Tag: Weird Decibels

the making of weird decibels 2

The Final Touches to Weird Decibels 2

Post author By creepingash
Post date March 19, 2016
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How we made Weird Decibels 2

Deluxe download at bandcamp

In the home studio

Lewis loves the studio and he is at home there

As the Springfield bags were unpacked and I sat in the home studio I had an optimism about the forthcoming mix sessions. We seemed better prepared; all the tracking seemed to have gone well. There was still a lot of recording work to do but I’d be able to edit the drums and bass.

I looked at the small screen of the Korg D3200. It’s a horrible tiny basic green lcd display that is your eyes for the whole project; a bit like a Nintendo Gameboy. A flicker of envy passed through me as I yearned for the bigger monitors of a typical DAW setup. Maybe I should go on Tipping Point and win some cash.

Editing is horrible on the Korg so discipline is needed at the tracking stage to make sure you are not wading through silence trying to reach the recordings. The drums generally edited well and sounded pretty good. The bass had a few problems with tone so some EQ cutting was required. It turned out to be quite drastic and reminds me that I need to sharpen up on my micing techniques.

My concerns about Stu’s distorted guitars were justified. There was a good tone in there but it was laden with low mid eq. This was the biggest mistake I made, I wrestled with this frequency and tried to shoehorn it into the full sound. There was a creeping dread that I’d have to ask Stu do redo the entire distorted guitars.

Mastering?

Mastering is a topic in itself. To say Weird Decibels 2 is mastered would be stretching the term. It does have light compression, some subtle stereo track EQ changes and some limiting but it was also done by the same guy that mixed and recorded it, (me). I can understand why people say that you do get too close to the sound.

When Derek texted to say that he felt the album sounded poor on his headphones I had a small fit. I knew he was right but wished it had been spotted sooner. The summer months had been a rain filled wash out but I had still spent them in a small room hearing the same songs many times over.

My mood dipped, I didn’t notice it at the time, others did but I did not see a problem. I soldiered on with the record trying to find out what was causing the album to sound muddy.

When I cut into Stu’s guitars it did the trick; his tone was still there but the rest of the album had opened up. Of course it knocked the mix out so that had to be done again. Then it had to be re-mastered all while I heard my son and my wife downstairs playing and possibly wondering when I’d join them.

Snappy singer. pic Gary

Now I was getting snappy; frustrated that my normal life was getting in the way of the album (even though I had spent half a year on it). I missed the deadline, we wanted the album out for our 20th anniversary gig at North Star. I shouted at the guys that night; moaning at them for trivial things.

Deadlines are pointless unless you are Guns and Roses. When its ready, its ready.

My wife had asked me to take a step back from it; I reluctantly agreed to take a couple of weeks off but that turned into three.

The Cracks Begin to Show

Things got worse; I awoke on the 11th of November 2015 and read some messages; I had been trying to get the practise room keys to record some vocals. I tried to get in touch with the band to get the keys but nothing happened and I couldn’t record the vocals. It was a small irritance but it infuriated me. I just wanted to get the album finished.

21 years of band history could’ve been finished by a stupid disagreement. Thankfully it never happened

I quit the messages, cut myself off and walked to work convinced that I had quit the band.A sense of mourning had crept over me as I listened to Spotify while walking through the Quarry park. It was a weird feeling.

Stu was a constant presence in the studio. Not sure what he is seeing here!

The guys laughed it off; Stu visited that same night and we sat over a coffee like nothing had changed; the dude was there and I was impressed with that. So we mastered the album. A few weeks later it would be done.

At 33 minutes Weird Decibels 2 is our most compact and focused album. It has its flaws; sometimes I think we are better live and there is no shame in that as many bands are the same.

It’s a quiet album by today’s standards; so sometimes it suffers in the ‘loudness wars’ but I think it sounds fairly good overall. This full album was recorded for around £500.

I should bite the bullet and let someone else record our stuff; think of all the spare time I would suddenly have.

The problem I have is that I love challenge of getting that sound; when an acoustic guitar sound crisp or the drums, as in Weird Decibels 2, sound like they are recorded in a grand room. Then the test of putting it all together.

Maybe I’ll leave the mastering to a pro….but how did the pros learn?

Weird Decibels 2 on Spotify

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

P A B L O ' S M U S I N G S Pablo likes this Pabs Stumbles Upon

Its Ticket Time.

The incredible Third Class Ticket radio show

There are two gatekeepers of the music scene in Scotland. Two. Jim Gellatly and Vic Galloway. You send demos and you hope that they are in the mood to listen to what is probably the 100th WAV file they have heard on a cold damp March morning.

I guess it helps if you are young, energetic, lucky, well connected and to be fair, really good. There are established rock bands in Scotland; a few lucky acts have met the approval and allowed past the gates; however, generally, no one in the mainstream circuit wants to hear it.

Admittedly the Scottish scene had passed over Weird Decibels. It overlooked us and we had left it behind resigned to a life of full time employment with a bit of music on the side.

Then we wrote Weird Decibels 1 and played a one off gig at Box Glasgow. A sparse crowd enjoyed it and our confidence returned. We decided to hook up with PM promotions who asked us to support (the rather good) Life on Standby at the Oran Mor; grudgingly we accepted the harsh ticket deal just to play this venue. It was an incredible night.

it does take you on a musical journey

The next day I woke up happy and energised then received a message from the guys; this bit is hazy… (hungover) a guy called Tommy Clark liked our tunes and wanted to play our music on his ‘Third Class Ticket’ show. Intrigued I contacted Mr Clark and I received a friendly message from him asking me to send some tracks from Weird Decibels 1 via dropbox.

Discover these bands and many more

Tommy posted a playlist and a link to Mesi Radio; we were on the tracklist, I tuned in and since then I have enjoyed hearing our music nestled in beside many other band’s homemade and professional recordings. It is an eclectic mix.

Then there is Tommy. I have never met the man but he strikes me as a friendly individual who simply wants to share as much music as possible. His early shows (from when I listened) were an impressive collection of bands from up and down the UK. Tommy had networked and a wide range of unheard acts were submitting tracks and tuning into the show via the Mesi platform.

Tommy wears his ticket tee with pride

At the time Tommy himself was a functionary presenter who stuck to the task of letting Scotland hear as many bands as possible. This included his ‘featured artist’ that would have the privilege of having a few tracks played on a show.

Admittedly I gradually tuned out; my Thursday nights had become more about getting the work week finished and while The Third Class Ticket continuously supported music I had returned to the gatekeepers for musical inspiration. I didn’t find any.

the many acts who happily send Tommy music for the show

I had promised Tommy a first listen of our new album Weird Decibels 2. When we finally got it finished I got in touch with him and posted out our shiney new CD. Despite the loss of contact Tommy was as friendly as ever and genuinely seemed pleased to be getting first listen of our record. I found that he had moved from Mesi and was now broadcasting on a new platform.

As a returning listener something struck me about the show. The music acts were as delightfully varied as ever but the sound quality of the show had improved. Tommy himself is more confident and relaxed in his role; he adds more of his personality as he introduces the many new tracks that he has discovered. He creates scenes for the listener, in one story he tells of driving to work on a sunny Ayrshire day while listening to the latest songs from hopeful bands, some of which very few people have heard.

Listen carefully to the show. You can hear Tommy switch off his mic as a new song comes on. It adds to the feel of the Third Class Ticket. This is a show, I assume, lovingly crafted in the spare room of Tommy’s home. He plays music that has been crafted in the spare room of the artists.

A cracking wee show created by Tommy

This is the beauty of the Third Class Ticket. It is a grass roots radio show untouched by critics, demographics or industry influence. This is one man encouraging hundreds of bands to get in touch and giving them their first play on a radio show.

In a selfish way I hope the Third Class Ticket stays underground; that’s its appeal. However if Tommy Clark is to become Scotland’s gatekeeper I hope he makes Weird Decibels his featured artist!

If there are other grass roots stations like the Third Class Ticket please get in touch. We want to listen.

Tags alternative, discover, music, radio, thethirdclassticket, Weird Decibels

the making of weird decibels 2 the Recording of weird decibels 2

Recording Weird Decibels 2

Recording Continued after Springfield

The trusty Korg D3200, love it.

You can read about the Springfield session here parts one, two and three . Looking back I’d happily go back there again with more knowledge and perhaps record only the drums and bass along with basic rhythm guitar parts. Time was never on our side and this was often when the mistakes were made.

The recording desk.

Released in the UK in 2006 the Korg D3200 was and still is a classic multi-tracker. By chance there was a music auction where my wife Kirsty works, I put a cheeky bid in for it and it was mine.

In reality it is a fairly basic machine that’s delivered reasonable results. We recorded the album on the desk highest sample rate of 48kHz and 24 bits. Higher quality that a CD but it falls short of what you can achieve on a typical DAW running Pro Tools etc. (digital audio workstation).

The beauty of the Korg was how cheap it was and the number of mic inputs, 12, for simultaneous recording. This allowed us to have 10 mics on the drums and a couple on the bass.

Rightly or wrongly the Korg was used for recording, mixing and mastering. This album as not recorded with Pro Tools etc.

Substantial planning went into preparation for the album, its predecessor had taken nearly a year to mix and master. We were determined not to make the same mistakes, to a certain extent we didn’t, we just made new ones.

From the early mixes I could hear that the drums sounded great in the big room. I had the option for a direct sound or allow some room spill to add a bit of air to the album. The bass came out fairly well, with a mixture of cabin and DI. To this day I’m not sure how effective it was but I found a good sound quickly.

Happy with the drums and bass I had a listen to Stu’s guitar and here was where I realised that I had made a big mistake.

Bad Angles

One of the many mic setups. We should’ve called it a day after the drums and bass and came back to this fresh.

I remember the afternoon that I turned to Greg and asked if the Stu’s guitars sounded too bassy. As he tapped the A and B buttons on the Saturn controller trying to break Derek’s numerous Athlete King records he didn’t seem to think so but to be fair he had been playing the bass all day. I had tired ears as well but something wasn’t sitting right. Against my instincts I decided to keep the mic in place (it was probably too close to the grill) and recorded his guitars.

Greg beats Derek’s Athlete Kings records AGAIN

Back in the studio I wrestled with this frequency for weeks; the mixes were starting to build though. Then came in the indecisiveness.

The vocals recorded at the lodge were a mixed bag. Some sounded really good while others sounded weak. For months we would take the desk down to the practice room and re-record them. Then one afternoon while listening to the ever present influence; Nevermind I heard Kurt’s doubled vocals and decided that would be the key. Eventually double vocals would play a big part in WdB2

Overdubs were next. A few parts of acoustic guitar were added. Sitting back over the whole project there were a few songs that, to my horror, started to sound poor compared to others. Quoted didn’t feel right at all.

I removed the ‘Springfield’ vocals and my guitars and completely re-recorded them in the home studio much to the delight of my neighbours. I had nothing to lose with Quoted so I free styled some distorted guitars in the style of Nirvana; then I added a voice changer to the vocals and recorded the newly written lyrics. Mixing this song was fun, a few automation tricks were used to enhance the middle of the song to build up to the crescendo

Greg had made a mistake just before the end, I couldn’t cut and paste a clean part so I left it out. The part without the bass sounded brilliant (no offence Greg!), it added so much to the build when the bass comes back in.

The Morningday Effect

Its morning and I have coffee and I must mix

It’s hard to explain exactly what happened halfway through the recording of this album.Springfield was weeks behind us, the drums and bass were in place. The guitars were touch and go, the vocals were hot and cold.

I was getting fed up with the shouty vocals. Morningday had done reasonably well and for some reason I tried to merge the two music paths which in reality should have remained separate.

The albums balance began to veer towards quiet vocals peppered with acoustic guitar. Medicine was the biggest casualty of this.

I was unhappy with the my original distorted guitar, it swamped the verses and sounded awful so I recorded an acoustic guitar and some guitar vocals and sat with that for a while. On it’s own it sounded OK but within the album it didn’t sit. Weird Decibels 2 was becoming unfocused.

I remember walking out of Camelon Tesco with a couple of bottles of red heading towards Stu and Lisa’s for a wine night, I had my headphones on. The album just didn’t sound good at all.

This was a real low point. The money spent on the cottage, the hours spent recording, re-recording and mixing seemed to be in vain. Every time I saw the guys they’d ask how it was going, it was hard for me to admit that WdB2 wasn’t working. But it’s amazing what just a few changes can make…

I ditched nearly all the changes I had made. The Medicine acoustics were scrapped and replaced with chunky Soundgarden like distortion that was like the original riff but more control. I added double tracked vocals at a higher octave and screamed my lungs out for the ending.

Feeling choruses, the vocals were shortened and more punchy. Sorted

I took the decision to drop Smash the Glass entirely (it is now a B side to Kill it Kill it), the band supported me on this…just.

Curtain hits the cast, end vocals doubled up to epicicity (new word)

Suddenly the album, albeit short, was now leaner and far more focused.

Then there was the Dancer…

The dancer changed a few times, clean guitars were replaced with finger picked acoustic, subtle backing vocals were added. Stu’s acoustic pedal recording didn’t fit so I sample it, delayed it, reversed it and made it sound like rain to fit with the lyrics. It worked. Stu then dubbed acoustic over the verses.

Stu, is a patient guy. Most of the time (has the odd fall out with cars). Here he is laying the new guitars for The Dancer

The ending vocals were doubled. The Dancer went from filler to single.

Setting a deadline was a mistake.

Mixing was still in full flow, mastering was near. I felt happy to announce a deadline date. Something I hadn’t done before. It was mistake and cost us nearly six months and I almost walked away…

Tags alternative, Falkirk, korg d3200, recording challenges, recording drums, recording music, recording on a budget, recording problems, Rock, rode nt2a, sm57, the making of weird decibels 2, Weird Decibels

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 J O U R N A L N E W S

Gig Diary. Record Factory Glasgow 29/8/15

Post author By creepingash
Post date September 3, 2015
1 Comment on Gig Diary. Record Factory Glasgow 29/8/15

The record factory Glasgow 29^th August 2015

Thanks to James from Indievous gigs and Eve Smith for the photographs.

Another gig break broken by a trip to the big city. Recording finished we finally set out to start promoting Weird Decibels 2.0. its been too long.

With the gear packed in the car we set off to the record factory; a venue at the bottom of Byres road in Glasgow, a place we had never played before. The venue is a basement buried under the street. It had a good feel to it. The smell of barbecued burgers and real ale circulated the warm August air.

The place was jumping for Paolo Nutini nobody paid much attention for Paulo Smitty. The Nutinis eventually dispatched to a bigger venue to see the Paisley lad, we were left with an empty stage. No gear no promoter.

We had received quite a comprehensive contract from the promoter prior to the show; basically pay to play with the explanation for the pay being the provision of a full back line a sound engineer and some nice lights.

The cracking lads of Avante turned up with… a full back line and a drum kit. So here we are two bands that have paid yet these lads brought their own gear. Still no promoter.

Sound check started, engineer seemed a bit lost. Avante were loud (all young bands are, we were once!), the sound guy had the charms of George Osborne eating a veggie burger. He spoke to everyone like we were kids.

You need to turn down, now that’s a fair shout but the explanation was hilarious. He explained that the neighbours will complain about the noise and they might come down and stop the show, also the drummer was asked to play softer!!! Avante singer couldn’t believe what he was saying, He replied well we play music and yeah its loud. Like it should be. However the sound man pointed out the flats were here first, a 100 years ago in fact. Why say that?? Bizarre, build a music venue under folks homes?!?

Our sound check was awful, the sound bounced everywhere but to be honest the big metal shutter was down so that wouldn’t have helped. Usual sound man lore, when its busy the sound will improve, yeah that’s fine…it did but then we turned our stuff down, to be fair the guy eventually nailed it.

We were on 2^nd that was perfect as it gave our crowd the chance to get trains home back to Falkirk (the hardcore stayed!).

Set list

Kill it Kill It
Miss Asphyxia
I Hear The City
Speak
Crown
Little Thoughts Lost
Its who You Know

it was an absolute belter of a gig; from one of the worst set-ups to one of the best gigs we played. From the off we were all up for it. The venue was busy the sound tight and the performance confident. It was great to play new songs to our fantastic listeners. It was great to see some new faces along; some folk made huge efforts to come out and see us!

Kill it Kill it went down well; seems to me growing in stature as a song, other highlights were miss Asphyxia Crown and Little Thoughts Lost. Its Who You Know was up last and drained the band after half an hour of rocking out in rather intense heat. The single wasn’t the tightest (well I got a little list) but it still went down a storm

Post gig there were a few sweaty hugs (need to remember spare tees), out friends were delighted which is great as I need to know the people who have paid money to see us enjoyed it, its great to be back on the scene with our new album. Here’s to a few more gigs like this!!

THANK YOU to all our friends and family that came to see us, including some straight from their holidays in Spain! Many made the trip from Falkirk to a far flung corner of Glasgow, every chord struck, every drum hit, every bass twanged, every sweat drip is for you. Without you we would not be able to do this.Fact.

Tags avante, Falkirk, glasgow music scene. rock, grunge, its who you know, live, loud, music, record factory glasgow, Rock, Scottish rock, Weird Decibels

our music videos Weird Decibels 2 Diary

Making of ‘Its Who You Know’ video

Post author By creepingash
Post date June 13, 2015
1 Comment on Making of ‘Its Who You Know’ video

Its Who You Know

Its Who You Know the Video

Our latest video for our brand new single ‘Its Who You Know’ is now on YouTube. This is how it happened.

view the video here

As we finished the writing of Weird Decibels 2 we had a look at our set and decided that we did not have enough songs for the new album (out at the end of this year). So we wrote Its Who You Know, it quickly established itself as the first single.

Its Who You Know has been used many times in songs by other artists but it was apt for where my head was at the time. The 2015 general election was approaching; when I see many politicians I see people who have got their positions simply through their class and connections. I felt angered that people making the decision that effect my life and that of my family were made by those who were not there on merit (I must add that there are many who have worked hard to get where they are).

Indeed many walks of life are influenced by the people at the top favouring friends, family and people they know. Its human nature to surround yourself with people you feel comfortable with and are unlikely to challenge you. The music industry is a another example of ‘Its Who You Know’.

As my father often said when I was young. ‘its not what you know, its who you know’; he stills believes that to this day. However I believe you can make a difference to your life by working hard and never giving up but it is nice to know people with a little ‘pull’. Anyway this is what the song is about.

The Idea.

At 3 minutes the song is not long but it is an age in a music video. The idea was to have an interview with a pre-determined candidate guaranteed the job and the band being the hopeful applicants who did not stand a chance despite their qualities.

The successful applicant would walk through a door to find the band playing, a symbol of going it alone and doing things for ourselves without the help of other influences. The idea was a simple, realistic and a budget friendly plot.

The Shooting.

Kevin Byrne kindly stepped up to the lens and shot the video, he controlled the lighting and directed many of the scenes. His influence was crucial to the final outcome of the video. James Cattanach kindly let us have free roam of the Three Kings and we set up in various rooms to create the interview room, the waiting area and the stage.

Kevin grew slightly concerned about the time we had to shoot the film however once we were set up things quickly took shape.

The Cast

Chris Wilson: Chris played a cocky applicant who was guaranteed the job. He played his character with a swagger and style; look at the scene where he passes the band knowing he has the job. When he opens the door to see the band play is reaction is priceless.

Chris Burt: Brother of Jemma who appears on Weird Decibels 1 plays the interviewer who grills his victims and draws out nervous ticks and weaknesses of the applicant. A dismissive employer who enjoys wearing a ‘sacking tie’.

Dale Ashworth: Plays another cocky and smug interviewer who plays off his colleague to mock the hapless interviewees. Both members of the board are dismissive of all the applicants until Chris Wilson’s character appears and they shake hands. (which had the director and cast scratching their heads trying to work out the handshake in reverse order)

The Scenes

there were to be three scenes, the waiting room, the interview and the band playing at the end. The first scene had to show that Chris knew the members of the board. The interview displayed the hopeless interviews and the final scene is the band playing the song. We had great difficulty shooting the interview due to uncontrollable laughter! During the waiting rooms scenes I headed out the wrong door and the band followed!

Editing

Greg, Derek and Stu did most of the editing with input from Kevin. The first edit of the film was not far from what you see in the final version. I had the idea to put ‘Tarantino’ titles before every scene to help define the story. We had real difficulty getting the timing right, we play our songs far faster live than the recordings. Greg had to use the force to get some of the playing in sync with the music.

The Release

Its How You Know is the first of three single from our forthcoming album Weird Decibels 2.0. the single has been well received and its nice to know that after two week its hit over 300 views. Thanks for the support!

Tags 2015 new music, comedy, falkirk. music, foo fighters, glasgow music, grunge, heavy, making of, music video, nirvana, politics, protest song, Rock, the-national, Weird Decibels, YouTube

Gigs

Gig Diary 22nd August 13th Note Glasgow

Post author By creepingash
Post date August 23, 2014
1 Comment on Gig Diary 22nd August 13th Note Glasgow

Gigs we organise help pay for future recordings. So thanks for coming!!

Weird Decibels live at 13^th note 22/08/2014

A few months ago at practise, Derek suggested that we run and promote our own music night for a change; give the promoters a wee break. So Derek, Greg and Stu ( I was kinda leaving it to them to be honest) fused their music biz minds together and came up with SYTB promotions.(if you’re wondering its Strumit, Yellit, Twangit and Bangit)

A venue was needed, 13^th Note were offering their excellent venue plus sound man for a very competitive price. It seemed too easy. The only thing we needed now was other bands.

We talked about the bands we have played with over the years and wanted a good mix of styles for our debut event. Up stepped Miss The Occupier, Dark Arts and Ciceros Secret. Three fine and very different bands.

Here is the story of the night.

The first thing that surprised me was my car; the boot swallowed up the bass amp plus two guitar amps without so much as a shrug. Gear packed we battled though the rush hour traffic back to the city of Glasgow which is still basking in the after glow of the Commonwealth Games.

IMG_20140822_174646071 — derek couldn’t wait until the photo was taken and kept eating nom nom

We arrived early so I had time to sample some of the 13^th Notes grub. Its all veggie; to be honest I could do with a night of the red stuff so I ordered a cracking veggie burger. Once we were fed we headed down stairs to one of the cities most iconic wee venues. For a band our size it feels more like home; even a modest crowd fills the room so that settled us.

The sound check went smoothly; the other bands rolled in. It was nice to see Jon from the Dark Arts; we played for a least three years together in the Seventeenth. Now I’m not saying it was a time of high fives and fist pumps, we had our moments, but it is a time I look back fondly on; it was nice to see the fella again. I was tempted to ask if he still listens to the old Seventeenth records (I do) but I let that one pass.

Ciceros Secret arrived; they are a nice bunch. We played with this young band back in November 2013 at the Garage Attic that was a crazy gig; their fans stormed the stage and the place turned into a mosh pit.

Miss the Occupier are friends of our friends and it was nice to meet them.

Now that the greeting were out the way it was time to get down to business.

The crowd floated in as Miss The Occupier took to the stage playing a fine mix of their own tunes which reminded me of Joy Division, they had a really clean, punchy sound; Roz the singer owned the stage. The crowd swelled and the temperature rose; the 13^th Note atmosphere was here!

I really enjoyed their set you should check out their excellent video on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPZrhr5Pbn8

Sometimes it good to hear something you know, the Dark Arts provided a cracking set of rock covers for the now packed audience. Pearl Jams ‘Even Flow’ was excellent; Jon was particularly good on the bass. He had his sound spot on which was not really a surprise given that he was a perfectionist back in the Seventeenth days.

It was our turn to step up and time was pressing I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little rushed. I quickly set up the gear and we were ready to go. Or so I thought.

Set list

Speak
Kill it! Kill it!
Miss Asphyxia
Wonder
Little Thoughts Lost
Deliverance
Joker
I Hear the City

We started well with the now stable Speak which often opens our set. This flowed nicely into Kill it! Kill it! Slight confusion at the intro but generally nailed. Then it was a wee hello to the crowd; straight back into Miss Asphyxia. By now I could hear my guitar on stage and it seemed out of tune but we flowed onto Wonder where Stu held the notes. A quick tune up confirmed that the G string was well out (har har). That fixed we moved on to a strong finish. New song Little Thoughts Lost got a little lost in my head! However Deliverance, Joker and new favourite I Hear the City went down well.

It was good to see the crowd right next to us; I was pleased everyone had stuck around to the end. It was hot; my shirt and tie combo was beginning to feel like a bad idea.

Before I knew it we were done and quickly packing up the pedals to allow head-liners Ciceros Secret on.

These guys are in their late teens; their music is high energy experimental metal. Its loud and in your face and I hate to say it but it took me back to the days when we started 20 years ago! Long hair waiving, loud music, playing hard and fast and not caring that some of the crowd were now starting to disperse into the late Friday night.

For those that remained they were treated to a brilliant show; their guitarists weaving through the crowd not missing a note. They were a brilliant end to the night.

We learned a few lessons on the night. Bands will run over, its natural with live music. So I’ll try not to rush my set-up in future. All in all it was a very successful night.

Final thought goes to our fans. Given that many of you have now seen us live many times we feel we are in a unique place that we have a group of friends that want to come tine and time again. The effort you guys make is quite simply brilliant. Thank you for keeping the band live.

Tags 13th note glasgow, ciceros secret, gigs, Glasgow, glasgow music scene, guitars, indie, live, loud, metal, miss the occupier, Rock, scotland, the dark arts, Weird Decibels

Pablo likes this

Pablo likes…(discovering music)

Post author By creepingash
Post date July 12, 2014
No Comments on Pablo likes…(discovering music)

From time to time I will dive into the digital sea of internet sites that offer a quite often bemusing amount of music to listen to. Here is what I liked on the 12th of July 2014

Famine, Famine

https://wooaaargh.bandcamp.com/album/famine

Simple cover, straight to the point. A bit like the album

Fast and uncompromising metal Famine, from Germany, deliver a short sharp jab of crunch. Littered with samples of what sounds like physical pain and the odd quote the interlaced tracks on this album are short and brutal. There is not much in the way of information. http://www.wooaaargh.com/ the website takes you to a German site with similar artists and similar themes. This is guid though, that’s if you have a sick fetish for a short and sharp kick in the ears now and again. I love the guitar whammy bend in the riff played on the 53 second track ‘Stacks To Buy’. Try it.

Caves, Homeward Bound

https://specialistsubject.bandcamp.com/album/homeward-bound

Snappy punk wanders away from the slick sound I often stumble on while scouring Bandcamp. You can here the buzz of the amps, it sounds live and I like that. Its fast and it sounds underground. Their album starts strong ‘Time and Time Again’ and title track ‘Homeward Bound’ are impressive. These guys sounds young, it seeps through their music. The energy flows into your ears, gets the head nodding and the feet tapping. It sounds like one or two takes were played to nail this. Magic. Signed to Specialist Subject Records who seem to share the liberal feel of their music. The slogan, ‘Download Everything Free’ hits you when you navigate to the labels site. A two piece with Lou on guitar and Minty on bass and vocals. A quick look at the photos on Facebook shows you that the energy on their record evidently overflows into the gigs. New Year/New Start finishes the album with a nice acoustic texture, these lads from Bristol (nice city) have been a worthy listen tonight.

https://www.facebook.com/wearecaves/timeline

The third and final recommendation is from The Lucies, Houston Texas

‘I’m Afraid Of People Cutting Me Out Of Their Life’ is rather beautiful, a sleepy soulful song recorded and written by The Lucies, information is spare . This album is a self confessed lo fi experimental recording and admittedly the 2nd track is too harsh a change from the beauty of the first. If you can climb over this track the rest of this short record is rewarding. ‘Out Of It’ recovers with the title track, tape hiss and all. The beauty of this music is the spontaneous nature of the recording, the hit or miss. This is what is absent from mainstream music. The finale ‘Steamboat’ is a reflective wee song about a presumably drunk or high steamboat lizzy needing a lift to the infirmary. In the background you can hear a strimmer, an unassuming neighbour trying to get to grips with an overgrown lawn. It rips you out of the scene. You hear the artist sigh at this infringement. I smile because I’ve been here in my own home studio many times. That’s why I never record in the summer! That aside this is a great but vulnerable little album.

http://theluciesband.bandcamp.com/album/out-of-it

Pabs

Tags acoustic, bandcamp, bristol, caves, discover, Famine, folk, germany, home recording, houston, metal, punk, raw, Rock, texas, the lucies, underground, Weird Decibels

Gigs

Pabs Gig Diary Jims Bar QMU live

Post author By creepingash
Post date June 29, 2014
No Comments on Pabs Gig Diary Jims Bar QMU live

QMU Jim’s Bar 21^st June 2014

Pictures Juls Sampson

Promoter ‘Fancy playing the QMU’

Band ‘Yes’

Promoter ‘Its in Jim’s bar’

Band ‘right..’

We went for it anyway, back in with PM promotions it was nice to have a gig to look forward to. Jim’s Bar is a little sauna two flights of stairs up from the main stage that we played twice a few years back.

It’s been a while, Derek had a bad injury to his ankle then he got married so the first half of 2014 has been a quiet, subtle year for the band. I say subtle as we’re halfway writing wdB2. We cancelled the Pivo Pivo gig for this so we had high hopes for the Saturday show.

On arrival we opened the door and I could swear we stepped into an oven, it was so hot. Air conditioning was non existent, Jesus I was sweating taking my Guitar out of its case. We met a guy from PM promotions called Jim and he was nice. He was welcoming, told us what time we’d be on and introduced us to the sound guy, who was younger than my car (an old beaten up ford). The sound check was quick as it always is, it sounded OK on stage, I asked for a couple of changes thinking the young dude would fiddle with his knobs but later I would find it was not to be. Jim took us up another four levels to our changing room which had a fridge for the beer but we’d never use it,

After sound check we headed off to the west end of Glasgow, Ashton lane, we had a burger a beer and a seat in the sun. Fantastic. I had a great feeling about the gig.

We headed back to the venue, I was a little fuzzy from the beer I had. We caught a fine set from Augusta Fireball, two guys around our age playing in front of a white screen that displayed various pictorial moments including the colourful moment J F Kennedy’s head met a bullet. I’ve not seen the image for a while but it unsettled me. It was slightly distracting from their music which was excellent. We were up second.

Our faithful turned up and cheered the loudest. To be honest I’m not sure why we were on second , we had perhaps the biggest crowd on the night.

Set list

Miss A
Speak
Joker
Kill it! Kill it!
I Hear The City
Wait
Wonder (replaced by Waiting On the Sound of Your High Heels)

It was the hottest gig I ever played, nearly fainted hitting the high notes of Joker. Our crowd were there but there was no one else apart from the other bands. The sound on stage was muddy, the young dude hadn’t made the changes as asked. Disappointing.

Every song we played was interrupted by the moving drum kit. Derek would would run off to find some gaffer tape so I would try my best to entertain the crowd.

I enjoyed it though. I loose it every time we play there is something about playing live that makes me reach into me deepest feelings and pour them out. As RM Hubbert would say its a kind of therapy and you don’t need to pay for it. We were getting ready to play Wonder and I had piled praise on Jemma for helping us on wdB1 when from the bar I heard the shout of ‘play high heels!’ Sounded like Wilson and Byrne. Then I heard ‘gonna remove the tattoo! I looked around, Derek stared the click and we rolled into High Heels.

After us were a Perth band called Bedford Rascals, they were young and they were nuts the singer burst his hand and bled over his bass, that was the most rock and roll moment of the night. The headlines All Suns Blazing had a fine set of blistering blues. Really impressed. Unfortunately for the guys the heat had got to the crowd and most had left apart from the faithful.

I cant call this gig a classic. It wasn’t, in many ways it was the kinda gig you have to play to help you appreciate when the next amazing night come along.

Our next gig is the 13th Note August 22nd