Last Minute

Wow, lucky my last post said the 'almost final' tracklisting... seems the decisions don't stop being made until the very last moment with us! I'll explain...

So the 4 of us (Darren is in the USA visiting his lady) are sitting in my car, with the mastered CD in the frontloader, listening to the album we've spent the past 9 months working on, when suddenly it dawns on us - we've come up with the wrong track listing! The first 2 songs just don't work as, well, the first 2 songs on an album. Why you ask, is this such an issue? Well, other than the fact that we're on a ridiculously tight deadline and can't make any real changes at this stage (think artwork), the first few tracks on your new album need to make a statement - they need to introduce the new you to the world... plus the kids get bored so quickly these days that if their attention isn't grabbed in the first few tracks you've lost 'em... gone forever.

So yes, we hit a bit of a panic. Luckily we all agreed on the problem so it wasn't like 1 of us was always going to say 'I told you so!' further down the line (well Darren might still!). We threw out a few options for first tracks, called our producer (who luckily never sleeps), sms'd the record label boss (who was asleep), and finally narrowed it down to 2. And I tell you - it feels kinda exhilarating changing things like this - when I throw the CD in now, it feels like a different record. It works!

So that's my little story for the night :) I've yet to tell you about our little London trip... in short, it was pretty amazing getting to meet Mr. Cenzo Townshend. He was a really great guy - your typical witty Brit with the a dash of English charm! Sitting in those studios and seeing the walls lined with the channel strip tape of U2, Snow Patrol, Editors, Bloc Party; getting to hear stories about recording 'OK Computer' in Jane Seymour's house, tales of band's with 700 vocal takes and 80 rhythm guitars for 1 chorus... it felt unreal at times. But in the end, as ridiculous as it felt being there, we focused and came out with a great sounding record. Cenzo is a genius behind the desk. His mixes are unconventional and far from the over compressed, clinical crap you hear so much of these days. Each song has its own character and personality. He treated each as its own creation, but at the same time saw the bigger picture of the album and how it all should fit together.

In the end, we're really happy with what we've achieved on this record. It doesn't feel like a 'scene' record, it feels like us - our sound. It tells the tale of our lives over the past 2 years and its a stepping stone in our career. I feel like we finally came together as a band and we now work as one. Whether the people love or hate it, whether the critics praise or slate it, I'll always be proud of it, as will the rest of the guys. We poured all of our hearts, souls, minds and bodies into making this...we spent every penny we had, and loaned a crapload more to make it happen - so we hope you do enjoy it! We can't wait to get out on the road for the live shows and make that final connection - the one between band, fan and song.

Laters Alligators... Greg.

The end is nearing!

So as I predicted in my last post, the cheezy Hollywood ending is slowly taking shape. We got our confidence back and finished up the recording in high spirits! For the past few weeks we have been shooting music vids and photos, sorting out artwork, prepping the songs for mixing and organizing the tour - busy times!

The exciting news is that Cenzo is mixing The Inside as we speak and we'll have the song mastered and ready to be sent to radio by Monday! Alan, myself and Darryl our producer are heading off to London on Friday to sit in on the mix sessions and see where all our money is going :)

After that its back to SA for the album release which is looking like the 27th of September! We'll be heading out on the road on the 1st of October for a tour in support of the release so be sure to check out the FB and website for details on that.

This is the almost final tracklisting:
I Belong
Fixation Girl
Terrified
Love Like Water
The Inside
Undo These Lies
End Of The Road
Make This A Sign
Have I Got No Soul
Bleed Me Out
When I Die
It's Not What It Seems

Can't wait for everyone to hear it! We'll post it up on the FB page as soon as we have got the final product.

Laters. G

Speedbump

It's amazing how your brain suppresses the bad... it's only now that I remember the feeling of uncertainty I had when recording my first album. Will people like it? Am I good enough? Is this even vaguely good? These unfortunate, but natural feelings have come hurtling back in the last week. We've hit the 3rd week slump where we're all getting irritated with each other, where we've decided that we can't play our instruments and that everything we're making is average. Maybe it is... but luckily through some experience I know that its just part of the process.

When I'm creating, I always seem to hit these bumps in the road. I get so caught up in my work that I lose perspective. It feels like I'm working in a vacuum. I can't decide whether what I've done has any relevance or if I'm even enjoying the process! Maybe it's a something that I need to go through in order to scrutinize my work to a point where it becomes obsessive, and unhealthy, and then from that point I can finally let it go and let it be what it is...

There are no rules when creating. You do what you have to to convey your thoughts, feelings and emotions. Some people will love it, others will hate it, others will be unmoved. In the end it doesn't really matter. I enjoy every part of it. Even the phase we're going through now. But only because I know it will be over soon and it'll all come together like the cheesy ending to a Hollywood film.

1 week down...

Wow so 1 week of recording has gone by already! The best times always fly by - just like this World Cup, it seems like it started just the other day and now BAM, its done! Anyways...

We spent the whole of last week tracking drums, tuning drums, changing drums, hating drums and loving drums! We actually finished our last drum track only a couple of hours ago... kinda glad it's over. But having said that, it is sounding really good! Lil Daz played really well and worked his ass off to get everything right, and Mike (our new keyboardist) did THE BEST job at tuning drums (Mike's actually studying Jazz drumming and is by trade, a drummer, but he also plays keys like a demon). We were also lucky enough to have some awesome gear loaned to us by Gorksie from SA Backline, Zildjian and Nick from Injozi. Over and above all that, we have the amazing Darryl Torr producing and Sarel engineering... how could we go wrong? :)

So yes, drums sound good. Now its onto guitar! Exciting as I actually get to play... we again have some amazing gear from SA Backline - a Matchless DC30, a whole bunch of vintage Marshall heads, an Orange Rockerverb, an Orange Thunderverb, and 3 Vox AC30's (2 vintage). Its like Christmas!!! We also have a rad selection of guitars including a number of different Fender Tele's, a strat, and my newly purchased Gretsch Country Gentleman. Fun times ahead.

Working at the SABC has also afforded us the opportunity to bring in a whole lot of other gear that we wouldn't have otherwise had access to. Today we went to look at the store room and they have everything from vibraphones, to timpanis , to vibraslaps... we were like kids in a toy store! Can't wait to get all that gear in and record it next week!

Anyways, enough gear-talk for one post! Keep checking out the Facebook for pics and vids and I'll keep you posted here on all the details. Can't wait for you to hear what we've been up too!

Greg

It's Finally Time!

So it's finally time for us to go into studio! Feels like forever since I recorded Collected Memories so it's really exciting to finally get back to it and record some new songs.

At the moment I'm busy stitching the last few lines of the lyrics together - always the hardest part for me! This time round the lyrics are even more personal, which has been difficult, but rewarding at the same time. The past two years have been pretty crazy and I've tried to express all that I've gone through and dealt with in these 12 songs.

As for the album title, I think I'm going to go with "The Inside" which is a track off the album and set to be the first single. It's quite different to the old Z&G stuff but it's one of my favourite songs and lyrically, seems to sum up the album quite well.

We're also busy finalizing the artwork with our talented friend Alice Edy. She's doing a bunch of illustrations which will make up the album booklet artwork + inlays. Can't wait for you to see them!

Other than that it's all studio-record-redo-retake-tune-play-replay-record-etc-etc-etc for the next 5 weeks. Darryl, Alan and myself are then jetting off to London to mix the album with Cenzo Townshend and master it with John Davis at Metropolis. Then it's back to SA for the release and the album launch tour. Busy busy!!!

Keep a look out on the Facebook page and here for video blogs from the studio!

G

The final stages of pre prod... then studio!!! FINALLY!!!

So we've been buggering around with pre production for tooooo long now!!! Okay, it's necessary, but I think we all just itching to get into the beeeg studio and make this record. We actually just passed the 2 year mark since CM was released so it's been a long time coming!

We've narrowed it down to 11 songs in total: I Belong, Fixation Girl, When I Die, End Of The Road, The Inside, Undo These Lies, Make This a Sign, Terrified, It's Not What It Seems, Love Like Water, Have I Got No Soul? and Bleed Me Out. These are all tentative titles of course... actually, they're second phase titles - initially we had names like Silly Billy, Scream Queen, Hey Monkey Face etc etc... retarded! How do you think I got the name Zebra & Giraffe!

Anyway...so yes, 11 songs, to be recorded by Darryl Torr, engineered by Saral (assisted by Tammy), played by us and mixed by Cenzo Townshend. You'll all be glad to know we have taken 2nd mortgages out on our proverbial houses to fund this record (I've always wanted to say that, even though none of us own anything bigger than a guitar!). So if you don't buy it, we'll literally have to start waiting tables at Spur to pay back our loans! Yikes, that's a scary thought! Imagine Alan waiting tables at Spur!

We'll be posting lil vids along the way as we record... from drums to guitars to keys to vocals and finally bass... yes that's the order we do it in! So keep a look out on the Facekak page and here.

Hope you all enjoying the football! Go Bafana - we love you regardless!!!

Greg

Distortion!!!!!!!!!!!

So we have been in the studio quite a bit doing loads of guitars and some keys. The past couple of days we've been working on a song tentatively titled "Have I Got No Soul?"... it's a really fun song and is the first written in 6/8 timing (I was a pro at writing 6/8 for my last band White Lie!).

We've been sending everything through crazy distortion chains...even the Fender Rhodes piano has not been spared. Check out the end of the video where I just hit one key - but it sounds massssive! hehe.

Laters. G

Recording guitars...

So it's been like over a month since the last post - and I honestly can't remember what we have done in that time... lazy ass buggers! Anyways, for the past week or so Alan and myself have been going into Darryl's smaller studio and recording a whole bunch of guitars. This kinda fits into the pre production phase but at the same time as working out ideas, we are also recording parts that will be on the album.

As we've learned from Darryl, not EVERY guitar has to be played through a huge amp and recorded with mics. We're running our guitars through a pedal boards, a focusrite preamp and into Pro Tools and then using Sans Amp and Line 6 delay mods for distortion and effects. For all the beeeeg rhythm guitars and leads we'll still be getting in amps (Vox AC30, Fender Deluxe, Orange + Matchless) and recording them live.

It's all in the name of saving time and money - we've literally taken 3 days to do guitars on 1 song (Bleed Me Out)... so you can imagine the price if we were in the big-boy studio at 4K a day!

Below are some pics I took with my new toy (Canon 5D)... Al is busy making a video blog of the recording so that should also be up soon :)

xxx Greg

Pre Production

Oh so it's been a lil while since I posted. Soooorry for that... been one of 'those' weeks...

So we have started with pre-production which is quite exciting. For those of you who have no idea what this means, here's the low down:

So after writing the songs and recording demos, we take the songs to our producer Darryl Torr and he begins pre-production, which is basically the process of weeding out the shit and maximizing the not shit :) Some songs stay exactly the same, from start to finish, just like we wrote them, but others go through endless changes until we all feel like they're ready to record! It sounds like quite a mission but its really the only way to make sure you have the BEST songs and parts before you go into studio (the studio is really expensive so the better game plan upfront, the more money you save).

If you've been checking the Facebook you'll know that we recently mixed some old tracks with a guy called Cenzo Townshend for overseas release... he did an amazing job and we're gonna get him to mix the album which is really exciting. It's gonna cost us a fine penny but it's worth it!


I have been reeeeeaaallly tempted to post some snippets of us playing the new songs but Im in 2 minds about it... I want you to hear the stuff but I also don't wanna ruin the surprise!

Some of the new stuff is a little different to Collected Memories so Im hoping you all like it!!! It's been a long time since I actually sat down and wrote properly. The first songs off CM were written as long ago as 2006! So a lot has changed - I've grown up a bit, the music I listen to now is a lot different AND I now have 4 other guys helping out.


Anyways, thats all I have to write now. If you have any questions about the process or anything really, post a comment or send us a msg on FB :)


x G

Progress...?

So we've just got back from our little excursion to the North Coast... the brief was to write a whole bunch of songs... we did not. And no, this is not an excuse, but it was just tooo relaxing down there! And it was also toooo hot. I can't write when it's hot. I have a certain temperature that I function best at and North Coast humid 30 degrees is not optimum i tell you!

Anyways, it was a fun and relaxing time and we did get some stuff done! Wrote an awesome song called "Terrrified" (Yes, thats with as many rrrr's as you like) and also got started on a bunch of new ideas!

I tell you this second album thing is no joke... it really is hard and pressured.

Greg

Inspiration Station... Prince's Grant, North Coast

Some arb snippets...

So we have been working hard writing new songs in our lil rehearsal studio. Below is a video of some random pieces of music, some of which may end up in a song somewhere... or not :)

We're off to the coast on Saturday for a bit to get some sea air and get inspired. We're taking producer Darryl Torr with us so he can tell us what sucks and what doesn't. Maybe we'll write some nice surfer tunes?

Soon we'll be totally electronic...even our brains

So we've decided that instead of programming drums with the mouse, or playing noisy live drums, we'd buy an electronic kit for lil Dazza. Think its gonna work out perfectly for demo-ing stuff and getting ideas down. It's def not the coolest looking thing, and it ain't gonna give us much street cred, but for now it's serving its purpose.

(Don't worry, we will NEVER use it live - real drums all the way)

How to shoot a photo

A photo shoot we did with an amazing friend and photographer, Marcus Maschwitz.

Computerzzzzz suck ass sometimes!

So today was going really well and then the computer broke. Rely on these things to damn much these days... :(

Where we are so far...

So we have officially stopped playing shows for a while, all in attempt to focus on the writing process...

It's gonna be the first time we've written together as a band. Kinda scary. But exciting at the same time! Making a record together isn't easy - ego's must be tamed, idea's must be passed, idea's must be rejected, songs must be re-written, and boundaries must be pushed!!! All sounds like a bad walk in the park, but the fun part comes in when you actually tap into something cool - there's no better feeling actually!!!

So everyone's always asking how the writing process starts... or where inspiration comes from... well if I had an exact answer, and if there was a science to it, it wouldn't be all that mystical now would it!? For me a song can start from a simple keyboard loop. Take the Knife for example - all I had for a very long time was the intro electronic part. I was sifting through old songs and I found it and thought "let me try turn this into a song". I worked through it step by step from there...first the intro, then the verse, the the pre-chorus, etc etc... and that's how it ended up on the album!

Other songs started with guitar riffs, and others with beats. One thing I will say is that I usually write lyrics last... LAAASST... like in-the-studio-about-to-record last :)

So far for album number 2 we've got about 4 finished songs and lots more in various states. Now when I say finished I mean 'ready for the producer to break down, reassemble and redo!' This is called pre-production - taking all the songs you thought were amazing and re-looking at them and seeing what you can better and what you can remove. It's what most bands lack in SA (to be a lil 'controversial' - Ooooo). You can rarely write a song and then lay it down and expect it to be great. It needs PRODUCTION... that's why good producers are so highly sought after and paid. It's their job to tell you what songs work and what songs don't. This is also the reason why you need to write 30 songs initially. Then at least you can choose the best 10!

We are lucky enough to be working with producer Darryl Torr (who also plays keys/bass for the band Dear Reader)... he did an amazing job on Collected Memories and we've got him starting with us in March.

So here are some track names we have so far. These are bound to change... some of them are quite ridiculous actually:

The Inside
Love Like Water
Make This a Sign
Cry Your Eyes Out
Bobby J 1 (hehehehe)
Golden Age
Bleed Me Out
Fixation Girl


That's all I can remember... a lot of them don't even have lyrics so I just made the names up randomly...much like the name Zebra & Giraffe! RANDOMNESS!

Okay that's all for now. We'll try post some videos, etc so you can see what's going on :)

Greg