Perth local blues rock act Circus have announced a launch show for their new album “In Real Time“, set for September 21st at The Morley Bar and Bistro. An official statement from the band follows:
Dear friends, Circus would like to extend to you an invitation to come and celebrate, with us, the release of our debut album “In Real Time” on Saturday September 21st at The Morley Bar and Bistro. Please join us as we send our baby out into the world.
We recorded the album late last year in one of the most enjoyable recording sessions any of us have ever been involved in. We’d gone into the studio figuring that if things went well we’d spend a day putting down the band tracks, a day putting down vocals and guitars, then a day mixing.
So three days all up if everything went well. Not much time to record an album but we were confident there was a good chance we could pull it off. However, just for the hell of it, before we started recording to multi track, we wanted to try an experiment.
We wanted to record and mix live to two track in real time. To see if we could emulate the live experience in some way, to see if we could capture a moment in time that will never exist again.
We knew it was unlikely to succeed. The clue being, that of the tens of thousands of bands recording, virtually none of them are using this method. There are plenty of bands recording live but very few recording and mixing live. Virtually no-one mixes live anymore. Everything comes having been tweaked for months in Pro-Tools, which is fine, we’ll do that ourselves at some point in the future, but we didn’t want to do it this time if we could avoid it.
So whilst fully aware it was unlikely to work out, we figured we’d give it a crack. We’d spend the first day recording and mixing live to two track and if that didn’t work out we’d proceed to plan B using the multi track recordings. So on Sunday 18/11/18 we went into Crank Recording with sound engineering legend Les Williams.
We spent the morning setting up and getting sounds and at twelve midday we were ready to press the record button. What followed was one of the most enjoyable sessions any of us have ever been involved in. Remarkably, everything, basically, went right.
We did 13 songs straight through. We didn’t go into the control room after every take to see how it was sounding, we just left that to Les. Everything we did was a first take. There were a couple of breaks to replenish beers but other than that it was full steam ahead.
We’d started at twelve midday and an hour and a half later at 1.30pm, we’d finished and headed to the control room. Listening back we realised that in an hour and a half we’d captured what we’d been going for, we’d captured the moment.
It was true we could tweak it with guitar and vocal overdubs and that we could make adjustments to the mix but what was the point? we’d got what we wanted, a real band playing and recording in real time. We’d completed the album in an hour and a half.
Having recorded the album in November of last year, only a few months after we’d formed. We figured that once we’d got Christmas out of the way and got together all the album artwork, press photos and press releases etc. we’d be looking at releasing just prior to winter, which didn’t seem the smartest move for a new band to make.
So we’ve sat on this album through winter, waiting for the warmer weather and keeping a relatively low profile for most of the year. We found a suburban pub, off the normal original circuit, The Morley Bar and Bistro and we started playing 3 sets of original music every week with no cover charge.
An unusual move for an original band, but it’s been great. Every Saturday since March we’ve played thirty odd original songs supplemented by four or five covers and it’s just steadily grown into a great gig that we love playing.
So please come down and celebrate with us, we’re proud of the album and we’re excited about releasing it and promoting it to a wider audience. Help us begin that journey on Saturday September 21st at The Morley Bar and Bistro. We’d love to see you there, admission is free.
