From The Mercury's To Pure Gold

After the night of wining and dining with the Portico boys at the Mercury's, I, rather dull-eyed and shabby-tailed, join another Mercury Nominated musician at Pinna for a mind blowing session.  None other than Mr Seb Rochford was in with the delightful Pamelia Kurstin on theremin.

They were basically jamming together for hours... literally hours and I got to sit back and listen to it.  It was fucking awsome.  I threw some mics up and they did the rest.  Seb's drum kit was one of, if not the best sounding kit I've recorded.

I don't know what they are going to call themselves (neither do they), but stay tuned as it's going to be a blinder of a collaboration.  Check out some of what they were up to.



Sonny Pinna.

Mercury Music Award Ceremony.

Well... it was last night and unfortunately Portico Quartet didn't win
it, but what a record to be beaten by. Great news for Elbow. They've
been doing it for 18yrs, which I didn't know

It was a great night though. if you missed it on telly it's showing again one Friday
on the BBC so watch out. Portico played a blinder and they were all
just happy to be a part of it. For a first record from a instremental
group, it's a pretty good acheivement. Well done guys. Thanks for
having me there.

Some great performances from Adele and Rachel Unthanks and the Winterset... truely spine tingling. It's great to see so much good British music about. What a year.

Check out more about the night here,

Joe Stilgoe Album Launch

A date for your calendars everyone. The Ivory Tinkling, Jazz-legend-in-the-making that is Mr Joe Stilgoe is Launching his debut Album on Candid Records. It's going to be at the famous Ronnie Scott's from 20th-22nd of October. Now I know what you're thinking, it's a long gig, 3 days How's he going to have enough material for that long. Well most of the songs will be played at half speed. The band begins at ten to six When Mr. S. performs his tricks without a sound And Mr. H. will demonstrate Ten somersets he'll undertake on solid ground. Having been some days in preparation a splendid time is guaranteed for all And tonight Mr. Stilgoe is topping the bill.

It's not really 3 days long... don't be silly. Check him out here http://www.myspace.com/joestilgoe

And have a peak at what we've been upto.



Sonny Pinna.

JITTERwall

Our music and recording community has changed it's name. We're not called JITTERwall and you can find us on www.jitterwall.com. So come and join us. Become a member and tell us what you think. Join the discussions in the forums and talk to other people like you... or people not like you if you want.


Visit JITTERwall


Sonny Pinna.

Only One Week To Go 'til The Mercury Music Prize

Only got a week to go before I'm off to the Mercury Music Prize Ceremony with Portico Quartet. We're going to be rubbing shoulder with the likes of Radiohead and Elbow and other such wonderful people... and they're all going to be playing too. Got anything you want me to ask Tom Yorke or Guy Garvey? Let's hope Portico win ey.<br><br>Oh one thing we've all got to do is place a bet on Portico to win so that the odds are lowered and that my sway the judges. You might just get yourself a nice little kick back too. Check them out.

Sonny Pinna

Me & John

It's been a little while since my last blog, so apologies, but I've been up to some interesting stuff... well I thinks so... I'll let you be the judge of that, but I hope you agree. Just finished another 4 days at PINNA Studios with the young genius that is John Elliott... now to be know as Me & John... so watch out for the name. We finished off another 3 tracks for his debut album which is all him. Other than some strings on a couple of tracks soon, he's the only on playing and singing. Little genius he is.

We've also been shooting a video for his first couple of tracks, which should be out soon. We'll keep you informed. He's editing the video as we speak. That's right he's doing the video as well. he's the only person in that too. For now he's made a wee video of himself doing a cover of a Radiohead song 'Faust Arp' which is cracking. Check it out below and some of the stuff we've been doing in the studio this last week... including "when we're cleaning windows".











Sonny PINNA

Silvery On 6 Music!

Hello,

I know I keep banging on about Silvery but hey, I recorded and mixed the album so I'm allowed to plug them:) Anyways, if anyone fancies a listen to them then you can tune into BBC 6 Music as the new album 'Thunderer And Excelsior' is their album of the day! That basically means they'll be playing tracks from the album throughout the entire day. Pretty sweet eh? You can listen to how radio compression destroys all of my beautiful dynamics too:)

Happy listening,

Kevin Feazey

All the fun of the fair!

Hello all,

Just a quick one to let you know about a band whose album I recorded and mixed. They are Silvery and the album Thunderer And Excelsior is out on Monday (yes i know i'm plugging, but I want them to do really well:) ).
You can read the reviews they've been getting here, or you can listen to the session they did for Radio 1 here (although that link may die soon). Their myspace is here. Have a look anyways, i'd love to see what everyone thinks of it!

Kevin Feazey,

www.pinnaproductions.com
London Recording

what drives us

Just a bit of a random blog here. Not really to do with music but then, who said it had to be. I've just read and replied to a blog posted by Lobelia on our www.jitterwall.com site, about trying to win over an audience when performing and how hard it can be and so on. It got me thinking of when I used to perform (I say used to as the gig I did recently was the first in 2 years and reminded me why I stopped) and why I stopped doing it.

I used to really enjoy going out and putting my performance skills to the test and holding everything together under the spot light and trying to be a watchable act and then got bored of it. Mainly because it took me so long to write songs and the drive for righting songs had gone (mainly because I got so much more pleasure from listening to other peoples). It had been replaced with recording other peoples song. I found it exciting to be working with musicians and songwriters putting there music on record. you get to be so many bands at once.

Now I still love doing that, but part of it seems to have changed somewhat. It doesn't feel quite as new as it did (obviously because it's not), so then how do you keep it feeling new and what do you do to keep enjoying it as much as ever. What drives us as social beings to do things. Is it a character thing? Are there certain people that find enjoyment from doing the same task over and over again and still find that something new in each element... and am I one of those people that's constantly finding new things to do, because it's not the doing it that's the fun bit it's the fact that it's new?

It's quite an interesting question that I'm throwing out there I think. This is the first time I've come across it in a situation that really matters i.e. my current career depends on it. Before, anything I did was a 'hobbie' and I've not done anything else for quite as long without it dropping in importance. What drives you to carry on doing something?

Sonny Pinna

JITTERwall

So we've been running our social site now for a couple of weeks and it's going pretty well! For those who don't know about it you can check it out here. But we want more!!! So does anyone have any suggestions as to what else they would like to see on the site? Or for that matter, would anyone like to see anything different on our studio site (Pinna Productions)? Let us know and we'll get to work on it!

Keep up the good work people!

Kevin Feazey

A crazy few weeks!

Well hello all,
It's been a while since I posted so I apologise. Please forgive me:)
So here are the last weeks in brief!

I've been recording a Jewish choir, worked on folktronica madness with Jonathan Morton a.k.a. Like Everything Else, Sonny found out that the Portico Quartet are up for a Mercury, Steve Lamacq has been blogging that Silvery should be up for a Mercury (click here for more on that), more mixing with the datapuddle boys, pre-production has started with Jessica Grace, a few voice overs for various people, and finally I recorded a storyteller called Vayu Naidu (a professor in storytelling apparently) who was accompanied by a Jazz singer who looped his vocals! And breathe.....

As you can see - action packed:) In other news, I went to see Cornelius last night. Amazing stuff!! Four piece band completely synced with some of the best animations and video craziness i've ever seen. Japanese madness at it's best:)

I'll be back to tell what the new week brings soon!

Kev.

August Already

I can't believe it. It's here already. I doesn't seem like 5 minutes since it was xmas. Anyway, it's been a week or so since the last blog, just because I've been so busy. I did a gig last night at Zephyr Stock, back home in Huddersfield, which was good. I was on first so get chance to see the rest of the bands while getting drunk on Zephyrs fie range of beers. Mmmmm Draught Erdinger. (no Duff though). There was the Voltaires, The Russian Dolls and Kill It Kid who were great. Two really good singers. Really didn't expect the guys voice to sound like it does too. Check them out.

Sonny Pinna

PORTICO QUARTET Nominated for MERCURY MUSIC PRIZE

Well, I was informed today that the Album I recorded and mixed with Portico Quartet last year has been nominated for The Mercury Music Prize, which I was overwhelmed about. We recorded and mixed (and co-produced) the whole record in 6 days, well two lots of 3 days. We were in the studio in the Jan of last year after I'd just come back from Africa working with Jerry Boys and Orchestra Baobab. Then a few months later the guys were picked up by Babel/Vortex Label, so they decided to come back and record a couple more tracks and revisit one from the earlier session.

I liked it from the start, so I'm not surprised (well maybe just a bit) that it's been nominated, but I reckon it's going to win. It should do anyway. The competition is tough with Elbow with 'Seldom Seen Kid' and Radiohead's 'In Rainbows', which are my two favourite albums of the year, but I've got to say 'Knee-Deep In The North Sea' deserves it more.

Anyway, boast over. Though it's more a boast of the tanents of Portico rather than my involvement, even though they have called me the 5th member (thanks guys). Go get a drink of some sort (tea will do) and join me in a cheers to Portico for the nomination, and see how a little bit of it was made... here:



Sonny Pinna,

http://www.pinnaproductions.com

Joe Stilgoe Recording His Debut album @ Livingston Studios

Well Just finished another day with Legend, jazz pianist and vocalist, Joe Stilgoe on his debut album for Candid records. Joe had written a couple of new song and had another standard up his sleeve so he got Ben Reynolds back in on drums, and this time Tom on bass as Chris Hill was on his stag do... without us. What a cheek. Anyway. Zippy made an appearance to help with some drums and vocals, which made the session go quicker.

We got 3 tracks recorded and two of them mixed so only a couple of bits to do before the album's finished. Joe tells me it should be out in October, which is good cos I can't wait for the proper version. It's cracking I tell you. I made up a short video of what we got up to yesterday so take a look. more coming soon



http://www.pinnaproductions.com

Lise and Fleetwood Mobiles and Jobs

Just want you all to know that there is life after Livingston! I'm at Fleetwood Mobiles and loving it. We have three trucks with SSL and Euphonix consoles and also a 5.1 SS Mix Studio at our base in Denham.
Any bright young things out there should drop me a line as we'll be looking for an Intern and an Assistant Engineer in the very near future. www.fleetwoodmobiles.com check us out.

Read More about it and contact Lise by join us here.


Visit London Recording


Sonny Pinna

Silvery on the radio

Mr Crowley spins the new Silvery single (as recorded and mixed by my good self) on BBC6. You can have a listen at

Silvery on the radio

45 minutes into the show:)

Enjoy!