The band with no name...

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The band is called, 'No-Name' - We caught this 4 piece down at a local gig in Kingston-upon-Thames a few weeks back playing on a band night with 4 other acts. - No-Name came on and they've definately got something..

There's nothing contrived about this band at all. Unlike some you bands you see who have gone out and bought a king-sized basket of cliches, either musical or image, No-Name dispense with all that and you have a band which just makes good music and through all that arrives at something which has that extra factor.

One unusual thing about this band is that it features a drummer/vocalist and Joe the drummer lets it go on vocals serving up lashings of passion... You get the sense as you listen to the songs that alot of the lyric is personal even if you cant hear all the words. Some of the songs carry a vibe, something which almost puts a lump in your throat, and thru the thrash and rawness something comes out that touches you - "Beautiful music, but not poncy" is how we'd describe it - No-Name's two guitarists don't do the usual rhythm & lead thing, but instead offer up a distinctive layered sound. A swelling waterfall of layered guitars with a cry of a vocal spilling thru it... raw, but strangely beautiful... Check 'em out at a venue round London near you.

Here's the bands biog and studio notes for the session that spawned the track listed.

The Band

No name was born in early 2003 when a guitarist called James and a drummer called Joe decided to take a weekend out from the strains of life and have a bit of a jam in Joes living room (Much to the disgust of his wife, who only much later was happy that that day took place).

After that fateful day the 2 founding members decided to book some time in a rehearsal room and see what would happen. The result was basically a couple of guitar riffs that are still used to this day and no vocals. Eventually Joe decided that we needed vocals and bravely stepped up to the mike so to speak. This continued for a while until it was decided that we where actually fairly good and decided it may be time to get others involved....enter Keith

Keith a strange little man obsessed with turnips and their, um, uses (his own words not mine), added something special to the band, namely another guitar and the sound you can hear today began to take shape nicely. But we still needed a bass player.

At this point we had no idea the way things where gonna go and after a string of friends who thought they could play, Liam walked through the door. Liam was basically built like a brick shit house and had an actual certificate stating he was insane……I kid u not. Anyway Liam rehearsed with us for a while and played a couple of gigs but his heart was just not in it, so we said a sad farewell.

For 2 months we had been rehearsing without a bass player and playing a few shit gigs. Unknown to us though the guy in the corner of the room who occasionally came to watch us rehears (get stoned) was actually a very good bass player (not even he new he could play but oh well). So Hodga picked up the bass and never put it down and is with us to this day.

Anyway that's enough of that. Enjoy.


Recording information

We recorded the tracks at Connexion studios Hook. It a great place out in the middle of no-where in a converted barn. Gets a bit cold though. The tracks took 4 days to record in total, laying down each instrument one by one.

Day 1
We put down the guide tracks in the morning and one we where happy moved onto recording the drums. The drum kit was fully miked up and Joe got to work. We had the drums done by around 7pm and then went home for the day.

Day 2
Bass - Hodga managed to get the bass tracks down for Seconds and Openview in record time but struglled on I dont see me. After about 20 takes we had a listen back and realised that the drums where too fast and going out of time so we made the decission to set the drum kit back up and record the drums for that track again. We set up the kit and Joe recorded the drum tracks again to our dellight as it gave the song something new that we hadnt thought of before.

Day 3
Started with the bass track on I dont see me and Hodga managed to get in down in about 3 takes. Then it was onto the guitars, James was up first and got seconds and I dont see me out of the way in no time and layered on 3 diferent guitar parts on I dont see me. Openview proved to be a tricky one and after 2 hours trying to get the intro right we finally got it.

Keith then steped up and recorded all his tracks in record time but missed hodga setting himself on fire in the controll room and the boiling hot water being pored over his leg to put the fire out.

Day 4
The day started with Joe putting down his lead vocals and possibly the best we have ever heard him sing. All went well apart from I dont see me which took about 4 hours to get the vocals down. After a lot of effort on Joes part we got a superb take and stuck with it. James put down some backing vocals on Openview and we where done with the recording. Time to mix.

In the mix we where extreamlly adament that the vocals be pused up as on our last EP they where burried under the guitars. We added a backwards symbol to Seconds and used delay on Openview and I dont see me.

We then mastered the tracks and we where done.

Equiptment
Joe - zidian kit, each part miked up seperatlly
James - Les Paul custom and 1960's Marshall 250 watt valve amp
Hodga - Mark Hopuss custom p-bass, Peavy head and cab
Keith - Ibanez Custim, 1960's Marshall 250 watt valve amp
A synth was used on openview to create the strings sound.

We tried to stay away from effects as much as possible to keep a raw sound.