The Digital age is killing music…….so some say……
Welcome to A Hawk in the Rain.
We are a collaborative project between Birmingham based Lantern Music and New York based Cassis. Due to our shared ambitions for expression and emotion to be part of the music we make, we took our name from a collection of poems by British poet, Ted Hughes.
Instead of sharing this view of a failing music world due to digital downloads, we have seen as an opportunity.
For hundreds of years music has been about communication. A way of people connecting through song, telling stories that have been past down from generation to generation. A way of someone communicating their thoughts and feelings.
With the digital era came a new era for communication.
Through use of the internet, we have been able to write together two sets of songs with thousands of miles separating us. Something that could have never happened before.
We then met, once in Berlin, on a farm, and once in Leeds, in the crypt of an 18th century church. There we recorded, making music purely because we wanted to create something special.
This site is the home of A Hawk in the Rain. For four weeks, from 14/03/11 to 10/04/11, one of our members, Simon Ralph Goff, wrote a blog each day, telling the story of the collaboration and how it unfolded. You can either read it here, day by day on this blog or in its entirety on this page below.
You can listen to the music here or by clicking on the music link on the home page.
Finishing these two EP’s has been a labour of love. We are all incredibly proud of the products of this collaboration and are excited the two EP’s are out there for all to listen to.
Thanks for everyone’s help to finish it, there is a video we made for Kickstarter: click here
Thank you for stopping by, we hope you enjoy your time here.
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The Full Blog, as it happened……
Day 1 – I run from you.
http://ahawkintherain.bandcamp.com/track/i-run-from-you
Day 2.
What is A Hawk in the Rain?
A Hawk in the Rain is a collaboration between Birmingham based Lantern Music and New York based Cassis. Due to their shared ambition to for expression and emotion to be part of the music they make, they took their name from a collection of poems by British poet, Ted Hughes.
My name is Simon Ralph Goff and I am one of the members of Lantern Music. I will over the next 28 days, tell the story that is the conception, development and implementation of the project. This blog will be my view point to the whole experience and im hoping the others will chip in when they have chance. I hope you enjoy the ride. We did.
In 2009, the seeds of A Hawk in the Rain were sown. Cassis and I had met through Herbie Flowers a few years previous, teaching on a music course in Dartington, Devon, in the UK. As our friendship developed, we shared our likes and dislikes and we discovered a lot of similarities. Lantern Music had recently produced our first EP together and on Cassis hearing this, the ideas of collaboration began.
While Cassis was in the UK in the summer of 2009, she came to meet Tom and I to brainstorm the project. This was a really exciting discussion with ideas flying all around the place. There were some really mad things discussed, im sure costumes come in to the conversation at one point!
From here, through email and skype conversations it was decided that we would create 2 Eps. The first to be recorded in Berlin, Germany and the second in Leeds, England.
The track you heard yesterday is the first track that we recorded in Berlin. We hope you liked it!
Thanks for all your help!
As well as telling you the story of what happened on here, I will also be posting up the songs that we created.
Here used to be our plea for help from Kickstarter, but as this is the past and we raised the money – we changed this entry to reflect what we accomplished: We have managed to complete both EPs. They are available for download on a ‘pay what you want’ basis from our Bandcamp page.
We did a limited edition run of the 2 EPs together in one package that is on sale through our bandcamp page and also at the future gigs….hopefully. As a special bonus you can download the poster as well when you download the music. The poster has been designed by Nicola Kane and has available in a limited edition run as well.
So far we have screen printed the cases with the Beautiful design done by my good friend Nicola Kane.
So….if you take a little jump over to our Kickstarter page, you can see our video!
I hope you enjoy our story and our music and feel it is something you may want to help us finish!
Day 3.
Us.
As I mentioned yesterday, this project is a collaboration between Lantern Music and Cassis.
I thought that today I would just give you a brief introduction to us so that you have more of an idea who is involved. I will also, at different points in the blog, introduce you to each member individually in a bit more detail so that you can see where we have come from, why we do the things we do and where you can find us doing other things apart from this project.
Lantern Music.
Lantern Music is a group of musicians based in Birmingham UK. It is made up of myself (Simon Ralph Goff), Tom Lingard and George Kirkham. We all met about 3 and a half years ago when we began our studies at Birmingham Conservatoire. In 2009 we decided that we wanted to make some music together after sharing many interests. The idea was mainly born from conversations between Tom and myself and we asked George if he would be interested in being involved, as he is an incredible drummer/percussionist. One of the main things that made me want to make music with Tom in particular was the fact he was a fellow string player and had done lots of similar work to myself in the past working on string arrangements for bands etc. Being a Violinist, I haven’t come across many other violinists who live in the band world and interact there. It’s quite surprising how differently the two worlds seem to be but essentially also very similar at the same time. We also had very similar interests in the type of music we listened to. We therefore made a short 4 track EP called ‘The Red Orchestra – There is a field EP’. We shortly after discovered there were a few other bands that existed called ‘The Red Orchestra’ and therefore decided to cease using that name – shame, I quite liked it!
Cassis.
I was thinking of getting a short blurb from Cassis to put here as a brief introduction but there will be a full blog post sometime in the coming weeks that will hopefully be penned mainly by herself. So I though id just give you a brief insight into who she is and why I asked her to be part of this. Cassis is one of the most interesting and inspiring people I have met. Her life so far has taken her all over the world, working in many different creative industries, mixing with many many great people. She has filmed and been part of student uprisings in Germany, written music for films that have been nominated for an OSCAR, shot a documentary about Mark Ribot on cassette tape, toured with Michael Gira’s Angels of Light and that is only scratching the surface. She currently resides in New York however, she is originally from Stuttgart in Germany. Similar to the three of us from Lantern, she went to music college but the course didn’t really sit and from there ventured off in to a life of film. In this time she won an award for Youngest Producer at Munich Film Festival and cornered Jim Jarmusch demanding a job. She got it. In New York she divides her time up between various musical outputs and location scouting for major Hollywood films. The thing that struck both Tom and myself the most on hearing her music was her unique sounding voice. We could see it merging with our visions and sound so well. She is a very kind and open person as well as being a brilliant musician, and even though I personally can find her working processes quite a contrast to anything the ways im used to, it is a pleasure to both know and to have been able to work along side her. I hope both of those things continue.
Day 4 – Counting clouds.
http://ahawkintherain.bandcamp.com/track/counting-clouds
Day 5.
The Writing Process.
Writing songs can be pretty difficult when members live on the opposite sides of the Atlantic, so coming up with the material for the two EP’s was an interesting process.
Bands all write in different ways. Some jam it out and write all together, some have one member who writes all the material first and then some bring different ideas to the table and let it loose with all the other members. Cassis, up to this point had done mainly solo work or been in groups where she was the primary songwriter. In Lantern Music, the bulk of the ideas come from Tom and I with George giving his much needed input at a later date.
We had decided that the best way for us to write collaboratively was for Cassis to come up with ideas and send them to us for us to look at and visa versa. As I had taken it upon myself to coordinate the project, we decided that Tom would take lead on submitting ideas for the Lantern side of things.
This was a very interesting time, lots of emails sent backwards and forwards across the Atlantic. It felt amazing to be writing, albeit at very early stages, as a group that had thousands of miles between us. There are really very little boundaries now to you if you really want to make something happen. Technology has enabled us to do so many things that weren’t even thinkable before and this has very much translated into music.
Writing songs together can be a very intimate process at times. People can have very different writing styles and ways in which they voice their ideas. This manifested itself in our project quite evidently as Tom and Cassis’ writing styles were radically different. This unfortunately caused some friction between the two at times. Outside of a working environment, they get on brilliantly but sadly this didn’t translate to the process so well. Great things have come out of turbulent relationships in bands though!
I think that also, the way in which I asked them to write together did not help build a stable relationship on which they could work together. Writing via email is difficult even if you know the other person inside out. I think in future I would recommend setting strict guidelines in which to work!
Day 6.
Why Berlin.
When we first discussed doing this project, we talked about various locations. Having so many different options we really felt like we should grasp the opportunity to record in really special places.
The obvious place that came up was for us to record in Birmingham. With three of us being resident here, it would have been easy for Cassis to come over.
As I work with many great people around Birmingham, we did have offers of great spaces here, however, we all felt that sticking to Birmingham wasn’t going to give us the excitement that was on offer my some of the other prospects. It’s a great city, but like any city, if you spend all your time there, it can loose some of its magic.
We talked about New York. With Cassis being resident there, it was possible that we could have made something work there. However, the shear expense or getting three of us over there ruled it out straight away. We simply couldn’t afford it. Maybe something might happen there in the future!
The next option we had was Berlin. Berlin is a city that I am very excited by. Even though many people say its not what it was 20 years ago, it still has a feel to it that I haven’t experienced elsewhere. It has the same buzz of things happening that London does, but feels much younger as if it is still finding its feet. Much more accepting. A great place for art to thrive. So when Cassis suggested that we could find somewhere there, I jumped on it!
This was really really exciting but also posed a few obstacles that we were going to have to over come. The main issue we had, was cost, obviously. Three of us are/were students so cash flow isn’t exactly plentiful. Cassis is also a working artist with many other commitments so the need to keep the cost down on this project has always been prominent. Therefore having chosen to record in Berlin, we needed to find somewhere that would allow us to record for not much money.
After Cassis getting on the old blower and asking around her friends in Berlin, we had a few options. A couple of amazing already existing studios were available but unfortunately way out of our price range. We also had an offer of an amazing space in the top floor of a building in the centre of Berlin. This was almost perfect but a little too expensive and it was also just a space. As we had no money to hire equipment, the more we could get included the better.
After much deliberation, we settled on a farm house retreat that belonged to a film composer from Berlin. Ill tell you more about this place later on! There was a bit of equipment there but it was basically just a house with instruments in. This meant that we were going to have to build a studio there for ourselves and more importantly take most of it with us!
Day 7 – Miracle.
http://ahawkintherain.bandcamp.com/track/miracle
Day 8.
So we had decided to record in Berlin. This meant for those of us coming from the UK we had two options, drive or fly. Cassis was already booked to be in the UK over the summer working so she planned to fly over once her commitments here ended.
Due to having to take a lot of equipment with us, flying wasn’t really an option. It would have cost more than the expensive studios! So we were going to have to drive from Birmingham. Luckily, as the only vehicle we had that we could use was my car (which isn’t the biggest in the world!) George said he was going to be able to fly and meet us out there.
So we had three people and all the gear we could get our hands on, rammed in to my car. It was a bit full!
Ahead of us we had a 27 hour journey to get there. To keep costs down we booked ourselves on to a late night ferry which also meant we would be driving through Europe in the early hours. We hoped that the roads would be quieter because of this!
A mixture of tiredness, german scrambled egg, sat nav going crazy, a moment on the wrong side of the road, super fast cars on the autobahn and lots of coffee later we arrived!
Driving that far across Europe in one go is not advisable but it did make for some amazing sights!
Cassis and George had a slightly more relaxed relationship with their journeys over as they both flew. George did screw up the timing with the hours difference though so Cassis was waiting for him for an hour!
Day 9.
Out of all the possible venues that we had in Berlin we eventually chose to go to a farm house retreat belonging to German film composer, Jan Tilman Schade. We decided that this would be great as it was a little way out of Berlin, in a small village, so we would be completely away from everything for 5 days, and just focus on recording.
When we arrived at the place, we were all a mixture of excitement, apprehension and curiosity. We had agreed to this place based on a few pictures and what Jan had told us himself so we didn’t really know what to fully expect. One of the selling points of this venue for our recording was the fact that he said he had a Steinway grand piano in his front room. This was a massive selling point and not only was it a Steinway, but probably the most amazing Steinway that any of us had played!
(Ed didn’t quite understand all the fuss we were making all week about quite how amazing this piano was. That was until just before we left on the last night when he sat down behind it for the first time and you could instantly see in his eyes he got it – ‘Ah yes, now I understand!’)
The rest of the house was full of surprises. It was full of things for making all a ray of sounds and noises. It was like a musicians playground. He left us a load of recording gear that he said we were able to use as well. In amongst that was a Sennheiser 441 microphone than we discovered is AMAZING for recording strings. So warm.
In the back bedroom, was the drum kit that he had said we were able to use. We didn’t quite realize that is was the drum kit that used to belong to the Berlin state Radio Big Band! It dated back to the 50’s, had the most amazing sounding shallow bass drum and was still complete with original animal skins!
This place was amazing. It enabled us to sleep, eat and record all under the same roof for 5 days solid, and while putting 5 people, some of whom barely knew each other, did make for some friction at times, it make for what I think we can all agree are moments that will be remembered for life!
Day 10 – Who are you.
http://ahawkintherain.bandcamp.com/track/who-are-you
Day 11.
Iv known our drummer, George for almost four years now and he is one of my closest friends. It was amazing having him on board for this project. I asked him to write a post just so you can get to know him a bit better. Over to him!
Hello!
Being in this band has been an awesome/unique experience. It has given me a chance to discover a side of me I thought I’d never had. I met Si and Tom when I arrived at Birmingham Conservatoire in 2007. As friends we enjoyed loads of laughter and tears, but as musicians we had some initial differences. When I arrived at the Conservatoire i was under the illusion that I was going to be an orchestral percussionist and that was the end of it.
I had grown up in Dorset and played percussion of some kind since the age of nine. I, like many percussionists I think, started out on the drum kit and progressed on to orchestral percussion at a later date. I really enjoyed classical percussion and played in many of the orchestras for Dorset County Music Service. I think this is where I decided that I was going to do that for the rest of my life! Music services are very encouraging but I think I came out of it a little blind to the real music world out there.
During my first year at the conservatoire I quickly realised that my ideas of being solely an orchestral musician were unrealistic for many reasons, and therefore started to explore other aspects of my playing. I was exposed to so many different types of music and benefitted from meeting some amazing tutors some of whom I still study with at the moment.
Recently I have focused quite a lot of Middle Eastern Music and am beginning to specialise in that. I have also become a keen folk player and play the Cajon working alongside violinist, Joe Broughton a lot.
Up until summer last year, I lived with Si and Tom in a big house with a lot of our other mates. 8 guys in a house, it was a bloody mess! However it did mean that that we had the chance to hang out, and jam music. These jams eventually turned into the first Lantern Music ep (The Red Orchestra) being recorded at the house.
The Red Orchestra was a collection of sound scapes that gave me my first taste of being in a project like this. After that, the project kind of took a break, and Simon and Tom started writing privately about various aspects of their lives. The idea for Hawk in the Rain was given to me and I was immediately back on board. We jammed out a few ideas and pretty soon we had an idea of the sound that we were going for. Meeting Cassis was just the thing to get even more momentum behind the project, I didn’t quite know what to make of her in the first place, she’s brilliantly eccentric! We had 2 days of rehearsing there were some frictions between Cassis and Tom, but after the 2nd day we all went for a drink to clear the air.
Next stop Berlin
We recorded the first ep in a little village just outside berlin. It took me a while to settle into the mindset of recording. We aimed to do a song a day, with one day left over to tie up any loose ends. I wasn’t really comfortable at the beginning of the week, but as soon as I got the first song out of the way I started to relax a bit. From there on in, recording basically consisted if me getting up at about midday, putting the drum tracks down having some dinner, the getting pissed. It was great!
Being in berlin was awesome. I had such a great time with everyone, and just had a blast.
The next EP was a little more difficult to organize. We were all getting busy, and on top of that, in the week that we had set aside to record, I got asked to play with Birmingham Royal Ballet and Birmingham Opera in Stravinsky’s Les Noces. This created a problem, I couldn’t turn this gig down, but also I couldn’t pull out of recording. So Simon and I figured out that I would have to put all the drums down in one day. Which I managed to do … just!
I hope you enjoy our music as much as we enjoyed making it!
George.
Day 12.
The farm was an amazing place to spend five days dedicated to just making music. We were truly privileged to be able to do that. Even though we were paying to do it, it took the help of a lot of very kind people to enable us to do so and we are very grateful towards them.
The first person that we owed a lot to was the owner of the farm itself, Jan Tilman Schade. Jan let us have the farm for 5 days for a great price. Being able to stay residentially there and the most amazing thing was his willingness to let us use his instruments that were around the house. While we were there, he also was around during some of the days and lent us extra gear he had stored away. He was a very accommodating and kind man with lots of stories to tell. Not least about his times with the German industrial band, Einsturzende Naubauten.
In order to build the studio over there we had to beg, borrow and steal a load of gear from anyone we knew. We had looked at hiring equipment from places in Berlin but it was just going to cost too much and would have made the project too expensive. So we were all set with the task of asking as many people as we can to borrow any gear they may be willing to let go and managed to get enough together.
The guys from LoveRock! Records here in Birmingham were a huge help. LoveRock! is an independent record label/collective of musicians lead by the man himself Ray Loverock and Alastair Jamieson. These two are two of the kindest and most generous people iv met. Iv been working with them recently on an album by Joanna Briggs. You can check out some of the stuff we have done here.
Another person from Birmingham that helped with gear was Clutch Daisy. I met Clutch originally through twitter as he had heard some work I had done on my first album with Leeds band Hope and Social. Clutch was the front man of (x) is greater than (y) and he asked me to do some strings work on an album he had started with the band but was, and I hope still is finishing off himself. There are some really great tunes there.
Most of the stuff that we borrowed from Birmingham was the recording side of the studio. We ended up running pro-tools 8 from my laptop, which only just survived, and had a motu-8pre running through the Digi002. This was all set up on the dining table in the front room and that became the ‘studio’ for the week. Ed (from Hope and Social) and I are quite used to recording in the same room as playing as that is how most of the Hope and Social records are made. The others were all pretty used to it too as home recording is something we have all past, present and future experience of im sure. Considering we had originally talked about recording though a m-audio 2 channel interface with 2 SM57’s, we actually ended up with a pretty sweet setup!
Cassis also had a lot of help from friends of hers in and around Berlin with instruments and amps. Not least her flat mate who leant us a 70’s Fender Rhodes that was in such perfect condition that when we first saw it we couldn’t work out if it was a replica or not. Nope, it was real. Amazing.
I can’t remember exactly who helped us out in Berlin but we are eternally grateful to them all and also all here in the UK who gave us a hand. It’s sure to say that without them we couldn’t have made this happen.
Of course, there’s Ed Waring too, but you’ll find out more about him later…..
Day 13 – Piano Track.
http://ahawkintherain.bandcamp.com/track/piano-track
I thought i would just write a little bit about this track as it is the one that means the most to me off of this EP. As I’m sure you have become aware, through the recording of this EP, there were many levels of friction between the band at different times (It’s quite intense living, eating, sleeping AND recording in the same space for days on end!).
The beautiful thing about this track is that it was originally an idea that was going to be before Miracle as an intro and Tom had written it, playing it all himself. It was the last thing to we recorded at the farm and just as we set up to record, Tom decided to ask Cassis to join him at the piano and play the right hand part. Watching them record this and see all tension disappear during the process really was magical. I think I’ll remember it forever.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Day 14.
Before getting to Berlin, we had all got together briefly in Birmingham to work on the tunes all together. We pulled another favour and managed to find ourselves in a music school in Birmingham that was still being built. A friend sorted us with a few amps, drum kit and a P.A. and we set up with half built walls all around us!
It was then that the songs really began to take shape however due to time contraints as usual, we set off for Berlin with a little more work left to do.
With our time on the farm, we planned to spend a day on each track which then meant we had one day left to do ‘stuff’ that we might have left to do. As George mentioned in his blog post, the days usually started with his drum takes, with or without me joining him recording bass. We would jam the song for the day in the morning to really nail down the feel of the song and make sure we were all on the same page of where we wanted it to go. We would then start building the song up which usually meant drums or piano first.
I Run from you was the first track we recorded and it was amazing to see George, releax in to the process and get to know, and quickly fall in love with the drum kit. Seeing George in the classical world is usually accompanied with a certain level of stress and rushing between the many many projects that he gets asked to play in. Removing him from that world and going to Berlin was brilliant as for the time we were on the farm his one focus was playing the drums and having a good time and I think he played at an even higher standard than usual!
Working out our recording dynamic was an interesting process and to be honest im not sure we ever really got it sorted fully! One of the most interesting things about recording I Run from you was was when Cassis and Tom began doing their vocal takes. They decided to record together facing each other, and it was fascinating to watch them react to each other.
They also decided to record the piano part and the vocals to Miracle entirely live. As Miracle is such a quiet and delicate song, George and I were instructed that we were going to have to keep perfectly silent in the whole house as the way the mics had been placed meant that any sound would be heard. My bedroom for the week was attached to the front room where we were recording, so I layed on my bed with the door open and just listen to the take. It was almost hypnotic!
In the room which Tom and George were sleeping in, there was another grand piano which had been turned on it side with the top off so that it was possible to play through it to get the resonance of the strings. For Counting Clouds we decided to record the drums in this room and compared to the front room with all its soft furnishings it made for a huge sound!
One really nice thing about recording at the farm was that it was a complete house with a working Kitchen, so everynight we would take turns to cook for each other. It was really nice sitting around the table chatting about the day past and the plans ahead and there really was some magic there. I definitely felt privaledged to be part of the group at that table.
Day 15.
In our time schedule for recording, we had planned on the last day at the farm to have the morning finishing off, have lunch and pack up and leave in the afternoon as to spend the evening in Berlin to celebrate. What actually happened was that at 2am we were sat around listening to the rough mixes of the tracks, feeling very happy but tired indeed. I think that night we actually ended up getting to bed at 6am!
Obviously, this then meant that most of the next day, in which we had hoped to explore Berlin a little was spent sleeping. However, Cassis did take us to this amazing place that did all day breakfast in Kreutzberg. It was a very much-needed breakfast!
That night we met up with some of Cassis friends, as it was actually her birthday. We planned to celebrate well! We met one group at a small bar in eastern Berlin and there was many an interesting conversations. However, it was after this first meeting that Cassis also took us to a place in Western Berlin, in an area of Berlin called Kreutzberg.
While the wall was still up in Berlin, it was the west side where lots of people met and took advantage of the Bohemian attitude. This feeling, although Berlin has changed a lot in the last 20 years, is still evident in much of the city and Kreutzberg is full of great places to eat, drink and be very very merry.
We ended up at a tiny bar called Café Kreutzberg that was just one small room which was dimly lit by candle light, played great music (a lot of Tom Waits), and had an atmosphere that I miss in the UK. It was here that we truly celebrated our time in Berlin along side Cassis’ birthday. We also got to talk to some amazing people with really interesting stories to tell including Kristof Hahn, guitarist for SWANS. He truly is one of the most rock and roll people Iv ever met, and the great thing, he’s also one of the most genuinely nice people Iv met too.
We all had an amazing time recording the first EP. I know we will be fighting to go back again soon. Hopefully for a gig or two……
Day 16.
One of the first people I asked to come on board with this project after the band itself was Ed Waring. I met Ed about four years ago when he took some photos for a band that I was in at the time. We really got on and therefore kept in touch. Then, about eighteen months ago, he sent me an email asking if I would be interested in playing bass for his band, Hope and Social, for a gig in Lancaster as the original bassist and drummer had parted with the band. Since the drummer had left, they had used a rotation of different drummers who all knew the songs. They were hoping that I would be available on similar terms and become one of a couple of bassists that would be able to step in. I was more than happy to work on that basis, however after the one gig, Im still here and im now the full time bassist for Hope and Social.
The best thing about being in Hope and Social is getting to be part of the group of people in and around the band. Its more of a family than a band, a group of people all believing in the magic that can happen when eight people get on stage for two hours.
I asked Ed to come along with us to Berlin, as he has his own ways at making bits of that magic happen (his nickname is the wizard). Ed is an amazing mix engineer/producer/studio nut and he is behind everything that happens post-microphone in Hope and Social.
Ed is quite different from any other studio engineer I have worked with so far. When talking to him about what makes him tick during the process of making music, he says that it’s all about people. Making people feel the most comfortable and then they perform magic. He enjoys employing different ‘mind games’ in the room to make the atmosphere the most productive that it can be.
He is also a big fan of telling the stories of legendry studio sessions of the past. I find that these stories encourage you to want to try to get somewhere near, if at all possible, to the magic that was produced on those sessions. Then you push yourself and this makes for great results.
He also did a massive favour for me being part of this project, first coming to Berlin for nothing but the experience, and then since then working with us at majorly reduced rates (so please help us finish this and pay him a little more for his hard work!).
When looking for a second place to record after Berlin, the obvious place was the home of Hope and Social, the crypt. As Hope and Social, we record/practice/spend a lot of our time in the crypt of an eighteenth century church just outside Leeds. It is an amazing place and definitely contributes to the magic of music making just as much as the people inside it. When people arrive there for the first time, they are just instantly mesmorised. The atmosphere is just simply inspiring. Welcome to the venue for the recording sessions for EP2…
Photo by Barnaby Aldrick – http://www.tsgblog.com/
Day 17.
Mixing for this project has been a fairly difficult task as we couldn’t afford to all have time off to be part of the mixing process. This meant that Ed and I had to do it alone, and attempt to interpret the others comments and ideas via email. This hasn’t exactly been easy. Due to the tight budget and Ed basically doing me a massive favour giving his time to this for such little amount of money, it has also meant that the process has been extremely fragmented, finding days here and there when we could both be available.
We initially had three days booked in, and Tom and George came to with me to the crypt for the first of these three. We also had Cassis present over email so were able to get quick responses from her. We mixed everything at the crypt as well as recording the second EP there, as it is where Ed is most comfortable with the room/speakers etc.
This first day was useful and we got a lot of the initial ideas talked through and I think Ed found these days particularly useful as he was able to speak to the guys directly about their thoughts as apose to me relaying them on.
After this first day, we made use once again of email and kept sending mixes back and forth and then getting peoples thoughts on them.
One of the hardest things was that we didn’t really have much conversation via email. So we would get each of the other three’s points but they would comment on each other’s points. This meant we then had to try to accommodate everyones wishes and do a mix and wait for comments back. It worked, but meant the whole process took much longer than it would have had we either had conversation together online, or even better had everyone there at the mixing sessions. It was a shame they couldn’t be there for the sessions but them keeping in touch via email was invaluable. This project definitely would not have happened without the Internet!
We are all extremely happy with the mixes we have ended up with and extremely greatful to Ed for all his hard work. Can’t wait to get real mixes of the next EP! (First track is up tomorrow!)
Day 18 – I can see a boy.
http://soundcloud.com/simonralphgoff/i-can-see-a-boy-rough-25-3-11
Here it is. The first track from EP2. As i have mentioned before, the mixes of these tracks as not final at all as im sure in an ideal world we would rather have had the time and money to work on them more. However, we are still very proud of the work we have done so far and want to give you all a reason to help us finish this project.
If you feel you want to help us, then the kickstarter campaign is now up and running! You can see it here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/676305372/a-hawk-in-the-rain
Hope you enjoy it!
Day 19.
Organising the sessions in Leeds were much more difficult than the Berlin sessions. Cassis had been booked to write music for a feature film being made in Germany around the same time we were hoping to record. This meant we had to wait for her to get confirmation on that dates before we could book anything.
One of the really interesting things when trying to organise the sessions was noticing how the attitudes to Berlin was very different from Leeds, mainly from us resident in the UK. When booking for Berlin, because it was so far away we just booked off the whole week straight. Also because we were in England, it felt more flexible for some reason and therefore didn’t really feel as definite until much closer to the sessions. I think for myself, Tom and George, as we were staying in the UK it didn’t quite have the same special feeling as traveling abroad to record.
As George mentioned early in his post, we had a slight spanner thrown in the works a few weeks before the sessions we due to begin as he got asked to play as part of Birmingham Royal Ballet in an upcoming performance. This happened to land pretty much exactly on the dates we had set to record. After slight panic, we worked out that we should be able to get all the drum and bass parts down in one day. It was going to be much more stressful but it was possible!
Even though there had been certain obstacles put in front of us prior to the Leeds sessions, arriving at the crypt with everyone, ready to make the second set of songs was really exciting. There was also a level of apprehension running up to these recordings too as due to the tight schedules of everyone, the writing songs had developed slightly differently this time. The exchange of ideas wasn’t as plentiful, and therefore, as we approached the Leeds sessions, we had four songs, but where as the last EP was developed together quite a lot, the primary lead for the songs was much more apparent this time. Two of the ideas had primarily come from Cassis and two from Tom.
As this was the case, it made for a different dynamic, as it was more like the individual songwriter initially had a band to develop their songs with whereas before it was that the idea was sown and then discussion developed the songs. Even though the main bulk of the song developed this way, all the individual parts and subtleties were very personal to each player, so they all still ended up very much as songs by us.
Arriving at the crypt to record was Cassis’ first time there and only the second time for the other two guys. Pulling back the curtain to be greeted by whats behind it is still special even for me, so watching the guys’ faces as we arrived to record there was really special. Even though we were going to be more rushed this time, I could tell it was going to be good!
Day 20.
Tom
Next up for you to be introduced to is Tom Lingard. I met Tom four years ago when we both embarked on the undergraduate course at Birmingham Conservatoire. In the first term there we set up a string quartet together with a couple of other guys. As we got to know each other we realised we shared a lot in common. Tom is the one of the only other people I have ever met who has seemed to bridge both the classical and pop world effectively as a string player. Through knowing Tom I have also been exposed to a lot of different music I was unaware of before. He is an incediable musician and I value a lot the fact I am able to call him one of my closest friends.
Just as with George, here is a little bit from Tom about himself and what the project has meant to him………..
Hi, my name is Tom Lingard, and I am a member of Lantern Music and A Hawk In The Rain. I’ve composed music for various projects and different media, including work for Channel4 and the BBC, love writing music for film. I also write string arrangements for various bands and songwriters, having previously worked with Guy Massey, (Divine Comedy, The Bee’s) and Niel McLellan (Prodigy).
I first met George and Simon in my first year of university. Simon was playing bass in pop/rock band ‘Blue Jupiters’ and George was on full steam toward becoming a orchestral percussionist… I didn’t know what I wanted to be.
I had dropped out of Sixth Form college with dreams of writing film music professionally. Some friends and I had set ourselves up in a large warehouse space down at the Custard Factory in Birmingham, and started to write music. It wasn’t exactly legal, and we were begging favours from the owners not to evict us. There were many creative musicians coming through the doors everyday, each with different stories to tell and experiences to share. People played on each others records; it was a community. We built a makeshift, pretty lo-fi studio, and packed it full with all manner of instruments.
This is originally where the seeds of Lantern were sown. I was a classically trained musician, but also played in bands. I wondered whether I could create something that all manner of people could contribute to. Not a music label, but a unity of all types of musicians working together. The ability to make music yourself and with others, record it, package it and sell it.
The band I was in at that time, ‘Thrift,’ wanted to make records that were special and handmade. For instance, one record that we made, came in a handmade cloth bag, we were limited to producing about 25 as that was all we could afford. It didn’t matter as we were making it for ourselves. The idea then was known as the lantern project, and the first band I wanted to create under that umbrella was the Red Orchestra.
When I came to university, I knew I wanted to create something special, and when I met Simon I knew I had found the right person to start something with. We shared the same passion for new music and he really got on board with the lantern concept, so we started developing the ideas further. We both had come from similar backgrounds musically. We both understood that the music industry was changing radically. We liked the idea of not mass producing records, but taking as much care of the packaging and the idea behind the music as you would for the actual music being created. Even if you made just one copy of an album, and the packaging was all handmade, it was worth it. Making music for yourself. Si and me then created Lantern Records, and then Lantern Music.
George is a great friend. When I first jammed with George, it was like my mind exploded and the possibilities endless. For once, I could write without having to play along to a beat in my head…here was a man that could play anything. We had our group, Me, Si and George in The Red Orchestra.
The first record we created was ‘There Is a field’ EP. An instrumental 4 track record. We wanted to do more and more things musically after that record was made. Si and me wanted to not just work on one project, but work on many different projects, each unique to each other. I definitely wanted to sing on the next project, and we decided that we would like to collaborate with a female artist. I had always liked the effect bands like Sparklehorse had on their records; when it was close harmony singing between a man and a woman, and there were a few names discussed. Simon knew Cassis from working with her previously and so we organized a meeting to discuss a collaboration. I instantly liked her, and thought she had a really unique voice style. From then on A Hawk in The Rain was born.
To an old farmhouse in Berlin and then to a crypt in a church in sunny Leeds… we recorded an album of music that I am really proud of.
Hope you like it.
Tom x
Also……if you feel you have time, maybe take a trip over to our Kickstarter page. Thanks!
Day 21 – Hole in my sole.
http://soundcloud.com/simonralphgoff/hole-in-my-soul-rough-25-3-11
Day 22.
The experience of recording in Leeds was radically different from that of Berlin. The first big different was that George was only able to be there for one day, in which we had to record all the drum parts for the EP and get him to the train station for 11pm to catch the last train back to Birmingham. Not having George there for the whole thing wasn’t directly detrimental to the recording as due to him being so good, doing all the drum takes in one day wasn’t a problem. I think the thing we neglected to think about was the dynamic of the group. Having one of our members missing really was noticeable.
The crypt is also not a residential recording studio. We were therefore travelling back and forth each day. Ed kindly put Cassis up at his place while Tom and I stayed at my parents. This was fine apart from it meant that we had an hour drive each day there and back. This makes for a much different feeling to the process from waking up and falling in to the ‘studio’.
Despite all of this, turning up to record at the crypt each day was a pleasure, as it always is. Having Ed working in his own environment was brilliant, you could see that he was just at home. He was used to his tools here much more and felt no limits.
The crypt is full of wonderful instruments and general musical gear. It too is like a musician’s play ground. Somehow, George once again managed to come to the recording sessions and end up with another beautiful drum kit to play on. This time, it was a lovely Ludwig kit. It was very different from the kit in Berlin but special in its own way. Im sure George left the crypt wanting to take it with him, just like in Berlin!
Another great thing about the crypt is that as long as it is free, we have access to the church upstairs. There is a piano up there as well so it made for a great place for us to use just to finish off bits of writing that needed doing. It gave us a place to work on lyrics etc.
When we arrived at the crypt, three of the four songs we feeling, to a certain extent, fairly well formed. The forth song was a little bit more up in the air as it was an idea that has originated from Cassis but had gone through various different stages of development by Tom and I in Birmingham also Cassis in New York. It was a shame that due to everyone being so busy, the communitcation wasn’t as good this time and I think the early development of the songs suffered because of that, particularly Home (wherever im not).This, however, turned out to be a fortunate turn of events. I’ll explain when that track goes up on Saturday.
At the crypt, there are two pianos with slightly different qualities. Both are Beautiful instruments. We decided that we wanted to use both of them. This sounds very simple in practice but the piano tuner may have thought otherwise when he spent 3 hours doing what is normally a 30-minute job. His is a very kind man!
Even though it was radically different from Berlin, recording at the crypt was an interesting, magical and wonderful experience in its own right. We hope you enjoy the results of our time there.
Day 23.
I was hoping that todays post was going to introduce you properly to Cassis. However unfortunately, as very common in our worlds, she has a lot of work on at the moment so is her blog post will now be on Friday. Today, im going to give a bit of background to myself and how I came to this project……
My name is Simon Ralph Goff and I am primerialy a violinist, viola player and bass guitarist. I have always played in many different outfits ranging through all different genres. I decided to come to Birmingham to study classical music at the Conservatoire, as I wanted to improve as a violinist and musician in general. Shortly after I made this decision the band I was playing in at the time, with two good friends from home, started to be a lot more active. We had started working with Mike Heaton (Embrace) and with him fulfilling a kind of mentoring/managerial role we began to gig a lot and follow the long road many bands do hopeful to be one day ‘signed’. This made being at classical music college fairly difficult for me, not only in time management but also in a sense of belonging in the right place. It felt like I was in two worlds, one working to become a classical violinist and one where I was bassist for an indie rock band. This is something that is only now becoming to make more sense.
Since a young age I have had interests in all different musical genres. Playing in rock bands, string orchstras, jazz bands and many other types of ensemble. When I was about sixteen this interest took me to Dartington summer school of music where I first met Cassis. I was taking part on a course lead by Herbie Flowers. After a couple of years of being there as a student, Herbie asked me to become part of his team taking other similar workshops elsewhere in the country. It was here, when Cassis and I began to work along side each other that we really got to know each other. Getting to know Cassis I found her a fascinating woman, having done so many interesting things with her life. I have always found her voice amazingly individual, coupled with a beautifly individual style of composition. I also have a big love of the accordion. All these things had made me want to work with her for a long time.
Back in Birmingham, just as the Blue Jupiters began to go our separate ways, Tom and I expressed a want to produce music in a similar vein. I had recently begun listening to all new types of music, especially the Canadian scene that centred on the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emporer and Broken Social Scene. For some reason I felt like for me, this music landed somewhere between the world of being in a band and being a classical musician. Tom had been in to these scenes for a long time and had also had a similar musical past being both a viola player and playing keys in many bands on the Birmingham scene.
Tom and I also shared a love for really beautifully produced procucts from the bands we loved. The music industry was going through its decent in numbers of record sales and we both felt the only reason that people had to buy records at all was a want to have the real thing in their hand. This made us want to make special artifacts that people would love to own. In his blog post, Tom described our similar vision to want to make music for ourselves. For me, this is the feeling of want to produce something you would want to listen to and proud to own yourself. I feel, this is then something im truly happy to put out in to the world.
Collaboration was something that Tom and I talked about a lot and after making the Red Orchestra EP, the first person that came in to my head to work with was Cassis. It seemed perfect. I had played Cassis the EP whilst working together over one summer and she loved it and was very keen on the idea of some kind of collaboration. Similarly Tom loved the idea so the first meeting was set up.
From there this project developed in to something I’m incrediably proud to be part of and have got to do things that I had only dreamed of.
Day 24 – Blessed.
http://soundcloud.com/simonralphgoff/blessed-rough-25-3-11
Day 25.
Todays blog post is a little insight into the making and design of the CD’s. My good friend Nicola Kane helped us with this and here is her take on it.
Hello,
Part of the inspiration for the artwork was the writing process Simon, Tom, George and Cassis went through. Ideas were sent across the Atlantic and back again, the initial writing was enabled by creativity and technology and like most good collaborative projects it was a process of communication and understanding.
As Simon mentioned previously, there are fewer boundaries preventing a project such A Hawk in the Rain from developing, in this case location could have been a complication, instead it became a part of the method.
The sleeve design is simple, it is based on the Hawk’s feather, referencing both the Hawk that gave the music it’s name (that of Ted Hughes’ words) and the feather quill and pen, alluding to a communication process involved in the project. The music holds a sense of strength and beauty, I wanted the design to illustrate this.
Each sleeve was Screenprinted by hand. Only one colour can be pulled through the screen at once, and there were a fair few sleeves to complete, so it did take a while. Simon kindly helped me.
I’ve very much enjoyed getting involved with A Hawk in the Rain. I’m impressed with the effort and creativity the members and other contributors put in, its a very personal project with some brilliant outcomes.
Nic x
Day 26.
- Last, but definitely not least, for me to introduce you to, is Cassis.
Working with her has been an amazing experience, something i had wanted to do for a while and im really glad we managed to make it happen. Over to her…..
Hi, I am Cassis. It’s not the name I am born with. It is my artist name in my German passport and my new middle name in my American passport. I never had a middle name before.
I am German, have studied music at the conservatory in Hamburg and was one of 300 to get into the course. Frankly I didn’t like it and followed my desire to work in film. This desire had its dark sides when it left me broke at age 21 after producing a science fiction feature film, 16 mm, 90 min that was screened once at the Munich Film Festival and then went up in flames. And for the good it brought me to New York where I live now since 20 years. I was lucky to work with Jim Jarmusch for a few years and meet many music and film legends.
At it’s best I am able to combine my passion for music and film – for example I had the idea for the documentary ‘Ferry Tales’, my friend made it, I wrote the theme song and was part of the 7 German women film team sitting at the Oscars when it was nominated. Today I am writing film music – the perfect synthesis for me.
I had admired Simon in Herbie Flowers Rock Shop Team – he was the bass player that could play any style and also violin if needed – really well. He was part of the Jupiters, an inspired band project with Ben Hollingsworth, and I was surprised and intrigued by his project afterwards ‘The Red Orchestra’. I felt honored when he asked me to do something together.
First of all, I love cities with ‘B’, I grew up in Bad Boll and am now living in Brooklyn and Berlin. I was happy to check out Birmingham and meet Tom, when Simon asked me to come by for a couple of hours before going to Dartington to see whether we all jell. We had an inspired gathering which lead to the songs on the two EP’s I am proud I was able to participate in.
Back to why I am who I am – I had the band b-blush for about 10 years together with drummer David Cossin who influenced me greatly. We toured a couple of times through Europe and in a different formation through Mexico. I DJ’ed in India as part of DJ scratch ‘N sniff combining baking with sound scapes – the toaster oven being part of the musical set up. In short – I have enjoyed experimenting with the midi-accordion, with my voice, and with song writing. As I had been solo for a few years after b-blush I was longing to be part of a band and The Lantern Music Project, Tom’s haunting musical ideas, Simon’s persistence and George’s lush dizzying rhythms were it.
What do I miss? The construction wagon I was sleeping in when we recorded at Jan Tillman Schade’s ‘ranch’.
And the crypt. Lucky me, I was able to go back twice as I recorded part of the last soundtrack with members of Hope and Social in their sacred place and had magic Ed Waring to mix and master it.
The church above the crypt was a quarrel place for many revolutionaries and people opposed to the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s. People still come from far to look at the graves. A few mill owners are buried there as well as their opponents. In order to get to the studio one has to go through the graveyard hosting identical grave stones. One of the mill owners had donated them – with the obligation for them to look all the same.
The environment had a big influence on us and formed what we did – former East Germany and former well off Northern England. Let us know how you like the outcome.
Day 27 – Home (where ever I’m not).
http://soundcloud.com/simonralphgoff/home-22-11-10
Day 28.
With this blog comes the close of our story. We hope you have enjoyed it.
Over the last 28 days, we have day by day, told you of the events that unfolded during the life of A Hawk in the Rain so far.
What now?
Since we were all together last, we have all been on new adventures.
Cassis went straight in to working on a feature film in Berlin with Catharina Deus. I did a bit of playing on this for Cassis, and when it hits the screens sometime this year hopefully, your in for a treat. She now finds herself back in New York. I hope she flies over the pond again sometime soon.
Tom has been working hard for a performance of Mozart’s Concertante which he is performing in the Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham on the 5th of May. If you are close to Birmingham you should really try and see this. Its going to be good. In his spare time, he also has done some work for the BBC writing for a play that was aired on Radio3. This summer has a new project with Lantern Music beginning. Keep watching for more news.
Since his stint with Birmingham Royal Ballet, George is continuing to get more and more work in both the classical and the folk worlds. He has been working along side Joe Broughton continuously, on new exciting projects in both London and Birmingham. His new band The Bonfire Radicals are also set for the festival circuit this summer.
For me, i am currently working with Ed and the others in Hope and Social on our third album. May will see us on tour through the UK. If you can make it to a gig, come say hi. Im very excited about Lantern Music‘s new project this summer and also looking forward to other collaborations separately with a few other artists.
The future for a A Hawk in the rain?
For the next two weeks we will all be working hard to try and raise the money to finish this project. It has been a labour of love and to finish it will be something we will all be very proud of. If you have enjoyed this blog and our music and wish to help us, you can here.
There is also thought of a few gigs after summer possibly……keep a look our on here or the Facebook group for more info.
Thank you for reading this.
Hope to see you soon.
Simon
