RECORDING - SISTERAY - Getting on the right track

We are going to let you have a listen to an early version / mix of a recording of one of our new songs. It might be a good idea to shed a bit of light on the recording process and for anyone reading this, we thought we might include the #Sisterymob and give you a sneak preview of what we have been doing.

When we sat down and took stock of where we were and scribbled our wish list for the coming months on the back of an old set list, we all agreed that the minimum requirement was to make sure we reached a position where we would be offered a slot at Reading / Leeds Festival in 2016.
The live gigs have been rocking, we're rehearsing more and more importantly people are coming to see us and the new songs are going down really well but to let the wider world know that Sisteray are coming, we knew that we would have to be spot on with how they were recorded.

This brings in the idea of a 'producer' - what does a producer do, we asked. Well it's true, left to our own devices in the studio we might get lost in the piles of kit and possibilities, so we all said what current tunes and sounds we liked and find out if and which producers were involved. We came up with a few names but Rory Atwell and his Bratwell Recordings really stood out, not least because he has also produced The Vaccines, Palma Violets and The Bulletproof Bomb, another exciting new band who's tunes and recordings we really like.
We didn't want the sound to be too clean as the tunes we were ready to record were a bit more punky and punchy than usual and Rory ticked all the right boxes - he made his name as a member of Test Icicles and a couple of their tracks got in the Top 40. We particularly like the way he has used his name as an acronym RORY = Result Of Reckless Youth.

Anyway, we had feedback from a few producers but it was obvious that Rory was our boy and we arranged a couple of days to go and record with him at Lightship95 recording studio - who would have known? der.. it is ACTUALLY a studio on a boat, a lightship in fact, docked in an arts complex in East London opposite the dome/O2 Arena - you record songs and look out of a port hole at the O2 and imagine one day we might be playing these songs there, pretty inspiring really…

So he had an idea of our sound and songs, we had been sending Rory recordings from gigs and when it came to the recording we focused on four which we felt we could nail and produce something sounding special. Whether it was the boat wobbling on the Thames or just the general quivering excitement, the ideas and music flowed and Rory made sure the tunes were done some justice. It's interesting that live, we are definitely going for a more stripped down punk sound but in the studio we were able to get any ideas recorded to help Rory create the magic dust when the tracks were mixed.

To quickly spell it out, for those that don't know exactly what happens when you commit songs to tape - well the first thing is, for us like many new bands, actual 'tape' doesn't come into the equation, in the same way that in the olden days they used to put film into cameras but now it's all digital, the same goes for recording music - you play and it turns up on the computer. Anyway, once all the instruments and voices have been recorded, the next stage is called 'mixing'. In this case, producer Rory would listen to everything we had recorded for each song and get the balance right. 

Now, where we are at the moment is, that there is a bit of a delay between us having finished the recording and getting the mixes right and this is where you can come in if you want - fancy a listen? We have what we are calling the first mixes or version one of the tracks and we thought we'd get one out there. The track is called 'A Wise Man Said' - this may not be the final mix, we've made our comments so are going to get another version to listen to but in the meantime, you can listen to and download the track here:

We are going to send a link to everyone on our mailing list or if you want us to send you an MP3 directly then email us @ sisteraymusicldn@gmail.com with the subject line 'A Wise Man Said' and we'll get something to you.