Monday 7th January 2019

What looked like a stressful recording session on paper was actually a total joy. I turned up to the studio, professionally a couple minutes early, to catch up with the producer (who is an old friend of mine) seemingly worried about the state of the recordings they were about to give me to drum on. The bass and guitar were out of time, so my remit was simple: to play to the click, do my best to ignore the song (just use it as a guide for any mood changes) and he'll fix the rest later. Easier said than done, of course, because naturally you want to play to the song, especially when you don't know it because you got sent it on Saturday night when you were down the pub.

I say 'it' - there was 12 of them. 12 tracks. And, given that I had to go and teach, we had 5 hours of studio time to get all the drums down. The session, though, was probably one of the best I've ever played as a drummer...Steve, who's album it was (another old pal) writes simple but good songs, so he would tell me what feel it he would like on them and then pretty much give me free reign. Apart from having to re-take a few of the endings, typically being dropped in at the last 8 bars to finish tightly, I nailed all 12 songs in one take. Possibly the best I've played in years, certainly in the studio - I reckon it's because of the freedom I was given.

The whole lot was done in 3 and a half hours, Andy took myself and the producer out for a nice lunch as a thank you.

My late afternoon/evening was spent teaching. Well, that was the plan. The first lesson was awesome (with my first ever student, a year and two months in and we still have a great time), the second lesson didn't happen because the student was locked out, the third lesson didn't happen because the student was still away and he thought the lessons resumed next week and the fourth lesson was a cracker. So, 2 out of 4 of them actually happened. It'll all settle to a routine, soon.

Got back and confirmed a couple new students, having made more time in my schedule recently. Should really have filled that with, well, time off, but I get the sense this is going to be an expensive year...