STUDIO REPORTS

“this certainly isn’t my

massive splurge, ridiculous-spending album.”

FRANK TURNER

ROCK SOUND brings you an in-depth report from bands currently recording new material. This month...

STUDIO ROUND UP Canadian metallers 3 INCHES OF BLOOD have signed a deal with Century Media and are currently wrapping up work on a new album with producer Jack Endino in Seattle. Expect a release this summer. UK thrashers EVILE are working with Russ Russell (Napalm Death) at Parlour Studios in Kettering. ‘Infected Nations’ will be released on September 21 via Earache. Rising UK metallers SYMPHONY CULT are holed up in Hanover, Germany’s Institut Für Wohlklangforschung Studio working on their debut album ‘Rewind To Fast Forward’. It’s due out in September. London rockers DIE SO FLUID are fi nalising their third album. With Mark Williams mixing the record, ‘The World Is Too Big For One Lifetime’ is scheduled for a release in September on Parole / Universal. Rock Sound favourites CALORIES are currently working with Max Read (Beestung Lips, Knives) at The Lodge Recording Studio, Northampton. With a working title of ‘Habitations’, expect a release through Smalltown America Records later this year. Chest-beaters THROWDOWN are working with producer Mudrock on their new album ‘Deathless’ – their fi rst release since leaving Trustkill. LATITUDES are recording their debut album at Foel Studio in Wales with Chris Fielding (Napalm Death, Primordial, Electric Wizard). Expect a release via Shelsmusic later this year. GLAMOUR OF THE KILL are currently locked up in Nott-In-Pill Studios, Newport, recording their debut album. Produced by Jeff and Ginge and mixed by Colin Richardson (Slipknot, Machine Head), expect a release before the year is out.

JOHNNY FOREIGNER Birmingham indie-pop sensations Johnny Foreigner have chosen legendary producer Alex Newport (At The Drive-In, Frank Turner) to work on their second album, ‘Grace And The Bigger Picture’. Working at Future Shock Studios in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, according to vocalist / guitarist Alexei Berrow, lyrically the album explores the band’s experience of “travelling, touring, missing people and meeting people”. While musically he told Rock Sound the songs are “louder and shorter and slightly more bitter – more rah and less gloss!” Apparently he also lost weight while in America, but Rock Sound is confused as to how he managed NOT to stuff his face with Taco Bell… Expect a release in October on Best Before. www.johnnyforeignermusic.com

[22] rocksound.tv

FRANK TURNER WHERE: Leeders Farm Recording Studios, Norfolk (instruments) / Future Shock Studio, Brooklyn (vocals) PRODUCER: Alex Newport (The Mars Volta, Two Gallants, Rival Schools) TITLE: ‘Poetry Of The Deed’ LABEL: Xtra Mile (UK) / Epitaph (worldwide) RELEASE DATE: September WEBSITE: www.frank-turner.com

YOU PRODUCED YOUR FIRST TWO ALBUMS WITH YOUR BAND’S GUITARIST, BEN LLOYD; HOW DID IT FEEL WORKING WITH ALEX NEWPORT THIS TIME? “As much as I’m a huge fan and was very keen to work with Alex, I did have a little bit of producer phobia. Ben’s a mate and plays in the band and all the rest of it. I was quite apprehensive about it at fi rst, the idea of an outside person who I hadn’t really met coming into the rehearsal studio to work through songs, because I’d never really done that before. I was quite defensive of what we’d been working on, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how it’s worked out. He didn’t come in and rearrange the songs and rewrite the tunes and tell me to write different lyrics or any of the horror stories one might associate with producers. He just came in and made us all go through what we’d already done with a toothcomb and identify a whole bunch of problem points that none of us had even noticed.”

YOU PREVIOUSLY PLAYED AND LAYERED UP ALL THE INSTRUMENTS YOURSELF; WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO RECORD WITH THE FULL BAND, LIVE, ONTO TAPE THIS TIME? “Well, the tape thing was Alex’s suggestion, but basically, we used ProTools on the last record [‘Love Ire & Song’], and we did our fair share of editing, but in all aspects of the music that I make I’m interested in things being real. I’m more interested in listening to records by acts like The Band

or Creedence Clearwater Revival, which was just real bands playing real songs, than I am in listening to over-produced, meticulously-constructed radio toss.”

YOU RECENTLY INKED A WORLDWIDE DEAL WITH EPITAPH; DID THEY GIVE YOU ANY EXTRA FINANCIAL BACKING FOR THIS ALBUM? “I’m staying with Xtra Mile in the UK, so this certainly isn’t my massive splurge, ridiculousspending album. I think we’re going to spend a little more money on it than the previous records, but by the standards of these things, this is still going to be a low-budget record. I think the difference is, if I can say this without being up my own arse, playing with great musicians and spending a lot of time on pre-production means that we can make a great-sounding record for a lot less than a lot of other bands. It’s not about the amount of cash you spend.”

ANY GUESTS? “While we’re doing the vocals in New York, I’m planning on gathering up some members of The Gaslight Anthem, Gay For Johnny Depp and Polar Bear Club to come down and do some gang backing vocals on a couple of tunes.”

ARE THERE ANY YOU’D PICK OUT AS BEING A PARTICULAR DEPARTURE FROM YOUR PREVIOUS OUTPUT? “Actually, there’s a song called ‘Roots Devine’, which is a musical departure – it’s less punk and a bit more Beatles-esque. ‘Sons Of Liberty’ is a full-blown jig, it sounds very much like I’ve been listening to too much Fairport Convention. It’s a very traditional English folk sound, so look out for that one.”

YOU ANNOUNCED THE TITLE PRETTY EARLY, WHY WERE YOU SO DEFINITE ABOUT IT? “That’s a title that was fl oating around while we were making ‘Love Ire & Song’, but I hadn’t quite settled my head around what I was trying to mean by saying ‘Poetry Of The Deed’. One other reason we settled on it early is because the artwork’s pretty much done, by an artist from Worcester called Chris Bourke, who has done some absolutely mind-blowing prints for the front and back cover of the record. For him to do that I needed to have settled on a title.”