Text Speak

Just so that there is some sort of proof and so that it doesn't look like I'm mad when in years to come I say I started it... here it is.

Myself and Kev are fed up with lol and lmao. They are a bit shite to be perfectly honest.  Though in the area of communicating quickly with text we appreciate they can be quite useful.  So we have decided to use our own, which I suppose encapsulates our englishness (or britishness shoudl I say) somewhat.  The short hand version is:

chkl

... which, if you hadn't already guessed means, Chuckle.  What do you reckon.  Use it at will spread it round. Pass it on... but remember... we said it first. chklchkl (thats a bit more of a laugh).

Sonny

The Sky This Morning 30th Jan

The Sky This Morning 30th Jan
Originally uploaded by sonnyengineer

That's what I woke up to this morning. How's That for a view. It might not look amazing from the shitting picture on my phone but it was when you're bleary eyed from waking up. Cracking.

RIP John

I found out today, to my utter dismay, that the great John Martyn passed away.  Fucking gutting.  That man was a musical genius

"If I could control myself more, I think the music would be much less interesting. I'd probably be a great deal richer but I'd have had far less fun and I'd be making really dull music."

May his music live on longer than he did.  60yrs old is nothing.

End Of January... Already.

Just set my hi fi up at home again.  Nice to have music playing through
some decent speakers and a nice amp (Tannoy E11s and a Quad 405 for
anyone that's interested) rather than the speakers in my laptop.  Apple
are good at product design... but someone needs to have a go at their
speaker design. They are fucking awful.



I can't believe that it's nearly the end of January.  Pretty good month
all in all though.  Tony Allen's record is nearly finished.  Mastering
next week and should be done. Oumou Sangaré latest one has been getting
really good reviews and should be out sometime in Feb. Hopefully Feb is
as good as this month.



Sonny

Where the hell are they?!?!?

This is one for all you studio owners out there. Where do you find your customers? This is something i've been mulling over the past few days. When Sonny and me set up Pinna we went the traditional route of website, print ads, web ads and flyers. The print ads had absolutely no impact at all, and neither did the web ads. None. Nada. Zilch. The website was getting some hits from Google but it was always low double figures at most.
Then we started to think - where is our customer base? We are not a shop front where people casually wonder past and pop in for quick bit of recording time. People do not browse through a music magazine and suddenly decide to record because of an advert. Putting an ad in a music tech magazine just advertises your services to other studios and engineers. We do not sell a particular item. We sell a niche service.
So I cast my mind back to my days as a musician and how we used to find studios then. The internet wasn't as big a part of peoples live as it is now so that didn't have as much relevance. We used the Yellow pages. So Pinna signed up with Yell.com and sure enough enquiries started to come in. The other way we used to look for studios to record in was simple word of mouth. Now that's not quite as easy in a town like London, there are so many scenes going on and so many musicians it's hard keep track of. How to put the word out then? Well like I said we placed fliers all over Camden, Denmark Street, Central London and loads of venues and rehearsal rooms. We had a few hits from this but again not loads.
So how to contact a hugely disparate demographic? The internet is the obvious answer hence a lot of our time is spent optimizing our website, twittering and rambling on our blogs. This is pretty good fun, but still - is it enough. Web 2.0 doesn't work if people aren't looking for you in the first place!
Pinna is now at a stage where word of mouth has kicked in and most of our clients are either regulars or we've been recommended to them by one of our regulars but we are still keen to kick things up a gear.
We want to make great records for great artists, and we want to let everyone know! So how to do it??????

Answers on a postcard.

Or just comment below:)

A little bit of an awakening...

Did anyone else get this over Christmas this year?... and I'm not talking about drunken, "God I love you man, you're like the best ever and if only it had things and just made it like they could fall right out the sideways was suck a good film of stuff all on the..." and so on awakening...

I'm talking just a little kinda good feeling about 2009. We're probably all going to die aren't we and robots will take over the... nah fuck it.  It's going to be good, what do you think?

Hands up... or answers on a postcard to:

10 Below
Just Down There
Underneathshire
JD1 9RT

Sorry but entries cannot be returned so please send copies.

Sonny

The Greatest Drummer... Ever

Tony Allen that is...



Sorry Seb.  You're fucking good, but this guy just oozes rhythm



Just had two days @ Livingston studios with the master, making tweaks
to the mixes of his latest album.  The man's a genius.  He writes all
the parts... every single one of them.  He's been pretty pleased with
everything so far and is the happiest he's been with a record
apparently.  Not sure when the thing will be released... that's not my bit, but stay tuned.

Sonny

New Website

Hello there,

For those of you who may in interested or want to fake some sort of interest (either is fine by me) I've made myself a new website.  It's all new and clean and tidy, so have a look quickly before it gets a bit rough round the edges. Let me know what you think and if there is anything you would like to know that's not on there.

Got to:  http://www.sonnyengineer.com/

Have fun,

Sonny

Happy New Year

Hello there everyone.  Not been here for a while, but been run off my feet, so just to keep you up to date and give you a glimpse of what 2009 has to offer...

I've been mixing Tony Allen's new record at Livingston Studios recently.  Sounding pretty Chubby (like phat but a little more polite... we all know what you're trying to say though) and some great drumming. That man is a genius.

Had two days in PINNA studios with Seb Rochford again but this time with his Polar Bear crew.  Great guys, and what players.  Should be coming in for another couple of days soon so eyes peeled.  By the way Leafcutter John finished making an acoustic guitar with his very own hands.  Impressive stuff.  I've always wanted to be a luthier. Check it out www.leafcutterjohn.com.

I'm also working with Her Make Believe Band (myspace.com/hermakebelieveband) on their debut album... kinda modern country but with a nice jazz twist (not too much for those who don't like the word Jazz).  You should be hearing some big stuff from these guys I reckon.

Oh and got myself a new website.  Let me know what you think www.sonnyengineer.com.  Still at www.pinnaproductions.com, but this one's just for me.

That's probably it for now.  Got a load of other projects coming up but I'll let you know about them when I get to them.  Bored of typing now.

Laters... Sonny,