Archives for the month of: July, 2023

Memory #4

25/07/2023 //

In August of 2012 The Snakeman 3 set up in a warehouse with a bunch of microphones and a desktop PC to demo a bunch of songs. The EP was set to be called ‘Fry Your Mind’ and featured some very psychedelic artwork. Four of the songs have survived the session as multi-tracks but were ultimately never released. Studio engineers we were not back then, so the recordings were very much demos. They sounded good enough for us to share our sound of the time though. I reckon with a bit more time and focus we could have completed this EP quite effectively. For all the years of being in The Snakeman 3, and in all the guises that band took on, the period of time where we were recording and performing this EP were my personal highlights.

Line up changes in the band occurred after the summer and we set about recording the songs in a different way. The sound became more raucous and rough, DIY and punk after months of gigs in the new lineup. Everything was committed live to a 4-track reel-to-reel recorder in the same warehouse space as ‘Fry Your Mind’. Those later recordings would later be released as the album ‘We’re Better Than You’.

Aside from these photos and other rehearsal shots from the time, the only evidence of the EP ever existing is this video featuring the song ‘Memphis’. This was a popular song in the live set right up until the end of my time with the band – how long can you hold that E chord in the post chorus Kenny?! Strangely this song never made the album. I might mix the multitracks properly at some point.

Tags music, northampton, northamptonshire, Snakeman 3, Snakeman3, The Snakeman 3, uk

Categories Chris Fordham, Cravat Records, In The Studio, Snakeman 3

Memory #3

18/07/2023 //

The 2nd album by The Silent Committee was originally released via BFW Recordings back in 2010.

It has now, at long last, been delivered to streaming platforms (Spotify/Youtube/Apple/Tidal) and digital storefronts to hopefully reach a new and wider audience. As always, the Bandcamp website provides the most affordable option of purchase (FREE! in this case, although if you feel like donating £1 I’d be extremely grateful, it helps me keep making music.)

This album is still one I’m very proud of over a decade later. I poured my heart into its making and tried to create a story in the changing mood of the record. The title and opening track is a slow, full, meditative thing that then leads into a more stark and harsh rushing beat and descent over the next few tracks. Towards the close it all becomes a bit more hopeful and alive. I talk about it a little more in this interview clip from ‘BBC Radio Northampton’s: Weekender Introducing’ programme from the time.

A few details about the album recording and promotion

A bit like the debut album, I was still very much learning the craft of home recording and as such, some of the sounds are a little strangely mixed by todays standards. Again, like 2008’s ‘The Missing’, the album is comprised of 4-track cassette tape recordings, dictaphone microphones, mic’d laptop speakers and digital manipulation. The netlabel community I became involved with and the musicians I met and worked with as a result of this release, are something very important to my musical development.

The album didn’t have any artwork until the day before release. I was a uni student and lived opposite an arts and crafts shop, so I crossed the road, bought a canvas and a bunch of watercolour and oil paints. I am not a painter. The version of the artwork that appears on the original releases cover is a macro photograph of the canvas taken whilst the paint was still wet…the canvas still hangs above the piano in our kitchen to this day.

‘Staring At The Sea’ as a title was simultaneously a reference to ‘The Great Below’ by Nine Inch Nails, and was also a nod to the greatest hits album by The Cure, ‘Standing On The Beach,’ an LP I had on constant repeat. The seas themselves are also amazing, if a little overused, metaphor/similie/allegory that you can get lost in. Visits to the coast also inspire me greatly as I look out across the water and often photograph the waves.

‘Staring At The Sea’ the song, was also the 1st song performed live as The Silent Committee. It was the only album track played at all three shows to date and would almost certainly feature in the future if I’m ever invited to play this music live again.

Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy revisiting the record with me.

CFx