Next up, a beloved Leeds drummer, a member of Contact Buzz and all round nice guy, Dan Gifford! But not just Dan, his band - Dandelion. I see what he did there. I knock on the door to the Dandelion household with all my wares as usual, but as expected, I'm greeted by more Conservatoire graduates from my year! It might be a surprise for you to hear, but I'm actually quite shy and whilst I met lots of people at uni, there are lots who I saw around but rarely, if ever, got to talk to them. Fynn, Callum, Johnny and even Dan are all in that category. That's one of my favourite things about doing these sessions, actually getting to chat and collaborate with the people I saw do cool stuff throughout Uni.

Johnny climbed from his basement room to greet me, inviting me down and clearing a bit of space on his bed for me and the 4-track. With no time to waste, he put up his bamboo divider, blocking the bleed and keeping the room reflection to a minimum for the mics. Always find it fun to set drums up in such a studio adjacent way and then just wack my two 57s in front of them. You know what you get from Contact Buzz! Dampening on all the drums, just listen to those toms. Almost electronic sounding! Johnny’s drum rolls were gorgeous too, reminding me of Honeyglaze the end product. Super dry, which I don't always go for. Certainly an option going forward.

Then Fynn came in to lay bass down. Minimal fuss, just got a real smooth tone, followed along to Dan’s guide. Finn’s been in 4.33 and our Rowan’s band Welfare State and was one of the people who came down to Beckett’s Bank all those years ago one of the first days of Uni. I think around this time we excursioned to go get food from a corner shop. A Contact Buzz classic. Fynn pointed out Onestop, but ‘Michael’s Local’ caught my eye. Fynn didn't fancy our chances for good scran in there, but i have a sixth sense for these things. What do I find? The Goldmine. Bobby’s out the wazoo. BBQ Snax, Snakewinder and can of coke in hand, i leave feeling fuelled and ready to take on the rest of the session.

Back to Johnny’s room to record Dan, to track the guitar you’re hearing to your left. It's been a few days now and that guitar riff is still ringing in my head. It's just lush, isn’t it? There’s a part in the song where everything goes dead quiet and it's just Dan singing and mute picking the riff. I’m obsessed with it. Then it was Callum’s turn in the hotseat, with only four pedals on his board - but each one packed some serious punch. The one at the end, a kind of looper modulator, absolutely nuts, you hear this pedal sprinkled around the track. Just little flutters of notation, such a fun pedal. I remember first seeing Callum walk into someone’s flat on that same first day everyone got to Leeds. He just had the exact style I wish I had, I was telling El about this the other day. I remember thinking ‘woah’ - El seems to think I had a crush, but I want to reiterate, it was platonic!

And finally, Dan had been lurking around the room for most of the day, camcorder in hand, waiting for his turn to shine and whilst we’d already recorded his guitar, it was truly his vocal take that elevated the track to a new level. We popped one of Johnny’s blue pop covers on my at2020 and let Dan carry the mic across the room. It looked pretty cathartic for him, from barely audible whispers, to him unleashing his whole body into the microphone. The bit at the end where there's a clear tone shift, we wacked my ODR-1 Overdrive on - went from creepy post-punk to early 2000s metal in the stomp of a box. So many enjoyable moments, dynamic changes, performances and sounds in this track, ends up feeling like a toy box or a pick and mix - exactly what I look for in music.

For Fans of: Wunderhorse, Shallowater and Taxidermists.