Well it was the hottest day of the year, only out done by the very next day. I’m not a hot weather guy, I’m pessimistic, I know how hot it’s gonna be in the evening and how I’m not gonna be able to sleep at night. I message Sam before I head up, dwelling on how hot the basement is gonna be. But lo and behold, I rock up to the Coal Mob house and find the basement in a particularly cool climate. Could it be our haven from the heat?

Today I’m with Postcard, recording on something more than an iPhone for the first time, so I’m basically like Abbey Road to them. Manchester based, but rooted to Leeds through their Drummer, my good mate, Dom Armstrong, frontman of Coal Mob. We’re yet to do a Coal Mob Contact Buzz, but with Dom and Rohan in Postcard, I’m not far off.

I get all my gear set up on the washer and dryer whilst Dom sets up Rowan’s drum kit, all clad and muted, paying homage to Ringo, the last Beatle. Dom was one of the first people to buy a telephone mic from me. I first met him at freshers at the football society stall. Needless to say, I didn’t have the skill to make it into the football team so I just stuck with the Wednesday kick abouts. Throughout the day, he seemed to relish not being the front man. Didn’t even know he played drums, but he suits this band down to the ground. No crazy playing, just rock solid time keeping.

Bardez is the second tune we did, so by this point we were all in the swing of things. I was Glyn Johnsing, as I have been doing just recently. Right from the drums, super Pavement-y, super 90s, but pushed back in this one. Then onto Rohan who took over on the bass whilst newest recruit Bethan transversed the Pennines for team bonding and a little bit of backing vocals. Chorus bass runs through my veins, it’s just perfect although you might not be able to hear much of that detail for the guitars filling up the space in your head.

I felt like a witch doctor, making appointments in the basement with the band members, as they’d be routinely called down from the garden, pulled away from the sun. Luckily they’d paid me to be there and Contact Buzz sessions are actually much more fun than the sun. Frontman Sam hurried downstairs to lay down the gritty but jangly rhythm guitar. It was fun to use my old amp I sold to Rohan about a year or two ago - a Fender Mustang GT (rearrange it and it becomes a sports car part), dialling in tones on it is the most fun.

Now I know Rohan is a good guitarist, my band Mince have played with Coal Mob probably more than any other band, but the performance from this fella on this track, awe-inspiring. I’m pretty sure I clapped after his take. It’s a long song and he was flawless and full of character, not just rigid to get it all right. Exemplary. Just listen to that speed picking in the last third. So I sent the rest of them upstairs to get some vitamin D and huddled Sam and Bethan into the corner of the basement to sing… for the first time on a recording! Both of them!

Now it’s not a natural thing to sing into a microphone. There were some teething problems with positioning, as I got them to both sing into the same mic, and just tenseness. But these are good mates, you just need to remember that when you go into recording. You’re having fun with your mates. So as soon as they loosened up a bit, they were a pair to be reckoned with. Sam with the Malkmus-eqsue wordplay rambling and Bethan with the heavenly Deal ‘ooooh’s.

This is a new band, but they fall into each other so well. Each member, a force in their own right. I love the big tom drum fill to let all the instruments back in and Bethan’s vocals. It’s a long one, but it’s a tune that marinates into your head, wears its influences on its sleeve. Pretty sure it’s named after an Indian restaurant in Manchester too. This is a group of friends who’ve come together to drink, make music and have a laugh. In this day and age, if you don’t have a band that’s like this, you’ve already lost. Very excited to see what they do next and if you are too, give them a follow and stick around, because I have something else of theirs for you very soon.

For fans of: Pavement, Guided by Voices and Flaming Lips.