(When I wrote that title, it wasn’t intended as a pun.)
Today, at 9:55 AM, I phoned up Tom.
“Hey you!” he said.
“Hey love,” I replied, because I’m a massive gay. “Where are you?”
“In bed. Why?”
“Because we’re supposed to start recording the drums for The World Is Mine in five minutes.”
“Wh-…. no … nooooooo ….”
“Yeah….”
“I thought it was later in the week!”
“No. Remember when Oli emailed us and said ‘here’s the address for the studio, see you Monday’?”
“Yeah, he did say that.”
So, already I’m a little on edge. It’s not even ten in the morning, I haven’t had anything to drink, and I’m approaching the studio looking for the door and thinking about how I’ve suddenly become a drummer. Because until Tom arrives, I’ll have to play the drums. And I don’t have any drumsticks with me to play the drums with. Obviously. Why would I have drumsticks? I’m not a drummer! These are all thoughts playing through my mind.
And THEN – as if all of this wasn’t confusing enough for my tired morning brain – I turn the corner to enter the studio, and find myself facing every member of Noah And The Whale.
There they all were, in a line, chatting. And I just showed up. They stopped. Looked at me expectantly. Waiting. I feebly ask if this is where the studio is. What a stupid question. What would Noah And The Whale be doing in a deserted street in the vicinity of a recording studio if this wasn’t where the entrance was?
Once they confirm it, I cower inside and buy some drumsticks while Noah And The Whale move their amps out behind me and get on with their Noah And The Whale lives. I explain to the woman at the desk that my drummer is late – she makes some jokes about his timing being off (cos he’s a drummer lol).
Then she says, “is he going to make it to France in time?”
I reply with a nod and a non-committal sound, because obviously I have no idea what this means. Only later do I discover that she said this because Noah And The Whale are leaving the studio and are heading straight to France. She asked if we would get to France in time because she thought I was WITH Noah And The Whale. Presumably as their drummer, filling in for them because the other drummer was late. The absurdities of this assumption are overwhelming.
So when I left Kings Cross Station at 9:55 AM, I was just me, Alex, independent musician and internet vlogger. Five minutes later, as I reached the recording studio, I found myself bizarrely transformed into ALEX DAY, drummer of Noah And The Whale, bound for France!
What a morning.
Epilogue: when you hear the finished album, be aware that the drums in the choruses of Heart On My Sleeve and the second verse of The World Is Mine were performed by me. =)
(I’m not gay.)
x
