Hello, these are the songs I wrote and recorded with my band, The Rivers.
You can listen to them on the music player (bottom of page) in running order or individually below where I’ve written some production notes. You can download the songs by clicking on the 3 dots.
The band were Paul on vocals, B on drums and me on guitar and backing vocals. Bass player Tom joined us later but I played bass on the recordings. I wrote the music and Paul wrote the lyrics. We did 2 demo’s and recorded for EMI between 1998 and 2000. For the first demo we had help from Simon who did a great production job for the demo and added some piano / synth to the songs. The demo got us a recording session with EMI. We tried putting some vocals on the instrumentals but it didn’t work out. We went back to writing songs and recorded a 2nd demo tape in 2000 but the band split up before it was produced and mixed. These are the songs (plus a few others) I’ve been mixing. The recordings were pretty shoddy with no overdubs and the tracks bleeding into one another. We used a drum machine for these recordings so they sound a bit different to the one’s on the first demo. There’s a couple of acoustic tracks and 2 other songs we recorded on a 4 track which I’ve also mixed. The songs from the first demo are unaltered.
Since mixing these songs I’ve been making music videos for them using public domain movies which have no copywrite. I’ve done 11 so far.
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the rivers
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Take A Little Longer (vocal)
I isolated the vocals from the band practice tape and restructured the song in a lower key. I used an alternative version of the track before the effects and overdubs were added. The sound quality isn’t great but this was the only way I could do it with vocals.
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on you
This was the opener on our 1st demo. It was one of the early songs we wrote after moving to London. It’s a quiet one that builds up to a crescendo.
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tender me
This is from the 2nd demo. I created an overdub by shifting the main guitar track onto the second verse which builds it up quite well and overdubbed the harmonies at the end of the last chorus. I also added an extra minute and a half to the original track. Updated with louder bass.
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the things i say
This is a new mix with piano and church bell added to fill out the sound. I’d previously put tambourine, shaker and cowbell samples on it. I removed most of the glitches which were caused by cassette tape damage. From the 2nd demo.
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right now
This was the main song we recorded for EMI and tried to turn into a vocal track. It started off well with wah-wah guitar and a strong vocal but lost it’s way at the middle 8 part. The song works as an instrumental though so I’ve posted the version from the 1st demo. Simon did the keyboard effects and a nice ascending scale at the end for this.
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ain’t even begun
This was written for the band by Paul and an unknown guitarist just before we split. I mixed it with a separate feedback track and some other effects they’d recorded. This is a better mix of the track with the crackling noises removed.
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freeloader
This was recorded on 4-track sometime after EMI. We’re going for the spaced-out dub vibes here with Augustus Pablo style harmonica and heavy drums which needed a bit of editing. The harmonica bled onto the vocal track so I had trouble lowering the volume without losing the vocal.
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don’t go after me
The other vocal track from the 1st demo has a similar structure to On You but with a key change thrown in. Myself and Paul did some nice harmonies for this which were tagged onto the end of the demo in a cappella. I’ve put them on here near the end.
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dream on
The drum pattern and guitar kept going out of time so I added hand claps to give it a solid rhythm, sleigh bells to make it flow better and sped it up a bit. I created some harmonies for the verses by using the middle section and used the end section to build into the choruses. From the 2nd demo Updated version with piano and double track vocals.
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break it down
It’s hard to categorise this one. It’s kind of Rock / Country sounding with Bluesy guitar licks and complex lyrics. I’ve added a shaker and some bells. From the 2nd demo.
video coming soon
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shining
This is an instrumental which we tried to turn into a vocal track for EMI called The Beach. It didn’t work as a vocal but the instrumental sounds quite good. It’s got slide guitar and some echoing choral-like samples.
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always get by
Updated version with bass, piano, drums and strings. It took me 2 months to complete using samples and virtual bass & piano played on my PC keyboard, I edited it all note by note, beat by beat. Drums sampled from Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell. The original version was just acoustic guitar and vocals.
ALWAYS GET BY (ACOUSTIC)
Original version – acoustic guitar and vocals. Rough demo recorded on a 4-track.
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take a little longer (inst.)
An instrumental from the 1st demo (aka: F##k Knows). This had a nice melody and lyrics written for it just afterwards. The samples are from the film The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.
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vocal outtake
Some harmonies from the 1st demo.
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LATE IN THE SUMMERTIME
New version with full instrumentation, strings and choir sampled from The Righteous Brothers track Just Once In My Life, featuring The Wrecking Crew and produced by Phil Spector.
late in the summertime (ACOUSTIC)
This is one of the early songs done on acoustic. The refrain at the end had some dodgy high notes so I re-edited it and added a rain storm on the fade out.
video coming soon
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nothing without you
This one needed re-structuring and a ton of editing. I combined an acoustic recording with the electric version from the 2nd demo. I added some piano (played on my PC keyboard) and a few sampled strings / percussion to fill it out.
