December Newsletter

A rather mighty hello to you all - HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Got to be mighty in the face of adversity - the mighty are often not without fear, but rather act in spite of it. We are, of course, corresponding via the FOUR BLOKES NEWSLETTER for the last time in 2025! I hope the Christmas special was a doozy, perhaps slightly sentimental admist sherry-red hedonism. This December edition will be without grandiose notions and will merely recap the events of the 12th month. However - it may do so at quite some length as I seemed to waffle quite a big while writing it, so sorry about that fellows. Without further adieu...

On December 1st a switch went off in my mind and, for the first time in a long time, I'd started having new ideas for songs. They were only feint to begin with - an idea for the structure, arrangement and lyrical content of a song called "Dockers" was what came to me on the tube into Uni - but nevertheless it is nice to move away from the 14 tracks on the second LP that I've been writing, arranging, recording, and basically living with all the time for the past year. Later that day in uni I'd finally recruit a Fourth Bloke - Egor, a fella who'd fled Russia to avoid persecution for being gay (and vegetarian?) joined the band. Only JJ's flu stood in the way of a first rehearsal. I was praying for get well wishes...

December 2nd - back in the studio boys! Wandering around by a lake swallowing golden light, until the red bulb was due to glow. In I went to whack a piano track on "Back on The Drink", with all sorts of odd chords in it. Due to a lack of studio engineer I looped the bass and drum track in my headphones and sat hammering away at the keys doing take after take after take. Stitched all the best bits together with a dirty needle and sent a reduction mix of piano, bass and drums off to Harvey, so he could add his trumpet part up in Nottingham. Of course - A CRISPY MO TO CELEBRATE!

A few days later, after receiving a telegram from "Dura Mater" informing of the sitar player's unavailability, I took to Fivver to search for someone further afield. Mahesh Pathmakumara was recruited, a university lecturer on the west coast of Sri Lanka. After being provided with a demo and an Indian notation of the melody - SmDmGmṠ etc. etc. - he said this

I found myself at an impasse for a couple of days - Four Blokes recording sessions were going on in the West Midlands and Southeast Asia, but there was little I could do but wander around galleries and riverbanks to ponder... further ideas came for new songs. A data processing system recounting it's favourite human memories, sung by a synthesised 

voice surrounded by found sounds of industrial machinery. I also had an idea for a love song with lush arrangement - piano led with a soft band backing, sleigh bells overdubbed... verse, violin solo, verse, harpsichord solo, bridge, big chorus in the round to finish. I wanted to use seasonal words, I wanted to use romantic words, I wanted it to phase between tepid reality and fantastical absurdity. I dreamt up a robot samba as a track to bridge the gap between the data processing system song and the pretty love song, and then began to think of the tracks that would follow - a one minute opera telling the tale of tea bag and cup backed by a harpist, and to follow that some UK Grime... as I walked around the wintery streets of London and as I lay awake at night, whole arrangements were playing in my head involuntarily. I just had to go and find the melodies, the words, the sounds...

Things began to pick up again - oh yes they did! Oh yes! While I was loitering outside the photography gallery - where i had viewed some seminal eastern european works only moments before - i discovered Mahesh had sent me the sitar piece! What a fantastic treat; contacted that shop in Southall about tabla rental, £350 cash deposit... all sounds above board to me. Booked a Wednesday morning in the studio and went about my business, buying Tom Yum soup powder in Chinatown.

Asher - Tom's housemate who does £15 haircuts in their bedroom - gave me a masterclass in production, all the ins and outs of corrective and creative EQ. I dare say it's changed the way I think about the principles of mixing FOREVER!!! "And suddenly my irises are heart shaped" I wrote on a late night walk - as part of the lyrics to a song which I wrote start to finish in chronological order because my headphones stopped working. After purchasing some new ones from ARGOS - WHAT A MARVELLOUS PLACE TO BE ON A WINTER'S AFTERNOON - I worked on a new mix of the album. Definitely a lot better overall, no more hissing amps, bass and guitar tone is much improved, things are being sent out to BUS 6!!! Leave it to simmer for a few days...

Finished semester 1 of uni on the 16th - not sure what I reckon on it all. A rare Lizzy line journey to Southall, past all the Pani Puri shops and Saree suppliers and into JAS music Ltd. Uncle Ji came up from the basement to identify the key of my Sitar arrangement and his apprenticed used a little metal hammer to tune the Tabla, using the drone note of a tambura as a guide. After signing some watertight legal paperwork concerning the terms of my rental, I lugged the large drum back to the tube stop. An arduous journey ensued - how can it be a 15 minute walk to change tube lines - and i returned to my chambers with aching arms. To refuel for the studio session the next day I made a delicious Goan Curry - meanwhile in Nottingham, Harvey was in the studio tracking trumpet and trombone.

Unfortunately admist all the excitement I'd had too many cups of tea and was unable to sleep. Tossing and turning, I realised i had lost the first verse when my phone was stolen! Not to worry - it was vaugely on the subject of gardening and the beauty in suffering so I put something down about that. As with many songs on this album i found myself having to actively research lyrics - "rainforest floor plants that do not like sunlight" and "what causes algae blooms?". Set off around 8AM, heaved the tabla halfway across London - heave ho - and arrived at the pokey little room after a brief pitstop at Sainsbury's, which is a new kind of greengrocers that operates on a national scale called a "supermarket". Whatever is the world coming to... spent the first hour trying to figure out why the mics were going BZZ!!ZZZZZZ!!! BZZZ!!! and it turned out someone had wired the console to 88 volts instead of 44.1 - not exactly sure what the relevance is but I don't really want a bitcrusher hardwired to my Indian percussion track. Kicked off my shoes and sat cross legged on the floor, banging away on the drums over and over until I had something satisfactory. Did experiment with adding a tambura drone via the tuning app but it was not to be - we'll come back to that later... whacked the vocals on in a rather soft manner, possibly my softest manner yet, and that was that. Got to LUG the big bag down the Lizzy line again - which costs a fucking fortune, if you wish to travel along those railwaylines be prepared to forgo all worldly pleasures and enter a period of austerity - to give Uncle Ji and the gang back their drum. The man banged away to ensure it was in tip-top condition and I was handed a large wad of 20 pound notes as well as a few 10s, 1 five, a 2 pound coin and a 1 pound coin.... this was, of course, MY DEPOSIT MINUS THE RENTAL FEE! I've decided as a treat for all you newsletter readers to make the financial comings and goings of Four Blokes public. 

After this, it was time to return home for Christmas... the train journey from Waterloo was eventful, I heard a whole love story develop secondhand over the phone. I thought they were dating when she first phoned him aboht the Egyptian colleague, then she phoned her mate to say "I fancy him but i don't know if I should tell him"... I'M SURE HE BLOODY KNOWS! EVEN I KNOW! She proceeded to phone him up and tell him - how incredibly fascinating that on a busy train you witness the ins and outs of people's personal lives. I'm afraid I don't know wether he liked her back or not as she went between hysterical laughter and anxious pacing.  

I don't know why I'm writing at such length this month dear readers - apologies for it all. Apologies for all wrongdoings. I shall proceed forward with decidedly more pace. 

Sat around in Sholing I got a notification - "Logic Pro free trial will expire in 12 days" - so I thought I'd better get mastering tracks! The first 2 were pretty simple, i was already happy with the previous mix i had on both so i literally just added some gain to the limiters to match the volume of the single released back in October - this brought us up to 4/14 immediately. Adding Harvey's trumpet to Back On The Drink was decidedly harder - he'd played the score to a set 120 bpm, the backing track shifts between 150 and 155... eventually I cut it up into little parts running at various speeds together and bounced a reduction mix of the trumpet into the original mix. Got trumpet burnout after that... so switched to Trombone and mastered Farewell Yugoslavia. On the 22nd I woke up and I was on smoke... over the course of an afternoon I got the album up to 10/14 tracks mastered! Some odd tricks went on - Thistle had the vocal ran through a wah pedal via a bus, and on Xylazine Addiction I had to swap the limiters for a gain plugin and whack the loudness up on logic's mastering assistant - Una Vida, Con Ella was boosted to 1.045x Speed as well (pitch shifted). The other tracks didn't need any fancy tricks, just a good balance and a dollop of LOUDNESS. Sack it off for the night, and head to the Shooting Star - there, I bumped into a figure from my past... 

Finn Hobbs... founding member of Four Blokes, hangover member from [SCUM], sacked for being too shit at the drums and winding me up. 3 years after our last meeting, he instantly started winding me up again. I do feel somewhat sorry for him as things in life perhaps haven't gone his way but a man I find very difficult to be around... another 3 years apart wouldn't do either of us wrong.

A few days later I walked my old route, past the suburban mosaics, listening to the first master cut of the album - this is the first time I thought, without a shadow of a doubt, what a fantastic work we have on our hands here. I don't know what anyone else will think, least of all you - yes you! You reading this now! - but I'm very chuffed with the fact I've managed to bring the album I heard in my head to reality.

All of a sudden, it was Christmas Day! Where does the time go readers, the minutes are crumbling away. Hope everyone got all the presents they wanted - my favorite was a free mug and 4 teabags from the Solicitor's firm that helped us solve our dispute with the council over our front wall. That or my lovely new jumper.

Popped down the Jolly Sailor for Christmas Lunch, which is a first for me - normally my nan cooks the roast but we thought it rude to awaken her from eternal rest just to boil sprouts, and she hasn't got hands with which to cook anymore anyways. She's just dust now. Still - merriment to be had! I had the full 12 Beers of Christmas and watched Call the Midwife, ended the night with Brassed Off which was a bloody good film. Possibly the best ever.

On Boxing Day we had my cousins over, I spent the day being "Uncle Harry" (he's not strictly my nephew but thats what the boy calls me) which involves all sorts of mischief like running around carrying him in a plastic container which he calls his "Rocketship" and visiting "Jupiter" (kitchen table) and "The Moon" (armchair in the lounge).

After that 2 day festive break, it was paramount we finish the album - I went over Tiago's and between the 2 of us we saw off the 3 overdubs still outstanding. First, the missing guitar part on Galactically Enclined - this was the most meaningful and enjoyable musical moment I've had in a very long time, us bouncing off each other's ideas and him lending stylistic and emotional counterpoint to elevated the song. Artists in dialogue. I dubbed a new lead vocal onto Thistle as the old one had shite quality, and after a quick trip up to the bathroom for a puff, I did 2 vocal takes of Be My Mars - just like that, recording for the second album was complete. And all in the corner of Tiago's kitchen, by the washing machine. Then, off to see Peter Pan...

Took the 28th off to go to the match, before coming home to sink a solid 5 hours into Fifa 19 (very good idea to not bring that to uni with me) - plans to make a final master of the album were squandered by a boozy Christmas quiz which led to a pilgrimage to Tariq Manzil's curry house. On the way we reworked various football chants to be about curry which i mist say i enjoyed - singing in the streets! It was very strange eating a sit down meal at 2 in the morning but we sorted Tariq out with a nice big tip.

I did try and master the album in the 2 hours before I set off for Stansted, but I fell asleep at my laptop. Next- Romania...

And thus concludes our final correspondondence of the year. What to expect from 2026? Well, the album release for one! We're also looking to get back into rehearsals ASAP after my eastern voyage - it's all looking very exciting. But for now, it's goodbye from me and may you pass safely over the midnight hour.

Warmest wishes

Harry