Happy New Year 2024

Off we go again with a flying start to the year - saying goodbye to 2023 was easy because it really hadn’t been the best year with some wider family crises; but things have eased now.

Over Christmas I had the surprise pleasure of working with Emily Jane Brooks once again on a very personal song that she had discovered in her family heirlooms. A song titled Christmas Blessing had been written many years ago with a family friend, but got lost over the years so she made it her duty to rekindle the song and bring it back to life - cutting a long story short the song was released just before Christmas and attracted a fair bit of attention locally including a piece in the Coventry Telegraph, so I think we all would consider this a lovely success. Emily made a very slick video to go with the song and help remind us of all the best parts of Christmas which are timeless:
Christmas Blessing by Emily Jane Brooks

Further to the we had a New Year release as well, this time with John King and his son Phil King who is blind. They recorded a cover of Empty Saddles (originally by Billy Hill an American songwriter & violinist) and we made a video as well which is currently on YouTube where the song can be accessed. John & Phil have been working with me at the studio for almost 2 years now and brought heaps of different styled projects to the studio. Phil is currently working on an album of original music for a commission with a Yoga instructor/practitioner. Phil’s mastery of the keyboard is profound and I personally enjoy watching and working with him in mild amazement everytime.
Empty Saddles by John & Phil King

Kicking the New Year off I’ve already had new dedicated singer in, to showcase her voice on the request of her husband who bought her a gift recording present for Christmas - Claudine was a natural and made a superb debut recording of Jolene by Dolly Parton amongst other songs.

Also the band Whiplash (working title) have completed their 1st track title Dream, to a forthcoming debut album, which really has started the year well. The band are all 17-18 and if the first song is anything to go by I think we will have a masterpiece on our hands. Led by Archie the singer/songwriter/guitarist/vocalist the band are a great act to watch with Alex on drums, Rowan on lead guitar and Charlie on bass holding it all together. A multi talented bunch.

And it’s only day 4 so “Welcome 2024” let’s do this!

Stuff happens that you can't prepare for - but we don't panic.

Wow - half a year has passed with no little BB posts on here - whoops.
After a great initial start to the year with a couple of decent gigs, things went very awry literally overnight and in the space of about a fortnight I received news of 2 major family tragedies, I left my band, had a birthday & celebrated Valentines. With no time to plan anything I also had 2 trips to Ireland and 1 to Portugal to fit in so for a while my feet weren’t even aware of the floor and my head was spinning faster by the day. The trips definitely provided some necessary break time and time for reflection which was nice and I got some amazing weather too, then I ended up walking a day of the Pennine Way with my brother and some of his mates - it’s been hectic to say the least.

Strangely there’s also been heaps going on to keep the studio active, busy and popular with a small surge in Pop Star Party’s and some wonderful new singers hitting the studio, some bringing new material as well as covers; not least of which was meeting Pavlo Hunka, a half English half Ukrainian bass-baritone opera singer!

Long Good Fridays have been keeping me busy with more of their hypnotic grunge album developing very nicely now and I got to almost meet Bob Odenkirk of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul & Nobody fame. He was hilarious.

Treacle Town bounced back over to the barn and they are releasing a single on June 12th - a cover of Amy Winehouse’s ‘Rehab’ with their new drummer from Wales (they do have a large pool of drummers) and an accompanying video with promo - check it out: Treacle Town - Rehab

John & Phil King always deserve a hearty mention since they have been recording many projects this year including this incredible version of La Bohème sung in English by John and accompanied by Phil who is blind.
Check this lil masterpiece out here: La Bohème - John & Phil King

Recently we had local Coventry band Peace & Panic in recording their first EP titled The Outside Looking In. Justin fronts this band and has a super slick laid back vocal delivery on top of the bursting-with-energy music delivered by the other lads - a tight outfit that all kinda live together also which clearly helps and works!
Follow them on Instagram: Peace and Panic

Recording Bands - the way you want it

So the last weekend has been hectic with 3 bands over 4 days and I think 20 songs tracked in total between them.

Friday saw a very last minute but exciting opportunity through an old friend who decided to write a World Cup Song. Baz is the songwriter for Dispensable People along with his son Olly. So in less than a full day, but a very intense day, we tracked and mixed the new World Cup Song - guitar, bass, vocals, backing vocals and me on drums plus adding some synth. Overnight I decided it really could benefit from some female vocals and this would include the Lionesses in some small way! Enter Kris Steel one of my long time solo artists and stand alone hard working professional vocalist who I have written many songs with. Kris added some totally on point and appropriate vocals mimicking the main line and adding her own bits. The track was finished by 12.00 Saturday and Im told is to be aired on local radio station Abbey Radio today (Tuesday). So Ive now produced 3 World Cup Songs since 2010 - its becoming a thing!
Kris Steel

Sunday I had repeat clients Long Good Fridays back in, a post-modern prog-punk band that deliver mesmorising songs, hypnotic, dark and a little disturbing but they are top guys to work with and the album they are building will be wicked. We tracked 3 songs and these were subsequently mixed/mastered Monday morning before the football match!

Monday was busy as I managed to catch the second half of the game in a local pub so enjoyed some of the growing mood for England in the Qatar World Cup. Straight after the game i was back to the barn to meet the drummer for Treacle Town and get things set up with him before the band arrived.
TT are long studio friends and have a few albums now - originally from Nuneaton but mainly living in Wales now they are a rhythm & blues band that gig regularly - like nearly every week. They had intentions of making a covers album so set up live to effectively play a gig in the live room. After 13 songs played back to back almost without a break things were going well and listening back began, then Adi decided to play a few of the originals he has been working on and they ended recording them too so now theres plans for a 2nd album to be made - these guys are so professional they are a dream to work with.

Winter here we come!

So, who’s turning the heating off for Winter?
Strangely at the studio we have a wonderful source of heat from burning Biomass - totally eco-friendly and somewhat cheaper than traditional forms of central heating, all provided by the farmer to most of the units in our farmyard area - that said, our costs have risen too, but fortunately (due to the soundproofing/insulation generally) it’s not a bad building to heat.

BB Studio was formed in November of 2004 and frankly I can’t do the maths anymore but we’ve been doing this a long time now. When I started the studio back then there was barely any talk of internet and now it’s gone full circle - there’s so much internet the struggle to be at the top has lost its worth, so much so that the best work comes from those that know and word of mouth.
In only a few years I think there will be more focus on Virtual ‘everything’ too, so enjoy the real world whilst you still can!
Recently I have worked with local poet Siana Bangura on various spoken poems, some set to music with her very talented mates, which was a fascinating listen, I’ve met Doc Scott (who my old business partner used to hang out with years ago) who was very interesting to listen to, whilst recording his Podcast for a enthusiastic Drum&Bass journalist from Wales, I’ve worked with various solo singers making short voicereels and demos including original songwriter Phil Morgan who brought a melodica to the studio - simple but effective, I’ve helped put the music together for local theatre shows and even an equestrian event. It never fails to amaze me where the business is helping people. Band sessions are fewer since the recession but Im looking forward to recording Treacle Town and The Long Good Fridays next.

The studio is also a party venue for kids celebrating birthdays and older people celebrating anniversaries or milestones - I’ve been running my own brand, Pop Star Party, since 2012 and every single one still amazes me with the fun we have. The fact we have so much room and so much for kids especially to pick up and use or pretend to use is one of the things that has made the parties work so well for over a decade now.

Lastly, my own band The Sirens have been hard at work taking a lot of the spare time to make demo recordings, videos and rehearse our now massive 2 hour set. Gigging has been a wild relief from rehearsals and we’re looking forward to the next bunch of gigs. We have a state of the art new PA, some unbelievably bright lights, branded clothing/equipment and fliers, plus our own van making us a very fortunate self-contained and fully versatile act to hire. Stay with us - it’s gonna be an exciting time.
The Sirens Website

King John & Prince Phil

Talent shows itself in many ways and recently I’ve had the pleasure of working with possibly the most talented chap ever to visit the barn. John King got in touch with me some months ago to enquire about recording a song with his son on piano and how it had special meaning and relevance. He explained that Phil was blind and that they had recorded it before but it didn’t quite work, so they felt they should try somewhere different. Well as a (passive) pianist I am always inspired by piano based music but wasn’t expecting quite such a dramatic journey.
Phil has been blind all his life so has never seen a single thing - it still baffles me that concept and is virtually impossible to imagine, cos within your imagination you literally see things you have previously seen and albeit you can twist these things you have to have a starting point, but if totally blind then where is your starting point for imagination?
Phil plays the piano with such ease and agility is an inspiration to watch. Not only this but he knows exactly when and where any note is wrong and somehow between us we correct any (minor) errors effortlessly. Further to this he knows exactly what other sounds he wants in the song and plays all these parts appropriately including drum patterns. So easy it seems that when doing a bassline he often drinks a mug of tea at the same time - I like Phil and we’ve had a ton of fun working on lots of tracks now.
Phil’s father, John, also sings and plays banjo so having just visited the Bluegrass region of Kentucky where banjo based Bluegrass Country Music was born it seems quite appropriate that we are doing these songs!!

Autumn Leaves is a French song originally titled Les Feuilles Mortes which John has literally translated to English in parts and left some parts in the natural French. Singing this was interesting and I was asked to provide a session vocalist, so asked my own bands’ singer Kerry to try and being an actress she had no bother performing it, giving it a subtle French twang! I think John enjoyed the duetting with Kerry and we had to bend a few recording rules to achieve things, but that’s what studio do, right!

Phil himself didn’t sing on this track like he does on some other compositions we have done. Also a very impressive video was put together between myself and John as Director, using lots of great photos and some video footage taken form the initial tracking days. You can check it out below.
Autumn Leaves on YouTube