Blog: Tiger VS Frankie - The Dawn Of Validation

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Last night Mr T "The Tiger" McClure and Mr FA Machine were in Snug Studios, working with Mr R Newman on the final MASTERING of our forthcoming album, "Still Valid". I say "final" but I was pretty sure before they went in that it wouldn't actually BE the final session - it never turns out that way and, indeed, it didn't this time either!

I didn't feel the need to travel all the way to Derby for this session for several vital and important reasons i.e. 1) it's a long way 2) I knew it wouldn't be particularly exciting and most vital and important at all 3) I trusted the pair of them to get it done. One of the many delightful things about being in a band like The Validators for SO LONG is that it's a bit like MISSION IMPOSSIBLE in that whenever I email the band it EXPLODES 60 seconds later. No, hang on, that's not what I meant - what I meant was that we have a MENU of EXPERTISE in all sorts of different areas from which we can pick the best combination of people for the task at hand. For example, if we need two people to go in and tit around with keyboards, percussion items and Making Silly Noises then OF COURSE I would be up there like a rocket and expecting Mr T Pattison to come too. If, however, I want people who will listen intently to what we've already done, check it's all roughly in tune, sounds PROPER, and WORKS then I would call up the aforementioned McClure and Machine.

Having said all that, it did feel strange to be sat at home watching telly, well knowing that an album we'd spent YEARS making was being finally put together approx 113 miles away. On other occasions I have PESTERED Tom (who is almost invariably there for this bit) to find out what's going on, but this time I thought I'd best leave them to it. As well as doing some final mix adjustments and MASTERING they also had a big list of other jobs to do, including intro and outro THINGS, "radio" edits (taking out swears), checking the unused tracks and getting STEMS, so probably would not benefit from me sticking my nose in. THUS the first I knew of a successful completion was a TWEET from Frankie saying it was "DONE" and then the appearance of FILES in my Dropbox.

Next morning there were emails from both of my colleagues, Frankie bemoaning the lack of THRILLZ (they had clearly worked hard!) and Tom saying that he'd had a listen on the way home and noticed some minor TWEAKS that were still needed. We agreed long ago in our ROCK CAREER that we would always take the time, if it was available, to go back and FIX things like this - if you say "Oh it'll be FINE!" and LEAVE it then you end up spending the next 20 years thinking "I wish we'd fixed that" - and so, as suspected, there'll be another (hopefully shorter) session before it's all REALLY finished.

But then it WILL be finished! At last! I'm also very close to finishing off the album artwork too, which means that in the next couple of weeks I'll be emailing Key Production (who did our last album - or more specifically did our last album when the first two attempts with other manufacturers went wrong) to ask for a QUOTE and then it will be time to start ORDERING! The current plan is to officially release it end of June/start of July, with various gigs, videos, and hopefully some PRESS, but all being well I'll have some copies for sale at GIGS as soon as its ready. I must say I'm rather looking forward to people finally HEARING it, partly because we've all worked so hard to get it done but mostly because it's GRATE!

posted 23/3/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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