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I have been making, performing and recording music since I was about 14, playing mostly in bands Grizzly & The Bears and Tiger & Panda. I mostly record now on a Tascam Porta05 four-track tape recorder, using BS-20 uni-directional mics. I have also previously recorded digitally using Cubase with an SE-2000 condenser mic. I have a preference for careful, basic recording in people's houses, making use of the idiosyncrasies of tape recording and improvised recording solutions in odd-shaped rooms.
4 track recordings
Nowadays, I pretty much always perform live in bands but I often record on my own using my four-track tape recorder. These recordings usually feature a lot of improvisation, analogue distortion, found samples and sounds and lyrics taken from notebooks and improvised to fit rhythm and structure.
apex of the green.mp3
wrens.mp3tiger & panda
Tiger & Panda are Oliver Watson and Henry Ireland and were formed in 2007. We try to change our songs slightly for each different performance and recording so that we never get too comfortable with them. We both write songs. In 2009 David Burke started playing with us as 'Ox' and Steve Brett has performed with us twice now as 'Otter'. We have been recorded by Henry Ireland, David Burke, Oliver Watson, Phil Dodd and Anthony Finch. We have played in Bristol and London but we've never toured. We would love to play in some other towns, expecially in the North of England, so if you are booking shows, feel free to contact me!
god damn! freezing cold hands! | black top.mp3
grizzly & the bears
Grizzly and the Bears formed in 2005 and are Phil Dodd, Olly Watson and Henry Ireland. We are an acoustic folk band and we each write and sing songs. Grizzly and the Bears played gigs mostly between 2006 and 2008 and recorded and released one album, one single and one demo in that time. We are currently meeting up every few months to record songs for what will hopefully be a second album.
grizzly demo
christmas cake | looking for dry sticks under the snow.mp3
old electronic recordings
I used to have an old demo version of cubase and the first recordings I ever made were a collection of electronic instrumentals made on the program's midi-sequencer. I couldn't actually render audio files from the demo, so I would play the tracks and record them onto a minidisc player. This caused some audio distortion adding some serendipitous character to the chrisp synth sounds.
