It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's....

Recognise this boy? :)

Wind Up Bird Chronicle

And into the last week of our sessions. Roles are reversed now. The previous two weeks we'd play our parts and Noam would give us feedback and ask us to re-record parts which he thought weren't tight. Wise old Yotam has stepped into the control room now, for the mix with Noam. He wasn't around while we were tracking and this is a good thing. Losing persepective is the biggest problem when you get too involved in the process of creating a record so I'm happy Yotam is coming in with a pair of fresh ears and a new approach. We're spending our time listening to their mixes on various sound systems and analysing them critically. Between Runtun's sausages and eggs breakfasts and Kamalinger's favourite chair in which he philosophises, we're lucky if we wake up and get here by noon to deliver our verdicts on the last mix they created for us. There's still opinions and accidents galore but now it's them doing the work and us that's giving them feedback and asking for changes when we need them. I've been nominated to deliver band judgements to the court of Clemetine. It was nerve wracking and the last weekend was tense but now that we've gotten through a few songs, we all understand each other better and the mixes are starting to sound good. Touch wood. Tron's in town too and he's here to add a touch of electro fizz to a couple of tracks. Stoner days are back for me. And we're playing a gig this weekend. For those of you that live in Chennai, it's at the Unwind Centre on Friday the 22nd. Come. - absentation

I like... birds

"And since this is the last day of recording, I know where we're going for lunch...", says Noam. That posh little Thai restaurant down the road that I've been eyeing since we got here. And I'm going to eat a duck. Ya, we're running right on schedule, probably a day early in fact. As usual we had some hiccups at the beginning of the week with guitar amps and tones and all such things. But it got sorted eventually or at least so we think. My ebow, always the wild card in the mix has not been behaving well, chumma screaming whenever it feels like and all. We got done with guitar takes yesterday and finished the vocals fataak dish dhoom. Also heard that bands & booze got banned in Bangalore again along with dancing and late nights and all, so now I guess my financial situation will improve since I have nothing to spend money on. So when Noam asked us whether we'd like to work on the 15th of August, we just laughed and said yes of course. After Rohan comes in this afternoon (he's gone to belt some quails) and puts in some "explaode justify make knaown testify..." we'll be ready to start mixing up this cocktail. - absenteshwara

Thunderbird

So the band has been thinking about an album laaang time. Waiting for the right record label to come and sign us started becoming one impatience so we decided to do it on our own. And at the best place we could think of. The Chennai sessions for our 7-song EP started on Monday and will go on for three weeks at Clemetine Studio (http://www.earthsync.com/). Mister Yotam I already know, he's the reason we're here - but at the helm for our sessions is one more deadly fellow from Tel Aviv, the new kid on the block, Noam. He had us clicking and clacking the whole of this week and made life very difficult for George the first couple of days. But after the jetlag wore off and we got used to the scrubs and a couple of well rolled ones in the balcony, George gave him some soopaar takes. Today is Runtun day and he's in there right now laying down some bass parts to complete the rhythm section - in fact it sounds like Snakes and Lotuses? George says yes. Next week Kamal and me puttings guitars and vocals. Pervez and Tron are also planning to show up at some point. We got one lowe of a tube amp from Auroville for our guitar parts, one flowerchild named Roy makes very beautiful ones and he's loaned this one to us for our sessions. This little trip is full focus only so far, no mood for afterparty madness. But by god of the napumsakalinga, recording an album is one emotion nuclear bomb. All previously undiscussed arrangement issues are crawling out of the woodwork and slapping us in the face like a thunderbird. But very required also I think... - absenticus