Here I am, back at the Conservatoire recording a few familiar faces and a group who hit the balance of soft indie pop with a handful of alt flair - Char! I refuse to make the same mistake as the last time I was at the Conservatoire recording Cab Driver. I parked at John Lewis thinking about how much easier it will be to carry stuff to the room. I charged £25 for that session and an eye-watering £18 of that went on parking. This time I got the number 4 bus and clutched my cases tightly. I know every single one of those commuters wanted my 4-track.

We got settled into the classic 304A and in recent weeks I've been tasking myself with getting the drum phase setup in breakneck speed - this was one of my quickest! Back to the echo-y drums with Ben, I'm pretty sure it was one take. Working with old tape, you run the risk of things not tracking properly and dropping out, which is what happened with the drums in the middle. We only realised this was the case once Ben left for his 1 to 1. I think we did a good job working around it, but it's not ideal.

Then Tiana, also in Ludvik Langholm and about a million different bands. She’s addicted! Solid performance as always, a proper pro, I don't know how she remembers all these songs. And when she did her part, she left to try out for another band! So I bussed the drums and bass down to track 4, as I always do and we headed out for lunch. I went to the Conservatoire for three years… how did I never know there was a Sainsburys behind it?! The amount of time I could have saved not walking back up into town. Bumped into a bunch of people too, Andy P being one of them! One of my favourite lecturers, I don't know anyone who would say a bad word about him. He said I should do a masterclass. That would be funny.

We got back, placed the mic in front of Rowan's acoustic, a similar serial band member - also in Ludvik. Loved the sound of this, felt really 90s by this point, like Alanis Morrisette, Natalie Imbruglia or something equally 90s. Then the lovely and polite Jonathan stepped up to add a touch of unexpected grit to the track using my ODR-1 - Everyone who uses it loves that overdrive. At this point everyone had left apart from me, Char and Jonathan, it is a busy time of year though, assignments and all that. I don’t miss it.

So to let everyone get on with their day and squeeze in before our room time ran out, we filled track three with Char, who’d been sitting patiently this whole time. A really controlled voice, even the loud parts were consistent, didn’t even really need a compressor. Using her lower and higher register, throwing in lines unique to this recording, always love it when singers try something new and when you do it in a recording setting, you really get to sit with the differences. Can be tricky but it's worth it. Loved the 90s feel of the track and the performances. So then it was back on the bus with me. A pain to get there, but always a pleasure to be there.

For fans of: Cranberries, Fletcher and Blondshell