So finally it is here, and it's well worth the wait. For over 5 years this recording has gone unheard, recorded in 2007 as the follow up to that years 'Shareholders Meeting' E.P. Enjoy this download, exclusive only to this blog.
Electricity In Our Homes- Group M by johnlinger
Recording Electricity In Our Homes by John Linger
My relationship with Electricity In Our Homes is a close one, and has been for many years. Being the drummers brother aside, they are truly one of the most unique and original guitar bands, and have constantly surprised with their changes in direction.
But this article isn't here to share my love for the band, and I know I'm not alone in holding the opinion about them that I do. But I thought I'd write about my experiences on recording the band, as this download was recorded by myself at a time when I was very much involved with that side of things with EIOH.
I guess I fell into recording the band for a few reasons; one was convenience. They had no money to record, Brandon (fellow NC member and label for the release of the first EIOH E.P 'Shareholders Meeting') had no spare money to pay for them to record and throughout my years in Neils Children I'd been keen to be involved in the recording side of things. Secondly was experience; I hadn't amassed a huge amount of equipment or knowledge by that point, but I felt between us we could get the job done. And we did. And more.
The first session with the band was a live (minus vocal overdubs) rehearsal recording of maybe 3-4 songs a few months after they had formed in 2007. Around this time Paul and Charlie were touring with us supporting the Horrors in the UK, and during the tour they'd been actively, and excitedly, discussing the way forward for the new band, named Electricity In Our Homes (various other names floated about for a bit, such as Die's The Swan and, my personal fave Baggy Up and the Thought Police). I can't really remember if the aforementioned rehearsal recording had taken place, but I remember the guys cutting off a few days on the tour to rehearse, I think for their first show at the Old Blue Last.
After the rather basic and ragged rehearsal recordings, we went to Ginger's rehearsal room in Cheshunt to put songs down onto the 'Neils Children' PC setup, which ran Logic with an M Audio sound card. The setup actually sounded quite good... the sound card was pretty decent, and enabled us to record around 8 separate tracks simultaneously. Ginger's seemed the ideal place to start off; it was cheap, local and we could have it for as long as we wanted. The setup for the recording of 'Shareholders...' was basic, and didn't really change all the way through to our last recordings together (the 4AD 'Gymnast' 7"). There was no baffling or isolation for the instruments... the room was pretty big so any bleed was quite minimal and worked within the mix anyway. If I remember rightly the equipment would have been the Neils Children stuff, which would have been stored locally, although I have a memory of Paul using a kit made up of different shells from different kits.
Drum micing was always very minimal; probably a stereo pair (always dynamic mics, even with the NC stuff we never liked condensers) to pick up Pauls fluent tom work and trashy, broken cymbals. Kick, Snare and if I remember rightly a microphone wrapped in tin foil. I don't really know what that achieved but I know it was used in the mix. Placement wasn't important either, just the right placement to lose some room ambience but pick up all of the kit. Sounds easy...
Bonnie's bass was played through my main stage amp; a 1977 Marshall JMP Mk 2, and a 2 x 12" Selmer cab with Celestion's. It sounded great and suited her driven almost guitar sounding bass. The bass always really drove the songs, as Paul was heading in the direction of his syncopated, lyrical drum work and Charlie was very adamant that the guitar not be the main focus of the song. With Bon's bass focused around the mid range, Charlie's lost some thickness, but cut through on top with a shit load of top end.
As metioned, we always viewed the guitar in EIOH to be inbetween a percussive instrument and almost like a layer of thin, sheet noise on top of the bass and drums, which has altered a bit since, but I still think is the aesthetic of the guitar in the band. I can't remember which amp this was played through, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway; Charlie created his sound by EQing his Mustang to within an inch of its life, and then added a short room reverb to it via a Boss pedal, so it achieved that purpose of being there but not 'being there'. This would have been mic'd up with another dynamic mic. Simple.
EIOH sessions have always been a litte... pressurised... because the focus for the band to get it right is very high, and maybe sometimes works against them a little. But when it was right, it caught the taut, rigid sound that the band projected at the time. I don't remember it being big hassle to get the master takes down for the backing, as soon as it sounded solid you could tell anyway.
We were all very analytical, so the merits of each take would have been discussed by all, and which take was used would have usually taken some debate. Sonically (rightly or wrongly) we all assumed that we could work magic during the mixes (which we did, but it took a long time to get them right) so we didn't really worry about mic placement or choice, we just focussed on the performances.
After which, Tom, then the singer of EIOH, was called upon to lay the vocals down. This was a very tough part of any EIOH session. Tom wasn't a natural singer but he was the ONLY singer I could imagine the band with at that time. His intonation and delivery was perfect for the sound, but unfortunately Tom wasn't 100% confident with singing, and it took some discussion and effort for him to feel comfortable with his takes. Having said this the rest of the band could easily relate to this, having all only just really started in a proper band framework any way. Suffice to say we did get the takes, and Toms performances on all the EIOH stuff is absolutely brilliant. Brilliant frontman too.
The mix was long...long..long. And done in my bedroom. When we got back we found that the sound was lacking power, and for a good few hours we wondered how we were going to solve the issue. The decision was made to 'downgrade' the sound, which we did by running A LOT of instruments through a free VST fuzz plugin. The tonal nature of the plugin worked very well with the drums, and all the drum sounds of the first E.P are through that plugin. I think the LO-FI nature of the record is what appeals to a lot of people, especially with many people preferring the poppier (aka. Side B) side of the record, perhaps because of the rough sound put against the more melodic songs.
I don't think we tried to achieve a 'tape/tube saturation', I think the aim was for it to sound digital, without being overly harsh on the ears.I still feel that the clarity shines through, even if the "detail" is a bit blurred.
Another worthy mention is that Charlie flat out refused to overdub any guitar parts! All dynamics within the guitar parts of the song were used by automation and double the files and treating with reverb, delay, eq etc. In fact, while mastering the second single with Christian at Abbey Road, he pointed out that 'It gets a bit louder during the guitar overdub...'. Cue Charlie... face like thunder...
Once it was mixed (phew!) it was then mastered for vinyl and, as they say, the rest is history. The hard work payed off, the single sold out within weeks and reviews were really positive. The E.P also bought the band a real fanbase, beyond that of friends and acquaintances. It was around this time that we went back to Ginger's to record a follow up, which included 'Group M' (the MP3 download above), 'Thighs' and an amazing cover of 'Louie Louie'. All tracks were live favourites and easy as pie to record, as they'd been played in so much. The sound of this session was less 'messy' and there was much more clarity with the drums. Alas, we ended up not using these recordings, and newer songs were recorded at XL Studio's in West London to create the second single released on Too Pure.
Handfuls of amazing gigs ensued (The Only Fun In Town, The End, supporting the Charlatans and the Horrors) and we recorded another single, much in the same way as above, before Tom decided it was his time to leave the band.
This did however put some more impetus behind the band, and a third single 'Silver Medal in Gymnastics' was released on 4AD to brilliant reviews, and was the first the band recorded as a three piece (and their last with me), which they remain to this day. I don't really need to tell you all what happened next, as you all know it culminated in the brilliant debut album 'Dear Shareholder...' and a change in sound towards a unique art-pop slant plus trips to Europe and Japan etc etc. Lucky buggers!
Anyway, if you've made it this far down this article, well done! Go and have a lie down... If you've skipped to the end, just download the MP3 above and play it at full volume and experience the band at a time when absolutely NO ONE sounded as good.
John (August 20120)
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