Music and Words

I’m gonna be working as stage manager at a couple of shows this summer which’ll be good experience I’m sure. Following the fun had last year will be the Eastleigh Festival on 10-12th July, 3 days of line checks, channel lists and occasional monitor mixing. Later in the year there’s a special one off show featuring Winchester legend Frank Turner at Winchester Guildhall on 28th October.

Frank Turner’s official website ::here::

The work has kicked back off with a vengence! I’ve had a bunch of shows at the Tower including Mark Thomas, I’ll be Bert, The Hamsters and Craobh Ruh.

I’ve been doing other live work too, including a cracking intimate show with Polly and the Billets Doux at the Atlas in Earl’s Court and a wonderful two days spent recording Fleet Foxes at the Roundhouse in Camden.

The Fleet Foxes shows were an absolute treat as might be expected- notwithstanding an unknown member of the inhouse crew turning off the power to my 24 track recorder in mid session- losing everything for the Monday show. Happily the Tuesday show was a stormer and I was delighted to get the audio in the can without incident. Many thanks to Pavel, Paul, Steve Wangford and Will at FX Rentals.

Hello there,
Happy New Year, and welcome to my blog. I’ve noticed a couple of problems with archived images, so I’ll sort those out asap.

Since the last post I’ve been doing more of my usual work, and some pretty new stuff too. Here’s a rundown:

• Recording, mixing and mastering a 5 track ep for a heavy metal outfit called ‘From the Deep’ from Newcastle.
• Going back out to Austria on tour with Scarlet Soho in preparation for the launch of their second album later in the year.
• Co-running The Tower for much of the first season in Winchester with a colleague after our boss became seriously ill. I’m very glad to say he’s back to full strength again now. This was a big challenge but ultimately also a rewarding time.

I’ll be putting more content up here soon- I’ve just upgraded the site’s backend and when that’s worked through there’ll be some more pics and other content for your viewing..

Seeya later,

DW

Well, once again it’s been a while but I’m back again. Suffice it to say I’ve been rather busy and unfortunately the site’s taken a major back seat..There’ve been live shows- UK festival work with The Boy Least Likely To and some fun in Paris with US pop rockers The Little Ones. There’s been a studio relocation and some band recording, and lastly a major piece of work helping to refurbish and relaunch a Winchester venue called The Tower.

More to follow here soon. Meantime the website for the relaunched Tower is available ::here::

The Boy Least Likely to have a site you can check out ::here::

And the Little Ones site is ::here::

Like I say, more soon. Honest,
DW

Hello there,
I’m pleased to announce that I will shortly be taking delivery of a new parametric EQ for my mastering room. It’s an Avalon Design AD2055, and it’s a thing of beauty. It’s also a very good eq.

The geeky amongst you might want to take a look at some information ::here::

Hello there,
I had a short time back in the studio after my holiday and then I was off around the UK and out to Austria with Scarlet Soho, but now I’m back again. Pictures will follow.

I’ve been able to move to a larger studio space recently and soon this will be equipped with a selection of new and upgraded gear for my mastering work. The first band to get material mastered in my new room will be the excellently named ‘From the Deep’, who hail from the North East. I’ll be recording a session with them and then mixing it at Valley Studios with their new outboard and monitoring facilities, before mastering it in my new mastering room.

Hello again,
Well it’s been a while, but I’m back in the Studio now after a holiday in France and it’s good to be home. Last week I was in house for a great show from the ex Green on Red Guitarist Chuck Prophet supported by Richmond Fontaine’s wonderful Willy Vlautin and Paul Brainard.

Bank holiday Monday saw a packed outdoor show at the Hobbit in Southampton headlined by Miles Hunt and Erika Nockals, and soon I’m off to the newly opened Tower at Kings’ (formerly the Tower Arts Centre) in Winchester for some prep in my role as Technical Manager.

Take a look at the Tower at Kings’ new website ::here::

- Richmond Fontaine’s MySpace ::here::

- Miles Hunt’s MySpace ::here::

Hello there,
I found this article from Alan Wilder (ex Depeche Mode) recently. I think he makes some very pertinent points about the direction modern recording is heading in..

If you’d like, you can read more :: here ::

DW

Hello there,
I just found out that the Head of Steam ep I recorded, mixed and mastered for Polly and the Billets Doux has entered the indie charts at number 27. This is a significant achievement for the band, and I’m pretty pleased about it too!

Take a look at the evidence :: here ::