We have just started recording our third album with producer Nick Huggins at A Pocket Full of Stones studio in Melbourne. At the moment we're calling the record 'Everything Went Differently and Everything Was Good'. We are recording the album as the songs are written, over the course of 12 months.

Day One.

Set up and recorded three songs - 'What the Heart Knows', 'The True Smell of Happiness' and 'This Isn't Madness'. Funnily enough the local newspaper had "This Is Madness" as their lead headline today. Everything is sounding pretty great. Nick Huggins is a great engineer. Andre was so rapt with the guitar tone that he took a photo of the settings.  Here's a photo of Jim and Jemima with their version of the settings.

Day Two

The second day of intense heat today. We went back and re-did 'The True Smell of Happiness' after deciding that yesterday's version was too fast. That, then 'This Block', which proved a bit of a challenge but ended up with us all pretty damn happy.  Lots of room in that song for some overdub play fun which made for some interesting moments and (what we think right now is) a great take. Lucas decided it had been too long since his last drink so Jemima and Andrew ran off to buy some bottles while the rest of us had a run at 'Do Not Trust the Horse', which proved quite easy.  All of the basic tracks are done for this session.  We have two days left of overdubs and vocals then a break to write some new material. 

Day Three

A day of overdubs. Acoustic guitar to add sparkle and vocals to give voice. Slow work but great to hear the songs more complete. Andre wondering what to play next on the projector:

Here is producer Nick Huggins. We're not sure if he was down with the idea of renaming his studio Muppet Studios:

Day Four

We leave Nick's studio with rough mixes of five songs and a great energy from what has turned out the be a really enjoyable and productive session. This last day involved recording overdubs of acoustic guitar, piano, vocals and handclaps. There was a break in the middle of the day as Nick's tap had exploded at this home. Here is a photo of Jim, Jemima and Andrew looking annoyed at being interrupted between takes of handclap overdubs.

We have never found as great a synergy as we have with producer Nick Huggins. The plan now is to go back in a few more months to record some more and to mix the songs properly. We can't wait.

Update on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 2:13AM by khancoban

Back in the studio in a month from now. Largely I think the time will be used for mixing our single and a few other songs, but then maybe some time for recording as well.  There's one song to re-record as we did it way too fast last time, then two new songs as well - so new that we haven't worked out how they go yet.  If all goes to plan, we'll leave there with seven songs done.

Update on Friday, March 26, 2010 at 9:32AM by khancoban

Ooh... three songs to record now and all pretty different from what we've done previously. One song features two drummers! Can't wait.

Update on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 9:12AM by khancoban

Just finished five more days in the 'Pocket Full of Stones' studio. A joy, as always. We tracked three new songs and leave with five songs fully mixed. We are off to have these mastered by Casey Rice next week and are releasing a few of these tracks as singles throughout 2010. More on this later.

We'll be back in the PFOS studio in October/November to finish the album.

Here are two photos of us making noise. Not so many as last time as we were flat out busy!