Emily Barker has just announced a new solo album which has been recorded live direct to tape at the legendary Toe Rag Studios in London. The studio has long been a long-standing attraction for Emily as it’s a totally analogue using authentic 50s and 60s gear – the real deal.
She called on Liam Watson to produce the album. It is Liam who founded the studio in 1991 who then mixed and engineered The White Stripes break-through album “Elephant” which went on to receive a 2004 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, so who knows where this may lead!
To help get her to the finish line Emily has partnered with Pledge Music to put together some special limited editions of the album, which are available to pre-order from her Pledge Music page.
How the idea came about:
In between all my touring with my bands, The Red Clay Halo and Vena Portae, I’ve also been playing a lot of solo shows, and there are always people who come up to me at the end asking where they can get hold of solo versions of my songs. So that got me thinking about recording an album where it would just be me, my guitar, my harmonica, and my selection of songs from all the albums I’ve released.
Toerag Studios is renowned for being a totally analogue studio – full of authentic 50s and 60s gear – famously, it was the studio where The White Stripes recorded their incredible break-through album “Elephant”. It’s a studio I’d long wanted to record in.
So in early January, I was lucky enough to spend two days recording at Toerag, with studio owner and inveterate tea-drinker Liam Watson in the engineering and production seat. All the songs were played live, direct to two-track 1/4″ tape, with no overdubs and no editing, and to keep the analogue integrity, the vinyl has been mastered direct from the tape. Even with the CD, there has been no processing, and the result is about as close as you can get to a live sound.
More here http://pledgemusic.com/emilybarker