I have been meaning to guy a new guitar for sometime; the old acoustic I have has a big crack down its body and does not stay in tune for long. With the forth-coming Red Aligatorz gig I have been thinking “is it time?”

Not only for the gig, but I want to re-record, for this blog, the songs that were written in the 80s; just to see how they would sound today with all the 30 years of experience that I have accumulated. Recording is no longer done in a hashish-filled recording studio or paying for studio-time that is, basically a waste of money. I can now do it on the laptop and spend as much time as I want to get it right.

When I think back to the Havana Affair and Red Aligatorz studio/demo recordings it never went the way it supposed too. Guitar effects were to be “added afterwards” the studio technicians advised, so “play it clean lads”; like lemmings we listened to bad advice. Of course effects can be added afterwards I now know (and I knew it then too) but it never was. Why did we listen?

With the Aligatorz, I think gig and busking money paid for the recording studio time; but with Havana Affair we paid for it out of our own pockets. With having DAWs and home recording equipment all this evolves into D.I.Y. recordings done in my room at home; bad for the recording studios but good for the musician.

The big difference today, it has stopped being a social activity. There are no longer 3 or 4 musicians sharing a space, going through the highs and lows, the piss-taking, the banter, the sly looks at each other when realizing we are being “ripped off” by the studio guys. Now it is solo recording; but I would argue, not a trip down memory lane; as I am approaching these old songs in a totally different perspective. They will be different (just as the Aligatorz gig will be different) from the time when I penned them, and that makes it worth doing; revisiting yes, but not copying.

For me, the recording process will be not so different. All the songs I wrote were written on acoustic guitar and alone. So all I need to do now is buy a new guitar…a bass guitar…and remember how to play the bloody things!