Chucking it all out and starting again

“If you’ve been making music for a few years, the chances are that you’ve probably built up a massive library of drum samples. All those kicks and snares that you’ve been relying on whenever it comes to starting a new song. When we eventually sat down in the studio and began work on this new album, that’s exactly what we did. But nothing felt right. Pulling up the same old kicks and shakers wasn’t inspiring us.

“So we got rid of everything – all the samples and sample packs that we’d used up until that point. We simply started again. First, we decided to find a couple of new drum machines to work with and got hold of the TR-8 and the TR-8S. That was interesting… programming rhythms without looking at the screen! Then, we set up a decent mic and started recording stuff. Hitting wooden blocks and metal ‘things’. Recording the drum kit.

“Starting from scratch was scary at first, but the end result was very liberating.”