nik newark

Hot Like Jalapenos

I've been promising to post some new music for ages, but events (and for “events” read “small yet lovable child”) have conspired against me, and prevented me not only from recording anything new, but also from having the time to upload anything almost new. But I've finally managed to upload a tune called “Cemetery Grounds”, whose heritage dates back to about 1997, when I was working on what became Nobody Knows This Is Somewhere. At the time, I didn't get around to finishing it (I have a fair few songs like this!). I finally put together a chorus sometime in 2002/2003. And I eventually recorded it in late 2004 - the entire recording session lasted less than 60 minutes (from opening the studio door to the final mixdown), which is pretty quick for something with guitars, bass, vocals, backing vocals and drums. As I recall, I used a single microphone for everything, and, due to the challenge of recording the whole thing in under an hour, just left the mic in the middle of the room, paying no attention to positioning whatsoever. I didn't bother doing any retakes when I fluffed things up. And fluff things up is what I did a lot of. And I think this lack of attention to audio quality shows in the results. So, not one of my most sensitive moments…