It was a beautiful day in Dallas today rising to 86°F/30°C with a warm breeze, it was holiday weather but I have a studio tan, happily. It made me think about the Uber driver we had the other day. When we opened the boot (the trunk) to put in our stuff, he said, “Sorry there’s a suitcase in there, I’m off to Chicago tomorrow.” It transpired that he had won some kind of competition and was heading north to enter the International Mr. Leather pageant. It made me wonder how does he rehearse in this heat and what could rehearsing consist of? Apparently, there’s a Mr. Rubber pageant too, even worse.

A tricky day in the studio today. Jason had been trying to get the drums down on a track and was getting very confused by the arrangement. We decided to look at it today as it was getting late. Frustration ensued until we realised that the demo that Jason had been listening to was different from the version that was on the computer, he realised he wasn’t going mad and a wave of relief washed through the studio.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the In Deep Music Archive GoFundMe, I’ll be in touch when I get a moment, moments are hard to come by at the moment, but I will thank Chris Buckley here for his originality where he contributed by also going to Porto and sending a picture of himself outside the Archive gate, I wish I could have given him the keys to go inside and have a look at this early stage of the place.

Sessioner NJ Brian called me yesterday to tell me he’d picked up a 1967 Rickenbacker 12-string and he’ll be bringing it to the studio next week. It’s always special to play these old Rickenbacker guitars, Brian now has a sixties Rickenbacker 6-string and 12-string, like sessioneer Fred who has two 1966 Rickenbackers 12 and 6 which I used in Minneapolis last week, what a difference it makes playing these instruments, their playability, the quality of their sound, they talk to you. When you are using instruments like this they listen to the song, the song reaches out to them, and between them, they create the magic, you are a mere vessel.

The invisible mosquitos got me yesterday, not too badly, but how do I never see them or even feel them bite? All of a sudden there’s a red itchy circle. The spray system outside the studio is definitely working because the last time I was here, I was only bites. Dallas is like the episode of Star Trek where they arrive on a paradise planet only to find that the flowers are killers.

Music today has been Anekdoten’s debut album Vemod, I thought you might like to know what took them to Québec to wow the Québécois, this is it, on its thirtieth birthday.

Music Of The Daze