Seattle Studio Diary. Post One

We're in and settled at Bearcreek studios outside of Seattle. (Google 'Bearcreek Studios' for a virtual tour of the place and pictures of Lionel Richie sitting where I am now.) It really is the wilderness out here. The only shops within range of our log cabin studio - where the roof is populated by owls and the lake outside is frozen - are minmarts run by women who must be inbred or else have too many teeth for their too small mouths. Despite all this, cellist Joe - king of the leftfield - still opted to buy a four pack of 'goat weed' aphrodisiacs on arrival in case any of the local sister/brother lovers needed chemically convincing that he is indeed a good egg.

My purchases have been much less lively, but have made me exceedingly happy none the less. I did the tourist thing, as tourists should, and bought everything under the sun in the hick minimart that I love and can't get in the UK (no doubt because it is banned for very, very good health reasons.) So, after I'd eaten a huge corn dog, many Cheetos and drunk a gallon of Mountain Dew I felt good and ready for the day's work.

The day's work was essentially setting up. A great drum tech named Greg - old, bald and armed with expressions like "this is whacked" and "this is really fucked up", which I think means 'rather good' or something similar - tuned in two kits for me to play here in the next few weeks. After this, the guitar, bass, vocals and cello (which Joe has hired over here) were all dialled in and we're now just about ready for the first session proper, which will be focused on tracking 'Tickle Me Pink'. We're going for something in between the live version and the version we released on 'The Epic Tale of Tom and Sue' and Im pretty confident we can get it down. Im sure it will be "whacked" or "really fucked up". More when I know more. Good.