The art of Falling Down gracefully. Chris Daymond reflects on recording ‘Jebediah’.
Many of the songs on the forthcoming Jebediah album are of the uplifting variety. Songs that just make you want to move your body in some way. Which was a deliberate move from the band, who spent several peaceful weeks ansconded in the rural surrounds of Australia's most in demand studio - Mangrove Studios.
"It's such a great place to make music," enthuses guitarist Chris Daymond. "We deliberately looked for something that wasn't in a major city as we wanted to concentrate on just the music. We didn't want any of the distractions that come with working in a city studio.
"We did the last album at Sing Sing in Melbourne and we were very definite that we didn't want to go back there. Not that we had any bad experience or anything, but we really wanted to get out of a city environment."
And it seems that like a good Boy Scout, preparation counts for everything for Jebediah when it comes to working in the studio.
"Absolutely. We were far more prepared for this album than we hav ever been previously. We were so much more excited about the songs that we had written and we really wanted to give these new songs a new slant. Which is why we picked someone new to work with [which was Magoo]. The last album was a bit of us expelling some negative air I think. This one is like a breath of fresh air for all of us - it's a really positive record."
Part of that freshness is feeling comfortable with who they were as human musicians with all hte imperfections that that implies.
"Yeah, we've left a few mistakes on the recordings, that's for sure! When you're in the studio it's very easy to pick up a synth or something that's very precise and get the music perfect. But we're a guitar band and there's a really good vibe between us. That's what we've tried to capture in the studio, rather than going for the perfect take."
The choice of Magoo as producter was not an immediately obvious one, with Magoo's track record of working mainly with very studio based artists using a lot of cut and past techniques.
"Yeah, he was Kevin's first choice actually. And I'm really glad he said yes to us. I was a bit surprised he did, but it's worked out really well fir us I think. We alll lived together up at Mangrove and cooked for each other and so on, so it made the recording process as we were all in it together."