AU60: Strait Laces In The Studio piece

Lovely lads, these. Their debut single ‘Seconds Out’ is out now by the way on Bruised Fruit – check the latest issue of AU (Air on the cover) for my review of that.

IN THE STUDIO

STRAIT LACES

WHAT: TBC, possible EP
TITLE: TBC
ENGINEER: Joe Fields
STUDIO: Roundhouse Studios, London
TRACK TITLES: ‘Away To Escape’, ‘Kissing In The Reichstag’, ‘Where The Wolf Roam’, ‘Your Fearful Admirer’.
RELEASE DATE: Early 2010
LABEL: Bruised Fruit Records

At the start of September, fast-rising indie-rockers Strait Laces took their trusty Citroen Picasso off to England and played a couple of gigs in London. However, that was just the cherry on top – the main reason for the trip was that they won a free day’s recording at Roundhouse Studios in Camden, courtesy of EMI Records and presided over by an engineer who has worked with Paul McCartney, Cat Stevens and Placebo. On their return, David and Jonny from the band called in to the AU office to tell us about their fruitful day.

How did the session come about?

Jonny Creelman (bass) – Our manager, Jen [McCullough] from Bruised Fruit Promotions, entered us in a competition online and kind of forgot about it. One day Dave got a call from her and she explained that we’d won this competition for a day’s recording in Roundhouse Studios in Camden. It was a big surprise – doubly surprising because we didn’t even know we were in the competition!

David Hanna (vocals, guitar) – Demos were sent in and they picked 30 bands, so each band got a day in the studio.

Had you been planning to go into the studio before this opportunity came up?

David – From the start of July, we said that we’d take six weeks off to write and record demos and not play gigs – just to practise as much as we could. And we’d done that – it was only mid-August when we found out about this competition. We didn’t really plan on recording, but we were probably the most ready for recording that we’ve been as a band.

Were you able to do much in a day?

David – We decided to record all the instruments live and do the vocals afterwards. We went in and got four songs done – brand new ones that we didn’t even plan on recording – with vocals as well. We had an hour left at the end so we set up a video camera and recorded an older song live, so we’re going to sync the music to the video. We ran out of new stuff to record!

What are you planning to do with the songs you recorded over there?

David – There’s a few ideas floating around. We’re releasing a single on the second of November. We recorded it a year ago and we’re waiting for the right time to release it. The launch date is the Friday before [October 30] with The Cities We Captured. Then we started looking at releasing an EP in January/February. If we got back into the studio again, we’d have quite a lot of songs done, so it’s deciding whether to call it a four-track EP or put six or seven songs in. We’re not fully sure yet.

How was your time in London overall?

Jonny – We saw Amy Winehouse! She just walked past, I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was a lookalike. But the studio, it was such a good experience. The sound was amazing. It was so good. I can’t believe the quality we got from a live recording. I said to the engineer, ‘Would there be any advantage in us doing single tracks, because I can’t imagine it sounding better than this?’. It was above and beyond what I expected the day to be – getting five tracks done at that sort of quality, I was well chuffed.

RECORDING IN PROGRESS

They are bona fide rock legends and after spending the last couple of years touring all over the world to great effect, the mighty Devo are still working on a new album, which would be the first since 1990’s Smooth Noodle Maps. Indicating recently that they are interested in working with modern artists like Outkast, LCD Soundystem and Justice, frontman Mark Mothersbaugh told Rolling Stone, “”The new challenges… are interesting to us. With the business turned upside down like it’s been in the last couple years, we’re looking for ways to use new technology that wasn’t around when we did this the first time.” The album, working title Fresh, is expected some time next year.

Phil Selway is set to become the third member of Radiohead to release a solo album, following in the footsteps of Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke. The drummer has yet to confirm a name, release date or release method for the album, but we do know two things – he sings on it, and celebrated guests include Wilco members Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone and solo artist Lisa Germano.

He’s only just released The Blueprint 3 – to huge sales but a lukewarm critical reception – but Jay-Z has already announced that he’s working on his next album, and he vows that it won’t hit the same commercial heights. Which seems unlikely, to be honest. Speaking to MTV.com, the Jigga man said, “My next album, which I’m working on now, is not gonna be a Number One album. That’s where I’m at right now. I wanna make the most experimental album I ever made.” Could go either way, really.