Ivybridge Diary 1

OK. So here it is, the first in what we hope will be a weekly (or nearly weekly) diary entry on this page to keep people apprised of stuff that we’ve been up to. Whether that be studio chatter or just life in general.

Lewis’s ‘Starlight Express’ drumsticks.

This week we had our regular jam session at our local practice rooms. Recently Lewis has been rocking some truly brilliantly/disgustingly (delete as applicable) styled drumsticks which he got for Christmas, so let us know what you think of them, and the delicate subject of novelty drumsticks in general.

After we had a month off during January we’re back writing new material, and it’s moving along quite swellingly. We spent the first half of the session polishing parts of a particularly funky new track that we’ve given the moniker of ‘Dwayne Dibley’ for the time being. (This stemmed from last week’s session when Lewis and Charlie came up with the rhythm part for the verse, and it was so damn groovy that Charlie couldn’t help himself from dancing like the Cat from Red Dwarf.) The main part of the track started life as a bass line resembling something a little like The Chemical Brothers’ excellent ‘Orange Wedge’, but after Lewis had put down drums it’s become a bit more Nine Inch Nails. It’s starting to come together nicely – today Matt’s contribution came in the form of a sexy chorus with an interesting rhythmical quirk that happens in the latter half of the song. So it’s beginning to have all the hallmarks of a foot-stomper, which is always nice.

The Cat.

The other half of the session was spent trying out something a little different.

Earlier in the week a text from Matt claimed he had written the ultimate ballad. Now, while it maybe far from a finished song, the licks have a lot going for them. For some reason though, drums and bass were quite painful to write, sooooo we dug out Matt’s second guitar and began constructing a two-guitar arrangement of the material. It’s too early to comment on how the song will end up sounding, but at the moment it’s got kind of a Dire-Straits-meets-mellow-Placebo vibe going on, which is certainly a different tack for us to take. Another untapped resource for us has been the guitar solo. In the past, purely because of the nature of soloing an acoustic guitar on a rock song, we’ve tended to shy away from such things. But if it’s a completely acoustic song, then who knows?!

RECORD OF THE WEEK -

As well as the chatty banter up top we thought we’d also start a bit of a ‘record of the week’ section on these diary entries so you lovely people can get a little insight into what inspires us and what we get our musical rocks off to. Anyway, here goes….

Matt has already flaunted the rules of ‘record of the week’ by citing a couple of albums: Placebo’s ‘Without You I’m Nothing’ and Zero 7’s ‘Simple Things’. Lewis has gone for a broader, band specific approach to his nomination with “Lamb Of God”. It’s nice to see that he’s keeping it well metal. Charlie on the other hand has been revisiting Smashing Pumpkins’ excellent ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’. Possibly one of the only double albums that doesn’t actually get boring after the halfway point. Discuss?

Well, it’s late, so that just about wraps it up for this entry. Be excellent to each other. And come back soon. We might even spill the beans on the forthcoming EP (finally).

Ivybridge x.