My gig at the golden trailer was almost up, and I had to pack up and look for a new place. As always, I was hoping to find a house sitting gig in a location that allowed for drum n’ guitar volume levels. On monday mornings during the winter and early spring, Natalie and I would meet up very early, and go trail running. There was an international private school near shaunigan lake, that looked alot like Hogwarts. The school sat right beside the lake in the middle of all this forest. We would weave onto the school grounds, loop around, and run through the canopy. I was in ok shape (my torn ligament put an end to anymore high milage), so I could at least keep up with Natalie, who could outlift, out-pull up and out-bike me any day of the week. She was a machine…who’s only weakness at the time seemed to be avoiding incompatible boys. Natalie said she would help find me a new place, and would check to see if her old apartment was available.
Because I managed to live rent free for half of 05′ and now the first few months of 06′, it meant that two more boxes were going to show up in the mail. Always by USPS; I learned the hard way that if you order things from the US into Canada, and used UPS, you’d get a nasty surprise at the post office. By inflating their border handling fees, the extra UPS charges could end up being more expensive than the item you actually bought. No other shipping company does this, so I “boycotted the brown”.
The “Broadhurst Garden” mic preamp was first to arrive (it hooks up to microphones, enabling you to record whatever you need to record). It’s a monolith, steel black box that isnt much to look at from afar. It’s web 1.0 netscape navigator AOL website isnt much to look at either (http://www.davelectronics.com/bg1.htm). But thats ok, because Mick Hinton knows how to make a preamp that makes the microphones come alive. Things you record sound slightly larger than life through this black box. Mick worked at Decca Studios, way back in the 60′s. Decca put out the classic sounds of that era, and Mick was the engineer responsible in part for building the equipment that resulted in those recordings. I had all these preamps to work with by this time. Fostex, art-tube, studio projects, symetrix, rane, full voltage akai tube, and now the “Broadhurst Gardens” Decca preamp. They all made it on the album in some capacity. The album is a preamp mutt.
Natalie had come through for me – it just so happened that her old basement apartment was up for rent. So when the second box arrived in the mail, I just stuck it on the pile of other moving boxes that I had started to pack. I used duct tape instead of clear packing tape on all my uhaul boxes so I could unpack and reseal them easily for future moves. It gave them a distinctive ghettofabulous look, and even though they were starting to show signs of wear with mild bulging on sides, they were still holding up because of the thick layers of “duck brand” duck tape.
The new apartment was just 5 minutes away from the trailer up in the hills. I drove towards the lake, turned left at the T-junction, and entered the shaunigan lake villa. It was very west coast – a real bakery, greasy spoon, and art gallery all on the same strip. I turned right onto the little road where the house was – and as I looked up I knew immediately I wanted to live here. I saw an older neighbourhood, with a huge canopy of trees draped over the road way up above, blotting out the sun. Nicole and Matthew lived on the last house beside a very steep hill leading to the boat ramp, water sport club and lake. I took a liking to both of them pretty quickly – very easy going, down to earth people, and they had a cool skinny dog named Sophie. Matthew worked at the private school (I never figured out exactly what he did but he dressed nice for work), and Nicole did custom furniture building and design. Her shop, full of large, loud industrial furniture building equipment was located in their renovated garage. I guess they were used to loud noise – because when I mentioned that I had drums, and all these other instruments, and that I played them quite often, they didnt seem to mind at all, even though I would be living in the basement right below them in their two story home. The house was perched on the steep slope, so the basement wasnt submerged, but actually opened up to the rolling hill towards the lake. This was going to work out…I’d have one room full of gear and all the basic amenities. I decided that I was going to settle in, bunker down and record an EP over the summer months…
I didn’t know that the beast was waiting, in the corner, biding its time. I wasn’t aware that I’d get this one last summer to live without it. You can plan things out all you like, but come fall of 06′, God knows we were all helpless.
2010 by