This was the first Semble track I recorded in the Gateway commercial studio, and my first effort at a full blown studio production. Unfortunately, we never managed to create a definitive final mix, but this is a fairly good effort, and probably my favourite piece of recorded work to date.

Particular highlights include the way that the electric guitar pans across the stereo field during the intro, and the mad cowbell and ‘wailing banshee’ effects in the section leading up to the middle 8 (16? 32?). I love the ad libbed vocals where Steve just let it rip (under my considered guidance, of course!), and which we were later able to build into a whole set of vocal harmonies (although I think I drove the Dolby A compressors a little too hard at some points so you may hear some distortion!). I was especially pleased that these vocals later became a permanent fixture of the song, which I felt had always needed something to lift the middle section beyond a weird instrumental break.

You may also be interested to know that the booming bass drum that pervades the track and chorus ‘aah-aah-aah’ effects were recorded and overdubbed from start to finish (in one take, in the case of the bass drum) rather than being looped or sampled. This was something that the band insisted on and I think helps to give the track its overall organic quality. That said, it made mixing it a bit of a nightmare as we had over 40 different tracks to cope with, plus a few extra samples (the xylophone sounds during the intro and final chorus) that were threaded in later via ProTools. It was one of those situations where an automated mixing desk wasn’t a luxury but an absolute necessity, as there just weren’t enough pairs of hands and ears in the room to mix it manually!

The track appeared in several guises, including on an EP of the band’s early recordings (which is available to buy online)  and a limited edition sampler CD of Vivid Records’ artists, including Future Paradise and The Dave Jones Trio.