“My favourite place to make music is usually either my bedroom or the living room of whatever house I’m living in, as I like to be more or less at my leisure when music-making. The only time I was ever in a recording studio was in Edinburgh with a friend of mine who studied music at Napier University, and all the sessions were for three hours at 8 or 9am in the morning at the weekends, and it was quite difficult for me to ‘get into the groove’, as they say. Sometimes I get out of bed in the night and record a bit, so it’s nice to have the computer or 4-track in the room. With the band, Children Under Hoof, it’s a bit different, we create most of the music together while jamming out in my shed and that works well too.
The place where I recorded most of the album was the living room of a house I was living in in Blackrock, which was quite large and bright, with revolting beige patterned curtains. I used the conservatory in that house too which was great, extremely bright during the day, and varying from uncomfortably hot to uncomfortably cold. Yet I would spend days and nights in there. The acoustics were good due to the glass windows and tiled floor. Plus it smelled of fresh basil, which we were growing in pots. Which is nice. I think the main thing is to just feel comfortable in the space.
My bedroom is full of stuff; instruments, recording devices, amps etc. I have to pull everything out on a daily basis in order to use it, and then tidy it all up at night, so that nothing gets lost or damaged and so that I can move around in my room. I’ve got my computer, mixer, digital four-track, tape four-track, mics, two Yamaha keyboards, a Yamaha Digital Synthesiser, two cheap guitars, a Takamine acoustic guitar, Casio Digital Guitar, Accordion, Concertina, Banjo, Mandolin, recorder, tin whistle, jingly bells and countless other items. I usually find myself beginning with one of the keyboards and working from there, though the guitar used to be my starting point.
Once I have some kind of recording device I can use almost anything to make the music, so either my computer or one of the four-tracks is essential for me. After that, any instrument and a microphone. I know now that it’s important to have some professional headphones for monitoring and mixing the tracks, as the sound of your music can vary a lot depending on what you play it on, particularly when it comes to bass. Having said that, I sometimes just use cheap ones for the recording itself. Another important thing for me now is my mixer. It’s just a cheap behringer one, but it’s great for EQ and effects.
I spend too much time there. I don’t get enough sunlight. I just try to play/write/record whenever I can. I prefer to work by myself if it’s my own music. I don’t really know why. But that’s been the way so far. I have ideas for things that sometimes sound a bit ridiculous at first, eg. doing a Gary Numan-esque song or whatever, and if I share that with someone before recording, their surprise or cynicism might put doubt in my mind or affect the initial, somewhat innocent glee I had at the prospect. Better just to record anything, as outrageous as you like and show people what you mean rather than tell them. I am hoping to do some collaborative things with a couple of people though.
I don’t have a specific method for getting started, but more often than not I have a couple of lines/lyrics floating around in my head. Then when I start messing around on instruments I try and squeeze the lines in somehow. When I was working full-time, I used to have pages and pages of lyrics that I came up with while working, usually jotted down in the bathroom or whatever, and a small amount of time to play music and use them. Now it’s different. I spend most of my time with the instruments, recording and developing every good melody I think of. I’m not spending time doing mundane work, so naturally I don’t have the pages of lyrics. I end up writing lyrics on the spot, random streams of words from my head that feel like they go with the music. And that works quite well.
At the moment my Zoom H4/External sound card isn’t working too well with my laptop so I’m putting my instruments and mics into the mixer and then from there straight into the line in on the laptop. I use Steinberg Cubase SX for everything. I still sometimes use my tape 4-track and my tape recorder because they sound so nice. Generally, though, digital recording is great. I put guitars, drum machines, keyboards and vocals through effects pedals, particularly delay (Boss DD) and reverb (Electro Harmonix Holy Grail). My (relatively) new Yamaha CS1X digital synthesizer (second hand) is great for sounds, synth drums and effect’s. It’s an all-round dream for a newcomer to the world of synthesizers. But I don’t want to get too caught up with Fancy sounds and devices either. I like earthy sounds and background noises. Also a pitfall of handy digital equipment that I regularly fall into is recording multi-layer songs all on the same instrument, and then finding myself in a sticky spot when trying to figure out how to play the stuff live.
I think the thing I like best is the fact that it’s my house, my bed is right beside me, kitchen is downstairs, I live with my friends and they are around, we have a laugh and drink a lot of tea, play records/watch videos and such.”
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Dublin-based Patrick Kelleher is a 24-year-old musician hailing from Glendalough in Co. Wicklow. He spent much of his childhood in the English town of Rugby, hometown of Spacemen 3. His music varies from brooding, tense electronica to jaunty acoustica with a twist of something ethereal or idiosyncratic. The songs are often a mixture of live instrumentation, drum machines, voice-sampling yamaha keyboards and heavily-distorted vocal. His debut album You Look Cold (Irish Times review here) was recently released in Ireland on Osaka Records and gets a UK release on July 19th. For more information, visit www.myspace.com/patrickkelleher
Musical Rooms 
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