Track By Track : Ruby Dawn - Blood On Water
By John A. Wilcox



For their new album, I let Ruby Dawn's Ian Turner fill us in. He started with this cool little intro: Recorded over the summer and winter of 2023 in-between gigging our previous album Beyond Tomorrow, we had the chance to showcase some of the songs and get a feel for them before committing them to tape. The tracks were recorded at Ian Turner’s Studio using Apple Logic Pro with a Presonus Studiolive-32 console allowing us all to play live with each one of us having our own headphone mix while tracking into Logic. All but three of the tracks were recorded by performing them live in the studio and capturing a great drum take and foundation. Maker Of Me, This Garden and Nothing Left To Say were created by recording Carola Baer singing and playing keys then built up and arranged by Ian with each of the band members coming into the studio to overdub that parts. Once the main tracks were recorded the overdubs and production was worked on in the first half of 2024.

While playing Bass, Ian was also the producer and mix engineer and had a strong vision of how he wanted the album to sound. Dave Salsbury’s guitars were recorded with a clean Blackstar Valve Amp with drive tones, delays and phaser from Dave’s pedalboard – a single Sennheiser e906 mic on the cab created a great tone on most of the tracks. Most of the guitars were Dave’s Fender Strat with humbucker pickups. Dave’s pedal chain was TC Hypergravity compressor, TC Sub n Up, MXR Phase 95, Boss SD1, MXR Super Badass distortion, TC Spark Booster, Boss volume pedal, TC Ditto X4 looper, TC Nova delay, Boss RV6 reverb. Some of the guitar parts on Run Rabbit, Nothing Left To Say, This Garden and Maker Of Me were recorded by Dave at home using a TC Electronic Jim's 45 into a Zoom 24 track recorder, these were then integrated back into the main logic projects.

Adam Perry was playing a Tama drum kit and a maple shell Sonor Hilite snare and Sabian Cymbals. Mics were Telefunken M80 on Snare, sE V Kick for kick drum, Neuman 184s for overheads and AKG D40’s on toms. Ian’s bass signal chain is a beaten up 80’s Fender Precision Bass into a TC head direct into the desk. Carola plays keyboard with either a Roland Fantom 8 or Yamaha Modx – Carola’s vocal mic was an Audiotechnica 4033a. Additional keyboards used on that album were a Moog Muse, Waldorf Iridium & Arturia Poly Brute played by Ian.

Mixing and Mastering

The album was mixed by Ian over 3 months with versions being reviewed by the band to refine the sound (and drive Ian slightly mad!). Ian was supported by Al Heslop of Creative Control Studio who provided coaching sessions and technical mix guidance – Al can spot if something is a fraction out of tune! Ian also mastered the album after taking a break for a month. Once again help & training was provided by Al Heslop who mastered Ruby Dawn’s first album. As you may have spotted, Ian is a bit of a control freak and loves the production process.

Artwork

When we decided to call the album Blood On Water, we then had the challenge of creating artwork that represents the emotion, sentiment and feel of the album. Ian had the idea of a “Hi-Tech” cube bleeding into a lake at dawn – not sure where the idea came from! A selection of ideas were created and the band fixed on the cover feel of the artwork on the final album.

Now Carola & Ian will take us all track by track...

Track 1: Juliet
CB: Blood On Water has a number of themes running through it, and touches on love and conflict represented by Shakespeare’s Juliet, personified as love, peace, Earth, beauty and mankind. Romeo ever in strife, fighting.

IT: Juliet started off as an improvisation that Carola created as part of a project Lights And Lines #AlbumWritingClub in May 2023 where independent artists from around the world signed up to write/record an album or an EP each in one month! This originally featured wordless vocals. The lyrics to Juliet came several months later and was further developed by the band to become what it is today. We recorded the drums foundation as a live performance where only Adam can hear a click - he is so good at weaving around the click to make the song breathe and feel organic. We had played Juliet a number of times live so had the chance to really get the feel for the song right.

After 5 or 6 takes we then added additional guitar, keyboards and when the backing track was finished Carola sang the main vocal. Ian then added a few additional keyboard sounds using a Waldorf Iridium. Using some E-bow guitar, delay and reverse effects the “pre-climax” session was created which has become a free form space out moment when we play it live.

Track 2: Arms Of Love
CB: We can make it a better place and I do feel most people and living creatures would rather be in the Arms Of Love than in the cold hurt.

IT: This song was brought to the band by Carola and evolved into the arrangement over a number of sessions. The intro programming was created by Ian using some analogue synths and plugins called “Augmented Strings” & “Augmented Voices”. Having performed this song in sessions a dozen times we fleshed out the arrangement and then recorded the song together doing several takes. From this we took the drum and bass foundation and build the track you hear today. Additional production added some strings, brass and orchestral percussion in the climax for a “go large” ending!

Track 3: Alice Come Home
CB: Alice is on some intensive journey. But rather than Wonderland it’s a more futuristic, confusing, devastated Earth, and home is elsewhere, where there is love, peace, dignity, civilisation, perhaps in heaven or in the universe where our souls travel though time.

IT: This song started as a jam with Ian playing a “Massive Attack” style bass line, from this Jam, Carola wrote the lyrics and a first cut arrangement. As this was one of the first tracks created for the album we had the luxury of playing it live over 6 times and at many rehearsals before committing it to tape. Recorded in the same approach as the Juliet and Arms Of Love this sone came together very quicky and always feels great to play. The intro sound is from a Atruria PolyBrute synthesizer. Alice was released as a single at the end of 2023.

Track 4: Blood On Water
CB: Blood On Water is Adam and Eve’s choice, or confusion, to engage in temptations and give up Earth / Eden. Blood On Water is the human experience, with references to some of the literary classics and common themes. We didn’t set out to write this kind of album, it simply emerged. But it embodies so many elements of life, history and humanity. It is thus an emotional, real felt album.

IT: This song was a brought to the band as an instrumental written by our drummer Adam. Adam worked on the song with Carola who wrote the lyrics, and the band worked on the arrangement together over a few months. We only had the opportunity to play this song live a few times, but the arrangement came together well with one of the recording sessions having an end solo three times longer than the version on the record, it was epic, but too long.

Track 5: Social Disaster
CB: It’s a watery blue planet with living creatures fighting for survival; blood is life, but life’s blood is spilled naturally, accidentally, mercilessly, endlessly. The drive for eternal life or the avoidance of spilled blood drives us and leads to disasters, war and strife.

IT: Another song that started with a bass line, Ian was channelling his inner ‘early Porcupine Tree’ at a Jam session that did go on for 15 minutes. Carola started singing the line Social Disaster at the Jam, then took the idea and brought back a full set of lyrics. Ian again used the Waldorf Iridium for the pulses at the start as a nod to Requiem by Killing Joke. As the song evolved in the studio, Dave added the muted string guitar and to give the track momentum early on before it opens up with his signature driven chords and a blistering solo.

Track 6: Easy Feels
CB: Easy Feels touches on corruption, and that it ultimately is a choice here on planet Earth, our garden, a choice to love and care or not. Nothing Left To Say expresses loss or betrayal of the innocence we once had.

IT: This song came from a Jam session starting with a looped guitar drone with the band riffing on Em to C. Carola took it away and wrote lyrics and Dave added the instrumental break. Additional keyboards evolved over recording sessions and the song inevitably evolved to a Floydian chorus with an epic solo.

Track 7: Chronicles Of A Celestial Soul
CB: Chronicles Of A Celestial Soul (Originally titled “The Chronicles Of A Celestial Nomad” ) - maybe we are part of a bigger world?

IT: Ian created an heavy rock guitar instrumental using drum loops from a prog drum video on YouTube and when struggling for a name to call it, asked ChatGPT for titles for a prog song – and he combined a few of the suggestions to come up with The Chronicles Of A Celestial Nomad. Expecting for it to be rejected for being to “out there”, he played to the band to a “we like it but what the F do we do with that?” – then it became an ear worm for Carola and a few weeks later she brought the lyrics sung to the melody of one of the many guitars on the demo track. Chronicles then evolved over weeks to the arrangement on the album – we love playing this one, it feels like getting on a ride that just keeps getting more and more intense. Adams creative drumming on this track is a highlight on the album and we are looking forward to playing this live.

Track 8: Maker Of Me & Nothing Left To Say
CB: Maker Of Me is a cry to our creator for this utter confusion and excruciatingly difficult and lonely journey.

IT: Maker Of Me, This Garden & Nothing Left To Say are three old songs from Carola’s extensive solo catalogue that she would typically play just with her keys and vocals. To capture these and bring them to life, Ian selected a simple drum loop and recorded Carola playing the piano and keyboards and then re-arranged re-built these songs with some great sounds including CrowHill’s Murmuration’s plugin that gives the distinctive string sounds on these tracks. When the arrangements settled down, we deleted the drum loops and added Adams drums, and added Dave’s guitars and re-played the keys and vocals. The second solo on Nothing Left To Say was initially played by Ian as an idea “Dave do something like this”, but it was decided to keep it as is.

Track 9: Run Rabbit
CB: Rabbit symbolises freedom, folly, trickery, fertility, innocence, running in the garden of Earth, or indeed Wonderland; but divided and in endless conflict. I reference our sun and the binary twin it may once upon a time have had, as it seems even in the universe, as on Earth, there is a cold indifference to our suffering.

IT: One of Carola’s compositions that we jammed over the summer and after a few arrangements and feels the song worked better in 6/8 time giving it more bounce.

Track 10: This Garden
CB: This Garden is / was Eden.

IT: This is another song that comes from Carola’s solo catalogue and has evolved to be something different and more dramatic. Initially recorded with Ian and Carola together to a simple drum loop, we increased the tempo after the intro and built the piece to a climax. We tried many feels & treatments before this song really clicked. The Blade Runner or Tales Of The Unexpected ending is a piano part Ian played & created and feels like a fitting end to the album.

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