The Amazing Sessions: Let's Buy Happiness

This is a post taken from the Amazing Radio blog.

Our guys behind The Amazing Sessions have been at it again. This time Let’s Buy Happiness, one of the North East’s hottest new acts, made the journey in to theAmazing studio. The band, who release single Six Wolves today, popped in to play us some tunes from their highly acclaimed repertoire and to catch up with Georgie Rogers of Amazing Breakfast.

Sam Grant, who engineered the session, told us about the day:

“On such a nice October morning you could be forgiven for labeling it a bit of a shame, cooping everyone up in the windowless bowels of the studio. But missing out on these last few days of post-summer sunshine wasn’t so bad given the occasion. In lieu of vitamin D, Chris and I were instead gifted the presence (and the music) of Let’s Buy Happiness.

The band are arguably a growing force, having already exciting the ears of those at The Guardian, Record of the Day, The BBC, and of course Amazing Radio. The band exude an air of quiet confidence and there was a clear sense of cohesion between the musicians that immediately put a relaxed vibe on things. It’s hard to explain how these things transpire in the studio, but they’re certainly important to making something good and memorable.

The band arrived around 10am. Introductions were made, teas were drank and equipment was dumped in the live room, then Chris and I began setting up the space while the band acquainted themselves with the studio. The first insight of any real importance into a band is obviously the game choice when they get on the Sega Mega Drive: Let’s Buy Happiness started with Fifa 95, moved on to Super Wrestle Mania and then Home Alone. (Make of this what you will, but they insist they were about to have a go on Sonic – which blatantly changes everything…)

It was around quarter past 11 and, as ever, there was a short passage of boring things to do before the red light went on. Line and sound checks; Headphone mixes; level checks; comfortableness checks; quick runs through songs and sections to warm up. On this occasion all was good – which is always nice – and so we got going with recording.

The next while was recording time proper. Very relaxed and unhurried, it’s important to try to create (and hold on to) a good vibe amongst everyone involved. Bonus points are awarded for causing a chuckle or chortle . So at this point, while it’d be good to go in to great detail about the recording, I hope you can appreciate it’s a pretty uneventful affair (with regards to juicy stories and witty anecdotes). You see, if Chris and I do our jobs well, on a good day with a good session there isn’t much to tell. The only events worth noting are the songs that are played! So I’m glad to say that to this end, this session was eventful. We tracked:

Fast Fast
Devil Show
Six Wolves
Wood Rings
Clean Mistake

Getting on for 3pm the session was about wrapped up and all involved were content with the days work. All that was left was the casual walk in the afternoon sun, over the River Tyne and up to the station for an interview with our Amazing Breakfast host Georgie Rogers. You can hear the interview, accompanied by the session tracks, weekdays between Monday 18th and Friday 22nd October from 7am on Amazing Breakfast.

Before I leave you, I’ll just say, Let’s Buy Happiness are; Sarah Hall on vocals, James Hall and Graeme Martin on guitars, Mark Brown on bass, and James King on drums.Let’s Buy Happiness are also lovely people who are regularly out and about, reaching the four corners of the music world so keep your eyes open and your ears peeled for when they reach a corner near you.”

Tune into Amazing Breakfast with Georgie Rogers every morning this week from 7am to hear Let’s Buy Happiness live in session. Their single Six Wolves is out now.