#denmarkstreetstudios

[sidefields]

Denmark Street on its yearly day off -

Being jewish has got its merits. Yes, you might not be a tall or blue eyed and your people may have suffered for years in the past. But against all this stands a huge advantage - Christmas time is for you to relax, not to stress out and get caught up in a frenzy of excess shopping.

After having a chilled morning at home I cycled down the empty streets on Christmas day to the studio down in Denmark Street. It's the only day in the year where there's no public transport. As someone who struggles through hordes of busses and lories on a daily basis on the thin Roman roads of London, this was quite an experience.

As no one is insane enough to actually go to work on Christmas day, I could peacefully work on the mix of If You Were My Lover by SideFields, trying to shift the song's balance between coherent clarity and absolute muddy chaos. Time will tell what would be the result... "Stay tuned folks" ;)

[sidefields]

Denmark Street Dickensian roof top view

Our very nice friends from a video production company in Denmark Street were kind enough to let us go up their roof terrace, and watch the views from there was quite an experience. It's not everyday that you get the see Central London from such height, and at the same time not to be surrounded by hordes of passer-bys and tourists. You could also see the massive hole in the very centre of town that\s been dug for Crossrail. right where the lovely Astoria and Mean Fiddler used to stand. I still remember having the long queues at mid day for all those shows in the Astoria, with all the black wearing - eye-lined teens. It gave central London a real flavour of music and you could sense that the alternative culture had a real, physical place in everyday life of this city. I do know that there plans to re-built the Astoria, I don't know if it's going to have the same name and same feel and it might be a sanitised version of the past, but I certainly hope it will occur as the city needs its music vibe back on forth.

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Bass it up! (at Denmark Street Studios)

This is a short video we've taken while recording the forthcoming SideFields album down in Denmark Street Studios. For this song me and Marino tried to achieve a slightly different bass sound, one that is a bit closer to a double bass but still keeps the punchiness of an electric bass guitar. Marino pretty much aced it. What a bassist :)

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Juba in da house!

In a manic day in the studio, composer / singer / songwriter Zahed Sultan came to record bits and pieces for his forthcoming album. His workflow seem quite unique as he came with 14 tracks in different stages of production. Some were almost complete while others had nothing but a very basic idea on them. Zahed also proved himself to be rather brave and ambitious, calling out very own Juba (Yuval Wetzler) to record drums on not less than 14 (!) tracks just in two hours. We later on continue to record piano for 7 (!) tracks in another two hours. Certianly something to think about.