Every night I sit in the accom when I get back from the studio after a concentrated 12-hour day, set up my computer and imagine I’m going to spend an hour or so writing and then my eyes start to go and I feel like someone has just thrown sand into my face and then I fall to the kitchen floor and crawl like a crocodile into the next room, clean my teeth and then roll into bed with a giant groan. The next minute, it’s morning and I roll out onto the carpet and back into the kitchen, put on a pan of water (it’s America, no kettle), and open my computer to either the news or in the case of this morning, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, cereal and Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer. Shower, back to the teeth and gone, suddenly I’m back where I started on the couch opening the computer in the studio for another 12-hour session.

It was a constructive day today of drums, with me actually hitting cymbal and bass drum for accents in a song. It’s always a thrill to play another instrument, even if it’s a very simple part. You’re out of your comfort zone and into a world of mysterious wonders. Little or no knowledge of an instrument can give you a creative advantage over an expert, but then there are their skills, but different creative directions build great musical empires. Not everyone can lay the bricks and not everyone can insert the windows, someone has to be the tuba player or in The Beatles‘ case, the bass player.

The heat was thick like a wall of wool as you struggled through it from the car door to the studio door, then you fall inside as you are released from the oppressive grip. Inside relief awaits you, offering you a dry Martini and a massage, cucumbers for the eyes, and a snow-white bathrobe. We get going after an exchange of hellos and laughter, digging into where we left off the night before or somewhere completely new. In the mornings, John is waiting, in his other role away from The Deathray Davies and other bands and projects. In the evening, it’s Kevin, fresh from doing live sound for us at the Sons of Hermann Hall and editing documentaries.

As this trip enters into its last week, we wave farewell to new friends and old friends and leave with projects started, finished, imagined, and concluded. When will they appear? In these days of pressing plant queues, record companies with no money and consequently no budget for their roster, an audience that listens a lot and buys less than before, and the spiralling cost of living, we do what we can to finish and release our best work. Thank you for your support.