The album has no title yet. I really want to call it "A Single Plum, Served in an Old Man's Hat, Filled with Perfume", or "Hey Chuck! It's Your Cousin... Marvin Berry... You Know That New Sound You Been Looking For? Listen to THIS". But the boys won't let me. With good reason. It has twelve songs on it. They are called Vespa, Romeo, My O My O Me O My, Henny Penny, Guy Fawkes Day, Henny Penny, Rubix Cube, Girl, I (H) NY, Banana Republic, Y2K and Candlelight. We've finished all the bed tracks with the rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums. Tony is finishing his last few guitar parts for the album. On the last album Kingsmill said it sounded like Tony drank too much coffee. I shudder to think what he'd say this time. We're drinking a lot of coffee. I'm drinking 3-4 litres of tea a day. Does tea have caffeine? Tom says it does but I can't tell when he's joking. Anyroad. I've sung... Half my vocals. We're on schedule but working to an insane schedule where we perpetually feel behind schedule. We're very tired.
Tomorrow is our last day here. We're going to be doing singing probably all day. Pianos. Tamborines. Organ. Handclaps all that shit. We've got a very capable one-man horn section to record tomorrow. We've got a two-man string quartet (shut up) coming in tomorrow also. What else. I think thats it. We had a choir come in tonight, Choral Grief. They just left. They were amazing. They're singing at the end of our last song. Big cheesy opus. Possibly the best or worst thing we've done so far. My personal aim for the album is that is that it sounds exactly the same as the last one, while sounding completely different at the same time. And I think we're simultaneously succeeding and failing to fulfil that objective (see what I did there? These are the jokes people). By the end of this week I'll have eaten 75 dumplings. Between the other members of the band... Something north of 200. It smells bad here. And we're very, very tired.
Anyway, we'll be finished recording tomorrow, or into the wee hours of the day after. Then we'll be mixing/mastering within the next 2 months. We'd like to release this thing around November/December... Full of excitement and dread. Feel that that Phillip Seymour Hoffman character in Synechdoche, NY... What is this beast we have created and how have we managed to rope in so many capable, talented people? Fuck. I am so fucking tired. Now I understand how John Lennon feels in that song where he sings about being so tired. It must be exhausting being a walrus.
For the love of God, do not call or SMS any member of The Honey Pies before midday on Saturday morning. WE HAVE EARNT A SLEEP-IN.
Your friend,
Jon.
