Edinburgh Recycling

Edinburgh City Council don’t seem to be serious about there recycling policy. We live in the city centre and there is no way of getting our glass bottles to a recycling point without using our car.  In their documents they state that the nearest recycling point for glass is Homebase in St Leonards St, which is too far from our flat to carry glass in particular. When I got there no glass recycling was available and I found myself driving round for quite a while before I found somewhere to deposit the glass. This would seem to offset the benefit of recycling. This won’t put us off our effort to recycle as much as possible in future but it does suggest that the council isn’t as serious as it should be about recycling and they certainly don’t make it easy by not offering enough options for households to deposit glass in particular.

February recordings

Coming up in February will be the continuing recording of Allie Fox’s new album. Guests on the album who will be recording this month will be Ron Shaw-celloist and Fraser Spiers-harmonica player. Also due in the studio is Brian Rice and Clive Moorhead who will be completing the production of their single - The Edge Of Love following the vocal recording in New York of vocalist Rachel Pany. Producer Paul McKinna will be working with MC Profisee as well as finishing some tracks with some other tracks for Hip Hop artist Bruce. A podcast for Aegon Scottish Equitable is also taking place as well as the completion of songs by Ric Todd featuring various vocalists, still to be announced. So once again it promises to be another exciting month again at the studio.

Studio improvements

The studio will be closed all week as improvements to the recording room and the main control room facilities are taking place. New software including Drums Overkill and Addictive Drums are being installed and the Logic Audio system at the heart of the studio is being enhanced using new Metric halo convertors which will improve the overall production sound. In April we will be announcing the joining of a new producer/engineer to the production team…watch this space!

James Forrest-Supasonic Music

Songwriter james Forrest is back in the studio recording songs we has recently written as well as reworking dance tracks he has recorded at other studios. James is a great source of singers he has used on his projects, several of which Offbeat has used also after hearing them on his songs. Most notably Anna Jarosz who also guested on songwriter Ric Todds tracks. James is also currently writing with Leona Lewis’s songwriters and will certainly have a hit sometime as he is a determined artist and has a good handle on the business side of music.

Songs Of Sister Act-the musical

Been a hectic couple of days finishing the rehearsal CD for the forthcoming Sister Act musical. On Monday it was an eleven hour day recording vocals for 11 songs and the harmonies for the tracks are incredibly complex. MD Rich Anderson did a great job of coaxing the singers through the arrangements despie suffering from a heavy cough. Yesterday I mixed the tracks in one session and for now the job is complete.

Kirsty Music - Feels Good

We are currently working on the debut single for Vocalist and Electric Violinist Kirsty. The song entitled ‘Feels Good’ is an acoustic guitar based song featuring electric violin and a strong dance groove.The track will be completed this month and then a video will be craerted prior to release in March 08. For the promotion of the single we will be doing a radio tour in Scotland and playing small venues in preperation for the main release. For the ‘live’ version the song will be performed acoustically.

Songs Of Sister Act

A musical based on the movies Sister Act 1+2, which starred Whoopi Goldberg is currently being produced by Daniel Wood of Juxtaposed productions. The MD for the project is Rich Anderson who I worked with for the past two years on musicals at the Kings Theatre. This musical production will star Sheila Ferguson of the Three Degrees, Rowetta and Bez from Happy Mondays and The London Community Gospel Choir. Right now Rich and I are translating Midi files he has put together into recordings for the rest of the cast to rehearse with for the forthcoming production which goes into rehearsal at the end of the month. There are 19 fantastic songs and Rich and I have been working into the wee hours on the recording. As he is still doing  2 shows a day on Goldilocks at the same time it’s  a punishing schedule for Rich this month!