Susan Boyle

In December 2011, we had finally progressed to a point where we were in a position to record two tracks. The New Elvis Presley and Superstar. Now these songs are not linked and Superstar has no reference to anything remotely Elvis Presley. It does however remind me of Susan Boyle for some strange reason. The band consisted of myself, Mark Hall on keyboards and backing vocals, and two lads from a local band called Bridgemary Kiss, Andy on guitars and Harry on drums.
We booked some studio time with Herman Kovac who runs Ramrod studios and incedently was the drummer from an Australian band called the Ted Mulry Gang. They had numbers 1 songs in the 70's.
The intention of the first recording session of 3 hours was to get the drums, bass and keyboards down for both songs. The proficiency of Andy, Harry and Mark in this session allowed us to lay down the rythmn section of a third song called 'Two Lost Souls'. Neither Andy or Harry had heard the song before but through Mark's and my direction they were able to produce a great fit for the song. I provided guide vocals on all three tracks at the session.
The next session allowed us to get lead and rythmn guitars plus additional keyboards and strings. The final evening session booked was to record all the vocals. I recall travelling back to Sydney from a two day trip in Melbourne full of a heavy cold with a session that evening. I had taken a lot of Senega and Ammonia to help my voice but when it came to the session I bombed badly and the results were really poor. I was extremely upset and down on myself and my confidence took a massive blow. The rest of the time was spent working on additional keyboards and ensuring the right sounds were achieved in the mix.
An additional recording session was set up for the following week where I succeeded in getting the vocals down but as the session wore on the voice deteriated badly and 'Two Lost Souls' suffered as a consequence. We had achieved the goal though of getting 'The New Elvis Presley' and 'Superstar' done, although looking back the progress I have made with my vocal lessons since then would have improved both songs significantly.
The last phase was mixing down the tracks and mastering them. This was done on a Friday and a further afternoon. Armed with the final master I was ready to track down an Elvis Tribute Artist who might want to take on the task of recording the vocals.