolled through the falling flakes to the off licence to collect a carry out. We returned to the studio and cracked open a fresh beer. Stu then laid the most incredible acoustic solo for the end of the song and the album.

Luck had it the band got back together; we gathered all the recordings, old and new and tracklisted Whapper. When we all sat and listened to the acoustic version of Glass People we all looked at each other and agreed. It had to stay on the record.

The band version of glass people can be heard on our bootleg and there is another version floating around somewhere.

6. Now I Can See His Eye. Whapper Stormer. 1995

Pabs 2nd, Stu NE, Greg NE, Derek 4th

A rare picture of us doing a lost recording for the Falkirk hospital.

Scored highly by Derek and myself the incredible Now I Can See His Eye breaks in at 6. This, often ignored, track of Whapper is another of the more imaginative songs we have written. I would be lying if Now I Can See His Eye wasn’t written without any substances… Singing about yellow brick roads, eyes in the ceiling and the rather obvious lyrics ‘ the sky the sky , it’s just a trip a little day out’,

Greg and I fell into a good group of friends who wandered slightly off the straight and narrow. You do experiment with life when you are young and I look back fondly at the parties we used to have, but we could’ve easily slipped into another way of life.

Now I can See His Eye subconsciously speaks of this fear of following the wrong person into a chaotic lifestyle without much hope for a future. It also speaks of the desire to be successful with the band.’Now I can see the crowds and my friends stand beside me’.

A wonderfully spiky and diverse track.

5. The Ending. One More Solo 2004

Pabs 9th, Stu NE Greg 15th, Derek 2nd

Scored highly by Derek and propped up by myself and Greg, The Ending breaks into the top 5 tracks we have done. To be honest the verse and choruses of the Ending are fairly standard arrangements

I remember getting the idea for the lyrics when I visited Edinburgh museum; looking down from the high balcony to the floor below I thought of the lyrics. ’ I’m tempted by the rush of the ground as the season flow I will never now how many people I’d have hurt.’ Strange times…

It’s the ending of the song that has always been a pleasure to play. The chord change after the build. E C A, then it drops to G. When we first played it I had one of those moments where I’d look around the room and see everyone grinning (the last time was when we wrote the end of Medicine for the new album).

So the Ending has one of our best endings!

4. Easy Way. One More Solo. 2004 Greg’s favourite track.

Pabs 4th, Stu NE, Greg 1st Derek NE

‘I love (the) Easy Way as it’s a great energetic, heavy song which drives all the way through. Great fun to play.’ Greg

Another top 5 track from One More Solo; loved by myself and even more so by Greg. Easy Way is a thunderous track with two versions. The album take above and the re-recorded single here. One of the best lines I have written is ‘I can see my future, I see it everyday!’ A lot of One More Solo speaks of being stuck in a rut.

We were approached by a small record company called Bracken records, this was to be the first record company interested in our material. We were asked to think about re-recording the song. So we duly tried to recapture the original One More Solo performance but it didn’t quite hit the raw aggression of the original. We didn’t hear from Bracken records again (not sure if they are still on the go); eventually an ‘unsigned’ band learned to live with the knockbacks as there are always high points around the corner; perhaps this is one of the reasons we have lasted 20 years.

The original is a powerful take; the sound isn’t the greatest but underneath the murky frequencies there is a frantic few minutes of rock. I really go for it on the vocals at the last chorus: ‘I tried ! I tried the easy way!’

A remaster has been attempted on One More Solo, but it had varying results on the album. Some of the songs turned out well. Easy Way was certainly one of those moment where we were all glad the band had got back together.

3 Culture Creature. Firkin Outburst 1998

Pabs 3rd Stu 13th Greg N/E Derek 6th

SCAN0015 — recording acoustic at split level

The first open string picked chords on the slightly out of tune acoustic, followed by Stu gently picking a couple of muted notes before Derek and Greg ease their way into the intro. Culture Creature is based on the darker side of the drug culture that hovered around our community. It’s surprising that one of our darkest songs has made its way to the dizzy heights of 3. (given that Stu, Greg and Derek are constantly telling me to cheer the f*** up!)

‘We wanted jobs, we wanted to escape, but we ended up like cars with no brakes’

We were all leaving school, some with hopes, aspirations and career plans others with an uncertain future. Culture Creature was strange phrase I used to try and describe people who were drawn into the late 90’s booze. music and drug scene. This transition from childhood to adulthood is such a difficult time for young people, as it was for us, not everyone made it. One of the perversions of life

It ends with the line

‘I’m the one blame, do I see my reflection?’

I’m sure I’m finally blaming myself for not trying harder during my education when I finally realise how important it was as I walked out the school gates for the last time. I almost felt like turning around and promising the teachers that I’d given a hard time I’d try harder! ( I wasn’t that bad to be honest)

Culture Creature was recorded during the 2nd session of songs at Split Level. As previously mentioned; Neil wasn’t quite on the ball this time, the sound is slightly thin. I can remember everyone being drained during the recording of this song. The vocals took a few takes; we played it over a few times and the song’s mood brought everyone down!

I left the vocal booth to see John Baines, our guest at the recording, looking totally despondent on the couch!

Despite the slightly wayward sound and the subject material Culture Creature has stood the test of time. It’s a haunting piece, beautifully played by Stu. It’s a reminder of what could’ve been.

2. Wonder. Weird Decibels 1. 2012 watch the video

Pabs 11th, Stu 4th, Greg 6th Derek N/E

At the end of writing Weird Decibels 1 we were fairly confident we had a strong set of songs for our album. Stu was playing around with the guitar as we prepared to rehearse. He played this really cool looping riff. I asked him to keep playing it; I simply held a E and the rest of the band joined in.

We kept playing the song and I started every line with ‘I wonder’ as I tried to find a melody. The line stuck and I fleshed out the lyrics. When we finished the basic track, Jemma Burt stepped in with the violin, it was a really nice touch that added to the mood of the song.

‘The bridge on which we stand has crumbled and untied, we can either run to our sides or repair it over time’.

I guess I’m thinking of relationships with friends and family, as we all get busier and more distracted by life we must try harder to stay in touch. This seems a bizarre thing to write in the age of social media and instant communication. In many ways this technology makes this worse.

Wonder is now one of our best known tracks with thousands of views on Youtube. The video was shot around our old haunts of Falkirk: Pennies, the doorway of the old Clydesdale bank (where we used to sit after the night out had come to an end) and Firkins a pub that used to be a meeting place for all the fans of alternative music.

The scrolling landscapes (influenced by the start of the film Lost in Translation) and drive by shots capture the mood of the song; a wintery grayscale hue over the places where we spent our youth. It’s a video full of memories; and famous sights of Falkirk which seemed to strike a chord with fellow Bairns.

Wonder found its way on many of our sets after the launch of Weird Decibels 1; it remains a favourite of our regular listeners. Its funny how at the end of writing sessions these songs can come along…

with 51 points out of a possible 80 its…

1.Speak

Dave and Su — Dave and Stu. Not sure if they are playing chess and its Stu’s move…

the video. the song.

Weird Decibels 1. 2012

Pabs 13th, Stu 8th, Greg 7th, Derek 5th

Track 2 from our last album Weird Decibels 1 gathers the most points from our voting and is crowned our top track.

Speak to meee! Picture by Eindp Scotland

Written around late 2008 and early 2009 Speak has significant meaning. The riff, picked around a G bar chord, was around for a while and the song had been building into an upbeat rock number. It starts with the toms pounding through the intro, the riff, then the whole band launches a sonic assault. It was one of the first songs we had written for the then untitled Weird Decibels 1.

Songwriting came to be in my late teens, I grew up surrounded my the music that my father played and would always hear my mother singing away whilst making some delicious pancakes. Lyrics were my way of communicating. I’ve written many many songs, a lot bad, some ok and a few that I am proud of. Speak falls into the latter.

The sudden passing of our much loved friend Dave Broon brought my thoughts into sharp perspective. I no longer wanted to write about beery nights in Falkirk; now I wanted to make sense of my world and the lives that we lead.

The lyrics.

I was told you work, In mysterious ways I learned you were liberal, with your selection

I’ve been gifted a life, with wonderful people Why must you start, to take them from me?

So speak to me

Let me hear what you say

Speak to me

You built this world, in all it’s glory You gave us greed, to strip it all away

But I hope you’re there, taking care Offering refuge, for our weary souls

So speak to me Let me hear what you say

Speak to me let me hear what you say!

Speak was always going to be a single and like Wonder before it a video was released, set in our practise room that we’ve used for the past 20 years it’s a mix of live action and stop animation. It was a well received video.

This song has started many setlists; it is a very hard track to leave out, its fast pace and aggression help liven up our sets.

Like the majority of Weird Decibels 1 Speak was recorded at the 4th lodge we hired in Ettrickbridge. The drums were recorded in the practise room prior to us doing the guitars at the lodge. Speak was one of the few songs to feature doubled up vocals to enhance the chorus and it is something we use a lot more now.

Speak may not be the favorite track of anyone from the band, we all rated around the upper middle of our top 20, but the difference this time is that we all voted for it and has ended up as our number 1 song.

It’s not a complicated number by any means. It’s just balls out rock, a bit like AC/DC, which happened to be Dave’s favorite band. I wonder if the big man would agree with our top track!

Wilson is not happy high heels did not make number 1

Some facts about the top 50

The Top Ten had 2 tracks from Weird Decibels 1 the top two tracks! Whapper Stormer had 4 in the bottom 5, One More Solo had 3 and Firkin Outburst had 1 top ten track.

In the whole of the top 50 the breakdown from each album was

Whapper Stormer 9 out of 10 (possible) tracks

Weird Decibels 1 9 out of 12 tracks

One More Solo 8 out of 11 tracks

Riot Act 8 out of 12 tracks

Cold Home Street 8 of 13 tracks

Firkin Out Burst 5 out of 9 tracks

and Quiet Act 3 out of 11 tracks

I asked each band member to list their top 20 tracks the points were 20pts for 1st then 19 for 2nd and so on. This was all added up then compiled into a top 50.

Well if you have read this far then I must thank you! I hope you enjoyed this article.

Do you agree with the top 50 then? leave a comment or two below

Tags acoustic, albums, alternative, bandcamp, firkin outburst, recording, Rock, top ten, weird decibels 20 years, whapper stormer

Weird Decibels 20 years

50 weird decibels songs as chosen by the band. part 4, 20-11

Post author By creepingash
Post date October 31, 2015
3 Comments on 50 weird decibels songs as chosen by the band. part 4, 20-11

Weird Decibels live at the Cavern

Sitting down? drink in hand? Headphones on..head? Its the first half of our top 20!

20 Downer. Whapper Stormer 1995

Probably our best moody teenager photo, except Stu is not a teenager

Moody teenagers write heavy song; result? Downer. This guitar laden beast stalks near the end of Whapper Stromer waiting for the ear shattering guitar ring; it makes you flinch.

Lyrically it’s not as charismatic as the rest of Whapper, if I remember correctly Stu wrote the riff to this before any vocal melody was in place. As a band we are firm friends but musically we’ve always been a strange combination. Downer is a good point at which to explain.

In 1995 Greg and I were into similar music; although Greg would wander off into the darker reaches of grunge and rock. Later he’d fling in some trance and industrial. We both liked the seattle scene (Nirvana etc.) but I would find myself going to lighter more acoustic music before eventually getting into alternative.

Derek had a lot in common with Greg and I but he liked to lean towards classic acts such as the Beatles and more so Bowie. Of us all it’s fair to say Derek never liked ‘shouty’ metal acts.

Back in the 90’s the three Larbert High students had similar tastes to enthuse upon our new guitarist, the mysterious, unknown Stewart McCairney. As we rolled up outside of our new recruit’s house, the door opened.

As the dry ice cleared, the pyros flared, out stepped the dude, I could tell straight away this guy wasn’t into grunge and certainly wasn’t into Britpop! His hand shot into the air and devil horns were held aloft. This guy wanted to rock.

In the early days I believed we wouldn’t work; but we did. Stu, despite his desire to write heavy music, happily played beautiful melodies over the quieter songs. Eventually he grabbed his chance with Downer and we wrote one of our heaviest songs to date.

As I snarl ‘naughty Mary’ through a distorted mic; I knew we were heading for a big build. I nearly made it! I guess my voice isn’t suited to the heavier echelons of music but I gave it a good shot!

John Baines joined the rest of the band as we crowded around a mic and roared the final lines of the song which we recorded in Dreks flat. A magical time.

19 Dirty Stream. Firkin Outburst 1998

A typical practise room carry out on a Wednesday night...The Firkin sessions suffered as a result — A typical practise room carry out on a Wednesday night…The Firkin sessions suffered as a result

Like I say we can flit from heavy to light in a heartbeat; this could be the reason why we have never found a massive audience. I guess listeners like consistency. Who knows. Anyway, i’ve always admired our ability to write a wide variety of tunes; it doesn’t always work but we give it a try.

Dirty Stream is another survivor from the drunken Firkin Outburst sessions. It’s a romantic song about who will be first in a relationship to take the plunge and fall in love. Lines like ‘stones thrown, at a glass ceiling, which one of us gets cut the most’ and ‘ A walk across a frozen lake, just don’t run if you panic’ perhaps point to my thoughts on taking risks and thinking about the worst case scenario.

I really like this song; the chorus ‘we’re gonna have to quench our thirst, by drinking water from a dirty stream’ makes this composition a lyrical highlight of my 20 or so years of writing (in my opinion of course!).

18 Joker. Weird Decibels 1. 2012 Watch the video here.

The thing I love about Weird Decibels 1 was our desire to move away from ‘power chords’ that had served us so well then arguably,eventually hindered us. Joker is centred around the guitar riff at the start. Greg stamps on his distorted bass before Stu and Derek break the door down with the rhythm.

The verses avoid chords as well; based around the D chord the riff is a little picked melody that has all the hallmarks of Nirvana.

The lyrics were written at the time of the summer riots in 2011. It felt like the whole country was going to explode. I guess this was our way of writing a protest at our corrupt politicians. ‘what are you hiding from me, I’m the electorate when can i see?’ and ‘money burns floating down, to lie against a riot shield, once held by a broken policeman, fed up defending politician’.

I found the riots disturbing; the wanton violence against innocent peoples property and small businesses give these disturbances a more sinister feel. Was this a reflection of the anger young people felt against their government?

I’ve never embraced politics in our music. I’ve never really embraced political bands. I prefer to hear peoples stories from their lives, but as you get older you begin to understand that politics do affect our day to day lives and therefore become part of your music.

Joker is a band and listener favourite; it was my attempt at making sense of it all.

17 Sound of the Night. Riot Act 2007

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

From British politics to something closer to home, we were are back in the Falkirk night life for the Sound of the Night. I expected Derek to score this highly but it turns out Greg expressed his love for this slow burner.

It starts with a dreamy guitar sequence that we got all wrong when we recorded it. I had to spend days at the mixing desk trying to sort it out,

Sound of the Night is one of those tracks that sounds great live but didn’t translate as strongly on record. I talk of my desire to escape the noise of urban life and my frustrations with modern living.

Not the most in depth story but a nice tune nonetheless.

16. Deliverance. Weird Decibels 1. 2012

There is always someone working away on the sound! Setting up bass for Deliverance and others

Probably one of the most fun songs to play. Simple chords, simple arrangement and I get a rest from most of the vocals. Stu and Derek stepped up to sing the verses; this allows me to jump around at gigs whilst battering hell out of my old guitar.

Deliverance makes an appearance near the end of Weird Decibels 1 it questions religion ‘send it to the mountain, send it to the sky, you’re refused deliverance, don’t ask god why’. It’s pretty much a straight forward howl to the skies and an absolute riot to play at gigs
15. Underachiever. Riot Act. 2007

Around the mid 00’s I was taking stock of a lot of things both at a musical level and with my job. (I still do). Underachiever is my envy getting the better of me. You reach an age where people start to overtake you in life and you eventually tie yourself up in knots and

forget the most important things you have. Family and friends.

This tune split the band down the middle; Greg and Stu scored it quite high; Derek and I excluded it from our list.

I think it’s dated, it shows my self pitying mood at the time. That’s the problem when you write songs, sometimes they remind you that your head was in the wrong place.

I remember playing this at the Cavern in Liverpool. It was the only song that made the manager leave his office to come and see us. He doubled the size of the crowd!

14. Just For Today. Whapper Stormer. 1995 (Pabs top track)

We recorded the missing songs from Whapper on this small 8 track

At 14 we have the first song voted as a favourite. Just For Today. I love it.

It bursts in with Stu, Greg and Derek playing the rolling riff straight into the first verse. I used to start by whistling the melody but it was dropped as every time I attempted to whistle the intro we’d start laughing. I could never do it!

It’s one of those ‘calm in the storm’ moments. Surrounded by the desperate drug woes of Chameleon (the only Whapper track not to make this list) and the edgy trippy paranoia of Now I Can See His Eye. Just For Today is a dreamy description of a day where everything seems right. It is an unusually upbeat song from me; I was probably under the influence of something ‘I saw the clouds in the dark and I began to stare’.

I remember the night wrote I this; I was heading home from a party looking up at the night sky. The moon lit up the clouds as I tried to keep myself warm for the walk home. Back then we walked home from parties, nights out, gigs and the pub. It was often at these times we would have our best laughs.

The vocals change at the end; Stu doesn’t use distortion on this track, instead we have a jam at the end of the song. That’s what I love about this; it feels live and spontaneous. You can hear the drums and bass changing their dynamics to suit the upbeat mood.

One of the best things about recording at Dereks was our friends popping in for a visit. Rooz says hello and asks for a beer

It’s not something we do a lot these days. When you are solely a vocalist you tend to be a bit more imaginative with your voice. Since I have played guitars and sang I haven’t used this freestyle as much.

The line ‘I didn’t care what my appearance was like, maybe I looked a mess’ summed up my feelings back then. With badly fitting clothes and long unruly hair I missed the point at which grunge had left and ‘Britpop’ had arrived.

I’m also offering help to someone; I can’t remember who but the one thing I do recall is that during those Firkin and Pennies days we all looked out for each other.

At just under 4 minutes Just For Today is an example some of our best work; it is the soundtrack to the end of the night, when our young drunk souls would go home and hope that when we stumble into our houses we wouldn’t wake up the parents!
13. Psalm. Weird Decibels 1 2012.

For a great sounding record we must be prepared. You would't want to be in remote Scotland with a broken instrument... — For a great sounding record we must be prepared. You would’t want to be in remote Scotland with a broken instrument…

Only Stu and I voted for this and we scored it fairly high for a reason. The arching solos that almost burst out of the speakers.

The track listing of Weird Decibels 1 has divided us. In these modern times of short attention spans, instant music and streaming, people don’t tend to listen to albums. The general rule is put your best track first.

I wanted WdB1 to be an album and I could think of no other epic opening than Psalm. It is Weird Decibels in one package. Heavy guitars, melody, a thread of acoustic rhythm , imaginative drums, growling bass and soaring solos. Sure there are better songs on WdB1 but none are as ambitious as this.

Greg drops tuning for this and we play it in E, unfortunately the down tuned bass is one reason we never play it live. It’s a heavy laden guitar wall of noise, and there is an angry vocal spitting distaste for the class system. ‘Some will be lucky, for others will pave, the path for their children.’

My son had just been born when I wrote this; all your thoughts change. From the delight of life to the unfairness of it. Psalm reflects this in some ways.

Psalm works its way to one of our best endings. frequent collaborator Jemma Burt comes in with some beautiful keys that help change the tone of the song. I sing ‘I lost my way.I lost my way when you asked me to pray’. as Stu starts to build his epic three part solo. I rank up the vox and together as vocalist and lead guitars we meet up at the height of the crescendo before the songs settled into its subtle conclusion.

The old guitar you hear at the intro and end was lying around in Kirsty’s mums place; we were staying there as we waited for our new house to be built. The intro of Metallica’s Battery was a heavy influence here.

Psalm was the opening track to our first album in 4 years; the 6 minute statement of intent. Weird Decibels were back after the barren years of the acts.

12. Sky is Falling. Riot Act 2007 (Derek’s top track)

Night has fallen; Greg reflects. Stu takes pictures

Barren years of the acts? I can picture Derek shaking his head as he reads this. After One More Solo we were into an uneasy spell of cover songs; I would often voice my distaste for learning them. We played fewer gigs (although to be fair they were enjoyable) and when we did play live we didn’t play much of our own stuff. We didn’t really embrace the internet like we do today and we rarely stepped out of Falkirk. However there were highlights.

Track 3 on Riot Act Sky Is Falling is another tale of a night out in Falkirk. It opens with ‘Let’s face it she’s not very pretty and she doesn’t look good on the dance floor, I come home from this paranoid city, turn on the news watch religion at war’. The moody apocalyptic theme of the Sky Is Falling is one of the high points. We haven’t played this live for years.

It reflects the unrest around the planet during those times; there is a bit of comedy in the chorus ‘jesus is coming, look busy, your god is calling’. Im sure I got that lyric from one of those mugs that says ‘look busy the boss is coming’.

There is a helpless resignation in the lyrics that contradict the uplifting music; It’s has a really nice ending.

11. Educational Suicide. Whapper Stromer 1995

Sometimes Stu took a while to nail his incredible solos

Just missing out on out on our top ten is the first ever song we wrote; it’s not surprising it still has a place in our hearts.

Greg and I wrote this before the band was even formed. Stu and Derek finished the embryonic creation. Strongly influenced by Nirvana, the classic verse chorus verse arrangement is very prevalent here.

I wrote the lyrics in the middle of an IT class at school which goes some way to explain my lack of academic success. Educational Suicide is a wordy shout at the ‘system’ and class.

Smells Like Teen Spirit has a brilliant call to the dance floor; when you hear Cobain hitting those chords you know you need to get up there. I wanted something similar for our song. So when you press play on the Whapper Stormer disc you are immediately met with Stu’s ringing guitar.

Its simple structure allowed us to write the song in our first practice. It settled the nerves and meant that or the majority of the next 20 years we would be playing music together. Educational Suicide is the most important song we have ever written, but not the best. That’s coming…

Friends corner. The photographers.

Kevin Byrne has photographed the band for years. For that we are most grateful.

Many people have taken photographs of the band over the years. Kevin Byrne has been napping portraits for many years. A good friend of the band he has taken many of sleeve artwork photosgraphs, including his work in Riot Act and One More Solo. He also took the recent press portrait that was used in the Falkirk Herald. A very talented and knowledgeable photographer. See his work here

Neil took many pics over the earlier years

Neil Henderson took photographs during the early years, we met Neil, like many of our friends, at Firkins. He took the Martell shot that is used in Coldhome Street and the live portraits that are used in Weird Decibels 1. Neil went on to photograph many acts throughout the country including Attica Rage.

Lets not forget regular gig snappers Juls and Phil who have taken numerous pictures that have given us many great memories and more recently Eindp Scotland, his pictures of us ended up printed in the Stirling Observer.

Tags acoustic, albums, alternative, bandcamp, bristol, cavern, Falkirk, falkirk. music, gigs, weird decibels 20 years

Weird Decibels 20 years

50 weird decibels songs as chosen by the band. Part 3 30-21

Post author By creepingash
Post date October 24, 2015
2 Comments on 50 weird decibels songs as chosen by the band. Part 3 30-21

Looking for inspiration. You won't find it there...

Welcome back dear reader! I hope you are so hyped that you tossed and turned as you failed to sleep; wondering what is the best Weird Decibels song voted by the band. Today we ease your suspense…as we countdown 30 to 21… Not long now!

30 Long Way Down. Firkin Outburst 1998

Guy jumps off a cliff, suddenly wings grow from his back and he flies back to safety. This image would resurface as the cover of my solo album Fortune Favours The Brave. It was always a strange idea I had of people coming back from the brink; it’s more a song of hope than anything.

Long Way Down was recorded years after it was written; it was one of many songs we had written in 1997-98 for our second set of songs that we had to relearn and record. We laid the tracks in Derek’s flat during one of our many recording weekends. Most of the acoustics guitars would be laid at my old Steak Pie Studio. This tracks was put onto the Tascam 2488 at the time our best portable studio yet. Our sound was definitely starting to improve at this point.

29 High Heels. One More Solo 2004

The most requested and most played song at our live shows. It is also our favourite title. Waiting on The Sound Of Your High Heels (Baby). A balls out stab at some AC/DC; it’s about getting ready to go on a night out with your lady. Simple as that. It has become a celebratory song that gives us joy to play.

From the simple rock arrangement, to the straightforward lyrics then to the guitar harmony High Heels has stuck with us as many songs have been forgotten.

It’s the opener from One More Solo, the first song people heard when we reformed in 2004 and it set the tone for the album that we still admire today. The sound may not be perfect, a little bass heavy perhaps, but like most of OMS the feeling was there. A band happy to be together again.

So why so low in the list? Maybe we all thought each other would vote for it?

28 Industry. Weird Decibels 1 2012

The finale of Weird Decibels nearly failed to make the album. It was one of the last songs we wrote for WdB1 and had not been rehearsed as much as the others.

We enjoyed the song, it was a little different to our normal numbers so we were keen to get it on the album. Problems arose when we came from the chorus back into the bridge; the timing wasn’t quite right on the recording so I programmed some beats to knit the song together.

It’s a rather disturbing song with bold images. ‘you get inside my head, you dig it with a spoon’,’lay it on the bed and rummage through’. Industry is inspired by Alice in Chains; it’s dark brooding mood builds towards a mainc grunge like solo before the end explodes into a wall of guitars (which were intentionally mixed too high).

The often used reverse fx on the guitar was used at the end; it fits the eerie feel of the song. Industry is rarely played live; although it does make the odd set from time to time. I’ll never forget the time a student from England asked to use the song for the soundtrack to her presentation. The images were disturbing…

27 Home Sweet Home. Riot Act 2007

If you listen to the Foo Fighters ‘All My Life’ you will hear where we got the idea for Home Sweet Home; the opening track to Riot Act. I often feel that One by One was some of the Foos weaker output and sometimes I feel this influence creeped onto Riot Act. We didn’t quite nail this album.

Home Sweet Home is another tale of drunken nights out in Falkirk; largely uninspiring lyrics that float upon a nice piece of music from us. The lyrics do hint at getting tired of the rain soaked Saturday nights in Falkirk ‘Punch drunk, given up, rainfall on leather jacket’.. I talk of aggression; ‘cigarette hung from mouth, you’ve a question will you ask it’; but both the acts (Riot and Quiet) suffer from a narrow narrative, however at the time they were fun albums to record and play.

26. Forward. Weird Decibels 1 2012

Forward opens the second side of WdB1 with a long intro that builds nicely into the first verse. I always liked the riff for this song; very Therapy?. It was one of the first songs written for the WdB1 sessions and can be heard on Live Tonight Not Completely Sold Out (unreleased album from 2010). It is also one of the rare songs where I play a solo which helps build towards the end of the song.

The lyrics of forward take second place to the music but the song is about being left behind in life and the feelings of being lost.

Forward is still a favourite of ours to play live (especially me) as it has a good range of dynamics.

25 Breathing Space Quiet. Act 2008

One of the strongest songs on Quiet Act, Breathing Space is one of those songs that would be interesting to hear in our normal distorted guise. I like the lyrics in this song, like Forward, (both songs were written around the same time) Breathing Space again talks of feeling left behind ‘And i’m trying, i’m trying to keep up’.

breathing space...derek chills out — breathing space…derek chills out

The lyrics also speak of a need to get away from the busy central belt and into the remoteness of our wonderful country. This thought was probably influenced by the lodges we were using to record. They were such peaceful and tranquil places. The lodges idea came from my mother who hired a lodge for her birthday. It was in Mallaig; one still day we drove to Arisaig. I switched off the engine and walked towards the shore. Once the clicking of the cooling engine faded all I could hear was ringing in my ears as the vast landscape in front of me was silent. Breathing space.

24. Weekend All Over My Face. Riot Act 2007

This aggressive song bursts into the middle of Riot Act. Another tale of drinking and potential violence in Falkirk. I know exactly the pub I was thinking of when I wrote this. We played a number of gigs there when we were heavily into playing cover songs.

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

Although the lyrics have dated they are entertaining ‘You, you want a fight, well I say alright, cos you wear a bad tracksuit’.

Stu took his small Peavey practise amp up to the recording session (i can’t remember why) and I thought i’d be a good idea to use it for the little riff we use before we go into the last chorus. It worked a treat. Weekend was one of the best sounding songs on Riot Act, it’s tight and it flows well.

23. Show Your Face Soon. Whapper Stromer 1995

At 23, only the second lift from Whapper Stormer, is Show Your Face Soon. It is a lively teenage dream of finding the perfect girl; knowing that she’s out there somewhere (eventually I married her!).

wedb 20 yrs 7 — I sang Show Your face at the martell hoping a lady would answer my call eventually she did…

Stu penned a beautiful rolling guitar riff over my melody; it was such a productive way of writing when we formed the band, Sometimes I wish we could write like that again but all my melody now starts from the guitar.

The use of wah was well measured in this track; it suits the mood of the songs well. Greg and Derek have funky rhythm that adds to the optimism of this track. We used to write up to 5 verses; intertwined with chorus and vocal melodies. I have a particular fondness for this song. I remember when our good friend Rooz DJ’d at Dancing In The Dark. Show Your Face came on over the PA; it was delightful because if any Weird song was to be played it’d be The Rain or Vancouver. A delightful band effort.

22 Riot Act. Riot Act 2007

a beautiful moment from the riot act sessions

A simple balls out rock number Riot Act is us simply having fun. It’s actually not a bad wee riff but the drums suffer from the room in which they were recorded. Riot Act was recorded in the first lodge we hired to make albums. We placed the drums in a small room with a low ceiling; basically doing everything you shouldn’t.

Derek really thumps the skins in this song so you can hear the dead sound of the room. That aside this was one of the laziest songs I had written. ‘You never tell me where you’re going, you leave me hanging at every junction’, basically me moaning about people forgetting to signal at roundabouts. Clearly I had writer’s block at this time….

21 Power. Weird Decibels 2012

Writers block is horrible but the one thing you learn about writing songs over a number of years is that it passes. Lyrics are a great way to communicate and when you lose the ability to do that it’s frustrating.

I found some form when writing Weird Decibels 1; Power was one of the songs I enjoyed penning. It was written at a time when I was trying to sell our family home; however our house was deemed worthless as the surveyor had found Knotweed in the field of the landowner adjacent to us.

At that point I felt helpless to move my family all due to a landowner allowing this destructive weed grow in his land.

It’s a quieter song than most of the tracks on WdB1 however its angry; especially the last chorus. Our friend Jemma helped out with violins; it was exciting to hear new instruments on our records.

Friends Corner

Our recordings would not be complete without a friend popping in to say hello and offer support. DJ says hello!

Say hello to DJ! Sitting in at recordings at Dereks flat

We approach the top 20 of the bands favourite tracks; already gone is High Heels what popular tracks will stumble as we make our way to the top ten? Next up 20-11

Tags acoustic, albums, alternative, bandcamp, CD, discover, Falkirk, falkirk. music, retro rock, Rock, weird decibels 20 years

Weird Decibels 20 years

50 Weird Decibels songs as chosen by the band. Part 2 40-31

Post author By creepingash
Post date October 16, 2015
1 Comment on 50 Weird Decibels songs as chosen by the band. Part 2 40-31

In the run up to the launch of Weird Decibels 2.0 we look at part 2 of our countdown to the bands favourite song…

Here comes the acoustic album. We have done one acoustic album to date.

40 Grand day out, Quiet Act 2008

The first pick from our acoustic album Quiet Act, Grand Day Out describes a day out in Edinburgh drinking with close friends. Indeed much of this album’s lyrics were about drinking; 6 albums in it was becoming clear that my song writing was getting lazy.

Grand Day Out is a warm upbeat song that builds to the sing along finale. At the time I was pleased with the sound. We were learning more about recording and thinking more about where the drums should be recorded; this album has an airy feel, more open thanks to the acoustic guitars and more subtle drums. Much like the album, Grand Day Out doesn’t change our musical landscape but it is good fun. It was recorded at a beautiful lodge in Gairloch near Baddachro. We had a grand day out at the Baddachro Inn. Pure heaven.

39 Woman In My Dreams Quiet Act 2008

It was a laid back approach to a laid back album

Another take from Quiet Act; this time a pretty obvious love letter! At its heart it is a simple two chord song summed up in the title. I really liked the way we recorded this song, it felt like we were making progress. Stu plays an effective guitar pick over the rhythm, we doubled his part and you can hear the slight differences in his takes panned left and right. It gives the track a kind of ‘sparkle’ which suits the lyrics well. The track ambles along nicely with Greg’s acoustic bass and Derek’s gentle drums giving it flow. Certainly one of our best sounding songs

Like Grand Day Out before it and most of Quiet Act, Woman in my Dreams is simple in its nature although I do feel the lyrics were stronger in this track than most of the album. Not everyone who listens to the band liked this direction… it would not be long before we switched the distortion back on.

38 Fighting With Forever One More Solo 2004

Fighting with Forever sessions recorded at Dereks flat no beer in this shot?

Distorted guitars? Check. Screaming vocals? Check. Clearly this wasn’t from Quiet Act; One More Solo’s final third kicks off with this belter. It bursts in with a solid rhythm before we stop for some toms and guitar build before the song launches into an exasperated look at the formula of adult life, the lack of sleep and fear of getting left behind. ‘Night and day, it just seems the same to me’.

Fighting rolls along before the satisfying screams at the end; my voice barely held out for those as you can hear it burn out towards the end, hence the big FX.

We still play Fighting With Forever at practise but it hasn’t made our set lists for years.

37 Crazy Head Coldhome Street 2000

Crazy head was originally on my solo album ‘A Twist and a Turn’; it had found its way onto this album as have one or two tracks over the years. The rattle at the start of the track is my broken acoustic guitar! We did mention the budget for this album, didn’t we?

This is a bitter tale of broken romance and blaming someone’s past for their actions. It is not a song we have played for years and it is very much of its time.

36 All Good Things Firkin Outburst 1998

That old bridge is now the blue bridge on the Camelon bypass

From Firkin Ourburst one of the songs that survived the alcohol laden writing sessions that had an impact on our second album. We were flying high after Whapper Stormer, our first gigs had been a success, we had recorded our first demos and our friendships were growing. There was a Haddows off license across the road from the practise room. We frequented this place every week.

Often we would head home so drunk we wouldn’t be able to remember the songs we had written; All Good Things was one of the 9 that made the album (we recorded 10, Today Was Insane did not make the record).

This track was recorded on our 8 track years after we had written it, again at Derek’s flat during our mad recording weekends.

It has the acoustic/ heavy mix sound that we adopted after Whapper when I was playing more guitar but had yet to purchase an electric.

Lyrically simple there is no complexity to the song, it’s a good riff and has a slightly different feel to our usual tracks.

35 Summerhigh Firkin Outburst 1998

‘Summerhigh, a good day to die’ a lyric straight from Star Trek and the Klingons! This upbeat tune was one of three recorded at our second visit to Random Rhythms, a great wee studio hidden in the outskirts of Edinburgh near the airport. The first sessions, for Whapper, were excellent however this time the recordings did not reach the previous heights. The sound engineer seemed to have lost interest this time around.

Summerhigh sounds slightly thin but the performance was good that day, particularly from Derek who really enjoyed recording in that studio. I sing of getting older (despite being in my early 20’s…) and starting to realise that I had to take some responsibilities; however there was still time for days in the sun.

There is a good live version on our first bootleg, Central FM were very supportive of the local scene during the late 90’s, they had recorded the gig which was part of an all day festival. This Martell performance reflects much of the swagger we had then.

34 Love Hate Thing Riot Act 2007

there is something amazing about rocking out in the remote parts of our land

Sometimes you get a little fed up of the town in which you live; then you go for a stroll look over the forth valley and think, it’s not so bad. Love Hate Thing describes those feelings when out at night. Much of Riot Act is based around nights out in Falkirk (or the aftermath)

Nestled near the end of the album Love Hate Thing starts to wind things down with its moderate pace; at nearly five minutes long it includes a build and a solo. Riot Act is a mixture of fast 2 minute rock and this more measured number.

‘Streets with no name, streets with no shame’ Its not a song we visit much any more. It’s perhaps overly long but not a bad number.
33 Beauty Queen Coldhome Street 2000

This was us doing the 'live' guitars. Made it up as we went along well i did... — This was us doing the ‘live’ guitars. Made it up as we went along well i did…

Given the throwaway nature of Coldhome street it would be surprising if there was not a live jam on the album. That’s what Beauty Queen, the last track on Coldhome, was. The track was recorded in a small studio just outside the centre of Stirling. I believe we recorded the drums prior to Greg, Stu and I jamming the guitars in the studio. Much of the solo work and possibly the vocals are improvised.

We mixed it on the same day, the engineer seemed to struggle a little and asked if we would mix the track. It’s quite a poor mix; the drums lack the impact needed for a live jam but it is a fun song with some daft lyrics. ‘oh my beauty Queen she loves technology, My beauty queen wants part in a home made movie!’

We all have a soft spot for Beauty Queen; perhaps because it was the song that was never finished. To my knowledge Beauty Queen has never been played live

32 Stand For Your Rights One More Solo 2004

Another album ender comes in at 32. A long slow burner of a rock track Stand For Your Rights is the first song we wrote when Stu re-joined the band after his brief hiatus. Big choruses , dueling solos and a big ending this was our first hint at writing about politics. I’ve always liked the line ‘if you stand for your rights you’ll die young but you’ll die healthy’ it’s a bittersweet statement.

Recorded onto the 8 track along with the rest of One More Solo it was fairly straightforward to record despite the number of different sections of the song. While we were laying tracks at Derek’s flat there was a biblical rainfall shower outside. I grabbed a mic, careful not to get it wet I recorded to the sound of the rain. It was so heavy it ended up sounding like static. My shitty Renault 19 was flooded where it was parked, pity it didn’t float away. I added a little bit of keyboard to give One More Solo the closure it deserved.

31 Crown. Weird Decibels 1

we always look for a recording location with a good pub. Ettrickbridge had the wonderful Cross Keys Inn

At number 31 the first track from Weird Decibels 1, a high point in our history, the album was a return to more meaningful lyrics and carefully considered arrangements (well most of it!). Crown is one of the many ‘character’ songs. I was fed up writing about getting drunk at weekends, to be honest I had little to write about so i made up characters. Recorded in Ettrick Bridge (nice pub here as well) we were on a working farm in the middle of the borders. Stunning.

Crown was the murderer, the guy who snapped. He had committed a horrific crime but still attended his mundane office work as normal. ‘Perfect smile it makes me sick, he shakes my bleached hand, i wonder what makes him tick’. I enjoyed writing about the meeting between the murderer and his perfectly groomed boss.

Crown also asks what happens in our town and cities that we don’t know about as people go about their own business.The vocals during the crescendo are ‘borrowed from a certain Mr Vedder and the song Jeremy. A similar story!

This concludes part 2. nearing the mid table now. next part has a rather big surprise for regular WdB gig goers…