The band
The Supernormal was an alternative rock band in the Sydney live music scene from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, formed by four school and university friends, with me on drums. We played plenty of gigs and a few residencies, placed well in a couple of band competitions and released an EP. Eventually careers and moves took over, and we’re still good friends today.
The sardine tin sessions
Just before I left Australia in the mid-2000s, we spent a few days crammed into my small suburban bedroom, recording songs before they were lost for good. I’d been collecting microphones (enough to close-mic a full drum kit), preamps and other recording gear, and this was my first real chance to use it.
We had to record one instrument at a time, with little time and little recording experience, so the raw tracks were rough. Then I went travelling, and the recordings sat untouched on a hard disk for a decade.
Bringing them back
A few years ago I recovered the recording hardware, an E-mu/Ensoniq PARIS system, from storage and transferred the sessions to Cubase, which was a project in itself. Each song then took most of a month of editing, clean-up, mixing and mastering to get from very rough source tracks to what you hear above. I used my own Paris VST EQ on some of the instrument tracks. At some point a mix has to be called finished: art is never finished, only abandoned.
Given the source material and the DIY setup, I’m pleased with how they turned out, and modern audio plug-ins made a lot possible that wouldn’t have been a decade earlier.
I’d like to revisit these mixes (less drums, softer cymbals), and seven more songs from those sessions are still waiting to be mixed.
Someday.