Binaural shoot with SWIMMInG in Bamburgh

I spent the bank holiday weekend up in Bamburgh, near Scotland, setting up 2 mixers, 8 speakers, 2 guitars, bass, my beatbox sampler, a little casio keyboard and some mics on the beach and in the dunes in the shade of Bamburgh castle, while sonic artist Dallas Simpson walked around us with microphones in his ears, director Simon Ellis filmed us, dogs barked, microlights buzzed past us and a beach full of holiday makers wondered what on earth we were up to.
What we were up to was doing our second binaural recording of one of our songs. The idea is this: We setup our equipment in a space, this time on the beach. We sit around 2/3 meters away from each other and channel our sounds through speakers set at different places around us. Dallas moves amongst us, passing each of us as we play and each of the speakers. He has tiny microphones in his ears which he uses to record the sound. The effect of this is that when the listener hears the recording back, they are in effect listening through his ears, hearing each soundsource becoming louder as he gets closer and experiencing the full 360degrees environment around Dallas' head. It is an amazing experience to hear sound this way.
You can read more about it on Dallas Simpson's website here

Meanwhile here's some pics

Beatboxing on the beach


Band setup on the beach and Dallas prepping for his sea walk


Simon Ellis - website here

Will update when the video has been made, meanwhile, here's the last binaural video we made of when we went to record our last single 'Sun In The Island' (visit our site here) in an observatory in Keilder, Northumberland in the snow

Setup For New Vids

Have been at the awesome First Love Studios in Nottingham filming new vids. There will be more info later, but for now, here's some pics of the setup for one of the vids - mics, preamps and mixers galore!

Big thanks to Matt Taylor, Tom Walsh and Henry Parkinson for helping out.

Simon Ellis at the visual helm once again - http://www.bubtowers.com
Tom Walsh - http://www.tomwalshmedia.co.uk

Headed to make some new vids - Equipment pool

Stuff - check... ready to go

Actually, no, one mic is never enough

Microphone takeover
Stand by for more music

Missed flight, no sleep, to find splendour in Prague

Tonight i'm in Prague to play at the Young Prague 2011 Choir Festival. Choirs from around the world come and perform here over the week... and tonight's the party!

I haven't slept, missed checkin for my first flight by THREE minutes and they wouldn't let me on... had to buy new one... ouch... it's been a mission but the place is rather splendid and the party's gonna be ace so it is all worth it.

Last night Royal Festival Hall in London, tonight this place - i'm feeling rather classy right now, better enjoy it while it lasts!

Royal Festival Hall tonight!

Tonight's the last night of my band supporting Killing Joke on their 3 day tour in the UK and what a venue to end it in - London's Royal Festival Hall. Crazy.
Here's my drum setup from the stage looking out. Place sounds amazing

Have a listen to my band here