Quiet loner

I’ve finished recording my new record. We spent six days in the studio.  This record is being produced by Mat Martin and aside from me and Mat the other players are Roy Dodds, Inge Thomson and Alan Cook.

This is where I sat to record my parts. I was told there were £5000 worth of microphones pointing at me.

The reason I have my back to the studio glass window is so I can look out of the window at the view. This is what I saw when I was recording my songs.

There are more photos of the recording on the Flickr site. Use the box on the right hand column or go straight to www.flickr.com/quiet_loner

Hello I’m Matt Hill. I perform under the name quiet loner. Don’t ask me why, it’s a long story. There’s information about what I do and videos and songs scattered around the website.

In 2004 I released an album called Secret ruler of the world. I started recording that album in 2001 with a very talented man called Mike Harries.  Recording the performances on that album only took about a few days. But those days were scattered across many months. And then it took us about three years to finish mixing the album. (Mixing is where you decide what instruments are going where – left or right or centre and how loud things are) I found it hard to make my mind up about how it should sound, so it took 3 years. In the end I handed it over to a bloke called Adam in Leicester and he mixed it for me. At last I had a record I liked.

The album finally came out in 2004 on a label called Circus 65 which also put out records by Chris Mills, The Guthries and The Havenots.  The record got some great reviews,  a bit of radio play, Americana UK website said it was the best album of 2004 and we sold a few hundred copies.  I am still very proud of the record.

In 2005 I spent 10 days back in the studio and made a second album of 14 songs. It was much quicker. But for one reason or another I never finished it and it has never come out. I hope sometime soon I can release some of those songs as there are some really good songs on it.

So I thought for a long time that I would never bother making another record. There didn’t seem much point. Record labels weren’t paying for acts like me to record, getting press reviews was getting harder and everyone seemed to expect to get their music for free. But then something changed. I saw how some of my friends were making amazing records and releasing them themselves. Some amazing people in Manchester called Little Red Rabbit records were showing everyone what could be achieved with some hard work and belief in your artistic vision.  And Hobopop Productions in Manchester were putting out records and producing some inspiring amazing things.  My friend Chris Mills in New York made an amazing record on a lower budget that for me outshone some of his bigger budget stuff.  It seemed there was a little DIY revolution going on. It wasn’t about labels it was about music and vision and passion and I wanted in again.

So next week I’m going into a recording studio and I’m going to make another record. I’m really excited about it. Mat Martin is a musician I have long admired and he has agreed to produce the album.  We have some really great musicians coming down to play on the record.  I don’t know when it will come out or how it will come out but it will come out. But first I have to make it.

Matt