Bride's made

Morning Bride third album recording sessions, February 2017

It's been a while since we recorded new material - let alone a new album - and so the homespun sessions here in our seaside bolthole a couple of weeks ago were somewhat cathartic. For the first time, the studio came to us, with our good friend and sound engineer / producer Pete Hughes over from Leeds to take care of the technical business, and long-time Bride lead guitarist and as-good-as-brother Pete Bennett up from London to sprinkle his stardust over my just-hatched nestlings. With eight songs written, formatted and pretty much arranged, we spent a few days prior to the tapes rolling getting to know them and making them fit together as a unit, which was perfect preparation to dive headlong into the recording.

Despite unforeseen technical challenges, we still managed to get the lion's share down; particularly satisfying in that we were truly on it from start to finish - from the seemingly endless drum/percussion tracks I put down in a weirdly effective trance-like state, through to all my electric rhythm guitars (which, with no bass, occupy much of the mid and lower frequencies and are genuinely the rhythm of most of the songs), through to all of Pete's beautiful guitar playing (applied in often unexpected dabs and splashes, as you would hope from an artist of some standing), through to the majority of Amity's spine-tingling lead vocals.

We've been singing and playing together for many years, and even though I write the songs (and specifically their words and melodies) with her at the forefront of my mind, I still can't get used to the magic with which she breathes life into them (nor the focus she applies, with most vocal tracks in the can at the second or third take). We still have a fair bit to do before we can think about the mixing process, but we're aiming to finish the all the recording next month with a wrapping-up session over in Leeds, and then plough on the mixing a few weeks after that; so we're roughly on schedule to have the album done and dusted by the summer.

Without wanting to go into it too much before it's fully fledged and independent, it's something I and we are very excited about; it has a warm, dark, paired-back and fragile sound all of its own, reflecting the subject matter and circumstances it came from, and it showcases our strengths as individuals and as a unit better than anything we've done before. More, naturally, to follow....

in the meantime, here's the first two albums over on our bandcamp page.

Jackdaw, Filey - 10th March 2017

I'm spending a fair bit of time up on the highest, most northerly point of the Observatory recording area at the moment (hopefully more on this to come), and an otherwise fairly quiet session this morning was made much more interesting by this Jackdaw, which dropped in for a couple of minutes on the clifftop path and then left north soon after, thankfully giving me a close-up evil-eye fly-by. Lack of time restricts how much subspecific delving I can do at the minute, but I wanted to get the photos up now to encourage informed comment from those who are more familiar with them than I - specifically, is this within the range of variation for C.m.monedula (Nordic Jackdaw), or is it a potentially better fit for C.m.soemmerringii (Russian Jackdaw)? The standard reference (Offereins 2003 - see here), Martin's (and Alan's) Birding Frontiers musings (see here and here) and a scan of various others (though not extensive!) certainly provide various reasons to chin scratch.... more hopefully later. If anyone would like to comment, I'm at nazemark-at-yahoo.com or @Fileybirder.

(The above photo shows the initial distant views, and when taken with the other photos also illustrates the symmetrical collar/neck patterns from both sides)

Weasely distracted

A sunny, cold and otherwise quiet morning session on Carr Naze and the Brigg was made all the more entertaining thanks to this comedy beast tearing around the grassland in staccato circuits, apparently tempted by the live mole action unfolding just beneath the surface. No clear shots or particularly decent photos (there are better here from a while ago), but no matter - just a pleasure to watch.

Snow boots

Before, during and after bathtime, this freshly-arrived Snow Bunting emphatically could not give less of one as I sat down next to it on Carr Naze this morning. After a few minutes, the bird approached so close as to render my camera useless - at which point, it came right up to my foot, picked seeds from around where my boot met the ground, hopped over my boot, and did the same on the other side. Yes, I am still grinning like an idiot.

Carrion Crabby

Ah, Sanderlings. As you might have noticed, I can't seem to get bored with them, and any brief wander down to the beach in winter stands a fair chance of turning into a wet-kneed communion with them. With plenty of storms and heavy currents of late, there's been a lot of detritus along the shoreline, some of it (ex-) marine life, including crabs. Sanderlings clearly have a taste for them, and I found birds fiercely guarding a claw or a shell from others in their group, which made for another memorable session with them just a few minutes from the front door.

Aiming high, digging deep

So, we're only a few weeks away from race day out there in the shimmering Negev, and it's time to start twisting a few arms and calling in a few favours.... If you're not yet familiar with the Champions of the Flyway and our team's attempts to raise £3000 (as part of an amazing effort involving many other teams and many lovely people fighting for the same cause), then have a quick look at the background info here, and then have a look at Mike's write-up on Birdguides re:our team over here.

If you can't be arsed to read the background information, well I'm prepared to forgive you, but only if you trust me when I say it's a wonderful cause that combats the mass killing of migratory birds by direct action, education and on-the-ground community efforts - and only if you head to the link below and donate whatever you can (it only takes a few seconds). Thanks a million in advance, we really appreciate it :-)

Donate here!

February Blues

It's windy as hell up here on the North Yorkshire coast right now, and with plenty of Fulmars prospecting the ledges and rafting on the sea, a session at Gristhorpe Bay (the highest and most northerly point within our recording area) seemed like a good idea. As hoped, they were doing their beautiful, effortless hang-gliding thing below and alongside me, which was easily good enough as you might imagine; but then it got better still, when this subtly smoky Blue briefly swung by, said hi and buggered off out to sea.

As a scarce, often hard-won passage seabird, Blue Fulmars are always a pleasure to see, but rarely do I get the opportunity to fill the frame and look one in the eye; kind of the opposite of February blues, then. Below is a 'regular' bird, taken from the same spot a few seconds later, for comparison.

This Wheelie's on Fire

Sanderling is a lovely name, but then 'Wheelie-bird' or 'Wheelie' is almost impossible to disassociate once it's been put in your head (thanks to Amity many years ago). Take your pick, but what a wonderful species, in every respect.