Horny Goat

We headed up to my parents place in Uxbridge, Ontario to set-up shop in a barn/cabin that my dad and i built together. It was my dad's project and i was glad to be part of its construction as much as i could. It was constructed out of barn board slabs, rough hewn wood and old posts, found discarded or given by friends from old homes. There is a smell that lingers inside which is deeply appealing to me. Something to do with the feel of the earth, the natural, the old ways enjoyed by modern minds. Even during its construction i had always envisioned the band recording in there. There is an open space big enough to set-up gear in an inward facing circle. And so, after clearing our schedules we headed up to my dads place for one weekend to record fifteen tracks that we had written and readied while waiting for lawyers and labels to do their thing with our still un-released new record 'Nothing to Admit.'

Gathering the required gear and substances, we headed the 45 minute drive north of Toronto in three separate cars, arriving in the early afternoon beneath the heat conjured by the full force of the overhanging sun. We began setting up right away and had all the wiring done in a few hours complete with level checks and stopping to occasionally trouble shoot and crack the cap off another beer. 

We did all the takes live off the floor over the course of the next three days (only recording during the daylight hours), and then continuing to pummel our bodies around a blazing fire at night and where our feet took us around the property. My parents and siblings were very kind largely letting us do our own thing inside our little building dubbed the 'Horny Goat' by my Dad. 

Most of the songs were fully realized when we pushed the record button, but some were works in progress. 

List of tracks:

Nothing stopping us now (Sharks)

Roman Candles

Collapse

Everything is a daydream

My Mountain; Pilgrimage

French Cross

Gorgeous Eyes

Terr'r

Dead Heart

Scaredy Cat

Peripheral love

Rain Blues

Geoff Riff (working title)

and then we recorded two covers just for fun:

Christine's tune by the Flying Burrito Brothers

Dead Flowers by the Rolling Stones

They all turned out remarkably well, the sound of the room was great and we used minimal mics so we could record eight tracks (the most we had available at one time) at once. Its interesting to hear how all the songs stacked up against each other during playback, they are all coming from a certain timeframe and mood and somewhere in it all there is a common tone about our current mind space. I wonder what others will read into them. 

We have had opportnity now to try out some of the new songs on crowds (the inevitable next step) some always go over better than others etc. but the response has been. Its the freshness that keeps it all fresh, makes sense doesn't it?