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The LA Recordings - Agreement To Proceed

By the beginning of December 2007 the album was pretty much done. It wasn’t mixed, but all the parts had been laid down and we were ready for the pivotal moment where Russ and Kent would come down to the studio and listen to it, to give their opinion. We were 6 weeks late delivering the album, which was meant to have been ready by 17th November. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if it had been ready, because the financial climate was about to get hit by a Tsunami that would send everyone running for cover, and would ultimately cost the band the deal.

Russ and Kent came down to the studio, and Thierry turned up the speakers incredibly loud, his tactic, I suppose, being to blast Russ and Kent into submission. Frankly it was almost uncomfortable to listen to, but Thierry had some incredible speakers, made by CAT systems, which just about made it bearable. So we listened to it all, all 14 tracks of it, and Russ and Kent seemed pleased. We kept telling them it wasn’t mixed, which of course it wasn’t - and indeed, everyone walked out of there thinking it was a done deal. The arrangement was that Jake and I would meet Russ and Kent in the morning, to sign the agreement to proceed. We went out that night in Hollywood and partied our arses off - we were inches away from signing our record deal, and we celebrated HARD.

The Alamein Spinathon will begin on the 10th July. This is a competition to see which track will be made into a music video.

Member’s of the Panel Of Elite Fuse Fans, or PEFF, will be championing their favourite tracks, and the winning track, and its champions, will be offered a role in the music video. If you’d like to join a PEFF team, and be an extra in the video, all you need to do is let the PEFF who is supporting your track know, and join their team.

PEFFs will be announced on the 1st July, and you will be able to join a PEFF team from 10th July. The music video will be shot on the 11th August, and the winning track will be announced on 24th July.

The LA Recordings - Album Photoshoot

We didn’t of course spend all our time in the studio - we were attached to Velocity Entertainment, our record label, and so periodically there were PR events to take part in, and of course, we had to do a photo shoot for the album cover.

It turned out that Thierry was an ‘almost professional’ photographer, and given that he had a good camera, and we all got on so well, we agreed to pay him 300 bucks to do our photo shoot. It seemed logical, and it was true that to hire someone else would have cost quite a lot more.

The photo shoot took place on the roof of an old music venue on Sunset Boulevard. Kent knew the owner, and so it was agreed that we would be allowed to access the roof and do our shoot. It would even be for free!

The top of the roof was covered in all sort of junk, but it seemed to be junk with loads of potential, and so once up on the roof we set about arranging the junk into some kind of backdrop. There was an old sofa, a rug, a mirror, but underlying it all was the incredible romance of the moment - here we were shooting our album cover photo on a music venue roof on Sunset Boulevard.

You can see the album cover here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/latorock

Thierry had managed to get hold of some lights, which we set up, and to his credit he managed to get some pretty great images. We didn’t wrap the shoot until about 3 am, as it took ages to set up and still longer to get the shots right - but it was another fabulous chapter in our LA story, and as we climbed into Maximus on our way home we were a happy band.

The LA Recordings 2007-8 Vocals

With the guitar nightmare finally over, it was time to start singing - my time, and of course, Kiki’s time. I had been taking singing lessons for a few months in the build up to the recording, and I was confident that I had the technique to see me through. Kiki and I had been singing together since we had first met in Bologna in 2001, and it was generally accepted that our voices worked extremely well together. So we were excited and confident, that a partnership which had blossomed in Italy, and taken in shows in London and Edinburgh, would produce the goods for what seemed to be a pivotal moment in our lives.

Recording vocals is a daunting process. The microphone doesn’t lie, and when those first notes come back from the speakers with nothing but your voice, it can sometimes be quite a shock! Thankfully Thierry had some really excellent equipment - reverbs, delays, etc - which meant that from the beginning, the vocals sounded pretty good. Robby, on departing, told me how much he loved my voice, which was the perfect way to kick off the recording process.

They were good sessions. Dany was the tape op most of the time, and in the mid afternoon I could sometimes see his head nodding as I sung my heart out. Most of the time we spoke in Italian, which was great - Dany’s mother was Italian and he had grown up speaking it. His father was Flemish, giving him his surname - Huppermans. Dany’s favourite expression was ‘cool’ - and we nicknamed him Dany cool.

LA Recordings 2007-8 - Robby Mildenberger

There were some tense times following Simon’s departure to London. Thierry had a friend who he thought might be able to play the remaining guitars - for a fee of course. The guy who turned up was an embarrassment. I was showing him how to play all the parts, leading to the question, why don’t I just play the parts. To his credit, Thierry paid the guy out of his own pocket - this had been his call and it was a bad one!

I didn’t feel confident in the final analysis to become the album’s main guitarist - although a competent acoustic rhythm player, I had no chops for solos and very little experience on electric guitar. Dany said he had just the guy back in Germany, who he had worked with over the years - an infallible guitarist who would be able to lay down the necessary parts no problem. It was going to cost us a return air fare, and about £4000 but given that our entire investment, album, and careers were on the line, we jumped at the opportunity to have someone come in and save the day.

Robby was everything Dany had promised, and amiable man with a couple of earrings, multiple finger rings, and a baseball cap firmly planted on his bald head - a head I have only seen maybe twice in all the years I’ve know Robby. (Robby and I wrote some songs together and recorded my solo album, Infamous, between 2012 and 2014.)

Once Robby arrived the first thing that was done was to totally change the amp set up. Thierry had chosen the amps, but Robby, who reviews amps for a magazine in Germany, was aghast at Thierry’s choices and so trips were made to Guitar Centre on Sunset Boulevard. Thierry to his credit accepted and paid for every equipment change requested and although I was dying inside at how long it was all taking - we were meant to deliver the record early November - it at least felt like we were headed in the right direction.

Friday: Towards The Deal.

The Fuse - Band Origins - Drum Recording

Thierry's plan for the drums was unusual - he wanted to record them individually - in other words, Jake wasn't actually going to be playing the kit - he would be playing bits of the kit. This strategy robbed us of one of our greatest assets, namely Jake's playing. The idea behind it was that Thierry would have total control over the drum sound, and more separation. None of us thought to insist we did it the traditional way, which was, again, a major error - Jake had been likened by Russ Regan to Keith Moon, in the style of his playing, so in hindsight it was lunacy to record the drums like this. It also meant that Thierry would have to spend hours and hours editing the drum samples, because Jake, having been robbed of the kit, lost some of his natural rhythm. So things got off to a slow start. However, we did more or less finish the drums on time, and we all told ourselves they sounded good. Jake wasn't really happy with the results, but we all thought we should be following the advice of the big LA producer - which of course Thierry actually wasn't. In any event, with the drums laid down, it was Mike's turn to lay down bass, and this he did with his usual aplomb - Mike had, from day 1, been a tight bass player and his tracks went down with little or no issue. Things were beginning to take shape.

The Fuse - Band Origins - Blue Turtle

I'd arranged for the band to stay in Oakwood self catering apartments in South Hollywood, and it was nice. There was a pool, and there were various celebrities wandering around. I showered, for example, with Adrien Brody, of The Pianist, on one occasion. I roomed with Simon, Jake roomed with Kiki, and Mike roomed by himself on the couch. Arnulf had by this time left the band, as Kent and Russ didn't feel he fitted the image. This was an incredibly harsh thing for us to do, in the light of Arnulf's efforts over the past few months, and in hindsight, it was a mistake. To be honest, I don't blame Kent and Russ for it either - I'm pretty sure if we'd stuck up for him, Arnulf would have been fine - but we felt, too that his look wasn't right, and so we all agreed. As a result of losing Arnulf we lost a highly competent studio guitarist, and this would cost us further down the line, when the recording schedule started to spiral out of control.

Russ Regan had suggested we go for a 14 track album, which meant the recording process would be a long one, but we had the apartment for 3 months, so were were confident we could get it done in time. Our brief was to deliver the recording by mid November - we had 6 weeks. In charge of the recording was Thierry Migeotte, a Belgian who had naturalised to LA. He was a super confident guy, with a base ball cap permanently on his head, and a cigarette perpetually trailing from his lips. He looked liked Dolph Lundgren. When we had first arrived in LA we believed Thierry to have several grammies to his name, but it turned out that these grammies actually belonged to Tony Smalios, who was ostensibly Thierry's studio partner. Thierry had played us the 'studio' show reel in the first instance, rather than his own personal one, and we thought it was him with the grammies. But it wasn't. So instead of the grammy winning producer, we had a guy with no grammies. Thierry had worked with some big names though - he had recently remixed Gill Scott's live album - and his studio was absolutely top of the line. We felt we were in good hands, and ignored Thierry's economy with the truth. We met Tony and he was a nice guy, but rather ominously for us, we overheard him describing us as 'lambs to the slaughter' - a reference to our partnership with Thierry. Thierry tried to get Tony on board, but we didn't have enough money for both of them - so Tony didn't come on board, and we began the recording with Thierry.

The Fuse - Band Origins - Disaster Strikes

Maximus coped well with the steep hills of San Francisco, the V8 thrumming away bravely. I had a hitchhiker for my journey south, a friend of mine called Belli, from Hamburg, Germany - and the two of us hit the Route 1 and headed to LA. After a few hours on the road the night was drawing in, and I realised two things: firstly, that there was something wrong with the engine, and secondly, that we needed to find a place to park up. The engine had started making strange noises, which I tried to ignore. We eventually found a place to park up, somewhere in Monterey, and it was really an incredibly beautiful night with the stars gleaming over the Pacific ocean. I was trying to ignore my nagging concerns about the engine, but was grateful, at the same time, that I'd taken out AAA cover and thus was ok if the worst happened. I also had a really bad tummy, which meant that my gallant attempts to impress my passenger were frequently interrupted by visits to the bushes. I scraped a few hours sleep and in the morning we got going again. The engine started, but it was clear that all was not well. Unwilling to accept this, I pressed on regardless, and before long the engine died completely, leaving us stranded somewhere on the Route 1. AAA came to pick us up, and we arrived at a local garage, where the mechanic diagnosed a seized engine - the cylinder head gasket had failed. It was the worst possible news - a full engine rebuild was the only way to get the van back on the road. I spoke to Kent on the phone - he had a mechanic friend who could do the work, but it was going to be a 5k dollar job. Ouch. Belli and I rode the tow truck into LA.

The Fuse - Band Origins - Maximus

Maximus was an impulse buy, but as soon as I saw him on ebay I just had to buy him. Outrageous, inexplicable, fabulous. It was love at first site, and I couldn't believe how cheap he was at $2000 dollars. He was for sale in a suburb of San Francisco, so that was where I flew as I made my way to California for the recording of the album. I'd been to San Francisco once before, in 97, but I didn't remember much of it, and this time I was lucky enough to have a friend living there, Moritz, who was able to put me up. First though I had to collect Maximus, and I got a boat over the the other side of the bay, where he was being kept. The guy selling him seemed honest enough, and the van seemed to run very well. After a few issues with the payment arriving on time, via paypal, and sorting me out with a California driving license - which was not something I'd foreseen needing - the deed was done and I was the proud owner of the baddest van in California. I couldn't wait to drive it down to LA to show the other guys. Little did I know that Maximus would only last about 100 more miles.

The Fuse - Band Origins - The First Contract

Prior to leaving LA we secured an 'agreement to proceed' contract, which was a commitment from Velocity Entertainment towards the band. We signed it in a restaurant in North Hollywood, and I can still remember that feeling of hesitation before I put pen to paper, and Jake saying 'sign it dude.' So I did sign it and there it was, our first record deal, of sorts. We still had to raise money to make our LA record but the deal formalised our relationship with Velocity, so this was mission accomplished. Jake and I also got down to writing a couple of songs whilst we were out there, including Hollywood For You, one of my favourite songs from the LA album. I can still vividly remember all the images that went into the song, which I saw when I went on an early morning walk down Sunset Boulevard, and witnessed LA's darker side - the tragedies of the city of dreams, the muttering bums whose vision betrayed them. We toured around, driving the 350Z to Santa Monica, to the Hollywood sign - down Mulholland Drive, and through Laurel Canyon. Happy days.

Back in London I got down to the business of raising the money to record the album, and with the contract in place this didn't prove to be too much of a problem - the status of Russ and Kent was such that it was widely believed we were on to a winner, and thus, the money, was raised. With everything in place, the band moved into an accelerated schedule to get ready for the recording - writing more songs, practicing as hard as we could. They were exciting times. Shortly before our final departure for LA, I decided we needed tour van to drive around in, and online I found the perfect vehicle - the van that would be known as Maximus. Maximus was an incredible vehicle, a stretched 1973 Dodge van with a double rear axle and a scooby doo colour scheme. It was love at first sight, and I bought him on ebay from a guy in San Francisco for what seemed the incredibly reasonable sum of 1000 pounds. My next move was to go to San Francisco to collect him, and then prepare for the arrival of the band.

The Fuse - Band Origins - Meeting Kent and Russ

Jake and I flew out at different times to LA, and I arrived first. Landing at LAX was a real buzz, and in the excitement I upgraded my rental car to a bright orange Nissan 350 Z Roadster. It was almost brand new, a stunning car which at that time was the most powerful thing I'd ever driven. I was terrified of crashing it as I drove through my first LA night with a map on my lap, enormous kerbs on my left and right, and impatient drivers behind me. With no satnav to help - this was 2007 - this was a real test of my nerve, and I had almost no visibility out of the back of car as I peered around desperately trying to work out where the hell I was. My destination was a motel on Sunset Boulevard, and luckily, once I'd got my head around the LA grid system, I found a major road that would lead me straight there. How vivid it all was, the neon lights of burger joints flashing by my wide eyes as I periodically gunned the 350Z for all it was worth, buzzing with the exhilaration and fear of this brave new world. Once I hit the Sunset strip I pulled in at the In And Out Burger and bought myself a meal. As a Big Lebowski afficionado, it had to be the In and Out Burger. You don't really realise how much LA there is in the subconscious until you get there. All these years of movies had put a lust for this town in my belly and to actually be there, in a bright orange sports convertible, was my wildest dream come true. I safely pulled in to the motel and tried to get some sleep.

With Jake on board the party really started. Two amigos living the dream. We rolled up to the offices of Velocity entertainment, which were housed in what looked like a movie set in South Hollywood. The first person we saw was Sacha Baron Cohen, walking around with his entourage in the full flush of his fame. The sun was hot on our heads and our shades were down as we buzzed on the door of Velocity, for our fateful meeting with Kent and Russ, two industry big hitters who had our destinies in the palm of their hand. I had a bag with me, where I'd had some demo CD's made, which I clutched nervously. After all, everything hinged on the moment when Russ pressed play. We knew they were interested because they'd heard the track on MySpace, but we'd recorded some more tunes and had six to play to him. We met Kent first, the second in command - Kent, a massive man with a big bald head and an easy drawl, goatee beard and badass clothes, every inch the founder of Death Row Records in the flesh. He showed us a few projects he was working on and introduced us to some of the staff at the label, including Isaac, who he credited with 'bigging us up. He was persistent, man', he said - 'you've got a lot to thank him for. He really pulled for you.' Needless to say we pumped Isaac's hand enthusiastically.

And then the moment of truth. Kent knocked on Russ's door, and in we went. He was sat behind his desk, a man in his early 70's: a music industry legend in his own life time. There was a massive carved wooden object on his desk that said 'RUSS REGAN.' We sat down and made small talk for a little while, until he said, 'So have you got something to play me?' Out came the discs, which we'd had made in a little shop on Santa Monica Boulevard. Russ took the disc out and put it in his player and pressed play. First up was 3AM, which we knew they liked, and we listened and Russ said - 'Its a hit!'. Jake and I wriggled with delight, this was every musician's dream and we were living it. We listened to London Girl next, which Russ also really liked, and then some other tracks which were destined for the album. Russ was keen, although 3AM was the only track he designated 'a hit.' He looked at us very closely and said, 'I think you've got a hit record here and we want to be involved, but you're gonna need to re-record the material, preferably in LA. We're willing to put 250k into promoting the record, but you're going to need to finance the recording.' This wasn't quite what we'd been hoping for - we'd wanted all expenses paid - but the idea that Velocity would sink 250k into our record, once we'd made it, was enough for us. It was time to head back to London to raise some money!

The Fuse - Band Origins - Jake and Alex fly to LA

Having recorded 3AM with Ian Tompson in Greenwich, the band put the song up on MySpace. It was the era of Arctic Monkeys and as social media exploded, we thought it was possible that something could happen. We were right - and before long we would have a record deal.

I'd already decided to go to LA and see if I could do anything with the EP we'd made with Ian Tompson. At 26, flying to LA and 'knocking on doors' seemed to me to be a totally logical thing to do, so I booked my ticket and counted the days. It seemed almost unbelievably serendipitous, therefore, when I got a call from Kiki saying that her brother Tom was out in LA, where he had met a major record executive who thought 3AM was a hit.

The executive in question was Kent Jacobs, one of the founders of Death Row Records, who had been the tour manager for Prince and had also worked extensively with REM. And to top it all, his business partner was Russ Regan - the man who had named the Beach Boys, signed and made famous Elton John, Barry White, and Neil Diamond.

Tom, Kiki's brother, had been visiting a girl he had met at a wedding in India, in LA. Her flatmate was Kent Jacob's girlfriend, and it was whilst at a party that Tom had badgered Kent into listening to The Fuse. Kent had listened to 3AM and said: its a hit! Within a few days I was talking to Kent on the phone, and because I'd already bought a ticket to LA I was able to tell him that we could meet within the month. Kent was impressed.

Jake booked a ticket as well - our LA adventure was about to begin.

The Fuse - Band Origins - The Path To LA

The Path To LA

By Christmas 2006 we had 2 guitarists - Simon Bowker, who had auditioned, and Arnulf Ochs, a German who had been recommended to us by Ian Tompson, an engineer/producer whom I had first met two years previously. Ian had given me what amounted to a break, when I played a song I had written on the guitar, in his studio, to him. He had liked it enough to invite me to record at his studio.Ian, as tour manager of Manfred Mann's Earth Band, possessor of several gold and silver records from the likes of The Christians, was the closest thing we had to a 'record industry' insider - and so on the strength of his recommendation, we brought Arnulf into what was then known as 'Lato.' Around this time, Mike Varnava, our bass player wrote an absolutely fantastic riff, which we jammed out in practice into an instrumental. Jake and I took this to his studio and wrote the melody and lyrics for what what would become 3AM, which will of course be the oldest surviving Fuse track to make it onto the forthcoming record. And it was 3AM, recorded with Ian Tompson at his Greenwich studio, that was to catch the ear of no other than Russ Regan - the A&R legend who had discovered Elton John, Barry White and Neil Diamond - and who was about to discover The Fuse.

The Fuse - Band Origins - Part 1

BAND ORIGINS by Alex Lato

I started The Fuse with Jake Blair in the summer of 2006. Jake and I had worked on a few of my songs together with him in the role of producer - the style was singer songwriter (me) meets computer wizard (Jake), and we both liked the results. Jake (also a gifted drummer) felt we had to take things live, so I called up the only bass player I knew, Mike Varnava - who had been in my school band, Ferris. Mike arrived with the same bass he'd last played in Ferris, back in 1999 - complete with the same strings. We jammed a bit and played a song called RockStarPopStar, which I can still remember. We were all up for giving it a try and so that was really the formation of the band - I brought Kiki (who I'd performed with in Bologna when we were both students together) along to the next practice and we all agreed what a nice voice she had. And of course, back then in the early early days, we had Adam Kamanetzky on the viola and Nik Sowden on the guitar. So we were playing a much more folky style. The draw of rock proved too strong, though, when Adam K broke his arm in a cycling accident, and left the band - and we ended up gravitating in that direction. Nik Sowden left the band early on - and on one memorable day in December 2006, we auditioned for a new guitarist. First through the door was Simon Bowker - who besides myself is thus the longest serving member of The Fuse.

The Fuse - Foreigner Support - Part 3 - Meeting Mick Jones

25th May 2015 - Meeting Mick Jones

The picture you can see at the top of this feed was taken by Ed at the end of the show - you can see plenty of people with their hands in the air. We had done it! The biggest show of our careers had been a success, and what an amazing feeling it was. As we made our way back stage several members of Foreigner went out of their way to congratulate us - hands were shaken, backs slapped. What a feeling.

A few minutes passed, and I found myself alone in our tent - absorbing what had just happened, enjoying this, one my life's greatest moments. Suddenly the head of Mike Durrschmidt, Fuse manager and boss of DMC Musik Marketing, poked round the flap of the tent. Did I want to meet Mick Jones, he asked. Well - that didn't take much time to think about, so out I went, and there he was, writer of some of the greatest songs in history.

We shook hands and he congratulated me on a great show. I thanked him very much for having us on their tour and he said he was pleased he did, as we had put on such an awesome performance. I was buzzing, of course, from such praise. Mick had to go and get ready for the Foreigner show - but what an amazing honour and privilege it was, to meet. him.

The Fuse - Foreigner Support Part 2 - The Show

24th May 2015 - THE SHOW

When you go out on stage in front of thousands of people who've never heard of you, you're intensely aware of the need to impress. You simply can't let a crowd that big turn on you, or things could get very ugly. Luckily its never happened to The Fuse, but it didn't change the fact that prior to this show, we were all a bit nervous - just because it hadn't happened before, didn't mean it wasn't about to happen.I am always so stoked about playing to big audiences, that I don't really get afraid. Fear is the worst, and you can't let it in. You just have to go out there and do your thing, believe its going to be incredible, and focus on making sure the crowd have a good time. I always start with the people at the front, making sure I get good eye contact, smiling, not being too aggressive, but at the same time, being as dynamic as possible - catching their eyes with a few moves.

This was a vast rail to work, so I skipped about quite a lot, trying to cover everyone. And of course, you can't forget the people a bit further back. I know from being in crowds myself that it really makes a difference when the performers look straight at you - so I always try to do that.Even though I'd been suffering this terrible cold, and my voice felt a bit fragile, I put my trust in my technique and delivered some good lines. I remember looking over to the side of the stage, where the other performers and so on can watch the show, and I saw the Foreigner bass player standing there and grooving. That gave me loads of confidence. I saw Mike Durrschmidt, our manager, standing there looking proud, and I realised that we were doing a good job.

There's a moment in any show where the band kicks on - everyone realises its going well - and then things go into overdrive. That happened for this show, we started vibing off each other and starting to 'own' the stage, and the crowd, rather than being intimidated by them. That's when it starts to become good fun - the best fun you can have with a beating heart, in fact.

TOMORROW - I MEET MICK JONES (Founder of Foreigner) BACK STAGE and discuss the music biz.

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