Posts Tagged: marc james

2019 Summary

December 12 call me loop, drummer, drums, emily mae winters, emily stratford, joe blustin, live, london, longfellow, marc james, remote sessions, session, studio

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.

Studio

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.

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Back at @thebookhousestudio tracking with @chrlsbsh on my lovely Luddy

A post shared by S I M O N T R E A S U R E (@treasuredrums) on Feb 15, 2019 at 1:17pm PST

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

Live

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.

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Had a blast on @callmeloop’s mini headline run last week. Here’s a cheeky rig shot from Glasgow

A post shared by S I M O N T R E A S U R E (@treasuredrums) on Nov 3, 2019 at 9:56am PST

Releases

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.

2017 Summary

December 12 drummer, drums, festival, gig, holiday oscar, istanbul agop, LOOP, lucio & dina, marc james, music, recording, remote sessions, session, simon treasure, studio, tour

This time I thought I’d just pick a few of my favourite moments from the year.

Favourite Gig

Playing with Holiday Oscar at Bestival in September was a real highlight. Everything came together for this show – the vibe was super relaxed and fun, the band gelled together with minimal rehearsal and the crowd responded really well, singing along by the end of the set. I loved recreating Charlie’s songs live and choosing which kit/percussion parts to play. I ended up with different implements in each hand for every song, using a mixture of sticks, brushes, mallets, tambourines and a shaker as in the above track.

Favourite Tour

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVNiuZHFDzd/?taken-by=callmeloop

In May I went on a short European run with LOOP supporting Jonas Blue, hitting Cologne, Amsterdam, Paris and London. As well as playing drums, I edited the above tour video. It was amazing to play in new countries and some great venues, my favourite probably being Luxor. We sustained a few technical issues, but these were all overcome and the shows went great. Tickets for LOOP’s first headline show on 17th January available here.

Favourite Session

I recorded drums for Lucio & Dina Santana’s album Amor/Love in July. We tracked 11 songs in an 8 hour session (including setup), which is the most I’ve ever done. With the exception of one song I hadn’t heard any of the tunes before, so it was a case of listening to the demos, briefly discussing parts, doing 2 or 3 passes then moving on. Despite the time constraints it was a really rewarding session and I’m pleased with how the record came out. Stylistically it ranges from CCM pop/rock to more acoustic songs and even bossa nova on one track. My ’70s Ludwig kit sounded perfect in the room we used, and it was great to work with Marc James again, this time in the role of producer.

I’ve also done more remote session work this year – get in touch via simon@simontreasure.com to talk about recording drums for your project.

Thanks to everyone I worked with in 2017, looking forward to more next year.

2016 Summary

December 12 atiptoe, band, gig, harry phillips, longfellow, LOOP, marc james, recording, session, studio

This year was another busy one, filled with fun and varied gigs. Here’s a little of what I got up to with the 5 main projects I’m involved in.

Harry Phillips

In January we tracked Harry’s first album, English Americana, at Resident Studios. Several songs were recorded live as a band, which is always a great way to work, and my vintage Ludwig Super Classic sounded beautiful in the live room at Resident. Drums for some of the other tunes were tracked remotely at my studio space, which worked well – Tom Hill did a great job of mixing the record. English Americana got some airtime on BBC 3CR over the summer, and we played a few shows in support.

Atiptoe

Atiptoe released our mini-album +Venture in May. I put a lot of work into this record, from writing, recording, playing drums and keys to designing the artwork and editing promo videos, so it was great to finally get it out in the world. We then went on tour with Redwood, hitting Brighton, Bristol, London, Nottingham, Hertford and Bracknell. I’m taking a step back from playing live in the band – it’s been an amazing 6 years with some of my closest friends and I’m really proud of the music we’ve made together, but my energy’s focused on other projects for now.

LOOP

I started playing in LOOP’s live band this year, and got to do some great London shows and festivals. I also took more of an MD role on this gig, creating playback and designing a setup that would best recreate her electronic pop sound. Playing-wise the gig is very different to everything else I’m doing, with much more of a focus on precise parts and sounds. LOOP had the Introducing Track of the week on Radio 1 in December and is releasing an EP soon through M:UK; I’m looking forward to working with her more in 2017.

Marc James

Marc launched his album Promise in October 2015 but it was this year that we promoted it extensively, playing shows at churches all over the UK. I grew up listening to Marc on the old Vineyard records and love his music, so it’s been an absolute pleasure to get to play drums for him. Towards the end of the year we also got involved with Dave Griffiths’ Big Window tour, taking worship music to secular venues in cities including Oxford, Southampton and Bristol. Each night featured sets from Dave, Marc and Danny O’Callaghan, all brilliant Christian artists and songwriters.

Longfellow

Longfellow played our biggest headline show yet in February, at Bush Hall. We then spent the rest of the year working on our debut album after signing a publishing deal with Cooking Vinyl in June. The record was tracked at Toy Rooms studio in Brighton with producers Andy Britton and Mike Rowe, who were great to work with. We pulled each song apart and worked on their arrangements; once these were set, we recorded them live as a band and then overdubbed other parts as needed. It was amazing to have more time to experiment with tones and parts, and I’m really happy with both my playing on the album and how it sounds as a whole. Look out for the record next year.

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @treasuredrums for regular updates.