CD Art

Here's the artwork from the CD Booklet and Tray.

From Ivan - Bass Man

Wow! What a journey this has been so far.  There are some really great moments on this CD.  Chris's sensational guitar solo at the end of New Place, Stu's explosive drumming as the instrumentation builds in Miracles, Ian's beautiful piano playing in Lonely Life, and Tony's awesome vocals throughout.  What a pleasure it is playing bass in this band.  I get to kick back and just take it all in.

And for those gear heads out there, I used two basses on this recording.  The Xotic XJ-1T 5 string was used on most of the numbers with Fender Precision used on Praying, Cold Dark Lonely Night, and Lonely Life.  The bass went through a Radial JDV DI box and a second line was taking by placing a mic in front of a TecAmp L212 cab powered by a TecAmp Puma 1000.  1000 watts into 8 Ohms......sweet!

We Didn't Lose It.....Quite - Some useless information from Chris

Having played in cover bands all my life, playing in an original band is a new experience for me and I'm loving it! I have creative license to play my own guitar solos ( thanks to the very tolerant Brewmeister ) rather than someone else's. Being a recording studio virgin I found the experience a little strange at first, but we'd rehearsed the material pretty solidly for a few months, so it came together pretty well. I did have a few pedantique moments during the solo sessions but thanks to Jarrad, our very patient engineer, I managed to get most things down with some semblance of what I originally envisaged.

In regard to equipment, I used a '75 Fender Stratocaster on most tracks, and a quite recently made ( '08 or '09 ) Gibson SG on a couple of others, running through a Digitech GNX3 into a Fender Bassman 50 head coupled with a 2/12 cab loaded with Celestion Vintage 30's. That's about as technical I can get! Looking forward to getting out there and playing some live gigs!

From Stu Drummer !

I didn't say this was the first time I have ever 'blogged' ...
Anyway, the experience of recording with the band was - if anything - a tad more casual
than I was expecting: amongst other surprises, no "baffling" of instruments, unlike a couple
of previous experiences in other situations. In addition, being 'video'-recorded at times during
the session was new for me, but also a great visual record from the occasion.
I was using, in the main, my original Boston drum kit from teenage years, slightly modified and
added to over ensuing years; the rest was all smoke and mirrors ...
To the boys, from Stuart Naylor.

Recording at Oaklands - Ian's thoughts

What an amazing experience! We'd rehearsed pretty hard but I really didn't know what was going to happen once the pressure to get it absolutely right hit. Our first track went down very well and from there confidence kicked in. Day one got the backing tracks down and we left feeling good.

Returning on day 2 for solos and other over dubs. My synth solo on Ten a Penny came up trumps on the first go but Don't You Every Say Goodbye was problematic. Tony was up in the control room coaching like Laurie Lawrence and after a time, well a few times (like 10) we got there.

Playing a nice grand piano in a beautiful studio - you can't beat that!

Backing vocals - the less said the better for me. All my life I believed I couldn't sing. Yep, I was right. Just keys from me.

My gear for the recording was a Yamaha 7' grand from the studio, my lovely red Korg Vintage for the electric piano, an awesome Roland vintage organ (VR-760) and my Roland Gaia for synths. Boys and their toys.

I can't wait for the next time.

Ian

Mu-Theory the name

After about a billion suggestions exchanged via email over months and months we finally agreed on a suitable name. Mu-Theory.

How to say it:
Mu as in the Greek letter, generally pronounced "mew" but some go for "moo". If you hear us play live, Stu has an excellent moo, I think it's next to his cow bell ;)

What does it mean:
Maths, lost continents, jazz chords, cows? Take your pick.

Ian

In the beginning ...

Back in 2008 Tony turned up at a jam with some jazz mates of mine. Later we talked about starting our own band but that didn't happen for another year. In 2009 Tony and I played as a duo at the Basin Music Festival doing 4 sets and agreeing that this was a good thing. Tony introduced Stu after the last set and shortly after we had a drummer.

Next to join was Birchy (Chris), another mate, Anthony, had been sitting in on guitar but had other plans. After a day of lead guitar auditions Birchy had secured the role by impressing all with blinding speed and tasty playing.

Last to join was Ivan on bass. Hilton had got us started, then Ken had kicked us up a gear with some lively playing but finally it was Ivan who grabbed the ball and ran with us all the way to the recording studio.

Ian (keys)