Except I shan’t be mostly mastering because in all honestly I have no fucking idea what that is.  Apparently it is tweaking the teeny-tiniest of things in the final mix of a song and still somehow making the most significant of differences. I’ve heard a good masterer get the most amazing clarity of instrumentation from a shitty, over-compressed mp3 file, to the extent that it sounded amazing on vinyl.

We tend to use Reuben Taylor for our mastering these days.  As well as being a lovely (if slightly mental) fellow, he does an amazing job for a very reasonable fee in a very short space of time.  He was responsible for the Meursault All Creatures vinyl, as well as the gorgeous Rob St. John record and the King Post Kitsch Honeytone EP.

Anyhow, today Rory Sutherland, who helped me record and engineer the record, and I will be off with the final mixes for the split 12″ we’ve been recording with Waiters, Sex Hands, Dolfinz and PAWS and this will be the first time I have witnessed the process first hand.  So I’ll be sure to tell you what unspeakable wizardry takes place in the mastering suite.  Assuming, of course, that I understand any of it at all.

All these photos were taken by the fantastic Nic Rue.  Except the shit one.  That was Rory.

 Don’t ask me why I used a picture of Wayne and Garth on this post I just… well the roadies in their movies were the most memorable, and this post is about touring and stuff, and I couldn’t find a picture of a Wayne’s World roadie quickly so I thought fuck it.

Anyhow, two bits of news:

Meursault are touring the UK and Europe as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s main support. 

Rob St. John is playing SHHH Festival.

The latter won’t clog up the page with tour dates, so I’ll do that first. The SHHH Festival is a celebration of quiet music and film, with bands playing, a film about David Thomas Broughton and musicians soundtracking silent movies.  It’s on Saturday 4th February at the Gallery Cafe in London and is less than a tenner too, so get your tickets here.

Now, as to the former little announcement, Meursault have been very kindly invited to support Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on their tour of the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe at the end of the month.  I’m not sure what else there is to say about this apart from the fact that it’s fucking incredible news, and to thank Clap Your Hands for inviting them. All the ticket info and the like can be found on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s website, but I’ve included a list of the dates below for ease of browsing. The only gig Meursault will be missing will be the Paris date on the 15th of February (which I haven’t listed below anyway).

25/1/12 – Dublin, Tripod
26/1/12 – Cork, Pavilion
27/1/12 – Galway, Roisin Dubh
28/1/12 – Glasgow, SWG3
30/1/12 – Leeds, The Cockpit
31/1/12 – Norwich, Waterfront
2/2/12 – Manchester, Ritz
3/2/12 – Liverpool, O2 Academy
4/2/12 – Bristol, Thekla
6/2/12 – Birmingham, HMV Library
7/2/12 – Brighton, Coalition
8/2/12 – London, Shepherd’s Bush Empire
10/2/12 – Utrecht, Tivoli
11/2/12 – Brussels, Orangerie
12/2/12 – Copenhagen, Frost Fest, Bremen Theatre
14/2/12 – Berlin, Postbahnhof
16/2/12 – Munich, Theaterfabrik
17/2/12 – Zurich, Plaza Club
18/2/12 – Bologna, Covo Club

Man man man man man this was fun.  And it sounds fucking brilliant!

Yesterday afternoon was spent at Toad Hall recording half of the songs for the Split 12″ we’ll be releasing in roughly April or May this year.  I described this on the Song, by Toad Records 2012 podcast we posted on the weekend, and included songs by all but one of the bands (for the fourth, see this podcast).

The plan, simply enough, is to record four songs by four bands we happen to think are brilliant, and then release them on a 12″.  We’re recording most of the tracks live, a lot like the Toad Sessions, and will be releasing videos of songs which we shoot live as we record, again a lot like the Toad Sessions.  I suppose you could describe this release as being like a release of a Toad Session recording, albeit a little more polished and without the interview bits and stuff like that.

Anyhow, Manchester bands Sex Hands and Waiters came through yesterday to record their bits, Dolfinz are recording on Friday and Saturday, and then Paws, who have business in London, will be doing their songs after they play Vic Galloway’s next Electric Circus night at the end of the month.

I remember when the Cold Seeds album was finished, and when Rob, Neil and Tom Western emerged from the living room after finishing the recording for Weald – everyone was high as a kite and absolutely wired.  I’ve been the same today – absolutely unable to do anything except work on preliminary mixes of yesterday’s recording to send down to the bands for feedback.

I know the industry is full of cynicism and all sorts of shit, but making music is just plain fucking exciting!

Here are a couple of videos to let you know who I’m talking about here: