24/08/05 - The artwork: Has been a strange few days since getting back from Sydney just trying to adjust to normal life again and getting use to not being in the Studio all the time! I think it is going to take a while to fully come back to earth properly. However we have had a number of other things keeping us busy. We have formalised a track list for the album and Mark Roach is underway with the final version of the artwork. From what he has shown us so far it is going to look fantastic!

21/08/05 - Home again: Feeling a little the worse for wear today. Had a great dinner out last night and Rikki hit the sack after that and then jimmy and I headed into town. Can't quite remember everywhere we ended up but I do remember a 4 storey Goth club, an Oasis tribute band and security guards with metal detectors. Everything else is a bit of a blur. Fantastic night though. Went for another wander round Sydney after breakfast. Feeling pretty shabby but we had a few hours before we had to be at the airport so figured we may as well. Found a nice bar in Darling Harbour for a bit of the old 'Hair of the Dog' and then out to the airport and the flight back home. Jimmy got quite a going over in customs leaving Sydney but they let him out in the end. Was a pretty good plane trip back and now sitting back at home it all seems like a bit of dream. Can't believe what an amazing ride the last 72 hours have been!

20/08/05 - Studio 301 and Don Bartley: We have just got back from about 7 hours at studio 301 with Don Bartley. Is hard to put into words what an amazing experience it was. We all thought the album sounded pretty good before we came here, but Don has just worked some absolute magic with the songs. He has really managed to further bring out the heart and soul of the music in a way we didn't think possible. So pleased we decided to come to Sydney and work with Don. After seeing what he did today we can understand why the likes of Metallica, Powderfinger and Alanis Morissette have used him. AND, he is the nicest most laid back guy you could ever hope to meet! Well enough talking for now, time for some drinks!

19/08/05 - Sydney: Its early Friday evening, Sydney time. Talk about a crazy 24 hours. Is hard to believe that about 12 hours ago we were still in Devonport just finishing off the album. Managed to get ourselves to the airport in time for the flight somehow and a few beers before we jumped on the plane took the edge off a bit. You wouldn't believe it though, 13 tracks on the fished album and we all get row 13 seats on the flight across. We are taking it as a good omen. Since getting here we have been out for a bit of a wander round and a little bit of sightseeing. However we are all pretty knackered now given the last few weeks and also the huge Indian dinner and the few pints of lager we just had at this great little place up the road. Rikki has retired for the night but Jimmy and I think we might head out for a bit of a look around the Sydney night life. Having come all this way it would be rude not to....

19/08/05 - Down to the wire!: Well what a month it has been. We have pretty much lived in the studio for the last four weeks and everything has come down to the wire! Finished the final mix of the last track at about 3:40am as you can see from the photo below. Rikki has been an absolute legend in the last month and has literally devoted his life to getting the album sounding amazing and ready for our big trip to Sydney. He is a LEGEND!!! and we will be eternally grateful for his commitment to this album! Totally stoked with the way the album has come out sounding! Time for a few hours sleep and then we are off to the airport at 10am to catch our flight to Sydney! Rock 'n' Roll!!!

20/07/05 - Studio 301: Have just confirmed flights and studio time for mastering at studio301 in Sydney this time next month. We are also stoked that Don Bartley has agreed to do the mastering on the album. Don is an absolute legend, having done mastering work for bands such as Metallica and Powderfinger. Can't wait!

17/07/05 - More vocals: Only four more vocal tracks to go and then it is up to Rikki to put together some final mixes. Feels a bit weird to have the end almost in sight as the whole demoing and recording process has been a part of our lives for so long now. Very exciting though!!!

25/06/05 - Rough Mixes and vocals: With Rikki having done a fantastic job on the rough mixes we have started to put down the first of the vocals. Has been great to finally get to sing on the tracks. As the studio process can be quite a long one it is easy to feel a bit distant from the songs after a while. It does start to feel like you forget the original spark or feeling that inspired the songs, especially when you spend so long working on each part of each song in the studio setting. Singing definitely helps you reconnect with the song. Its good to be back!

20/05/05 - Pianos and strings: Our recent time in the studio has been spent giving the songs more "light and shade" as Rikki would say. Feels like we have put down as many piano overdubs as guitars now which isn't what we were really expecting. As we didn't really manage to capture the pianos on our demos in a way we were entirely happy with getting piano parts in there has been great as it has given the songs an edge they haven't previously had . The next step will be for Rikki to put in some hard yards cleaning up the tracks and doing rough mixes ready so we can start vocals.

15/04/05 - Overdubs: We are getting very close to finishing the main overdubs now. Have tried a few different ideas on some songs which has taken the songs in directions we hadn't considered at the demo stage. Things are going very well though and we are getting more and more excited about hearing the finished product.

30/03/05 - The album sessions continue: A couple of further sessions in the studio have really started to pull the album together. James' guitar overdubs are really making the songs come alive. It is fantastic to see all the ideas we have collected together in our demo sessions working in together. However, in some ways it seems the longer the process goes on the more we see we can do to the songs. Have to make sure we don't get too carried away otherwise the album will never get released!

20/02/05 - Refining our demos: Having spent some time in the studio getting the album underway we been able to get a good idea of the way things are sounding. Have taken a little break form the studio to spend some time jamming and refining our ideas for the next stage of the recording further. Being so prepared for our first lot of studio sessions made a big difference to how well everything went so we are keen to get as much sorted as possible before we head back in again

05/02/05 - Recording the album: Our time in the studio from 20 January to 29 January was very successful. The songs are really coming together. It was a very intense 9 days but went really well as all the work we had done preparing paid off. At this stage we still have some guitar overdubs and keyboard parts to put down and then Rikki will look to start mixing the album. After Rikki has finished the rough mixes of the songs we will head back to the studio to put down vocals and more mixing will follow that.

Following the final mix of the album at The Bus we are heading to Sydney to master it at studio301 and will release it in September.

See below for some pictures from the recording session and remember to check back here regularly for updates on the album.

Although we have yet to work out the final running order we have settled on the following 14 songs for the album:

Cheated
The Cranes
Drive
Innocence
Too Late
Charlie
Mary
Rock One (working title)
One Life
OK
Chicago Snow
Angel
Holding on
Goodbyee

We took a lot of time over the writing and pre-production process so as we could have a very clear idea of exactly what we wanted when we hit the studio. This time spent has really paid off as we have been able to develop all of the songs to a greater extent than we have done with any recording in the past.

It was a great thrill for us to get Rikki Morris to work with us on the album and was an equally amazing experience to do work with Luke Casey on the songs.

Mark Roach from Muse who created the artwork for our last release Suburban Lullaby will be doing the artwork for HANGING ON BY A THREAD so as well as sounding amazing the album will look fantastic as well.

We have done all the recording for the album at Rikki’s studio ‘The Bus’ in Devonport and plan to have it mastered at Studio 301 in Sydney. We are also hoping to have the album distributed in New Zealand by Global Routes but will confirm this closer to the release date.

The new songs are sounding fantastic and we can’t wait to get them out there for you to all hear!

If you would like to know anything about the album which we haven’t covered above please drop us an email.

Click on the thumbnails of the pictures below from the preproduction and recording of HANGING ON BY A THREAD to see them in size.

05/04/03 - TEMPLE GIG
Our second gig in two weeks and we feel like we're definitely warming back into playing live. Although a delay earlier on with one of the other bands meant we didn't hit the stage until 1:15am, was still a great gig. Get the low down and the photos on the gigs page.

15/03/03 - TEMPLE GIG
An excellent first gig back after our silence on the live scene.
Photos, write up and set list available on the gigs page.