‘So, why does it take so long’?

I hear this question a lot when we’re making a Farrah record. People often assume that making an album takes a couple of weeks. I don’t know why they think this is. It’s not as if they think making a film takes a couple of weeks. Perhaps it’s just that there are more documentaries about ‘behind the scenes of the latest action blockbuster’ and not that many about making records.

So why does it take so long? Because we dick around. That’s why. Actually that isn’t strictly true but having access to a great recording studio when we want it actually slows down the process somewhat. We can tinker. We can try some things out. Anyway, it’s not just us! The Beatles spent 6 months making Sergeant Pepper. This was using 2 or three studios at the same time. The latest U2 record took over 2 years to make. Boston took 4 years, Def Leppard took three ( I admit they had a problem with a drummer who lost an arm during the recording) and all the bands I’m talking about had a producer or two and some engineers, tea boys, tea ladies, catering, -Oh, and they didn’t have other stuff to do as well. ‘Sorry, Bono, I can’t lay down any guitars this week as I’m stripping the wallpaper in my flat’.

So what’s the most time consuming aspect of it? Well, song selection takes a while. This is where we decide which songs are good enough for the record. This involves a lot of arguing and jaffa cakes. This also involves us writing songs.

Preproduction is where we try out the songs in different structures, grooves, time signatures, keys and dynamics. This usually doesn’t take forever because we all have good ideas and tend to agree on which sounds best. However, if a song has 30 chords, then there’s a lot to forget- oops, I mean remember.

The recording. This takes a while. The drums and bass go down pretty quickly but the other instruments can take a long time. This is because we try different sounds and textures and sometimes get friends to play things as well. Some songs are easy and may only have 10 tracks of stuff, but one song on this record has 96 tracks of audio and is 6 minutes long (it’s the closing track) so even if everything is played right first time that’s 96x6, which is many hours of recording.

We’re a band that likes backing vocals and working out those takes a while. I take forever tweaking lyrics and redoing lead vocals (the luxury of having a studio again…) and remember that we’re engineering and producing it ourselves.

Mixing takes a couple of weeks and you’ll be pleased to know that this is where we are now!

So, we started the song selection last July, started pre-production in August and recording in September. We’ve been working on the record on and off ever since. Just over 8 months. Not so long really. Not if you want to make something that is your best record. Which this is. By far.

Hello all of you out in Farrah land. I hope you’re having a great Christmas. What a year it has been for the band! We started 2009 working really hard to finish our fourth album ‘Farrah’. By the time ... READ...

Hello all of you out in Farrah land. I hope you’re having a great Christmas. What a year it has been for the band! We started 2009 working really hard to finish our fourth album ‘Farrah’. By the time ... READ...

Hello! Following the Japanese tour we've all had a couple of weeks off to recover. If you haven't been following us on twitter there's a whole bunch of Vlogs from the tour on YouTube here. But now, we're starting to gear up to release the new record in the UK & Europe. We're shooting a new vid READ...

Hi all, I’m on a bullet train traveling from Niigata to Tokyo and as everyone else is fast asleep and drooling, I thought I’d tell you about the tour so ... READ...

.. .. .. .. .. .. .... Hi all, I’m on a bullet train traveling from Niigata to Tokyo and as everyone else is fast asleep and drooling, I thought I’d tell you about the tour so ... READ...

The FARRAH Japan Tour 2009 starts tonight at Thumbs Up! We are delighted to announce that Farrah will be joined on stage for 1 song by our friend Gotchi from Asian Kung Fu Generation! See you tonight! READ...

The FARRAH Japan Tour 2009 starts tonight at Thumbs Up! We are delighted to announce that Farrah will be joined on stage for 1 song by our friend Gotchi from Asian Kung Fu Generation! See you tonight! READ...

The FARRAH Japan Tour 2009 starts tonight at Thumbs Up! We are delighted to announce that Farrah will be joined on stage for 1 song by our friend Gotchi from Asian Kung Fu Generation! See you tonight! READ...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH_FdYzKal4 READ...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfIVvK2xLRs READ...

Well, Greetings to you all. Due to Jez and Michelle’s sterling vlogging efforts from Japan – at which I was also present, but hampered by acute humidity and low personal agility - you have all been spared my attempts at blogging. Still, it couldn’t last. Some months ago, our good friends at READ...

Catch up with the band's exploits in Pontevedra... cheers, Jez READ...

Hello everyone, I hope the sun is shining where you are (unless it's night time, that would be a bit worrying). We had a vocal rehearsal last night round at my huge mansion in Mayfair. I gave the servants the night off while we ooohed, aaaahed and whoooaaahhhed our way through songs old and new. We' READ...

Hello everyone, I hope the sun is shining where you are (unless it's night time, that would be a bit worrying). We had a vocal rehearsal last night round at my huge mansion in Mayfair. I gave the serv... READ...

Hey all of you. Just got back from Japan and got over the jetlag (and seeing ‘The Boat That Sucked, sorry, Rocked’ on the plane). Me and Michelle had an amazing time in Japan on our brief trip to promote the band’s new record. The album seems to be flying off the shelves in Tower Records and HMV and READ...

Hey all of you. Just got back from Japan and got over the jetlag (and seeing ‘The Boat That Sucked, sorry, Rocked’ on the plane). Me and Michelle had an amazing time in Japan on our brief trip to prom... READ...

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Well Konnichiwa and welcome to the Farrah blog. At this moment i am watching a great Japanese band called Asian Kung-Fu Generation at the Yokohama arena in front of 15000 people. The strange thing is, only a few hours ago, Michelle and I played on the same stage and opened the show! It was incredibl READ...

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Tokyo update Hi all, I hope all is well with you. I just wanted to update you on the Japanese promo trip. After waking up at 5.30am from jetlag I was happy I had an easier day of promo yesterday. We went to a couple of the really big Tower records stores and met the buyers and had photos, sig READ...

Hey all, here's yesterdays vlog. They'll be another today. Jez x READ...

Hi all, i'm close to flaking out in my hotel room. What a crazy day. It got gradually more surreal. The breakfast TV appearance was really fun (despite the 4am alarm call). I had to taste some food and pass judgement on the best veggie stuff. The winner of the three choices was tofu skin from a loca READ...

Good morning! Still dark here and i've woken up at 3am instead of 4 am. My body is confused. Great day yesterday. Met all our lovely label at Fabtone head office and did some idents for radio stations that have been kind enough to play our record.I also got my haircut and had a wander around a very READ...

Hey all. hope all well, on my way to japan and somehow blagged our way into the virgin upper class lounge where everything is free and served by trained pandas. On my third glass of champagne. I think they're starting to suspect i'm an imposter. Might get my converse shined before i leave. jez x READ...

I’m so excited to be heading to Tokyo on Tuesday! It’s a trip to promote the new record which comes out in Japan next week. Our new label have got lots of cool stuff lined up; A festival on a beach, a TV appearance, lots of interviews, A DJ set, and (most exciting of all), me and Michelle are going READ...

Massive Festival Appearance In Japan! “STOP PRESS : The new album, simply entitled "Farrah", is set for release in Japan on new label Fabtone Records on 8th July 2009! Jez and Michelle from Farrah will be making a special trip to Japan to help launch the album, before the full band tour which is t READ...

Muscle memory Is a strange thing. We were rehearsing yesterday because we have a gig on May the 4th in Plymouth. As you can probably imagine, we’ve been really busy recording the new record so we haven’t been playing the other (50 plus!) songs in our repertoire. Some songs we hadn’t played in ov READ...

So hi everybody! I hope you are all doing great out there. I just thought I’d report back from the Farrah front line to tell you that the album is done and dusted! We spent most of yesterday in Abbey Rd studios mastering the album. It’s always a bit like going to ‘Beatles church’ when you walk i READ...

After a long and complicated labour, all of Farrah are very excited to announce that the record is finally finished. The mixes were done last week only for us to discover strange clicks and pops on every song. We had to go back into the studio and do them all again. This took a mind-numbing 22 hours READ...

So far we've spent every day of 2009 in the studio! x READ...