New QPR sessions

Without getting in a huge debate over the name and whether Paul should be playing with Brian and Roger (please, I beg of you all, let's not go down that road again, we'll get nowhere), it seems that Brian has updated us all on the recording sessions thus far:

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]On his soapbox, Brian wrote: [/QUOTENAME]OK - I know I don't write much about our music recording work in the studio. But, it's deliberate really ... I feel a reluctance to take advantage of this Soapbox platform to expose too much of what must essentially be a private process, needing room to breathe and develop organically. I'm happy to say that the process has worked, in a very fine way.

This (second) period of 3 weeks of QUEEN/RODGERS recording sessions is over now, so, for a while at least, I can get my life back a bit ! It's actually tough, being so closely focussed on what has to be a very emotional workplace, and during these times, life outside virtually stops. But we have some good music on the boil ... about 8 songs so far - with some great moments, I think ....very grown-up and organic in feel. It is ALL played ... together as a band; no samples, drum machines, or protools fabrications. You can hear the interactions of us as musicians in a room - very rare these days ! We are very excited, but conscious that there is a little further to go before we are ready to launch the new material on the world. The greatest thing for me has been to see us evolving into a proper band - like the old days. Every day we have played together in the studio, trying out ideas, and most of the tracks we are working on are the result of playing a song for the first or second time only ... the freshness and spirit of adventure all being there. And we have not even been 'careful' ! By this I mean that mostly we have treated our playing together not as a baseline, but as the front line of what the performance will turn out to be. In the past we have often put down a pure backing track - say, Drums, bass and rhythm guitar, and added the 'top lines' - lead vocals and lead guitars - afterwards. In what we are doing now, Paul sings it for real, on the take, as well as playing piano or guitar, or bass, and I play the lead guitar for real, and Roger is interacting in the moment too, so this very organic, live moment is what you will hear on the final mix. We are able to add some craftsmanship to this in the ways that we have learned over the years, especially as regards those trademark harmony vocals and guitar 'orchestras' - plus play with the blend of sounds ... and gradually the new music is taking shape. To my ears it sounds as if it is full of our joint heritage, but different from anything either Paul or Queen have done in the past. This session produced some welcome heavy crunch, as well as some more contemplative textured moments ... These things, it seems, cannot really be planned ... they happen, if you are lucky, when you put the work and spirit in, when you keep an awareness of the balance between instinctive and analytic, and when the Muses smile on you.

A break, now - time for getting perspectives, regaining freshness, and having new thoughts.

Cheers
Bri[/QUOTE]

And as to who's playing bass:

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Again, the curly one wrote thusly: [/QUOTENAME]Well, I don't really feel it's right to get into too many details at this point, but, as things stand, in the recent Queen/Rodgers sessions, all three of us have played some bass ! (me most of all) Whether the tracks will end up that way, I'm not sure - we may invite someone in at some point, but for the purposes of getting our heads together, and evolving not only songs, but ways of creating, it has worked out well just having the three of us, so far.

I have to say again that that old "One Vision" footage of us in the studio has to be taken with a bit of a pinch of salt, because we were so aware of the cameras being around, a very unusual thing in our sessions, that we were n

Lester, would you care to concede me an interview for my website? It'd be nice to ask you some questions about the book (although I haven't got it yet).

This is very exciting news indeed. Hopefully it won't be too long before the album is released.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Sebastian wrote: [/QUOTENAME]Lester, would you care to concede me an interview for my website? It'd be nice to ask you some questions about the book (although I haven't got it yet).[/QUOTE]

Sure! I'll send you an email.

I wonder what Brian means with "agenda to paint a certain picture" referring to the Torpedo Twins.

Now that Fred's dead, Brian blames outsiders of "devising" an image of Mercury as the band's leader (e.g. in that documentary). It's quite debatable if he's merely trying to be clear about the democracy Queen represented, or if he's merely a grumpy bitter old bloke starving for attention and praise.

We've all got our opinions about that, but something's dead cert: Brian has appeared on more newspapers and TV programmes from 25th November 1991 to mid-1992 and from 2002 (more or less) to date, than he did during all the '69-'91 era. That speaks for itself. IMHO!

this worries me! I dont like the idea of Queen recording everything the first or second time after coming up with it. Getting my doubts now. Paul isn't the best studio singer in the world but brian worries me a bit with what he's written in his soapbox! I'll just av to see what it sounds like. but does anybody agree with me? is this really Queen?

www.myspace.com/joonrock
best new melodic band in the world!

You just love to jump to conclusions and assume the worst of Brian, don't you, Seb? I say, leave that poisoned/negative opinion out of this one. It really grates having to read that in this thread about something really positive.


Now, as a semi-docu maker, I believe that Brian was getting at the job in-hand that the torpedo twins take with these things, i.e. They show specific moments and situations and bend footage to present a certain view of things. They don't show the real process that the band goes through and you won't get a true representation of what's happening in the studio.
Now, that said, I love that footage. But also from my filming experiences, it's hard to -not- get in the way of what's happening in a situation like that. It's a confined place and you're visible to them at all times. So, I think that this is probably what he meant. Not the twisted view that Seb presented. Dream on Seb.

Adam.

I've got to admit that your point of view is quite interesting as well. That's why I hate most documentries ... like that thing BBC did on 'Bo Rhap' nearly three years ago. Nice bits + poor bits.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]olly1988 wrote: [/QUOTENAME]this worries me! is this really Queen?

[/QUOTE]

Good question. It's not Queen in the traditional sense, but Q+PR, a band we haven't yet heard from in the studio. We'll have to wait and see if those things Brian mentioned are the right decision.

Their agenda? Probably to manufacture controversy. It wouldn't make for interesting viewing if Queen agreed on every creative decision. I'd hazard a guess that Brian was referring to the fact that the TT were to look for moments of tension and focus in on that. Or to make Freddie look like the leader ;)

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Sebastian wrote: [/QUOTENAME]
We've all got our opinions about that, but something's dead cert: Brian has appeared on more newspapers and TV programmes from 25th November 1991 to mid-1992 and from 2002 (more or less) to date, than he did during all the '69-'91 era. That speaks for itself. IMHO![/QUOTE]

It means the press ceased to focus on the most talkative/colorful and most dead member of the band, and focused on the second most talkative/colorful member of the band, who also happened to have the good fortune of not to being dead.

Did somebody mention agendas?

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Sebastian wrote: [/QUOTENAME]Now that Fred's dead, Brian blames outsiders of "devising" an image of Mercury as the band's leader (e.g. in that documentary). It's quite debatable if he's merely trying to be clear about the democracy Queen represented, or if he's merely a grumpy bitter old bloke starving for attention and praise.

We've all got our opinions about that, but something's dead cert: Brian has appeared on more newspapers and TV programmes from 25th November 1991 to mid-1992 and from 2002 (more or less) to date, than he did during all the '69-'91 era. That speaks for itself. IMHO![/QUOTE]


i`m not agree
queen was a band that didnt like cameras so much
when they appeared on tv, most of times were freddie brian and roger who talked
when freddie died, brian roger and john had the duty to keep queen spirit alive, and they wanted people to see that queen was still alive
freddie was gone, and that was very painfull
but queen is still alive
brian appeared on tv many times since freddie`s death, but it is part of his job
dont forget that musicians, in a certain way, must be public persons, and TV is the way to be that kind of person

i`m not agree with sebastian
brian was trying to keep queen alive
if he wanted, he could stop working
he doesnt need money anymore
i think he is still working cause music is his life
and im agree with him, cameras changes so much
people isnt natural and spontaneous with cameras around

Is it different for his generation??

I *love* having cameras in rehearsal rooms/ studios. It's fun!! Is this because I've grown up with Super 8/VHS/Digital 8 constantly in my face?

So after working on and off for a year and half they have come up with EIGHT songs? Oh wow. Roger Taylor must be in a different group. The one he was recording with were going to have enough material for TWO c.d.s...I hope that that will at least end up being the case though I only think ONE c.d. should be released for this release. I think the next release SHOULD be a two c.d. set though...just not this first release because now is not the time to cut into sales with a multi-disc set. They need to prove themselves first...and they will.