Recording of our third album - the background...
We had been promising to record our third album for the past few years and in 2018 finalaly decided we had the right songs, honed to the right level, to book a studio. Moving into a new practice room, located in a beautiful loft space in an old building in Cork’s Grand Parade was a powerful catalyst; practice became less cramped, easier to get to and more productive.
Having looked at a slew of recording studios around the country we settled on Herbert Place Studio in Dublin. It was part-owned by Marc Carolan, who had produced our first EP way back and is lead sound engineer for Muse. Having looked around the studio we loved the ambience, in an old terraced Georgian building on the banks of the Grand Canal. Studio sound engineer and co-owner James Darkin had the kind of laid-back-but-focused approach we needed. We had already decided to self-produce the album and James technical smarts made this possible. The studio spec was impressive and in the weeks before we arrived had hosted Hozier and Mike Scott from the Waterboys. The live room had a homely buzz with a sweet-sounding Kohler & Campbell upright piano. We had worked on a couple of piano-driven instrumental pieces so this was perfect.
Recording happened over the months of September and October 2018. The band laid down base tracks playing live together in the main room. Mics were set open to capture the essence of a band playing at times delicately, at time loud, to capture every scratch, finger-scrape, shuffle and footstep. The base tracks were then layered upon with drones, strings, synths, additional percussion, guitar effects, clarinet and more.
Mixing was completed in Herbert Place in November with mastering by Pete Maher in London in December. The band were thrilled with the result - the aim was to move Boa Morte’s sound forward, reflecting a decades worth of fresh inspiration; to capture the unadorned intimacy of the music. Feedback from labels was very positive, leading to the signing to Gare Du Nord early in 2019.