On The Record

Fiddleycat is off in the USA for six weeks but before she took off we brought her to Bevendean's answer to Abbey Road and captured her excellent mandolin and violin for our first full recording project.

Visitation came to me around February. It feels very channelled and is a Storyteller song. It's eight plus minutes long but in spite of gentle teasing about creating new Prog Rock, I am unashamedly glad to create material which takes whatever time it takes. We are not a commercial pop band.

It'll be on MySpace music (wyndmusic) so have a listen.

Next was Lurex. She has a high soprano which complements my mezzo growl pretty well! Al, our wonderful producer, overdubbed her voice, and we ghosted our vocals to add variety. For the chant at the end of the song he double tracked then multilayered me five times and Lurex singing in the round there were three layers.

Andy Bell kindly supplied some pretty dynamic flute as Karma Mama couldn't make a summer recording session (too much healing to do!) and finally we added some superb lead guitar for the outro.

We captured some apocalyptic rumbling from a free sounds site and after some mixdown sessions we now have the title track of our album, taken from the song: Part of the Solution.

So the track content is as follows:

Wiccapaedia: Djembe, acoustic guitar, vocals
Fiddleycat: Mandolin
Lurex: Vocals
Al: Bass, electric guitar
Andy Bell: Flute.


Live work moves on apace. We played two charity gigs, one outside Brighton Station and one outside Hassocks Station (what is it with us and trains, Al?) The Brighton gig was a technological disaster due to generator problems, but we made up for it by showing up at The Portland that night and doing a couple of numbers.

We now need to start promoting our own gigs because it's obvious that we're never going to be a pub band.

With one exception: we've asked Ginny who promotes the Portland Rock Bar to put on a Girls' Rock Nite this Autumn.

My guitar playing has slightly improved, Al again stepping in to give me some accelerated coaching especially since sadly the lovely K-rrang has had to leave the band in order to pursue her career as a Police Officer.

This week I am going to meet up with an accordionist.

Another welcome addition to the band is Sandi who does not have her Band Name yet.
She has gone off with my djembe and a set of congas and we'll be back in rehearsals as soon as Fiddleycat returns from the US of A.

Overall one of the best things about Wynd is that we've stayed together and developed for almost a year now.

Black cats keep crossing my path, magpies flit around in pairs everywhere I go, so as a true Pagan I am watching the signs.

Next to record are Frida and Little Too Rock N Roll, and we have six more backing tracks to make.

2010 is going to be a Wiccid year I think.