DIY Dave Graney Style

Of course you have to do things yourself in this world, if you really want to be sure they've been done. Also if you want anything done the way you want it. Don't hold everything too close to your chest though; that's a bit creepy – and needy. The way the music scene has been blown to pieces, you have to build your palace DIY anyway. Forget the idea of a Sugar Daddy coming to set it all up for you. You have to get your hands dirty all the way. Don't be afraid to let people in is all I am here to say.

Modern technology has brought the studio into the realms of reality for anybody who wants to have a go. Still, you need to get some knowledge in the studio's black arts. You need to listen to people and to pick their brains. Of course, you can do a lot of this via the internet as well. Ultimately, though, you'll have to dive in and press “record” and listen back. At that stage you're by yourself as well, though wouldn't it be great to have someone else there to bring their ears to the sounds as well?

Through some trials and errors you get some tracks happening. In the olden days it was truly for the super freaks like Dave Edmunds or Todd Rundgren or Stevie Wonder or John Fogerty who could cook up multi-tracks of pop genius in their own studios. They had grooves and feels at their fingertips. They had mad chops. They'd also come out of group situations and had things to say they wanted to capture all by themselves. They thought the sounds were so sweet and delicate they could only be captured by a lone player. They were right too. It's possible nowadays for a lone star to do it all. A lot of music misses that extra filter of another person considering certain parts or possibilities of different tempos or arrangements. Think of a filmmaker sitting day after day editing the scenes. How does he get to trick his mind into seeing the whole film again as if for the first time? Usually he has to sit with someone else and watch it through him or her. It's powerful, the idea of another person.

I like to play music with my band. I write the tunes, words and music. I demo some songs or bring it to a rehearsal, then we go and play and after a while we go to a studio. Of course, in the meantime we've shared many long drives and dull hours between soundchecks and shows and built up an understanding – a general feel for the battleground and a rough plan of attack. Quite detailed actually. I like to be in the room all together and lay it down quick. That's me on electric 12 string and Clare Moore on drums (we've played together since 1979). Clare is great for arrangement ideas and textural hooks… a great drummer to begin with. Bass player Stu Thomas has been with us since 2004. He's got a great ear for vocal harmonies and grooves. Stuart Perera has been with us since 1998. He plays a solid-bodied Rickenbacker, left-handed. That's Dave Graney and the Mistly. For this album we did very few overdubs, perhaps one acoustic guitar, some tambourine, some shakers and a guiro. I think we nailed the '70s rock sound I've always loved. By that I mean Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby or the Stones' Black and Blue '70s sounds. The guitars pretty clean and all intertwined, panned out, trebly and compressed, mine through some Fender amps and Stu through his Laney. Lots of room in the sound too.

Then I went and mixed it all by myself on our Protools setup. That stuff is so amazing to us. We knew the world when studios were expensive and full of tension and dread. Of course we also know that those same studios were like schools for engineers and love to work with people like Andrew “Idge” Hehir at Soundpark who have all those old school, big recording room skills of mic placement and people management. Some things you cant DIY. Use those white-coated, backroom devils like Adam Rhodes and Casey Rice and Simon Grounds! They have skills and knowledge of arcane gadgets and mics. They know how shit works.

On this album Idge pulled out the ribbon mic. I've never heard such a great vocal recording. Dark yet peaking with pink fuzz like some old '40s R&B session. Just the way I like it. Of course, sounds like that got made because we work fast and the engineer has to know his field and all the tools and gets shit down while the time is right. When you're by yourself,  you have to do the mic'ing and the recording as well. Bummer.

You can do all sorts of stuff by yourself but music's a scene where it's about people, in the end. You have to let go and let other people get their hands on it.

Dave Graney and the Mistly's new album, You've Been In My Mind, written, recorded and mixed by them, is out on their own label COCKAIGNE, through Fuse Music Group.