Coming back from York to record this one, I hit the sleeping policemen. I need to take tablet labels seriously because I could well have taken a 2 second nap :/

Anyway, I get to the New Damage house with a new appreciation for life, ready to record Gardiner for a second time since the much loved New Damage session.

This time we set up in Gardiner’s room, talking about the best iron maiden and Anthrax eras (are you team Belladonna or team Bush?). We warm up with a landline cover of Neutral Milk Hotel’s ‘Holland, 1945’, now available on YouTube, then get right into the main event.

We chose to stick to acoustic and as TOWIE played in the background, we double tracked his guitar, with a bit of chorus on one and delay on the other. Usually I would buss them together for space, but space we had plenty of. ‘Pan them’ I said. And what a decision it was.

It was then a vocal performance from Gardiner that seemed to carry over from the Neutral Milk Hotel cover, you can tell it’s a big influence on him. Never dismantled the telephone mic, fuzzy compression on both performances, Lofi goodness.

To say we limited ourselves to 4-track no buses, it really is a full recording, lots to analyse, lots to obsess over, really enjoyed this recording.

For fans of: Neutral Milk Hotel, The Microphones and Mount Eerie