It's only been 6 weeks

I've been reminded it's rather a long time since my last post. 'Tis true, apologies for that but I've not had a lot to say lately that I want to air in public. But fear not, recording is underway, the wrist is holding up so far and I'll be back with more waffle soon.

Meanwhile, don't forget we're in Kendal this Saturday playing at The Brewery, could be the last Banco live show for a few months so learn to live with the regret if you decide to go to that 'other' gig in London instead...

There goes another one

Richard Wright (keyboard player with Pink Floyd if you don't know) died yesterday.

I don't have many words to say except that he was by all accounts a really lovely person and he certainly had a major influence on my musical tastes and development. It is a sad passing and my thoughts are with his family and friends who must have lost someone very special to them.

There aren't so many key figures in music who mean so much to so many people without making a big fuss about it. He seemed gentle, honest and down to earth which is pretty impressive given the world he moved in, no huge ego on display, which probably explains why I didn't find out until today. No front page headlines, no rent-a-celebrities spouting inane anecdotes on the TV news; probably how he would have wanted it.

Thank you, Richard, for all you gave me. I hope I can emulate a little of what you brought to this world.

Less is more

An eager Zen student arrives at a temple and says "I want to join the community and work to attain enlightenment. How long will it take me?"

"Ten years" replies the master.

"Well, how about if I really work and double my efforts?"

"Twenty years."

"Hey, just a moment. That's not fair! Why did you double it?"

"In your case," says the master, "I'm afraid it will be thirty years."


From "After the Ecstacy, the Laundry" by Jack Kornfield.

Back to the studio

OK, I've been quiet for some time, apologies for that but I have been busy. First I went away for a break for a week or so then since I've been back I've been doing some maintenance on my studio.

Actually, maintenance isn't quite the right word. Ever since I built the studio 10 years ago there's been a big problem with bass in there. I won't go into all the maths and acoustic theory but in a nutshell the shape and size of the room means that a lot of the bass from the speakers gets bounced back from the walls, floor and ceiling then it all meets in the middle of the room and cancels itself out. I've tried various things over the years to sort this out and made some improvement but overall I have still heard very little of what is really come out of the speakers and have had to do a lot of mixing by guesswork and checking on other systems in other rooms.

All this suddenly got a lot worse a few years ago when I decided to start experimenting with 5.1 surround sound mixing. Again without going into the theory, the new speaker system I put in made the problem even worse and for the last year or so I have been scratching my head trying to work out what I could possibly try that I haven't tried already. Roll on to this year, and specifically the car crash in Turkey which put my immediate plans on hold, and I decided that as I had a bit of time with nothing else to do I would have yet another crack at tackling the problem.

So, I thought about it, I looked at what I'd done already, I talked to other people who know about these things and I read loads about similar problems. And I came to the conclusion, again, that what I had done before should really be doing the job.

But clearly it wasn't so what to do next? Well, eventually flawless logic won the day and I figured that if what I had done already should be working then I should do that again, in other words just do more of it. A lot more in fact. So, yet again without going into all the theory, I got hold of a large amount of acoustic material (mineral insulation used in the building trade if you must know) and built myself a load more bass traps. Now, this was actually quite fun as we had a few days of really lovely weather so being out in the garden sawing up pieces of wood was very pleasant. Unlike dealing with the insulation material which is made of kind of fibreglass and really itches if it gets in your skin. Picture the scene: me in the garden wielding a Black and Decker wearing shorts and sandals. And a pair of rubber gloves. (A prize to anyone who can convincingly recreate that in Photoshop).

OK, that's the porn out of the way.

So, did it make any difference I hear you say? Is my subwoofer shaking the room like Concorde on steroids? Well, frankly, yes. Really, at last, after 10 bloody years I've cracked it and finally my room sounds like it's supposed to and I can hear what I'm doing again. Makes me wonder how the hell I've managed to turn out all those album in there, I hope they've been sounding OK to everyone... For those of you who like to look at such things I've even taken a picture (of the studio, not me wearing rubber gloves).


Incidentally, more good news is that my damaged wrist, which I was told could be out of action for 6 months, is making remarkably quick progress and you'll be pleased to know that I'm planning to get back in the studio and start recording again as soon as I've finished tidying up the building site.

Which means even more good news: I should have plenty to blog about for the next few months...

Apparently I said...

I know I've been a bit quiet lately and I'm afraid I can't think of anything interesting to say still, must be the weather or something. And, I'm about to go away for a week or so so won't be posting anything for a while again but I figure you might want something to ponder in the meantime so take a look at this.

There have been some technical problems with it, hopefully resolved by the time you try to read it (if it still isn't working check later as the are on it), but it means I haven't even seen it myself so I'm trusting Jonny to have written something nice (and trusting that I wasn't spouting total drivel the day we did the interview!).

Enjoy, I'm sure I was being very interesting...

Seatbelts part 2

It seems my initial diagnosis of 'no real damage' after the taxi crash in Istanbul was a bit premature. Since then I've developed some serious pain in my left wrist which the doctor tells me is soft tissue damage (tendon, to be precise) and which could take up to 6 months to get better. If I completely rest it.

It's not the end of the world, although being left-handed it does mean I'm having to learn to do all sorts of things with my right hand which is kind of interesting, frustrating and frankly amusing at different times, but it is rather unfortunate to say the least. Particularly as I was planning to work on some new guitar-based music over the next few months.

This year is turning into a bit of a farce, actually. In January I started on 2 new projects, one a collaboration with some African musicians hopefully leading to touring and possibly an album, and the other a collaboration with a fantastic singer to record an album together. Both of these projects folded for one reason or another (to be precise the collaboration with the singer is only on hold until she can find the time to prioritise it) and plan C was the guitar-based stuff which has now gone down the pan, too. Add to that a tiny handful of live dates across the summer, some of which cancelled themselves before even getting up and running, and it all looks like a very empty year.

Funny how it goes, eh? Still, it does give me time to do other things (er, watch rather a lot of tennis for example) and I'm sure the enforced creative break will lead to bigger and better things in the end. But the in the meantime there may not be much new to report from planet Banco for a while so I hope you can all bear with me.

It all started with...

I'm off to a big family 'event' this weekend so not much time to write anything, not looking forward to it to be honest but I'll tell you about that after it's happened. But I thought I would just quickly stir up the waters of controversy by giving a list of 10 albums which have massively influenced my musical output.

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Pink Floyd - any of them before The Wall
The Orb - The Orb's Adeventures Beyond The Ultraworld
Roy Harper - Stormcock
Erik B and Rakim - Paid In Full (Coldcut Remix) (Ok, it's not an album but it did change my life)
Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack
John Mclaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Jan Garbarek and Hariprasad Chaurasia - Making Music
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
Massive Attack - Blue Lines

Obviously this is just a tiny sample of stuff that I've stolen ideas from, I mean been influenced by, and in the late 80s and early 90s we were mostly listening to 12"s and compilations so a lot of key tunes not mentioned here. (One which really must get a mention though is 'Everything Starts With An E' by E-Zee Posse, those were the days...). But anyway, there you go, nothing shocking I hope.

So, your homework this week is to work out which Banco tracks were obviously influenced by which artists (and no, you can't have 'Celestine' and Pink Floyd).