audio by album demos

This track was recorded as a one day live studio session around 1991-2. During this session we recorded around 6 tracks. Each track only took 1 or 2 takes. Half of the lyrics weren't written, so had to be more or less improvised on the spot. The songs were only very loosely arranged. The song features:

ex-Lunachicks drummer Becky Wreck on drums
Sophie Stievet played bass
Noriko on guitar
Meg Lee Chin (me) on vox
Julian Standen was the engineer/producer

Sophie and I paid for Becky's plane ticket to come out to London to play with us on a big UK TV show, I think it was called "The Tube", but I don't remember. At any rate, it got canceled at the last minute so never really happened anyway.

Anyhow, Sophie was working in a greasy cafe for cab drivers and I was working as a barmaid in a pub. In England this means you get less than minimum wage and NO tips! So the plane tickets were a big deal for us.

My dear old friend from San Francisco had just left the Lunachicks and I jumped at the opportunity to have her play with us. (Becky Wreck and Martin Atkins are my two favorite drummers that I have ever had the pleasure to play with. I am grateful for having ever played with either of them!). Our guitarist Stephanie Pitsas had just ditched us and on top of that, we got dumped from our production deal with Beethoven Street Studios. This was all after the big high of having come back from the former Soviet Union. So we were pretty low down in the deep dumpity dumps...

Becky arrived at Heathrow Airport with the normal level of chaos, unpredictability and frantic exhuberance she brings to everything. When we got on the tube, she announced in her loud American voice , her pleasure at having got through customs with her drugs...

Sophie and I braced ourselves for a long ride....

This is the pre-Atkins/Invisible records demo for "Swallowing You". When I first heard Atkins version, I was nearly in tears. He had brought up the middle 8 bit where I said:

"I watched the sun come up over the tower blocks and cried for what could have been. Is it real or is it just an illusion?".

Originally, I had meant that section to be an incoherent mumbly bit. It was supposed to have that murmuring quality of prayer or what you might hear in a church congregation. When I recorded it, I wasn't even aware of what I was saying! It was meant to be mixed low in the track. So when I heard the Atkins mix it was my first time hearing what I actually said. I was mortified! I begged Atkins to lower that section. But he said he liked it. I fully expected to be crucified by every critic and music lover on the planet and punished eternally in hell for the cheeziness of those 2 lines. Whenever people came up to me and told me they liked the song, I would say "Thank you", but when they turned their back, I secretly suspected they were lying! But then,we artiiiiiiiiistes do tend to be a little overly dramatic don't we?

Steve Crittal plays bass on this track and is one of the unsung heroes of the music scene. Steve has for years been a stalwart defender of quality and integrity in music. For Steve, life and art are inseparable. Many have attempted to urge Steve to drop his idealism and become more the commercial man. But Steve will only work on stuff he likes and with people he likes. You can hear this in Steve's playing. The warmth and strength in his bassline really makes the track. For this I salute Steve and think sometimes he doesn't get the credit he deserves.

In fact, I sometimes feel guilty because the singer gets the lions share of credit. Great music experiences are made possible with the contributions of many:

Singer
Sonwriter
Musicians
Rehearsal studio owners & employees
Managers & staff
Agents
Sound Engineers
Producers  read more »