It took a while for Herbie and me to start writing again after we’d finished Padded Room, but we weren’t in any direct hurry to make another album. It was more than a year later that we even talked about it and thought about writing new songs.
When we got started I bought an Elka disc recorder so that I could work with the M1 and save the programmed tracks. It was a bit clumsy and slow – a million miles from today’s systems – but worked OK. As songs appeared I programmed the M1 with drums and other instruments during the winter, spring and early summer of 1995. When we finally decided to record and set a date, we agreed on a rented 8-track reel-to-reel. The drawback was that we had only one week to record and mix the whole thing. Hugely different to the leisurely pace of the first album.
Again, there was not a compressor in sight. For those who don’t know, the compressor is one of the main tools in a recording studio and used on basically everything, but we didn’t own one and had to do without. I wouldn’t have known how to use it even we had had one. The studio monitors were speakers from a living room stereo. Not ideal for listening either.
“Clockwork Heaven” was recorded the last week in July 1995, so it was a major rush to get everything done. Herbie was around for three days before leaving for a holiday with his family, so we did as much as we could while he was there: bass and as many guitar overdubs as possible. Later that week I had help from Brit mate Mark Newman and Mark and I did a lot of backing vocals together, on most tracks in fact, both of us singing into the same mic. Mark still complains that I hassled him for not always keeping time and yes, I did, but he didn’t cry – not once. So that was alright. Another week recording that album would have been wonderful but it was not to be and today I don’t even know where the original tapes are. I still have both the Elka and the M1, but the discs with the programmed music for the M1? No idea. So, a remix is in other words impossible. Herbie’s take on these two albums is that they are what they are: that’s what we could do at that time with our very limited resources. But I can remaster? Perhaps. I’ve already done it once, but that was back when I didn’t know anything about mastering and could perhaps do a better job today. b6v B