Making Afterglow Hours: twelve nights in an old cinema
Why we recorded our second album live to tape in a disused picture house, and what the room did to the songs.
We wanted this record to sound like the five of us in a room, so we went looking for a big one. We found it in a closed-down cinema with a sloping floor, velvet curtains and a reverb tail that lasted almost three seconds.
Live to tape
Every song was tracked with the whole band playing at once, straight to a 16-track tape machine. No click track, very few overdubs. If a take had the right feeling, we kept it, mistakes and all.
The synths
Felix brought eleven synthesizers and a modular case the size of a fridge. The arpeggio on Neon Static is a single take on a forty-year-old machine that has never stayed in tune for longer than an afternoon.