Q – Thanks for the new studio journal, it’s a bit ‘techy’ but should soothe our impatience just fine. I am curious how long it took to do MIAFL, and contrary to many fans opinions, I would not call it “minimalist”. I think you did an exquisite job “sculpting” your songs with the ears of a master! How would you characterize Mick Glossop’s contributions?
A – It took a year or so to get the studio working but that was prior to MIAFL, in anticipation, I suppose. Once I was home and off the road it took a couple of months to get things working the way I wanted – I had not worked with eMagic Logic with ASIO on G4 Mac before… There were some hardware problems which slowed things down – weird noises and distortions – which were eventually (about 2 weeks before MIAFL completion) diagnosed as coming from a faulty TC Electronics Powercore PCI Card, which had been installed by the folk who sold me the computer…
Then it was about 6 weeks of playing with sounds to get something close to the idea I’d had in my head the last couple of years.
Then it was about 10 weeks of recording for me.
Then about a month with the guest musicians.
Then about a month in London to mix and master with Mick Glossop.
I may have overstated/undrstated a few of the problem related delays (I’m still mad) but the whole thing took about half a year. Writing it started about 4 years before that.
Mick Glossop’s contribution was the same as always. He does the best he can with the material I deliver him. Most all of the time I’m amazed that what he plays me back was actually me.. The album could have been a little bassier. My rough mixes were. Maybe they were muddy. MG must have thought so because there is a clarity to his mixes that mine did not have. Eventually I agreed. Trauma is never far from me. On this next record we will experiment on how bassy/muudy we can have the mixes be whilst retaining clarity. I am looking forward to it.