Making the CD

I’ve been working on this whole concept now for almost two years and it has changed considerably over that time.

My first idea was to have a band on board and take them down to London, playing gigs along the way but, as soon as I started living on the boat, I realised that that was going to be a no-no. .. not enough space.

So, a major re-think later, the plan is to try to open venues and arrange events for acoustic musicians. It all sounds like great fun, but it’s not possible to live on fresh air, and so I had to find some way of earning money at the same time.

There are a couple of other ideas, that might come into play as this project goes forward, but the most obvious thing to do is to sell music at these events. To that end I have put together a CD of my own material, some from my time with Magna Carta and 4 new tracks recorded since I left the band.

To have a CD, you need a record company and so Mama Don’t Records was born.

Future CDs will feature the best musicians and writers that I come across as I work but there had to be a starting point and I don’t apologise for using my own material as I need to lift my own profile and let people know that I’m doing this as a musician, for musicians.

THE FIRST CD is called ‘Moving On’

It came about as follows;-

Jonathan Barrett played with Magna Carta several years ago. After he left the band we stayed in touch and, when I left Magna Carta, we started working on songs together.
By that time I had already decided to buy a narrow boat to run some kind of music project, so the house was sold and almost the whole of last summer was devoted to getting the boat right. There had to be space for everything I would need on board and so the interior design was quite crucial.

Eventually the boat was ready but I knew nothing about getting from A to B, I’d had a few lessons but not enough to feel confident enough to set out alone.

Through a series of happy accidents a friend recommended Tony who came and helped me to get my boat to Barnoldswick. We got on well and so I asked if he would be prepared to come with me on a trip to London and back. He said yes and so, in April, we set off from Barnoldswick and came to the Peak District (see previous post).

By that time Jonathan had started working with a band called Tangent, they rehearsed every week in New Mills, just down the road from where I am now moored…coincidence? I don’t think so.

I was chatting to Jonathan at one point and mentioned that I would dearly love to record some new tracks to put on an album and he suggested that I meet the guys from Tangent with a view to using the drummer’s home studio set up.

I jumped at the chance and on the 21st of April met Michael Gilbourne, great drums and percussion (he also teaches drums) and Andy Tillison, an excellent keyboard player and singer who also writes the material for Tangent.

We managed to record three tracks in one day – that’s pretty difficult to do when 3 out of 4 are not familiar with the songs. With more time, we could probably have had a more polished result, but I felt the recordings had a charm for being slightly reticent and was happy with what we had achieved.

A couple of years before I had recorded a song called ‘Africa Theme’ in Holland at the new recording studio in the Eekhoornnest Bungalow Park. We always stayed there when we were on tour and they had offered to let me try it out. I had left the song there hoping that Matt Barnhoorn, Magna Carta’s mandolin and violin player, would put harmony vocals on it. Sadly he never managed it and so it has stayed a one voice a cappella performance (I’m sure at some stage we’ll put that right).

I wasn’t sure if the recording would still be there but Piers de Jong found it and sent it over – so I then had four new songs.

It had to be mastered before it could go into production and so I got in touch with Digital Audio in Skipton. They had done a few CDs for us and the quality could not be faulted and so I felt confident of a good result.

The art work can be a massive headache. I had no idea what I wanted – other than it had to be fun, so I asked Walter Goyen if he could help me. I don’t know where he finds his patience but he said yes and came up with a great idea. We put the lyrics in and I had the idea of a booklet that could be reversed and become a hand-out so that the CD and the project could advertise each other. Emails – so many emails, poor Walter was flooded with them, but eventually it all started to come together.

A trip to Skipton sorted out the mastering but ‘Only Road Home’ wasn’t sitting properly. I had chosen the very first version that was ever recorded, as that was the one that had the impact on my Mum. I will never forget her sitting there, listening to the song. She had tears in her eyes and that was when I knew she understood why I lived for my music.

I asked Chris if we had any other versions that might fit the CD better and he found one that slotted in perfectly. He offered to sort it out and even went to Digital Audio to master it for me, which was very nice of him….but then he’s good at that sort of thing and I hope he enjoyed the process.

When everything was almost ready I received a list of ‘got to do this lot first’ … blimey it was quite a list and I thought I’d never get there but, eventually, all was in order and the CD was in production.

Two days ago it all paid off and the CDs arrived. For the first time I had in my hands a CD that was all mine. I don’t think it has sunk in yet.

Now I’m working on the web site to get a shop set up to sell them – I can’t live on fresh air and there’s still a long way to go….