In 2024, me and my band Mince got the crazy opportunity to play in Paris. A gig that really showed me what government funding in the arts looks like. It’s beautiful. And although we probably won’t be back, as I was told by a fan we made that the promoters thought we were shit (Valid), we made some beautiful memories along the way. One of the people we got to hang out with throughout was Mag. An extremely adaptable and dependable roadie of sorts, just a lovely bloke. Bob’s right hand man and producer for Monomyth. I didn’t know about his band until we played a very strange all day festival in Production park in Pontefract.

No Cameo had a change in style recently, and went from being a good band to a great band, in my opinion. From Slam Dunk post-punk to Brudenell post-punk, if you get my drift. A lovely set of people, primarily that's who I ask to record with, it also helps if they do enjoyable and interesting music too. We agree on the Monomyth Eiger room, the room that Mag oversees, turn down the lights and crack on with making the tape sing.

Mag, a producer himself, was looking forward to taking a backseat role in proceedings, so I let the group marvel at the 4-track for a moment, then it was straight onto recording Will on drums. A kick mic was used! A rarity in a Contact Buzz recording, but for the close sound we wanted, very necessary - no room mic this time. Still think the drums sound big and cool as fuck, probably more a credit towards Will. A one-take wonder!

Mag’s bass came next, although it had 5 strings and he was mainly playing chords. I know a bass player with guitar envy when I see one, Mag ;). Especially like the bass in that breakdown bit. Lots of buttery slides too. Buss, then AJ’s unrelenting riff. As catchy as any I’ve recorded, then it gets towards the end - just some massive guitar playing, constantly changing, not resting on any laurels.

Miles now and his pedal board had a few treats on them. This mad tremolo effect, but I knew we could go crazier. I chucked my DL4 and Reverb on there, for this ace spaghetti western sound - especially for this tremolo pick part at the end he did. AJ stepped up to the plate, ready to swing vocals out of the park. Their wide dynamic range in singing threatened to cause some issues, but one great thing about analogue equipment is they deal really well with distorting in a natural way. Their Irish heritage really comes through in this performance, really think we aced the delay on vocals too.

That was that, a track that builds and really settles into the noise and I thought the 4-track handled it so well. They gave me a free copy of ‘Celebrate Life’, the official version and sent me on my way, with a frothy coffee in my belly and another punching banger on my YouTube Channel.

For Fans of: Shame, Unwound and Slint.