I had another busy year, continuing to work on some of my regular long-term projects as well as getting involved with a couple of new ones. Here’s a little of where 2019 took me.
I had several sessions with my pals over at The Bookhouse this year, playing on records for various singer/songwriters. It remains one of my favourite spots in London, with a cosy vibe and some lovely gear. Tom and Ian are both great engineers, and having worked together for a while now things run really smoothly.
In June I tracked drums for Marc James‘ next album at Old Chapel Studios in Chichester, a studio I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. Although I’ve played live with Marc for years this is the first time I’ve recorded his stuff, and it was a super fun day. The live room at Old Chapel sounds incredible, and we used a nice variety of gear including the studio’s 70s Ludwig and a few snare drums. Looking forward to hearing the finished product.
Towards the end of the year I found a new spot to run remote sessions from, my friend Phil’s home studio. I’m really pleased to be collaborating with him; we’ve pooled our resources and between us have loads of cool drums, percussion instruments and recording gear to put to use. Below are some examples of the sounds we can get using different gear, tuning and mix techniques.
For rates and more info get in touch via simon@simontreasure.com
One of my favourite shows of the year was in May, when I filled in for Matt Ingram at the launch of folk artist Emily Mae Winters‘ album High Romance. Matt produced and played drums on the record, and it was a pleasure to learn his parts and replicate all the different tones and textures. It was also nice to return to The Water Rats where I played my first London show 10 years ago!
I continued playing with Call Me Loop throughout the year, with several London shows, a couple of festivals and in October her first headline mini-tour of the UK. We hit Glasgow, Manchester and London and had a blast, with great crowds and shows all round. Below is the hybrid setup I’ve been using on the gig.
A few things came out this year that I was involved with. Firstly, Joe Blustin‘s Where Else EP that we tracked last summer, a mix of great worship songwriting and indie/electronic production.
Emily Stratford put out the two songs that we recorded at Livingston Studios in October 2018, produced by Sam Holmes and James Mottershead and featuring some lovely guitar work from my friend Harry Phillips.
Finally, my band Longfellow‘s eponymous debut album was released after a very long wait. Making this record in Brighton at Toy Room Studios was one of the best experiences of my career so far, and I’m really proud of both my playing on it and the album as a whole.
You can check all of these out on my discography playlist below.
Thanks to everyone I worked with this year for trusting me with your music; I really appreciate it and look forward to more in 2020.