Honeybone does Toyland Recording studio

When I was little , I always thought studio recording was for musicians who had 'made it'. As it was the '90s, this was probably an accurate truth (or you had to have a very rich parent/spouse/cousin/bandmate). I would sing into my little hairbrush pretending I was Sporty Spice (like every other tween girl in the late 90s) and dream about the day I would set foot in a professional recording studio. Granted, that was as part of a Spice Girls rip off girl group and not the drummer of a garage rock band, but nonetheless. Twas a dream I never thought possible.

Fast forward to 2008, I got my first taste of 'professional' recording with my first band in Dunedin 'Captain Dave and The Pirate Hookers'. We did a spot of recording at Otago University's Albany Street Studios, and from there on in I developed a love/hate relationship with recording.

Since then I have been lucky enough to experience many hours recording music. For Honeybone's first EP 'Soul On Fire', we packed up Drew's recording gear and set off for his parents holiday house in Moeraki. Five days later we had the drums and bass tracks down. We finished all the guitar and vocal overdubs back in Dunedin in various practice spaces and bedrooms.

Then in 2011, we decided the time was ripe for a full length Honeybone album (yes, the same one we are working on 2 years later). Drew and I were doing our honours year at Otago University, and both had to record/produce an album. I decided to do my solo stuff, and Drew took on the immensity that is our album. Two years later and we have aaaaalmost reached the end of the recording process.

Why the hell has it taken so long, I hear you ask? Well, first of all, our second guitarist Josh left the band near the end of 2011. Then we moved to Melbourne (and spent all our money). Then we had to get jobs to pay for recording (and the van and rent etc). Finally, two years later we had enough time and money to book in two days at Toyland Recording Studios in Northcote, run by engineer Adam Calaitzis. And what a two days they were! As we weren't completely new to the recording process, we had rehearsed almost every day in the two weeks previous to the booking, so we were tight.

Listening back. Photo by Paul Emery

Still, the Honeybone kids are only human (hard to believe ain't it), and we all made a few mistakes. And this is where having a seasoned, professional studio engineer on hand saves SO MUCH TIME. Back in Dunedin with Drew at the helm, if we ever wanted to redo a drum fill or guitar lick, it would take Drew a while to find the part and splice the new part in, since he was fairly new to Protools. This time, Adam would be all 'we can fix that' and get it done in ten seconds. He does this stuff everyday. He knows all about it.

We got all of the base tracks (drums, bass and rhythm guitar) all done in the first day. We decided to do it live, to save time and sanity, plus some songs just had to be live. We were stoked we did it all in one day, considering one of the songs we were doing was our 10 minute long epic of wankery, 'Espionage', and the first time we attempted to record it, it took a whole afternoon. We got it down in one and a half takes. Our chins were floor level.

Bass tastic. Photo by Paul Emery

I mentioned at the beginning that I have a love/hate relationship with recording. Let me explain ya this. On one hand, I love the atmosphere, smell and feel of recording studios. I love the static buzz and heat that eminates from the preamps. Seeing my drumkit rigged up with a shit tonne of mics sends shivers down my spine. Listening to Drew and Peter decide what amp, guitar, or pedal to use for each song isn't as tedious as it normally is (just kidding fellas). What I do not love is that moment where you sit down in the control room to listen to your take and you hear yourself play. You thought you nailed it. You thought you were the best fucking drummer in the world. Then all those mics rigged to your kit pick up EVERYTHING, and kicks you in the crotch. Ghost notes you thought sounded kickass on the snare now sound like nails in a glass jar being shaken by a toddler. That fill you thought was awesome was slightly out of time, and screwed your face up for you as protools tells you how much you suck.

Drew fixing one part or another. Photo by Paul Emery

Well, usually it's not that bad. I am my worst critic, and an extreme perfectionist when it comes to my work. It's a good way to be, but being this way also makes you want to die a little inside when you hear your takes up-close-and-personal-like. I liken it to one of those little curvy mirrors that make your pores look like sink holes and make you want to rip your skin off. You know. THOSE mirrors. They show you up right close and personal. And these days that's what recording is about. We want to be right next to the singers mouth, we want to feel their breath on our face. We want to hear all of the intricacies that you wouldn't hear in a crowded room. Because when you're on your morning commute on a dreary weekday you want to feel close to someone. You want that intimacy. Unfortunately, like the curvy mirror, you will also get all of the imperfections. You will get the blackheads and the blocked pores. The chin hairs and pimples. And that's what rock 'n' roll is about.

DRUUUUMS. Photo by Paul Emery

I had a hard time remembering that while listening back to our takes. In a world where everything is polished and perfect, it's hard to accept being human. Nonetheless, we got takes we were all happy with and finished the first day.

The first half of the second day was Drew doing guitar overdubs. He is whizkid on that guitar, lemme tell ya. He already knew what he was going to do, more or less, so that didn't take too long. Then onto the vocals. Drew got his scream on and I tried to make my girly voice into something a bit grittier. What resulted was getting stuff caught in my throat and my eyes watering while I tried not to cough onto the very expensive vocal mike. It sounded good though, and that's all that counts. We laid down some keys on 'Touch The Sky' too, which is going to sound badass.

Drew recording vocals.

We got the majority of everything done. This weekend Drew and I will be finishing off the vocals and keys parts for the rest of the tracks, and tweaking things that need redone. Then the recording process will be finished.

And then we get to mix, master, sort out album artwork, etc. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Album shaped light. Maybe in the form of vinyl. WHO KNOWS WHAT WE'LL DO.

Keep an eye out on Facebook and Twitter, and the handy ol' blog. We know this has taken ages, and we thank you for your patience.

Xxx

A New 'Bone House

WE MOVED INTO A HOUSE

It's pretty cool. It has '70s style orange and brown carpet, aqua green walls and a garage. Peter found a classy as apartment just down the road in a warehouse conversion building.Thus why I have been too darn busy to blog. Yesterday I even bought and found a use for power tools. But now is the hour where I blog again. So don't fret and stuff.

So now we are rid of the terrifying downstairs neighbours, we are free to make noise again. I might just set up my drums and give them a bashing sometime soon. Drew has already turned the garage into his 'man-cave' and set up all his amp building gear, which is great because now it doesn't clutter up our bedroom. Winning.

Drew got a job working at the Blackburn branch of Cranbourne Music, so if you're ever up that way on a Thursday, Saturday or Sunday, call in and say hi. Drew is finally getting paid to talk about guitars all day (something he does anyway) and also gets to make sweet as videos such as this (I especially love the somewhat amplified kiwi accent):

Now that Drew is a man of means he works 7 days a week (since he's kept his other job). This doesn't leave a lot of time for extra curricular activities, or recording. Which means the final stage of recording the album won't be finished for a while, since I work Mon-Fri, Drew is Mon-Sun and Peter is whenever he is rostered possibly Mon-Sun between 7am and 10 pm. Annual leave is few and far between for all of us.

We try to not let life get in the way of art. But at the moment (especially with all the moving/bond paying), we need the cash. To pay for studio time, and less important things like food and rent (and the sweet as organ we're getting for our dining room).

I found this photo whilst going through old HB pics last night. This is at DV8 sometime last year. I thought it was cool.

In spite of the recording hiccup, things are still happening in the world of HB. A few weeks ago we recorded some demos at a practice space aaaaaages away (somewhere in the South East suburbs). The purpose of those is to listen to them and come up with better parts and production stuff without having to practice all the time (a great idea since none of us really have a lot of time). We are also planning a photo shoot sometime soon (Andy Weston, photographer extraordinaire is going to take some snaps of our pretty faces), if anyone has ideas for a shoot, let me know! All I can think of is the dull band-in-front-of-a-white-or-brick-wall cliche. I've been bit artistically challenged lately.

And to top it all off we've got some gigs coming up in the next few weeks. Next Tuesday (that's the 23rd of April) we're playing a gig with Sierra Leone and Karl Leedon at the Brunswick Hotel. It's free entry and we're headlining at 10pm (it's a school night but school is for fools). Here is the Facebook event. We're also playing a warehouse party in Yarraville on the 27th, more on that one to come.

After those gigs it's bye bye Aussie for ten days while Drew and I go on a holiday back to our home town of Dunedin and catch up with all the bros and hos down there. I seriously can't wait, I haven't had a holiday in over a year.

Lastly, here's a piece I wrote for The Factory about crowd funding, it's pretty much an expansion on the last blog. It's got statistics and everything, so you know it's totes legit. Unlike this blog.

Until next time
xxx

A Friend In Need Is A Friend With Jumper Leads

Sharing and giving and having and receiving.

Obligatory Friends reference.

I'm sure all of you have had to ask a favour of a family member, friend or stranger. When you ask in a polite, non obtrusive manner, whoever you have asked will generally help you out (unless they are a dick, or genuinely can't help). Asking for help is something a lot of people struggle with. No one likes to be vulnerable. The fear of hearing 'no' is always there, the fear of failure and rejection will always rear its ugly head.

Today the subject of the HB blog is asking. Specifically, is it ok for an artist (by that I mean musician/writer/performer/visual artist etc) to ask for financial help to further their art/career.

I know I probably harp on about her a bit, but this is something EVERYONE should see. This is what I hope to be the future of the music biz. Amanda Palmer's talk 'The Art of Asking' at the TED conference in California last week was inspiring and full of hope for the young buck musicians like your friends at Honeybone. The speech has gone viral.

Please watch it, its 10 or so minutes of awesomeness. Even if you dislike her music, she's one hell of a public speaker.

If the above video doesn't work, here is the youtube link

The basic gist is: the question isn't how do we make people pay for music, how do we LET them pay for music. In 2012, Amanda Palmer made global headlines by raising almost 1.2 million dollars (US) through crowd funding website Kickstarter for her new album 'Theatre Is Evil'. About 25,000 people backed the project, including yours truly.

Crowd funding has opened up an entirely new way to distribute and pay for music. Amanda (we're on first name basis now she's retweeted me) used the Kickstarter as a kind of preorder for the album, with rewards ranging from $1 digital downloads to an artbook, vinyl packages, 'mailbox invasion' art packages and the list goes on. That's right, we could CHOOSE how much we wanted to pay for her music. And you still can on her bandcamp. And you can on ours.

By not having a hard sticker price on our music, both Amanda Palmer and us kids at Honeybone have found that people have an overwhelming streak of generosity when they are given the CHOICE to pay for something or not. When we put our single 'Don't Need You' up on our bandcamp, we made it a 'pay what you want' option. We knew we wouldn't get many downloads if we made it a set price, so we decided it should be free. And guess what? People paid for it! Mostly they were our mates, but one lovely lady whom I have never physically met paid for it, purely on the basis of the music. And that feels good. Because we didn't MAKE her.

Think of that feeling you get when you give your last $2 coin to an awesome busker or street performer. Knowing the money goes directly to them makes you feel a bit good, doesn't it? No one's making you pay. So is it shameful that they are on the street, performing for passersby and loose change?

Amanda Palmer says her days as a Living Statue in Harvard Square, Boston taught her a lot about being a professional musician. Especially how to deal with the people that did and still do yell at her 'Get a job!!' from their cars/computer screens. She copped a lot of criticism for raising so much money on Kickstarter, and then asking her fans to come play onstage with her for tickets and beer and hugs. People thought now she's a 'rich rockstar', she should pay everyone who plays. Which is a fair enough point, to the people that don't know the relationship she has with her fans. She connects with them directly, through her blog, Twitter and her shows. She asked them to help her, and they did. Because she helped them. In so many ways.

An illutration form of Amanda's talk for those of you on the go.  By  Fever Picture

So Honeybone had a crisis (in my opinion, I was FREAKING OUT) on Saturday night. We had a gig and oops, we left the van lights on. Classic error. Everyone does it once. Not many will do it twice. My mind was running over the possible solutions. We didn't need to take drums or a bass amp, so we could get a taxi? Shit, Drew's massive amp cab is in the van, parked 5 blocks away, not exactly feasible for a taxi (that may or may not show up). We had a battery charger, but there wasn't enough time to charge it up before the gig. And we don't have jumper leads. Fail.

Thus I proceeded to the depths of my phone contacts, feverishly scrolling, trying to remember who has a car, who would be home and who would have jumper leads. Enter drum extraordinaire and vintage radio collector Tom Hendry. What a champ. I called him up and ten minutes later he was jump starting our van. I asked for help and he helped us. Of course, he's an awesome guy so it's not a huge surprise he came and helped, but it's still fucking great. His band is called Son of Set, and they're playing tomorrow night at the Vineyard. You should go see them, they are awesome. We got to the gig a sneaky 5 minutes before we were supposed to start. Luckily the boys from headliner Cotangent (one of the best freaking bands in Melbourne) didn't mind in the slightest. And we played. And it rocked. And everything rocked.

Said rockage. Photo by Heath Gillespie of Cotangent

We wouldn't have been able to play the gig if it hadn't been for Tom. Amanda Palmer wouldn't have been able to release her album if it wasn't for her fans. One example is small, and one is on a scale I can't even comprehend. But both have the same basic principle. Ask and you shall receive. Be a good person and you will receive goodness.

Asking for help, or monetary remuneration for artistic services shouldn't be seen as begging. Busking isn't begging. Playing gigs isn't begging. Crowd funding isn't begging. Let's stop thinking of it as begging. Let's think of it as what Amanda Palmer would think. ASKING.

And also we should all probably think about investing in a nice set of jumper leads.

X

Sunday is a day for a blog post.

Currently I am sitting on our Cowch (a sofa with cow print, it's as awesome as it sounds), listening to Drew mix 'Edge of The Sun' after we finally finished recording all the vocals. And my oh my, it's sounding pretty nice. So I thought I should probably do something productive. Why not update the blog with what we've been up to in the last two weeks, I thought to myself. And yes, that's what I'll do.

Amazing Cowch

We've played a couple of gigs, recorded some stuff, had some band practices. It's been a busy couple of weeks. And this next week coming up is even busier, with Peter's 'season' of concerts (he's going to an average of one a week for the next six weeks I think) and SOUNDWAVE! I'm really very excited, as I'm a bogan from way back and finally get to see Metallica, who have been on my bucket list since I learnt 'Enter Sandman' on drums when I was 14. And I missed out on tickets when they came down under last time so I owe it to my 14 year old self. Plus I'm a bogan. I'm gonna headbang the shit out of Soundwave. If I could, I would grow a Handle Bar moustache. But as I am a woman, I'll have to settle for a makeshift mullet and Metallica tshirt (black of course).

Bogane Chic

On Valentines Day we played a gig on Sydney Road. It was fun, our mates got their own special private show, as the other bands we played with decided not to watch our set, and took their crowd outside to listen to the DJ that was playing out there. It was a pretty loose set, there wasn't a lot of foldback and I didn't have time to set my drums up properly (and I played badly).  I decided it was a good thing no one watched us, and we got paid (which was funny cause all our mates got in for free so I don't know who's money that was). There was also one girl watching who I didn't know who caught the whole set, and got a download card afterwards. Whoever you are, random girl from that night, you are cool. All it takes is one person to come up afterwards and say they liked it, and everything seems a bit better. It's a shame that none of the other bands even came in for one song, especially as the first band were talking about 'supporting local music' all throughout their set. That's not really a good attitude to have. They were a good band though. But if musicians aren't supporting their fellow musicians, what else do we have?

On Friday we played the Valleyarm Showcase at the Vineyard in St. Kilda. And what a turn around from our last gig! The place was packed, all the bands were awesome and supportive, and Honeybone were tight.
We gave away 24 copies our newly printed single (more on that later), with the help of Ashleigh and Rory from Valleyarm. I cannot emphasise how awesome the guys from Valleyarm are, they were so helpful in getting everything organised (they even brought us drinks). If you or anyone you know get asked to play at this monthly gig at the Vineyard, do it. Very lovely, helpful people. Valleyarm Distribution are an digital music distribution company, who distribute to 200 online music stores, and they also do publishing and online marketing too. Check them out here.

Here's a picture of Drew from the gig. Badass.

One of the bands that played at the gig were amazing. Their name is The Ugly Kings, and they are a three piece (drums, two guitars) who play dirty garage rock. And their drummer is the vocalist. Awesome. Their facebook page is here, go and click on that 'like' button.

As I mentioned before, we now have physical copies of our single 'Don't Need You' We also chucked 'All My Sins' and 'Soul On Fire' on there from the Soul On Fire EP, for the people who haven't heard the old stuff.

Since we're not rich people, we decided to do a stripped down version of the original single design, and make the CD covers ourselves. So last Saturday night was spent folding (and folding and folding) paper CD cases.

And we also had tea. Because tea.

They turned out really well, so if anyone wants to do this themselves, here is the link to the website that taught me this wonderful skill. Step 5 was a bit tricky to start with but I got there in the end. We printed the artwork (see top of picture) on gloss paper, so it looks pretty professional. And if you can afford colour print it would look even better (it was going to cost $80 for 100 colour prints so we went black and white). We got the CDs printed and duplicated at Implant Media on Lygon Street who do lots of cool affordable cd/merch/vinyl printing and replicating/duplicating. We at Honeybone recommend their services.

So now that we have physical copies of the single, come down to our next gig and get one! They're free and handmade with love by yours truly. Our next gig is on Saturday 2nd March at the Dancing Dog in Footscray. Keep an eye out on our Facebook for more details.

Love
xxx

New Live Releases!

Hello friends

Today we released the live recordings from our very last gig in Dunedin, New Zealand. Recorded at XII Below by master of sound Iain Sweetman of Livesound Engineering, these are the first live recordings we have received EVER that sound great AND the playing of instruments isn't abominable.

You can download the bunch for free (or you can name a price, up to you. We recommend FREE) here:

http://honeybone.bandcamp.com/

Tell your friends, your mother, your baby and your cat. Share that link with everyone you can, because who doesn't like free stuff?!

For all my new readers, here is a blog I wrote about the gig itself:  

http://honeyboneandlife.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/fare-thee-well-dunedin-gig.html

The night was awesome, we had a huge jam at the end of our set with our wicked cool friends Kitten Surprise and we played Rockin' In The Free World by Neil Young (sadly we couldn't release that one as the license fees were a touch pricey). 

Here's a photo from the night:

Drew had SHORT HAIR

Have another:

Us kiwis sure know how to pash a guitar

It was one of our more unforgettable gigs, and we're forever thankful for all of you who came down and gave us your support. We'll be back one day Dunedin.

Anywho, onwards and upwards. On Saturday we played a gig at the Empress Hotel across the road from our flat. We drove our gear there. We are lazy (except Peter who carried his. Manly). We didn't get thrown out for being too raucous and loud-like, but that doesn't mean we didn't have fun. Our mates came down, we made some cash at the end of the night, it was all rather swell. I didn't play so great, so now I endeavour to practise more and play better. No one likes a shitty drummer. Let's face it, no one really likes drummers.

What you all secretly think when we sit down at a drum kit

We've got some gigs coming up, 22nd of February at The Vineyard in St. Kilda and March 2nd at the Dancing Dog in Footscray. More details TBA.

So go download our music off bandcamp (here's that link again http://www.honeybone.bandcamp.com) and tell EVERYONE. The kids'll LOVE you for it.

This is a joke only a limited few people (New Zealanders) may or may not get.

Love to all xxx

A New Year

Well hello there my friends!

I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season! Us kids in the Honeybone camp had a great time, Drew's sister and Mum and Grandma came to visit, Peter hung out with his sister and I drowned my sorrows in Lindauer (NZ wine ftw) to stave off the homesickness. It was a pretty top notch holiday season had all round, made all the more raucous thanks to our very first Australian New Year, jello shots and all.

Things have been busy as bees in the Honeybone House. We've already played this year at a great venue by the name of Bar Open with some great bands including Son of Set, whose drummer Tom sat next to me at my office job for a small while. Everyone were great, and there was even a mirror on the roof so everyone could see my mad drum skillz (too bad I didn't wear a lowcut top). I also broke a drumstick (badass) and didn't have a spare one. Rock 'n' roll indeed.

While still getting over the starstroke (starstrike?) of hanging out with The Datsuns last month (see last blog), we've been getting our shit together. This even included having a meeting about getting our shit together. Productive indeed. Our amazing business manager Ash sussed us  an ABN, so we can invoice people when we play, so now we also have to be all responsible and pay taxes. Honeybone is now all Grown Up. We've been doing heaps of overdubs for the album, and are on the lookout for recording studios to get the other 5 tracks recorded. If anyone knows somewhere good/affordable, let us know and we'll... I don't know.... bake you a cake or something. I can bake stuff because I am a Woman and Good At Life.

Upcoming in the Honeybone camp is a gig this weekend, playing at the wonderful venue Empress Hotel. The great part about playing here is that it's RIGHT ACROSS THE ROAD from our house. Convenient! What may not be so convenient is that when I emailed their booker for a gig a few months ago, they knocked me back because we 'looked too loud'. I have a feeling it has something to do with this picture we had recently posted on our facebook:

They ALL go to 11!

They have a limit of 100 decibels, as they are in a residential area, so hopefully the boys control their toys.

(By the way I wasn't being sarcastic about this venue being wonderful, we've had some great nights there, it being our local and all).

We're playing with some great bands (headliners are City Sound) and we're on at 9pm, nice and early if you have to head to a party or something else like that (I don't really know... whatever normal people do on a Saturday night), so you can still catch our set. It's $6 entry also. Nice and cheap for all those on a budget.

We also had our first experience of Australia Day this last weekend, and I think I'm still recovering (nb. more jello shots were had). Here's a cute wee pic Tash the Jello Shot Queen took of us.

The Aussies put an Australian Flag on Drews forehead.

Rightyho Joe it's time to practice our slightly quieter set for Saturday.

See yas there peeps
xxx

Happy Holidays from Honeybone

Hey guys

The time of year has come to wish you all a very happy and safe holiday season. We've been rather busy in the Honeybone camp, with two of our fav bands playing within one week of each other, we're a bit worse for wear. Not too tired to write an entertaining blog however. Lucky for you.

On Friday, 14th Dec we headed down to the Espy in St. Kilda to see Shihad rock the Gershwin Room. This was the first gig we've been to there (apart from playing there ourselves), and the Espy really lived up to it's reputation. One thing I was quite excited/shocked to see when we arrived was the lack of crowd barriers before the stage. This was the first Shihad gig I'd been to (and I've been to about 7 or 8 now) where I was being pushed right up onto the stage and hanging onto the foldbacks so I didn't lose my place. Fucking awesome. Shihad rocked, and they played 20 songs (I know, because I got the bass player's setlist). My knees got all kinds of banged up, and I shook Karl and Jon's hands. No biggie.

That's Karl the bass player behind Drew.

We took another week to recover, then went back down to the Espy to see THE DATSUNS (one of our main influences and fav bands eva) play for FREE two nights in a row in the front bar. Wicked awesome tastic gigs they were indeed. On the first night, some guy tried to take my place in the front and I ended up ripping his shirt in two to get my place back. Sorry bro, if you're reading, but I'm like some crazy bitch when someone tries to take my spot. Don't, you know, mess with me, or whatever.

Drew brought his 'Death Rattle Fuzz' pedal along to the show on Thursday (which is a custom pedal made by Christian, gat player for Datsuns, it's the same fuzz they used on the new album) and was hoping to get it signed. We hung out for a bit after the show then casually walked up the stairs into the band's green room.

Drew and Dolf - lead vox and bass

Dolf and myself. Best pic ever in my opinion.

We got our stuff signed and had a wee chat, it was pretty cool. The next night (after about 2 hours sleep) we headed back down to St. Kilda to do it again. The Datsuns played amazingly again (even though half of them had food poisoning), and the crowd was incredible. I didn't stay up the front again, my poor knees couldn't handle the jandle and I didn't want to ruin another guys shirt. I snuck round the side and I had this awesome view:

Spot Drew

These two Datsun's gigs and the Shihad one were probably the best gigs I've been to all year. What a way to end 2012.

From all of us here at Honeybone, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!