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Dawn Barrington > Recording

WAMFest and Recording

November 9, 2018 0 Comments

WAMFest (West Australian Music Industry)

I was lucky enough to be selected for WAMFest this year, so after a gig at Freehand Wines in downtown Denmark I then got myself organised for a some original sets, one in Albany at the White Star for Regional WAMFest and then 2 in Perth.  One was at the Perth Cultural Centre where I did a busking spot and the other was at Yagan Square which is an amphitheatre right in the centre of Perth which was amazing.  Something even more amazing happened and it was a total surprise to me and that is my song “Fly Free Little Bird” got chosen for the KISS MY WAMi Compilation CD. I didn’t even realise till I checked the program to see when and where I was playing and the songs that had been chose were on there. All in all it was a fantastic weekend and a great honour to be a part of such a big Western Australian Festival

It’s hard to believe that so much has happened in the past 7 years and to be a part of this festival was something I had never imagined would happen because I thought that the music industry only catered for people who were not in the 20s or 30s.  It has been a real slog being a woman and middle aged for that matter to get noticed and be treated as an equal. I  am not using age and gender as an excuse, it’s just a reality, and I think our culture really doesn’t take mature women seriously and it’s not easy for young women either because

 they have to deal with expectations placed on them. However, I have noticed that things are changing and gender equity is starting to happen so hopefully this will happen more and more.  I notice that when I play at venues where there are people from Europe or the Middle East or India they are always much more attentive and interested in listening, so maybe we need to learn something from those countries.

Recording

Since my last post I have finished two recording sessions. Al Smith from Bergerk Studio came down from Perth for the

weekend twice, once in September and again in October and we recorded 4 songs for my upcoming EP which I will probably be releasing in January.  Tony King is amazing and once again he offered to do my instrumentation and he also helps with production which is awesome! I love recording andI love how the songs evolve and it really is a collaboration because I never know where each one is going to go. We just start with my acoustic version which is literally lyrics and chords and then Tony adds his magic as he comes up with ideas throughout the process.  This was the first time working with in the studio with Al although he has mastered all my tracks since I started recording. Tony has known Al for 20 years and they worked brilliantly together and what I love the most about working with these guys is that there’s no inflated egos. It’s all pure fun and creativity. Luke Tulloch came in and did some violin tracks, he is an incredibly talented young man that I met at TAFE a number of years ago now and it didn’t take him long to find some lovely violin melodies to accompany my songs.

To top it all off I had a great gig at the Three Anchors in Albany with Tony King and it was the first time that I had done a three hour gig with him, and I was a bit nervous hoping that he would know how to play all my songs, but I realised very quickly that there was nothing to be concerned about, Tony is a legend when it comes to improvising, he really is an outstanding musician.  We had a great gig and he managed to compliment every song brilliantly and thanks to John King we got a photo to prove it. 

Albany Gigs, Gigs, Photos, Recording, Song writing

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Townsville & NSW Tour of “Music from Manus” Documentary Screenings

September 27, 2018 0 Comments

Townsville was a Blast!

I had the best time in Townsville! It was warm, actually compared to Denmark it was really hot!! Townsville was much dryer than I expected and I’m not sure why I was expecting the tropics because it’s not that far north really.  Even though it was the middle of winter it was very dry and quite flat too to my surprise but quite a vibrant multicultural community which was fantastic to see and be a part of.  It was wonderful to meet Farvardin Daliri organiser of the Townsville Cultural Fest at long last and his son Erfin Daliri…they are both doing fantastic work in the areas of social cohesion and raising awareness of the important things in life…equality, justice and peace on earth.

I met some amazing people there including the lovely Anisa Nanduala who is activist/poet studying politics, she is only 19 years old but incredibly astute and aware.  She speaks really well and her poetry is very powerful.  Interestingly she had her performance just before mine and the man who was in charge of the engineering company heckled her….I was disgusted…he was an older guy and obviously did not approve of a young strong Ugandan woman speaking up for what she believed in….but she kept going regardless which in itself was powerful.  However, it was very disappointing to witness and I hope that he is in the minority.  All in all I met an incredible diverse group of people who come from all corners of this very round planet and they were smiling, dancing and generally having a great time. My favourite band Kallidad were there and it was wonderful to catch up with the Jace, Julz and Tom because I have missed them twice when they have been in Denmark WA (my home town).  I haven’t seen them play for at least a year so it was great to dance my socks off again.  Another highlight was to see Baker Boy, what an awesome band they are….they really do bring energy and fun to the stage.  Danzal Baker is fantastic with the audience, he really does know how to interact with them well. It just so turned out that they were staying in the same accommodation as me, so it doesn’t get much more exciting than that!!  I even got almost all of 2 seconds of time in this promo video….Folk n Roll!!!

NSW Documentary Screenings

After the Townsville Festival I hopped on a plane to Sydney and grabbed a car and drove up to Gosford for my first “Music from Manus” documentary screening that was being held at The Avoca Picture Theatre in Gosford.  It was a fantastic evening and Danni Habib did a great job of organising the event and I had the most amazing response to the documentary which really set me up for the rest of the tour. The format I used was that I first

introduced myself and talked a bit about how I got engaged in the whole issue and then I sang 2 songs and then we did the screening and then we had Q and A afterwards.  There were many great questions asked and the overwhelming response was that people were inspired to do more after the event.  It’s much more than I could have ever asked for. My whole purpose for going to Manus was to try to engage people in the issue and hope that they would be encouraged to do more.

The next day I drove up to Newcastle where I stayed with Amanda Perram, another great advocate for the refugees on Manus and Emma Comely joined us from Sydney.  It was our first meeting with Amanda who is a wealth of information when it comes to the recent years of lies and deceit coming from the Australian government. It really is great to at last meet with all these amazing women who are doing incredible work across Australia in supporting the refugees.

In Newcastle I met with Nikola Leka who organised the screening with Hunter Asylum Seeker Avocacy group and it was another great night with lots of new connections made and a fantastic response to the documentary itself.  I then drove down to Sydney the very next day where I stayed with Emma Comely for a couple of days.  That night was the Teachers for Refugees and Refugee Action Collective screening in Surry Hills which was a great location. That is where I met with Mark Goudkamp and also film director Ian Stevenson and a number of other advocates that I have been in contact with on facebook throughout this whole journey. Ian was very impressed with the documentary and he was very keen to talk about submitting it to SBS which we talked further about and he has now submitted it. So we are waiting for a reply and fingers crossed that something can come from that because that would be a much wider audience and a real chance to see more change in attitudes.

I had Thursday off then I drove down to Thirroul on Friday to meet with Patrick Harrison who was organising the screening there where we had a full house and very keen bunch of people.  I met a lovely lady Naomi Lai there too who is also an advocate and she sent her mum to the screening for the following in the Eurobodalla region. I stayed with Mairi Peterson in Shell Harbour which is  a lovely spot and it was wonderful to see Russell Hannah at the screening too. I have stayed with Mairi a few times now and I have talked about her before….she is this incredible woman who has been fighting for refugees for 20 years and I have a huge amount of admiration for her.  Once again in Thirroul we had a very attentive audience and I am just amazed each time at how everyone gets something different from the screening but the end result is everyone wants to do more which is brilliant.  I know I keep using the words amazing, brilliant, fantastic over and over but there is no other way to describe how much I love this work and the fact that it overlaps with my work as an artist (singer songwriter) is even more incredible because I can use the very essence that drives me to create social change in my own small way.

It was a three and a half hour drive down to the Eurobodalla region where I was staying with Marn and Peter Cole.  I think I got the presidential suite and I was totally spoilt and it was wonderful to meet and spend time with Marn and Peter too. We did the screening in Moyura and this was the last one so I was feeling a sense of relief that I had gotten through the 10 days.  I met more wonderful people from the Refugee Action Collective Eurobodalla who organised the event.

It was a five and a half hour drive back to Sydney the next day….it was beautiful drive and I was buzzing with adrenaline from the previous days and I was really happy to get back to Emma’s where we hung out for a few days and  I enjoyed a rest.  I flew back to Perth on the Tuesday and drove back down Denmark which is another 5 hours the same day so I was buggered once I got home.  It really has been an incredible journey and from here I am going to be spending some time recording and playing music and writing new songs and engaging more in my music.  So I will close for now but I’m going to write update in just a few days to report on the recording weekend that I had a few weeks ago and festivals and gigs that are coming my way. YEW FOLK N ROLE!!! LOVING IT!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Gigs, Photos, Recording, Song writing, Videos

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Taking flight – Festival fun

June 10, 2018 0 Comments

Denmark Festival of Voice 2018
The sun was shining and there was a buzz in the air in Denmark as the Festival of Voice got into full swing. Our beautiful little town came alive with song, poetry and music scattered in every venue across town. I played at Mrs Jones Cafe on Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday early evening Tim and I did a documentary screening of “Music from Manus – 5 Days not 5 Years” which was very well attended. Once again we had a fantastic response and people really engaged with the information being shared on the screen and thanks to all those who signed my petition and put money in the tin afterwards.  I have been able to send some money to help a refugee get some urgently needed dental treatment today as a result of the money raised at the screening.

Thanks to the Denmark Yoga community for raising funds and to all the individuals who have approached me in the street to donate too, their money also was able to support the dental costs. We have a few more local screenings, one in Denmark and one in Walpole then the next ones will be when I go over east in August.

So life has been changing dramatically for me in recent months with so many more engagements than ever before.  My music career has overlapped with my activism work and my purpose has become more clear.  I am passionate about music and writing and recording songs and performing which always comes first.  However, alongside that is my desire to see an end to the offshore detention of innocent people.  I am passionate about that too and I am honoured that I can use my music profile to raise awareness and support change.

Gigging Land
In the next few months I will be doing my usual gigs and they include my first time at Freehand Wines right here in Denmark and then I have been asked to perform a the Truffle Kerfuffle in Manjimup being organised by Kelsi Miller Good nights Bunbury on Sunday 24th which is fantastic!.  A week before I go to Townsville I will be playing at one of my favourite local spots….well almost local….in Albany called Six Degrees which will be a great warm up for the pending trip.

Next Album in the making
I have a heap of new songs that I want to get onto my next album so I’ve booked a weekend in September to record the first few songs and it’s wonderful to have Tony King there to do lots of the instrumentation and Al Smith from Bergerk! studios is coming down to set up his recording gear in my music studio. I’m going to ask a bunch of locals to participate too so it’s really going to be another local affair.  I’ll keep you posted on that one folks.

Townsville Cultural Festival
July is a month where I will be getting organised for the biggest event for  “Dawn Barrington Music” this year and that is that I will be performing at the Townsville Cultural Fest! This will be my very first visit to Townsville and it’s going to be awesome and especially lovely to catch up with Kallidad who are one of the headliners.  This is an incredible festival where gender equity is a priority and all cultures are recognised in one big celebration.  The organiser of this festival Farvardin Daliri and his team have been making this happen for many years and he is a great advocate for cultural diversity in his community and I am very looking forward to meeting him and his team in August for this fantastic weekend.

Documentary screenings
After the Townsville Festival I will be going down to NSW to do a heap of screenings down the NSW coast in Newcastle, Gosford, Sydney x 2, Wollongong and Eurobodalla. I am very excited because there is such enthusiasm by the people hosting them to make it happen and I will get to meet all the fellow activists/advocates over there who I have been conversing and liaising with on facebook for the past 18 months or so.

I am now keen to spread the word far and wide so please feel free to share the documentary and if you want me to do a screening in your town please make contact with me because I am very happy to come and do that.

 

 

 

Albany Gigs, Denmark Gigs, Gigs, Recording, Videos

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Recording update – Part 2

March 8, 2017 0 Comments

Well at last I’ve come out of the studio and it was such a great 2 weeks. So starting where I finished on my last update we continued to work everyday and all the final tracks were put down. Luke did some wonderful violin work, Toby did some work on my ‘secret track’ and Jezz Moondog did some harmonica, Myles came in to do some vocals and I finished all the vocals. Finally Tony put down all the backing vocal harmonies.

I have taken video snippets of the tracks being done and for all those who aren’t aware of the recording process I’ll give you a bit of a run down of what I know about it. There are a couple of options when you decide to record a song or album. You can either do a live studio recording which is where the whole band set up and it is all recorded live and usually it takes a few takes or it could take heaps of takes. It’s a great way to do it because you can often catch the spirit of the song and the people involved in it but the down side is it can be really difficult to get a take that is perfect and you often get bleeding through the mic’s….so sound from the guitars might come through on the drum mic’s or sound from the vocals might come through on the guitar mic’s so it makes it very difficult to mix evenly.

The more standard form of recording is in the studio one track at a time. So this means putting down a guide track first to a click (metronome). The next stage depends on the producer everyone has their own way of doing it and some would say do drum track first and others would say guitar and so on. We put down the guitar tracks first, then the drums and when Tony did guitar and drums he either used my guide vocal track to get the essence of the melody and song or I just sat and sang it in front of him but of course I could only do that when he was doing the electric guitar and bass not drums and acoustic guitar. The bass and electric guitar are plugged in so we can talk and make noise when recording is happening but when the drums and acoustic guitar are being recorded we have to be super quite because a condenser mic’s is being used.

I thought I was just going to give a simple explanation but it’s got a bit lengthy so if you already know all this sorry ;o) I also have to reiterate that everyone has their own way of doing things so this is just the way we did it and I quite like this process. In the videos you can see that each person is doing their take and they have either very small ear plugs in or headphones. They can hear the guitar and vocals through the headphones so they just play along…..it always sounds a bit funny when you hear the other instruments separately but once it’s mixed it sounds awesome. I didn’t manage to get Jezz on harp unfortunately but I got everyone else.

Here’s Jezz putting down harp track and Myles doing some vocals and Luke putting a violin track down

I have put these on youtube and they are unlisted which means not open to public and only available if you click on the link here. So you should be able to access them.


The next stage of the process is for Toby to edit and mix all the tracks and then they will go for mastering. Claire has already done the artwork and Peter Caron is going to photoshop the album cover which I need to write all the words for.  Then once I get back from my Sydney tour in April I will get them cut and send out a pre release to a bunch of allocated Radio presenters.

The next exciting thing happening is my NSW tour so I’ll give you an update on that very soon.

 

Recording, Videos

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Recording progress

February 21, 2017 2 Comments

Well it’s been an incredibly busy week. Toby my producer arrived last Wednesday and we set up the studio, I know it’s a bit ‘rock n rol’l calling Toby “MY producer” but he did produce my EP and did such an awesome job that I wanted him to do this album and he actually came down for 10 days and set up home here, so I hope that qualifies ;o).  On Thursday we got straight into putting down all the guide tracks. So that means me playing each new song so that Toby can record them and use them as a guide. But the tricky thing is that I have to play to a click track which is like having a metronome stuck in your ear as you play, so you have to stay on the beat. Well you can only imagine how many takes that took!  We were both feeling quite tired and even a bit overwhelmed at the end of that, there were so many new songs and so much to do. Then Tony King arrived and helped us do a table to map out what needed doing on each song which was very helpful. Sometimes it’s just a case of getting it all out of your head and onto paper to lighten the load.
We worked from 10am to 10pm each day to get as much done as possible. Tony is an incredible musician and fantastic mentor and he has had a huge input into my musical journey. He did a lot of the instrumentation on my EP four years ago and I love working with him because he really knows how I work as a songwriter and musician so it’s wonderful to have his input again.

If you would like to keep in touch with me  and keep up to date with what I’m doing and where I’m touring next please subscribe to my webpage …. just on the right there  ♥♥♥

Recording in the studio from left to right, Me and Toby, Tony and Toby, then Tony on drums, then Peter on electric guitar

Tony and Toby got all the guitar, drum and bass tracks down Friday and Saturday and Sunday morning I put down most of the vocal tracks and then Sunday afternoon Peter Caron (my duo partner) came in and put down some 2nd guitar tracks and a couple of solo’s. I love his work!  Then Tony arrived at 3.30pm on Sunday to put down some slide guitar and some great harmonies over my vocals. We finished at 10pm Sunday and it was such an incredibly productive weekend that we decided to have a break Monday morning.  Then Monday evening we got some more vocals done and today we have been working on a very special song.  Toby and I will be doing all the work for that because it is a thank you song to Tony that I wrote 4 years ago now and I never intended to record it but I think it’s an important one to document.  Recording my songs is one of the most exciting things that I have ever done, it’s an incredible feeling to be with such creative and passionate people and then come out with the end product.

We have a few more days to go yet and tonight a local young man Luke Tulloch will be putting down some violin tracks and my favourite man of blues Jeremy Moondog will be coming to put down some harp.  It just so happens that he is in town this weekend so when he offered to do some harp I almost died….with joy of course!!! Myles Mitchell will be coming to put down some vocals as well which I’m very excited because Myles and I often share gigs and he’s a great local musician and an all round great guy.

From left to right top: Peter and Toby, then me doing vocals. Bottom left: Tony and Toby and Me and Toby

Recording

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