So I’m graduating, going to get my photos done with a big hat that has been pinned down to my head. I’ve got Benjy behind me and we’re chatting. I asked him about Muntjacs, his band he started not too long ago. Bella had left to focus on Kiosk and they were looking for gigs, now Benjy as the frontman.

Me and the Muntjacs members have done a lot together. Josh the Bassist is one of the first people I met at uni when I dragged everyone to Becketts Bank on the first day everyone got to halls. He also recorded a few demos for my band mince before we recorded with Matt Peel. Benjy I met in the first week of uni, then worked on a Zine together with Bella in second year (I ended up doing fuck all apart from printing them an fucked off after the first issue, the flake I am).

(Last anecdote) Benjy and Johnny recorded a live session for Mince the infamous night of the fire at the Rock and Roll Circus in Armley (The less said about that the better). Me and the Muntjac boys have been through it all, it felt right to visit them and lay a track down to commemorate our experiences and the conservatoire.

We piled into the dining room, a small space mainly taken up by (you guessed it!) the dining room table - but it's nice to have a surface to put the 4-track on. Up first was Harry, strip backed drums in the corner, tea towel on the snare, the smallest kick drum I've seen, he was ready for this moment. Harry works at a studio in Castleford, if I could convince him with the sound, I reckon I could do the same for the other lads (who are all also producers).

It is a more low key drum sound than we usually go for, but this was a more low key sound, two acoustics and a telephone mic - I love it when bands lean into the lofi vibe. We then tracked Josh’s bass, which moved in and out of more present roles - the best way to do bass. Then the pilgrimage to the corner shop. I’m seriously considering doing a corner shop review account, I love a cornershop haul. A great selection of Bobby’s crisps, I got everyone to try the BBQ Snax. I’m slowly converting everyone in Leeds.

We got back, I had my Bombay Bad Boy and we did the guitars. Johnny was first up. We used his Dr. J Shadow Echo Delay pedal he was gifted by his neighbour he's never met - like a music based angel, it sounded great. Then changed up the settings of the reverb and added 6 strings for Benjy’s gorgeous 12 string, bringing the total number of strings used on the recording to 22. A Contact Buzz record?

We deliberated on the next step. To telephone mic or not to telephone mic. We decided to telephone mic as you can see and hear. It worked really well - from the demos Benjy sent me, he was trying to get the grit in his vocals purely through singing. This gave him a chance to reign it in whilst keeping that menacing grit. It ties the track so nicely together.

For me, the main thing from walking into that door is the clear and strong friendship the four of them have. They’ve been in the same lectures for three years and they’re all lovely lads. When a group like that forms a band, the energy becomes infectious. I can only imagine how good the live shows are because of that factor. I’m gonna need to get down to their next one and so should you!

For Fans of: King Krule and Wunderhorse.