Mixing at "State Of The Ark"

We're sitting here in the beautiful "State Of The Ark" studios in Richmond....Alan, John and myself, listening to a near-finished mix of a song co-written with Terry Britten called "Hold On". We're hoping to come out of these two days with 4 or 5 songs mixed. The guy on the desk (a vintage EMI board that's older than me) is Chris West, an all round good guy with great ears and astonishing good humour AND patience. This place has a great pedigree. That EMI desk is the very same one used by The Rolling Stones on many of their major recordings. It was rescued from scrap by Terry Britten, and lovingly restored to its present pristine state. We have elbowed ourselves a tiny slot between Noel Gallagher and Richard Ashcroft, who love working here.

Let's talk about who played on this song:

On the drums we have Tim Bye, who I've known for several years, and used on nearly everything I've recorded. He's a really song-driven player, which makes him really easy to work with. He's on the whole album.

On bass, this is the one track NOT played on by my good friend Phil Williams....I'll give you the lowdown on him later. The bass on "Hold On" was played by Andy Carr, another guy I have played with on and off for several years. Andy has been a session player here in the UK for 20 years, and currently tours with ABC. He used his new (vintage) jazz bass on this.

Guitar: I know Phil Williams through our many many years in Tony Hadley's band, and the guitar player on the majority of the album, Richard Barrett is from that band too. Richard is a very fine musician who is a real perfectionist and student of his instrument. This album isn't about flash playing...solos are few and far between, but what he has done is provide a solid backbone to the songs with the occasional flourish.

John suggested we contact British Jazz guitarist Jim Mullen about guesting on some tracks last Summer, which resulted in him coming up to my studio and spending a very fruitful morning.

Having said there are very few solos, "Hold On" did end up needing one, so when you get to hear the track, that's Jim playing the solo. I used to go and see his band "Morrissey Mullen" down at the Half Moon in Putney in the early 80's, way before I was even on the first rung of the music business, and it was pretty cool sitting there recording him at my place.

This song has a lot of backing vocals...it's kind of somewhere between Womack & Womack and Steve Winwood if that helps. John's old friend Mae McKenna, who has sung on absolutely MASSES of hit records (and some that weren't hits too) offered to help out, and after a couple of trips down to her house with my laptop and lot's of other bits, we had all the BVs sorted.

Along with Mae, Terry Britten sings on this, as do I myself.

What else do we have? The brass.....that's my brother Simon playing Alto and Tenor along with some flugel/ soft brass I played in.

All the keyboards were done at my place using Logic, but trying to sound like I wasn't.

Look out for the snippet of the final mix I'm going to post.