Ollabelle

Ollabelle Video from Recording Session

2008-02-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

Here's a video of a song we recorded on our session.
It was shot and edited by cameraman Alex Rappaport.

Ollabelle goes to Alaska

2008-02-11T07:49:00.000-08:00

Ollabelle went to Alaska in January 2008. Unfortunately, Amy couldn't make it as she was a little too pregnant but our dear friend Martha Scanlan, who was also on the shows, sat in for some songs and sounded wonderful.
Our tour manager/sound engineer Doug Dawson joined us for the tour. He is the best fun around. We also did a show in Vancouver which was great.
Alaska was so beautiful. Our first show was in Fairbanks which was a balmy 33 BELOW. Interesting how that affects one's sinuses. We then went to Anchorage which is a great town with great audiences. Our last stop was Homer, which was my particular favourite. It was so beautiful. We had a driver called Fergie whoidrove us from Anchorage to Homer and showed us all the sights. He even went out of his way to show us a moose,, which we couldn't get a great picture of but we saw her (the moose cow). There is a bald eagle sanctuary in Homer too which was just amazing.
We loved Alaska and can't wait to go back.

Here are some photos;

The Visitors

2007-10-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

We were so lucky to have some of our friends come by to keep us company, cook and eat with us, make us laugh,,, and contribute to the record!
Here are some photos of the people who came by,
The wonderful "old-time" musicians Trevor and Travis Stewart and singer Martha Scanlon. Trevor and Travis played banjo and fiddle on some of our songs.
Jay Collins who is an amazing saxophone player and great husband, according to Amy. Jay contributed some great horn lines to a couple of songs.
Our dear friend Dave Spalding, a great guitarist and songwriter in his own right. He's here with the delightful and talented film editor Dava.
And drummer Konrad Meisner dropped by to say hi coz he was in the hood. And of course here's a picture of the wonderful Melinda Cullman and Wendy Wilson who's praises we've sung throughout this blog for their culinary expertise. Melinda's husband, songwriter and musicologist Brian Cullman also came by as did Angel Anna but we didn't manage to capture them on camera.

The kids were here too,, Grace Isaacs and Ava Guralnick started a little girl band and I hear Linda Perry is writing some songs for them.

It was great to have our friends around.

Beyond Prozac

2007-10-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

Trying to get you up another late night jam.. this one is called "Beyond Prozac"
Here too, finally, is a picture of Adam, the invincible assistant.

Also, here are some photos of our gear and the instruments that we've beeen using in the house. Our session in Athens is over and we have recorded over 25 songs.. not all finished, but we have lots of great songs.
Once we get a few rough mixes together we can send you some samples and you can let us know what you think.
It's been a inspiring process, living here all together with the gear, our instruments and the chance to immerse ourselves in the recording, uninterrupted, for a couple of weeks. It's been hard work but it's been fantastic.

Thriving on Chaos

2007-10-17T09:22:00.001-07:00

Here's an mp3 from a late night Jam....hopefully, the system seems to be down.,..
You might have to turn off the other player to hear this one.
It's a "surreal" writing exercise that Glenn started. We all had to write down a 4 bar phrase in any key and time signature without knowing what the other people were writing. Then we had to read and play the tune on our instruments. We recorded it first time through with Glenn on keys, Byron on bass, Tony on drums and Fiona on guitar. Then, after a couple of passes of Byron playing his Hydra and Glenn, Fiona and Tony on guitar Byron suggested that we switch around to instruments that we weren't so familiar with. So Tony played slide Dan Electro bass, Byron played piano, Glenn played the drums and Fiona the Marxophone. Don't be scared comrades. We Thrive on Chaos.
P.S thanks t o Brian Cullman for the loan of the Marxophone,, hope it doesn't get you black listed.
xx

Drumming it up.

2007-10-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody--- Tony here,,,
We've been having a great time here in Athens. The
scenery is beautiful and there have been lots of critter sightings.
Today we saw a red fox (Grady, you big dummy!). We've also seen deer,
redtailed hawks, wild turkeys,and our favorite visitor, the bald eagle.

The tunes have been a great mix of originals and covers. With each
tune there have been different approaches to the drum parts, grooves
and sounds. It's been fun experimenting. I brought 9 snare drums, 3
bass drums ( 60's gretsch"18, 60's slingerland"20, and a 70's slingerland "26) and a huge variety of percussion for
different effects as well as my collection of old zildjian cymbals. We've been doing mostly basic tracks so the percussion overdubs will come later. It's been really fun working with Hector Castillo. He's a really creative engineer who always gets me thinking tonally, musically, and outside the box. Cheers, TL

The Gear and Stuff

2007-10-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of the gear in the house.
Hector Castillo brought up virtually all the gear he has from the Looking Glass Studio in NYC to make our recording happen. We spent 5 days getting the place in shape and a LOT of hard work but we're getting there.
Hector also brought a bunch of pedals which we've had fun playing around with.
It's really been good to have the time to be inspired and the gear around to capture the inspiration, the vibe and the feeling.
There have been some late night jams which are pretty surreal and we will post some of them as soon as I figure out how to do it.
-fiona

Food and Music

2007-10-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

So the first night we ate thin spaghetti with an Anchovy sauce made by Tony and Anna.
Second night, Fiona made penne pasta with roasted mushroom and red pepper sauce.
Third night was filet steak on the grill with roasted potatoes in their jackets with butter and garlic... delicious cooked by Glenn.
Fourth night our dear friend Wendy was here and she made chicken breast marinated in lemon and pepper and cooked on the grill with corn on the cob.
Anna made an amazing Lentil soup definitely worth mentioning.
Other hightlights were Melinda Cullman's Lamb Stew and Asparagus and Squash Risotto with Wendy's Beet salad with Goats cheese and Walnuts.
Wendy made amazing lamb chops with a cucumber yoghurt salad, roasted brussel sprouts and garlic broccolli.

Hmm, can't remember all the meals and it's making me hungry..... but you get the idea.
Lately we've been recording mostly at night so we've been cooking less but we thank Melinda for stocking us up with frozen Chicken Pot Pies and jars of fancy vodka sauce and Wendy for her delicious Corn Chowder (how can a vegan soup taste so good?) so we're still doing ok.

First blog on the recording

2007-10-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

Hey All,
We're here.
We've started recording. By the way, thanks for your song suggestions. You all have great taste and it makes us extremely happy to know that you're all such music lovers with brilliant ideas... quite a few of which we're gonna try.
So, it's all going well. The studio is a house... and the house is not quite a studio but that's sort of the point. We're in Athens, NY, very close to the Hudson River actually you should be able to see some photos of the house and the beautiful river views.
We really are getting some great stuff recorded with magician-engineer Hector Castillo and assistant Adam Thompson and we hope to be able to post some of the music but we're still getting the hang of this blog page.

We're also going to start a food blog as we have to mention the incredible meals we've been eating!
We're all crazy about cooking and eating.. so much so that if we keep up with our current menus we'll have to rename the band Rollabelle..
Very special mention to our friends Wendy Wilson, Melinda Cullman and and Anna Bottorf, our fabulous friends who cooked us some of the most delicious meals we've ever eaten, seriously.

Write more later.
Gotta go eat.,, and sing.

Love,
~Ollabelle~