How Rumrunn3rs get ready for recording

One week to go. Next weekend is the first of our three weekends booked in the studio. We are recording every other weekend so it will take aprx six weeks in total. We’ve got four new tracks and are probably going to re- record Greenlight as well, but its all open to change. We’ve been flat out trying to get these songs arranged, a pretty tight schedule. This is the first time we have done recording this way- focusing less on the live side of things and just getting the songs ready for the studio. We are really pleased with how they are sounding, just feeling a bit tense about the fact we haven’t gigged them. This last week we finalised all the details of the arrangements and got the drums sorted out, this week we’ll rehearse them into the ground. It’s all looking good for Saturday when Chris will be laying down his drum tracks. We’ve loved him being back on the real drum kit. He’ ll prob be adding in some percussion and extra touches for the EP too. As for the songs themselves, we’ve got some ideas for song names but nothing one hundred percent decided yet. I’m really feeling like these are the best songs I’ve written since The Break and now that we have worked them up as a band they are really sounding like proper Rumrunn3rs tracks, we just need to recreate the magic whilst recording them!

Greenlight (listen here)

We’ve decided that we’ll re-record Greenlight for the EP. It’s one of our favourite tracks and the demo was good but the drums were too muffled and we couldn’t spend the time on it we would have liked to. We’d really like your views on the track which you can add directly onto soundcloud, it’d be great to get some constructive feedback before we go to record. Other songs likely to be on the EP are all new tracks, including one called HourGlass which we’ve played live quite a bit now. We’re really pushed to get everything done in time as Diana was ill over Christmas and then Chris has been ill. We kinda seem to work best under a bit of pressure so maybe this PANIC!! stage ain’t such a bad thing.

Dreams Should Land

We’re still working on those new songs! We thought we had this one in the bag until we played it live, twice. That is the great thing about playing your own material to a crowd of friends and strangers for the first time. It’s the acid test where all the fantastic and clever ideas that you play around with in rehearsal and get exited about, argue about and practice to death,  soar or craaaash! We have experienced both of these phenomenon as a band. So we are not easily tricked. When a “good idea” comes winding its way towards us we tend to regard it with suspicion. Are you a real good idea, or an idea that is best never shared in public? Yes, we love System of a Down but some influences don’t translate well. So back to the track. Actually, performed live, first two thirds of the song really rocked! We felt the energy when we played it, it was magic and we felt people were digging it too. The harmonies and chorus just hit right, and we got some great feedback from people afterwards. It was just the ending. Not cutting it. A big gap between the song in our minds and the song we were playing. It’s a real tussle to let some things go. Especially when you work on them over and over, convinced it will work. Until one day you just look at each other and realise you just have to ditch it. So we’ve gone back to the drawing board and worked on the end some more. Now it’s really shaped up into something!  We’ve got a new vocal section, guitar and bass line. Just waiting to add in the beats. Very exited about playing it live again, this could be it!  We’ve got less than two months until we hit the studio now, so getting these tracks right is our major focus. AHOY!

Getting it together! Rumrunn3rs are preparing to launch a new monthly open mic. Held on a Sunday afternoon it will be a chance to eat a Sunday roast whilst listening to some fantastic local and national talent in music and comedy. A true open mic it will be open to all performers, original artists and musicians. Any one who knows us knows we love food, so an afternoon of food and music has to be a winner. Launching this Sunday at the Royal Sovereign, Seaside Rd, Eastbourne, 3pm-6pm. View high resolution

Getting it together! Rumrunn3rs are preparing to launch a new monthly open mic. Held on a Sunday afternoon it will be a chance to eat a Sunday roast whilst listening to some fantastic local and national talent in music and comedy. A true open mic it will be open to all performers, original artists and musicians. Any one who knows us knows we love food, so an afternoon of food and music has to be a winner. Launching this Sunday at the Royal Sovereign, Seaside Rd, Eastbourne, 3pm-6pm.

Rumrunn3rs "Originals" Demo, available to stream on soundcloud.

The E.P. material is taking shape. So what does that actually mean? Here is a bit of insight as to what we get up to when preparing our original material as a band. We have new song “Dreams should Land”. The vocals are harmonised all the way through the song, a first for us. The chorus is pretty catchy too. Originally I (Diana) wrote the song in 2007 around the time that I also wrote the Break and She Don’t Like Sunshine. The song had several different incarnations with various choruses and eventually I shelved it. However Edd really liked the final version and persuaded me to dig it out again as we were staying up for a late night songwriting session. We spend most of the night working on it and arranged full harmonies, also creating the bridge and ending of the song. Then we took it to band practice with Chris to get his input. We all spent a session working on capturing the right rhythm and groove with the drums and bass. Also reworking the ending (and arguing about it!). Finally we hit the right chords and the right flow and the song was complete. Now the song is in rehearsal mode and we are preparing to gig it live in the next few weeks and see how it goes down. This is the acid test when great ideas in band practice can either soar or crash in reality. So next up it’s over to you, listen out for it and let us know what you think!

http://www.blackwookiestudios.com/recording.html

I (Diana) have a confession. I love Star Wars. So when I saw the name of this studio I had to check it out. We are really exited about this place because it is where we are going to record our E.P. We have set the dates for the new year and put the deposit down and the pressure is on to make sure we have all the material ready. Rumrunn3rs are go, AHOY!

What next for Rumrunn3rs?

After the most epic summer in France and alot of hard work that made it happen Rumrunn3rs have returned to the U.K and are planning our next move. Based on such a great response to our music and totally selling out of our originals demo CD we have decided to focus on recording an E.P. to release for sale online and as a physical CD. We are really exited about this project and have been busy writing and arranging new material. The new tracks are really starting to take shape now so keep an ear out. We’ll continue to gig as much as pos in order to save up the money for the recording. In fact we are now flat broke so we are going to have our work cut out. We’ll keep you posted on our progress. AHOY!

LIVE! Rumrunn3rs had a fantastic week playing live sets in Sanary town, Mogador Campsite and Le Momentos bar. We completley sold out of CDs every time we played and by the end of the week had none left. We were asked to sign countless CDs by the people who bought them which was also very cool!  Rock it! We had a free meal, discounted Mojitos (the best cocktail in the world)  free beer and pastis,  were bought Desparados by a cool tattoo artist, befriended by a dog and provided with photos and salemanship from our housemate Quentin. Quentin works at the campsite and we have got to know him this summer. Diana practices speaking French to him and he English to her. He also loves Rum as much as the band does!  During our epic show at Sanary harbour on Bastille day Quentin spent his time talking to the crowd, getting donations, selling CDs and capturing the evening with his ever ready camera. A really fantastic week, we couldn’t have asked for more.

Seeking out those lucky breaks! The blog has got a little behind as we have been pretty busy this last week, so here is an update. Our first week in Sanary was fun but also quite frustrating as we only had two regular bookings at campsites on alternate weeks (these are is the ones we planned from the UK in return for our accommodation.) We knew that the first week or so was going to be about setting things up and that this first trip is going to be partly about learning how things work and making contacts, but having planned and waited so long to be here playing music it seemed like we were doing lots of everything except playing. We trawled bars, campsites, followed up leads, suggestions and recommendations, visited town halls, you name it! Laughing, joking, arguing, sulking, stressing and encouraging each other, in the summer heat in our old van. (We love the van because it is a fantastic loan and without it we wouldn’t be here, at the same time these parts are quite flash and we have to hide it when we try and impress venues who may book us!) We all went together or we took it in turns to talk to bars trying both English (Diana) and French (Ed and Chris). One afternoon we walked past a bar and saw two musicians playing, the whole band screeched to a cartoon halt, composed ourselves and went inside to see if they would be interested in booking us. Monday morning we made it early to our second appointment at the town hall (the first one was a disaster, see previous post “HIT THE BRAKES!”). Having croissant and coffee on Sanary port so that we could not be late. Arriving at the appointment without mishap we found ourselves sharing a room with jugglers, balloon modellers, artists and musicians, and came away with a permit to play three nights in Sanary this week, including Saturday night. Saturday is Bastille day which is a huge party and celebration in France by all accounts, so it should be rammed in the town. The music bar/restaurant did call us back and booked us for four gigs over four weeks including dinner and drinks. One of the campsites booked us for an evening, had we been staying longer in August we would have also had a few more gigs! We also have two more very promising leads to follow up as well as our other regular campsite gigs. So by Monday evening of the second week our work started to see results. We had a full week of gigs booked and things were really starting to look up. AHOY!