Hi there!! Thanx for tuning in....
Iīve been playing in different Quo coverbands over the years, strangely I donīt have one recorded demo left. So I decided to make some new demo recordings of Quo songs.
I called my friend Mikael, he and I played in a band called "Stolen Status" 15 years ago. I asked him if he wanted to join me in this little project. Mikael with his Rossi guitar skills, and me, with my Parfitt style....Thankfully he said YES!! So there it is...2 friends that donīt have the time to be involved in a band...so why not enjoy Quo music this way?
One song maybe takes a month or two to get recorded due to lack of time, but anyways...if the result gets good itīs worth waiting.... If we are lucky we will be able to put out one song every two months.
Hope you have as fun listening to the demos as we had recording them!!
This is a "diary" of the tracks we have recorded....so far..
We decided early on that we wanted to use a "drum plug" instead of a real drummer, simply because thereīs seldom a good drummer available and free at the time, or they simply donīt have the time. And the benefit of a "drum plug" is....they donīt argue...hehe...
1. Rocking all over the world....
What Åke and I did to start with was programming the drums. And then I recorded the rhythm guitar and bas to it, and Åke played the tambourine. After that we sent the track in mp3 to our friend Erik, and he recorded the piano on it in his own studio. He sent us the finished piano track back, and we simply paste it in. Next thing was for Mikael to join and put lead guitar and lead vocals on the track. (he discovered that after 15 years break from playing and singing it was hard work with a sore throat as result) Rocking all over the world is in quite high pitch really..... Then we were finished... Itīs simple as that!!...hehe...Just kidding...To be honest...we struggled quite hard to try to get the Quo sound to the track. The real hard work is at the end...producing and mixing...When you start to analyze the songs you discover that it isnīt as simple as some folks say...itīs just three chords...YEAH RIGHT!! ( trust me Iīve been trying for 25 years).... maybe we could have chosen a easier track to start with....a track that didnīt include so much instruments... Buuut we didnīt...hehe...We decided that the next song should be a straight forward guitar based boogie track....
2. Caroline...
...So we chose " Caroline" ... This time Mikael joined in from the start. First thing was to choose tempo. Åke said: Ok guys , try and find a tempo that feels natural and relaxed.... I leaned back on a chair and tried to relax and we took off... Boom! spot on, it felt right from the start...We decided to play in that tempo and started programming the drums. Intro vers chorus etc... When that was finished, I played the bas to it, so when we record the guitars it would feel natural...like playing with a band. The bas took only one take...and then on to the guitars. And if I remember it correctly, the guitars took only two takes. It was going fast forward and soon we were doing the vocals. If you listen to the Caroline vocals Francis sounds very relaxed and laid back. And we tried our best to get that feeling also. I think that Mikael nailed it..sounds great. Caroline was a little bit easier to record, by that I donīt mean that Caroline is easy to play in anyway. You still have to have that drive and energy... but not tooo much energy..it still have sound relaxed. Being a bas player and a rhythm guitarist and having the opportunity to play both intstruments on these recordings, Iīve discovered what hard work the Quo rhythm section is doing. Itīs not easy in any way...belive me. It needs a lot of practice, but formost ...you have to have the love and heart for Quo music. And by the way, chosing tempo... Quos Hello version is 4:19..ours is 4:21...We discovered that when it was time to produce the track...coming so close just by "feeling"...Does it mean we listen too much to Quo??
3. Paperplane
Paperplane was scheduled to start recording in April, but is postponed on the future due to illness. We hope to continue in sept - oct.