Album: New Country
Released: November 2011
http://captaina.bandcamp.com/album/new-country
http://captaina.bandcamp.com/album/new-country
The Big Black Clouds of Home
Bird of Bee
St. Patrick
New Years Tide
Evergreens
Young Space Is
Making
a Record.
The
entire history of 'New Country', a short album by Captain A.
The
thing about recording music is, thats the easy part. When you record
a record in a well built studio things sound good very quickly
because the recording engineers have built the place for that one
simple function. When you record live in your front room, which is
designed to have an effective fireplace and a pleasing aesthetic,
making it compare with studio recordings is not something that can be
achieved quickly, if you need to make the bass a little quieter on
something then it effects every other element in the recording, so
its something to be chipped at slowly, rather than cut in a few days.
The
story began on thursday the 19th of November 2009. In the
evening eight microphones were placed in the sitting room, the
couches engaged sofa bed mode and were pushed a bit out of the way so
we all had space to play. On the friday Neil and Rohan arrived in the
evening and we did the basic music tracks for Big Black Clouds and
New Years Tide using the drum machine on a 1982 Yamaha Electone A -
505 organ which was purchased for fifty pounds sterling from an
action cancer shop in Derry city. Rohan has been recording with
Captain A since at least 2006, so he is well used to how things work,
Neil had been our 'sane person hanging around stopping us killing
each other' during the recording of Yellowback and it seemed to make
sense that he and Rohan, who have played together in countless local
jazz ensembles over the years would be good to work with on a record
when the opportunity came by. Also Neil had expressed some previous
interest in getting a go on the organ, although this was before he
knew that the B on the upper register takes about three pounds of
pressure to make it sound, while all the keys on either side are as
smooth as the day they were made. A Crafter fx550 guitar and Rohan's
German made Double bass would complete the palette.
On
saturday morning Eileen arrived from visiting a friend in Sligo along
with a man from Australia by the name of Michael
Simms who had come from to visit friends and tour Ireland. We took a
few minutes to eat, as I had only spoken to Eileen via email and
telephone at this point and she had never met Neil, Rohan or Myself.
Eileen is the singer in Dublin's Prairie Dawgs, who i had heard
playing at a Hoot Night some months before. I was looking for a
vocalist to make a new record with, the seventh Captain A record and
thought on the off chance i might ask Thomas Dunning who runs and
MC's the Hoot Night could he put me in contact with the Prairie Dogs
to see if she'd be interested in coming to record - Tom introduced us
via email, and after some online conversation lo and behold the five
of us were sitting at the kitchen table in mid november, eating salad
and talking about food with an Australian man.
The
prime concern for the weekend is that we ate well, and with one
vegetarian in our ranks, salad was my safety net introductory meal.
The order of recording is hard to recall, but i'd imagine that
Evergreens or St. Patrick were tackled on saturday. Michael, now
instilled as the 'sane person hanging around stopping us killing each
other' who was obviously having the holiday of lifetime would
sometimes sit in the room for the the recording and rehearsing, or
read in the back room and come in for a chat between takes.
Everything had to be rehearsed because other than myself nobody else
knew how to play the songs, and Big Black Clouds had only been
written on the wednesday night. After a few hours, we retired to the
kitchen for some potato gratin and some more discussion about food. I
would hazard a guess that New Years Tide was completed that evening
after dinner. As is customary, we shuffled into Letterkenny for a few
pints to reflect on the days events, though a minority (Neil, Rohan,
Michael and Eileen) insisted that we got home early to be fresh for
the next day of recording.
The
following morning a large quantity of hummus and bread was consumed,
and we decided to take to the road and go for a sightseeing trip
around Donegal. We headed west to Glendowan valley, passed Lough
Barra, followed the valley and then over the mountain into Fintown.
The weather Donegal in November is not kind to tourists very often,
and that sunday morning was no exception. Our first stop was the
point where Glendowan intersects with the more well known Glenveagh,
from there you can see right down to the castle on a clear day. If
you didn't loose sight of each other within twenty paces, you'd be
lucky on this day. We parked briefly round the back of Lough Finn and
looked over it from the car, Eileen administering cups of what she
claimed to be some form of red tea from my coffee flask. The lab
never returned the results and the issue was laid to rest. We went
back in the direction of Fintown, and spotted a picturesque bar that
would certainly lend itself to a band photo, even for a band who had
only met twenty four hours before. Michael did the honors and we
fought our way back into the car before the deluge consumed us
entirely. I suspect that this hour long break on sunday morning may
have been the only part of the weekend that resembled a holiday to
Michael.
We
went back to the house, had a lunch and got back to the task at hand,
bird of bee, a border love song was most likely the first song done
on sunday. I know this because while we ate lunch i was still writing
the bridge section. Big black clouds I'm almost certain was also
finished on the sunday, and although the precise order of events is
hard to remember, i know for certain that the last thing done on
sunday evening was Young Space Is. Rohan and Neil adding bowed and
walking bass with ambient organ and Eileen layering vocals to an
electronic based demo recording that had come from my old apartment.
In keeping with the culinary theme, we assembled a large vegetarian
feast together and talked over the weekend. Eileen and Michael had a
bus to catch to return to dublin, and Rohan and Neil most likely
jumped into Neil's little red fiat, carrying three times its kerb
weight in musical paraphernalia to resume their commitments with the
Inishowen Gospel Choir.
The
electric drums on big black clouds, though they had some lounge
lizardy charm were nothing compared to what a live drummer can do
with a song, so i sent an email to Brian O'Higgins in Dublin, who i
had known from the ballroom of romance gigs to see if he would
contribute. Brian and I had played together once in the Holy Ghost
Fathers when i was pulled off the subs bench to fill in for their
bassist when his flight was delayed a few years before and i had it
in mind to work with him since. A rendezvous was organized outside
Griffith college in Dublin and we loaded his gear into the back of my
late beloved peugeot 306 estate and headed for fredrick street with a
handful of microphones. It was the 19th of december, bitterly cold
and the last saturday before christmas in dublin city. We sat for
over and hour in crawling traffic, and then had to enter a holding
pattern for quite some time before suitable parking could be found
within distance of the practice room. Luckily that was the hard part.
Phil Murray from Glimmermen I remember also helped out with
organizing free time in the room during the few days before. We
lugged the recording gear down, Brian built his drums while i placed
a few microphones and within in two takes it was all done, the
traffic had eased and the loungy electronic drumbeat was committed to
the earth for its eternal rest. For security Brian did five takes in
all, the second one was the one that put a shiver up my spine, which
i have to mention because the first take was the basically the first
time he heard the song.
If
it can be done, there will never be a Captain A record without a
contribution from Jolene Mclaughlin. Joleen and I have collaborated
on Captain A since 2006 in various ways, and along with Rohan she
made up the band that recorded Yellowback. Joleen hadn't been
available to record that weekend in november, so some mobile
recording equipment was borrowed from Cian Magennety and i made my
way in early spring to Jolene's house to record the harp part for St.
Patrick. Joleen, a bit like Brian seems to be a few steps ahead of me
at the best of times, and it took one take of recording for her to
finish the song, sitting looking out across a sunny farming valley in
Inishowen in march.
Big
black Clouds still needed some more sounds - the weight of the
acoustic drums had brought more space to add sounds. Allen Blighe
from the Ballroom of romance had asked could we play there before the
the ballroom gigs came to and end, so i thought maybe in return i'd
ask him could he play some banjo for us, as i knew he played it in
the Spook of the Thirteenth Lock. There was still the matter of
playing that ballroom though, and though for most bands this would be
simple enough affair, we had never played live before and not played
more than six songs together. For a few weeks I had to commute
between rehearsing with Rohan, Neil and Joleen in Derry and to Dublin
to Eileen's front room to try and connect the two camps. Its a little
unnerving to walk into a venue and actually spend the time before the
show introducing members of the band to each other, but it went fine
and after six years of being a recording project, Captain A had
become a live band.
 |
| First Live Show at the Ballroom of Romance |
These
commutes to Dublin gave me a chance to record with Allen so after
rehearsal with Eileen one evening, in the vein of true musical
professionalism, we arrived at his house with an absolute minimum of
workable recording equipment and enough alcohol to send a legion into
no mans land. Before we could get down to the highly scientific task
ahead of us, a neighbor came to the door asking if any of us knew how
to break down a door as he was locked out. A strange request at any
time of the day, but feeling neighborly we obliged the man and broke
into his house for him. Sometime in the the hours that followed, a
number of banjo tracks were added, and the record was getting closer
to completion.
 |
The
song in my head at the time was a slightly tongue in cheek irish
humored interpretation of the green green grass of home. If you
listen to rural radio in ireland there is one instrument you will
surely hear and that is one of the true pillars of Irish music: the
fender telecaster. This time though i was spared a long drive. David
McCann who plays with Mudbitch and Yakuza recorded his guitar solo
into a little digital machine and sent it to me with by email, with a
nice clear description of the point at which it should be dropped in.
I'd say it was at least four weeks before those clear, concise
instructions made the slightest bit of sense to me but it made it in
the end, and the recording of music for what was now being called
'New Country' was complete.
In
addition to the time this was taking, my beloved peugeot 306 estate
came to a sorry end in april of 2010, crumpled and a little dejected
looking at a junction in belfast. What was originally some money i'd
put aside to release this record within a few months of recording it
very fast became the money required to clear up the mess i'd made and
get a working car back on the road. Thanks must be given to Ronan,
Rose and Mairead in belfast, who were kind enough to harbor the
crumpled beast in their back yard for a few weeks which saved me the
expense of having it towed back to Donegal. I assume it has been
cubed long ago and trips out to Glendowan with a few musicians on a
sunday will be contained in the inherited memory of a few toasters
made from reclaimed steel, bought from a ship that came from Belfast.
Hey, maybe your eating that toast right now.
In
the months that were passing the local theatre had asked us to play a
show, but Eileen wasn't available so Lorna, Jolene's sister and the
first person to contribute to Captain A way back in 2004 was the
obvious first person to ask. It made even more sense because she had
helped a little with the lyrics in New Years Tide, though to this day
she denies any memory of it. By far, New Years Tide was the longest
song to write. There are a gang of folks in Inishowen who every new
Years Day run down to the beach and straight into the icy cold north
atlantic – I always thought there was something great and defiant
about it and wanted for years to make a song about it, or around the
theme, so after messing with an F chord for about 4 years the song
finally came to be. Lorna obliged and bringing her accordion and a
whole lot of harmony with her, the second incarnation of the Captain
A live band came to be, and in a surreal turn of events our second
show was supporting Kevin McAleer. What i learned from this is that
if we want to play live, it cannot be at the drop of a hat when one
of the members of the band lives 150 miles away.
With
the transition from recording project to live band and the automotive
wrangling in the past, It was time to get back to finishing the
record. Once again, Cian had come through and loaned me some good
quality speakers to begin the mixing on. The record was coming nicely
together, it looked like maybe late 2010, or possibly early 2011
would be a good launch time. It had been a long time working on the
record, be it sporadically, so i took a few weeks to ignore it.
This
was probably as much for Andrew Galvin and Cian's sanity, as many's a
night they lended their ears and advice to the incremental
adjustments that were being made to the record. In this time a
regular software update on the recording computer destroyed most of
my recording tools. Months of work became obsolete and the mixing
process on New Country had to be started from scratch. The happiest
of campers could have had their day ruined by one fleeting glance
from me around this time.
A
few weeks going square eyed at the computer, learning new software
and trying to retrace steps and the record was finally completed, it
was January 2011. Captain A albums have always been rooted in a color
theme. In 2007 there was a red album with a red cover, it was about
love, which seems to associate with red; there was a yellow album,
and the theme of a 'Yellowback' (an early type of cheaply produced
novel on yellowed paper) was the muse. This record was always going
to be green, for the obvious and slightly predictable reason that St.
Patrick was one of the first songs completed. Jolene and I discussed
the possibility of a green album a few years before and it seemed
like it should be the 'Irish' album. So much was changing in Ireland
in time it was recorded that 'New Country' found its way to being a
suitable name. The previous records had been a little basic and
plain, so i asked Paul Fox, whose pictures i had seen on the internet
would he like to do some artwork to go with the lyrics. With that in
mind, the mixes of the record were sent to a few music journalists to
coincide with the Irish election day in february 2011, and one of
them was nice enough to listen to it.
Neil
in the meantimes had made great progress with his own songs and
recordings, and he and Rohan had a summer full of commitments with
various musical ensembles, launching the record in the summer was out
of the question and things were going into a lull for a while. Gladly
the infamous Cormac Canney, better known as Big Monster Love along
with Jeroen Saegeman were putting together a show in Bewleys Cafe
theatre. This time it was Eileen, Lorna and Joleen who filled the
stage for Captain A gig as Rohan and Neil had commitments and for the
second time, i was introducing band members to each other in the
hours before the show – this time Eileen and Lorna. It was very
scantily attended, but the type of musical professionalism shown
earlier by Allen and I won the night, I dont know if it was 6 or 7am
when we retired for the night, but the world was firmly put to rights
through talk and song that night across the kitchen table of Claire
McLaughlin. In time that gig became more important for us, because i
got to know Conor from the Prairie Dawgs who runs the Tumbleweed Love
Sessions in the cobblestone and we discussed doing a launch for the
now year and half year old record in there, also on that night we
were invited to play at the sensual walk along with Carol Keogh and
Mike Stevens, which also was the first time Eileen, Neil, Rohan and I
performed together as a four piece band since the recording.
Talking
to Conor and knowing that Captain A as live band cannot do things at
the drop of a hat, a night in November was picked for the launch.
Just around this time Paul Fox completed the sketches which he did
while listening to the record (once i would imagine) and almost
everything was done. Almost.
I
had a word with Stephen Quinn about mastering the record, one of the
final and most important stages in the process of making a record. I
got some money together and everything was looking rosy until my car
(there it is again), now a Nissan Primera estate, known as Mick, or
the sometimes just The Beast, gloriously failed the national car
test. Without Mick, there can be no gigs, and without gigs there can
be no record launches. Its a strange food chain but it must be
respected. For the second time the four wheeled monsters had eaten
the money for the record, tail between legs i wrote to Stephen to say
that i was no longer able to pay for his services and would be in
touch at a later date when I figured something out. A few days
brainstorming and I worked out a new budget system in which i pay my
service bills homeopathically for a number of months and the launch
came back into focus. Dave from Citog at the Cellar bar in Galway
put us down for the 11th of November, and Conor from our
close relatives the Prairie Dawgs has made room for us on November
12th at the Cobblestone in Dublin along with Glimmermen
and the oft-mentioned Dawgs, Almost two years to the day that Eileen,
Neil, Rohan and myself sat in the front room and made a record, we
finally got to share it with you as live band, something I honestly
never expected. New Country for me.
The
Players:
Eoghan
Holland: Guitar, Vocals, Programming.
Eileen
Twomey: Vocals.
Neil
Burns: Yamaha Electone A-505
Rohan
Armstrong: Double Bass, Bouzouki.
Additional
Players on big Black Clouds:
Brian
O'Higgins: Acoustic Drums.
Allen
Blithe: Banjo
David
McCann: Telecaster .
And
on St. Patrick
Joleen
McLaughlin: Harp.
listen:
http://captaina.bandcamp.com/album/new-country
listen:
http://captaina.bandcamp.com/album/new-country
