Day 15 - Sun & Strings

After a few weeks away, Barnaby and I were back to work yesterday. Naturally, as we were trapped in the confines of the basement studio with no windows, the sun shone beautifully all day long and temperatures soared for the first time in weeks. Hmph.

All was not lost though - it wasn't long before the multi-talented and all-round nice guy Ben Sutcliffe arrived to bring a little sunshine into our lives. Ben is the frontman of the brilliant People's String Foundation, (if you don't know them, get involved, you won't regret it!) and he's always a pleasure to work with. Whilst he can play almost every instrument under the sun, today's focus was violin. We were, as ever, pushed for time - but managed to nail string sections for 'Nicotine', 'Money', and 'Carry Me (Part II)'.

The whole day was a bit of an experiment; I had some rough ideas for string parts, but ultimately was open to suggestions. 'Nicotine' has unexpectedly ended up with a very different feel (if you already know them, you'll definitely recognise the signature PSF sound in the last few bars) and I'm really pleased with it. Working on 'Carry Me Part II', Ben transformed himself into a sort of one-man orchestra, layering up lots of lovely harmonies over some existing cello parts. The track is sounding much more folky now, which was what I was hoping for originally. 'Money' is also sounding cool, and the violin compliments Lukas' double-bass part really nicely. All in all, a productive day! Tomorrow - into a new studio to record some backing vocals...

Over and out!