Long time fans of Contact Buzz, you might remember my first recording with Bryan. The introspective and melancholic ‘There’s No Going Back’, one I've had a few people mention to me as one of their favourites. Well we were back in his dining room to record his new upright piano.

‘The Wednesday Man’ is a track that Bryan wanted to bring new life into, after feeling it could instrumentally be a bit more to his taste. We started on the electro acoustic, much like last time, but then used the piano to accent the low end. A really good mix, feels classy, mysterious even.

I then insisted on us getting into his garage to record the percussion section. It was bloody freezing, sometimes you get focused on an idea and don't think about the logistics. It took a while to get set up in there, but we tried out some echo-y bongos I nicked from Bob’s Eiger room to get some interesting sounds. I love the video of Bryan playing bongos, wrapped up in jackets and a hat, in the garage, in the dark - he’s a great sport. Then the classic tambourine on a snare to give the choruses the rhythmic punch we wanted.

It was getting late, so we called it a day, scheduling the vocals for a different day. As I tried to buss over the percussion, I had the screaming track problem (I have since found a work around). My impatience caused me to record over the first verse. Gutted. But we came back in the new year, recorded the bits I recorded over again without too much trouble - I actually love a tonal shift, it's like patchwork.

Then for the iconic ‘Rayne Vocal Harmony’. He’s proper good at it - we lay down the base vocal and then he sits there at the piano working out what vocal harmony he wants to do, just sounding it out. We made the backing vocal dead reverb-y, like a ghost. I only go and record over a lyric again because we're working in the dark haha. We decide it's a happy accident and have the lyrics ‘inside the devils laughing’, with the haunting backing vocals taking the lead. Awesome stuff, always a pleasure to record with The Rayne.

For Fans of Steely Dan, The Kinks and Joni Mitchell