So I’m a keen bowler. Not a good bowler, there’s a difference. I go to Tenpin in the Merrion Centre every once in a while with my mates. I think I was having a stinker because I was on my third Beer (my sweet spot is 1.5 beers). I happen to glance through the glass separator that has been a permanent fixture since Covid and I see someone I recognise. ‘Excuse me mate, are you in Free Party?’. I’ve never met them but I’ve heard about them through my Co-worker at HMV, Ben, who worked with one of them at the First Direct Arena. I’d heard they’d worked with ‘the Strokes - Is this it?’ producer, Gordon Raphael (Jealous) and they got some great slots Mince wanted throughout the years (Seething).

Brad confirms my suspicions - he is in fact in Free Party and my contempt subsides as we chat and laugh about something related to the Leeds scene or bowling, I can’t remember. I mention Contact Buzz, he wants to do a Contact Buzz demo, obviously it’s going to happen. However, I’m hopeless with Contacting people, despite my professed Buzz towards it. Luckily about a month later I get the kick up the arse I need. ‘Is this happening or what?’ (he didn’t say that, Brad is a tender guy, but I knew what he meant and it’s what I needed to hear). Fast Forward to a Sunday in the middle of July. I walk into Eiger, whilst ex-patriots of Sao Tome and Principe vote for their next President in room 7, me and the Free Party boys inaugurate a sweet choon.

Guess where we started? That's right, with Drums. Ethan had just finished a shift that saw him get to sleep at 6am, so the 12pm meet wasn’t the most ideal, but when sweet choons are being produced, even the sleepiest of drummers finds a way to energise. With a wallet on the snare and the fluff pulled out of the kick drum, we had the right mix of punch and boom from the kit. Glyn Johns and a room mic was the order of the day and doesn’t it sound perfect? Crunchy on the tom too. All three mics were immediately bussed down to channel one to keep as much fidelity as possible.

Harris I knew because when interviewed by the Scorching Hot Takes lads, he was the only one who’d heard of Mince when the hosts mentioned us (calm down Jamie, they’re nice lads!). A bass player who wants to play bass - a rare but useful genre of bass player. With three guitars in the band, you’ve got no choice but to fill that low end. We went super clean with it, straight into the 4-track and the way it sits and roots just makes the song sound massive. Then on that last slot we decided to get Joe into the mix to finish the first bus. Fender Champion on the mustang with my ODR-1, scooped perfection, lofi for days. Unfortunately it wouldn’t stop buzzing (an overwhelming amount) so we had to ditch it for Brad’s Strat, which sounded great too.

We bussed it down and was left with that degraded goodness you always get. I popped a Bombay Badboy I brought from home into my mouth and we started on the panned guitars. We recorded Kieran first as he worked late too and was hoping to nip off early as Ethan did. That's one serious tone we got, conjuring Kurt Cobain’s murdered soul through his famous ‘Grunge’ pedal from Digitech. Like a laser, beamed through the Sea Machine Chorus and the Champion again (ole ole). Brad’s second and why fix what's not broke? (Especially when all the other amps are a little meh) Fender Champion again, it's named that for a reason. We swapped the Grunge Pedal for Brad’s Blues Driver, for that crispness in the high end and rumble on the low end. I dont know how we did it, but we fit three guitars into a choon.

There'd been murmurings of some harmonies, which I was curious how it was gonna work on my new BM88 by Owen the Bastard. A little reverb and delay but all the gain and presence you’re hearing is that mic. Honestly such a gorgeous sound. You can’t make out every word but my god doesnt it sound cool? And when those harmonies come in? Just proper stunning. Those Yorkshire lads can sing. Overall, I love how we managed the dynamics, we recorded the quiet parts quietly so the loud and expansive parts could blossom, especially helped by panning the guitars that came out in the chorus. That chorus is going to be stuck in my head for a long time. And I hope that Carlos Vila Nova’s second term is a little more fruitful than his first.

For fans of: Radiohead, Pavement and Ovlov.