me=The Black Ships, Field Theory, Strome, Verve guitarist, producer and sonic tinkerer.
Hello.
The Black Ships set sail.
http://www.myspace.com/theblackshipsofficial
The Black Ships are:
Simon Jones
Nick McCabe
Davide Rossi
Mig Schillace
This is our flagship project. It's consuming a considerable amount of time and effort and the rewards are shaping up at an increased pace. The idea was to capture the band at full tilt in the studio and retrieve material after the fact. We have so much of it it's hard to know exactly what to do with it. We are not short on ideas. Look for more nu-med produce as the year draws on.
The Verve seems to be on holiday, and shows no sign of not being on holiday- so, I've been hesitant to breach Official Secrets style policy with any missives from the, well, from any front, basically.
Don't ask me anything about the big V, just let me enjoy my non-alcoholic Piña Colada and tell you about what's going on elsewhere.
Thumb twiddling was never our forté so Si Jones and I have been busy with a new project. Currently this includes the brilliant violinist, Davide Rossi, who you may have had the pleasure of seeing with the Verve at various festivals last year. Also with us, an old friend, multi instrumentalist Michelle Schillace on drums and whatever he fancies playing that particular day. The project is shaping up nicely. Expect krautrock style excursions into the unknown and maybe, just maybe, the killer pop record we're toying with making. Two sessions took place so far, Best Kept Secret studios in Copenhagen last year, and this year, my place in Walworth. There is a huge amount of material being generated and we have several interesting vocalists in mind. Clips to follow.
Also up and running as hinted above is my humble tracking studio in South London. Current clients are willing Guinea Pigs while I am learning the craft. The Albini model is a good one, the days of the super studio are gone thank god but bands still need a place to track and I've put a place together which is already serving this function.
Recently we have had Jamie and Alex from Bath's X is Loaded, along with Charley Bickers, another Bath veteran (ha ha, sorry mate) and myself (just veteran, heh) playing together for the first time, again at my place in Walworth. An incredibly productive two days, very promising and Charley is in fine voice currently.
Also played with Damo Suzuki, Jeff wooton and Mark Heaney at Night and Day Cafe, Manchester. Will be working more with both Jeff and Mark in the near future.
Pictures and sound to follow.
Will try and wade through some of the missed emails in the absence but Verve radio silence has infected my very being (ha ha ha). Do my best though.
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Studio:
Trident Fleximix- 8-bus 16 channel desk.
small mic collection including various ribbon and small and large diaphragm condensers, handful of dynamics.
Alesis HD24XR and/or Digi003 with Lucid 88192 converters for recording.
Selection of analogue synths.
Outboard includes Lexicon PCM91, Eventide h3000 and Eclipse, 2 x Distressors, SSC Kyma and various modular synthesizers.
1TB Linux based SFTP (FTP over SSH) server for collaboration and/or archiving.
