Festival Season

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(Switch MC & Mike HeavyFeet pictured above, modelling 'Imagine There's No Music' t-shirts... just imagine!?)

Over the last few weeks, whilst finishing up 'Manchester : Remixed' (more about that very soon) we were back out on the road playing at Wakestock and Secret Garden Party. We had a great time at both. For me, festivals aren't just about the set and getting everyone hype, but it's also a great opportunity to spend some quality time with friends who've come on the road with you, as well as catch up with fellow music/producer/promoter friends who are also playing or kicking about at said festival. 

I caught up with a very old friend of mine who's works with Action on Hearing Loss (formerly the R.N.I.D), which got us on to the subject of earplug use at festivals and gigs. As a regular earplug user (ER25's, for those that are interested, they're custom moulded earplugs) I was intrigued to try out their rather snazzy free earplugs (see below) that they distribute to anyone that wants to pop some in their ears for their festival experience, at various music festivals over the summer. 

I didn't get chance to give them a whirl at Secret Garden Party as they were at the bottom of my bag unfortunately (and I had my ER25's to hand), but I did try them out when I went to see The Music's farewell gig in Leeds last weekend at the 02 Academy, and I was very pleasantly surprised with the quality of them, compared to my expensive custom ER25's. The sound was crisp, once your ears adjust (with any earplug you have to allow a few minutes for your ears to re-edjust), and obviously the volume of what you're hearing is lowered. I ended up keeping them in for the entire gig as they're really quite comfortable once they're in, so double bonus.

I'm going to enquire if there's a way of anyone who'd like a pair, being able to get some posted to them. Once I have the information, I'll post a link, as I can't really recommend the use of these plugs enough, especially if it helps your ears to have a few more years of perfect hearing, as we all get a bit older.

Mike HF

Filed under  //   Action On Hearing Loss   HeavyFeet   Music Earplugs   Secret Garden Party   Wakestock  
Posted August 13, 2011 by HeavyFeet 
 

Manchester : Remixed - Day 6

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Day six, and this (the daily blogging aspect) is starting to get a bit easier to (remember to) do. Like anything, when something becomes part of the daily routine, it becomes second nature. A bit like remixing. As many of you will know, we've done a hell of a lot of remixes of the past three years, and they should be something that come to us pretty easily. Not today. 

We spent the first part of the studio session working on the Santiago Street Machine remix, getting more and more frustrated with why some of the audio wasn't sounding right. Eventually we realised one of the audio stems had a bar of silence at the beginning (not the fault of the person bouncing the audio for us originally, I doubt, more likely to be something we'd messed up when importing the audio into the project a week ago during pre-production) of it and this was the problem, but then we started moving everything else to compensate and the arrangement all went a bit wrong. Fast forward an hour or so and we'd sorted it and were back to playing in the additional parts we wanted to create for the remix, and I'm happy to announce, it's now sounding pretty good.

As I type, James is working on the I Am A Camera remix, and I'm about to go an join him. Tomorrow is Saturday, which I think we're both glad about, as it's been a pretty intense week (standard), and we're off to play in Wales at Wakestock, in the VIP room, of all places. I think we're going to stick around overnight too and catch up with some of our friends who are also playing, so fingers crossed the torrential rain holds off. Tune in for more remix news on Monday! Have a good weekend.

Mike HF  

Filed under  //   I Am A Camera   Manchester Remixed   Santiago St. Machine   Wakestock  
Posted July 8, 2011 by HeavyFeet