Recording - Day 2

Up bright and early, tanked up on coffee, I slipped the rough mixes into my CD player, and was happily surprised at how my sleep-freshened ears perked up at the sounds. A somewhat more leisurely journey up to Borough, fielding calls from bandmates who were poorly or only just climbing out of bed. I told Terry the night before "if you want to start at about 2, then tell them all to get here about 1pm" and I was right. Even though I stopped at Sainsburys to pick up supplies (more chocolate, soup, ginger tea, honey and lemons to keep our throats in good shape, and last minute impulse purchases of mince pies and beetroot crisps, both of which turned out to be incredibly popular) I was still early and had to rouse Terry out of bed.

One by one, the Shimuras trekked up the stairs, looking fabulously glamourous for the recording session. (We found out that David was a professional photographer and designer so we pleaded with him to take photos of us.) Marianna had a new fur stole, Miss AMP had her mink, and Anna turned up complete with feather boa. (Oh god, I hope PETA never get on to us.)

We had to take it in turns to record, as there was only one mic and one stand, so we built up the harmonies in layers. I'd do a guide vocal first, with everyone lying on the bed and giggling in the background. (Some of this backchat may even make it to the final mix.) Then we'd do them in order of pitch - Marianna on contralto and Anna on Alto, swapping leads, then my second soprano harmony, then Miss AMP gliding and glissando over the top.

The rest of us sat in the living room, listening to music, reading the paper, waiting for our turn like the waiting room for the dentist - but much more fun. I got halfway through The Lost Rivers Of London, and even managed to fact check a couple of errors about the tributaries of the Fleet. That's the nice thing about recording in a house - a better quality of reading material than the usual recording studio fare. (Except for Kurt Ralske's Victorian pr0n collection, but that is the exception to the rule.)

Then we all came in the studio and lay in the bed and listened to the playbacks. Rough mixes, in need of a bit of judicious editing (I trust Terry on that count), but we could tell they were going to be good. I'm so excited to hear the final results!

And then we all got glammed up and David took photos of us. Such a change from the i-D photoshoot last week! I actually enjoyed myself - or rather, enjoyed Anna's clowning around, pretending to be our ChinBra. The contact sheet (wow, digital photography has come a long way!) looked fantastic. David managed to make us look both sexy and fun. Hurrah! One stop shopping for all our demo needs! What lovely people! What a great weekend! Too bad I'm so exhausted now...

Watch our MySpace for the final results when they are finished.