Wow, that was actually a pretty tough night by our standards. Trying to crank out a song after a full days work turns out to be completely exhausting.

Mr Wizard suggested that this track is harder for us to record because it's straying outside our comfort zone. Great! That's one of the things The Curious Assembly project was meant to do.

So, how far outside our Comfort Zone?

You may know Mr Wizard as a Slide Player, a Mandolin Player and an occasional Bassist in a Roots based band (that'd be us BTW), so you might find it surprising to learn that he's a big fan of Japanese and Korean Pop.

He thinks the chords and the musical arrangements are masterful, he likes the complexity, the constant onslaught of musical ideas.  (It just makes me dizzy)

He's a huge fan of Scandal

and he's even going to see Kyary Pamyu Pamyu this weekend. YIKES!!!

Here's the sort of thing i mean.  WARNING OMG sugar coated J-pop, you were warned!!!! 

A while ago Mr Wizard decided to see if he could write a fusion Blues / J-Pop song, which is how we wound up with 'Looking Glass'.

In my usual conservative manner, I thought it was a bit risky so I said 'Hooray! It's weird! Let's do it!'

It's got your typical Blues Riff and a Super Sweet Sticky Bun chorus. ZOUNDS! 

Mr Wizard explains that 'looking glass'  doesn't entirely make it as a J-pop song, as it's not complex enough or fast enough, but for us little old chickens, it's a monstrously terrifying battle between a Slide/Harp Riff and Diabetic Coma.

So I went looking for a studio to record it in. I assessed producers, engineers, equipment, environment, sticking to  the rules of The Curious Assembly, where each song has been recorded in it's own environment, carefully selected to maximise the synergy between the...

Ok. I chose it cos it had a pirate Ship as a logo...and I have been playing Assassins Creed Black Flag.

So there.

I'm sure decisions have been made using less rational criteria.

Not many, but some.

Thus did we find ourselves under the guidance of Captain Ben as we navigated Stormy seas at Everland Studios.

Poor Theo had been up since the wee small hours and had to put in a monster effort on one of the harder drum tracks to get right.

.

We put Mr Wizard in a cupboard. Ok maybe just his amp.

Everland studios is the cleanest, neatest, tidiest studio of the project so far. A prize will be awarded shortly.

Buttons! I will make more of this in the video to follow..

Do you suffer from Wilted Candle syndrome?

Spotted this in the studio. I bet every Muso that sees this goes 'oooh...cool african drumming'

It's in French and English!

Saw this on the wall. Face it, Harmonica players have always been hip. check out those waiter style tuxedos. Play some harp and bring me my damn nachos pronto!

And yes, continuing my current trend of mashing all the vids from a session into 1, here's the vid!

This song is not finished by along shot (ARGH!) 

Cheers to Ben for trooping on despite a cold. We're about 2/3 of the way through this one.