Welcome back to my blog people, it’s been a couple of weeks since my laptop has been out of action, and I haven’t really been inclined to use a company computer to write this. So as a couple of weeks have passed now, I guess I should bring you all up to date with my time here.

Well, for starters, we have been doing some more score recording for The White Queen, the BBC/Starz production due in August 2013 and that has been going as smoothly as ever. I am looking forward to seeing this when it is out, it should be a great series full of British history, sex and death. The trailer is now up on YouTube so I’m just going to link that in for you here.

As a personal side project, I’ve been working with a former intern from the video department here, lovely Anne Van Balen, video editor and camera extraordinaire (you should totally check out her Vimeo channel) for a production she is currently working on, a film about global warming, or as I have now learned klimaatveranding. I’ve also been learning Dutch! It’s taken a few months but it has started to sink in a little bit, I can kind of understand things now. So that makes me happy, better late than never. Anyway, back to what Anne and I have been doing. So it all started out that she was looking for royalty-free music to include in her film but the choices out there were….less than inspiring, to say the least. I’m sure there is probably something out there that is great, but the vast wealth of information on the interwebz makes that damn near impossible to find. So instead, she had the idea of recording some piano and I had the idea of conducting that recording! So one evening we got together, grabbed two U67’s and got a good placement, then boom, we were in business. After a few false starts and performance nerves, she got in to the swing of things and then actually played the piano. Despite her modesty and asking questions like “oh, was I playing too loud? I bet I was, I’ll play quieter, mum says I play too loud.” I had fun in being able to tell her not too worry, she can play as loud as she wants, we have the space, the equipment to handle it and no one to stop us. I felt like a real recording engineer! And then the fun stuff, I began working on producing this piano recording in to more than just that. I added layers of synths, drums, glitches and destructive time stretching into the mix….and it’s cool. It’s to be under a monologue, of which we are recording the ADR for that today, so I hope that she likes the final result, I think it will go well.

I mentioned in the first sentence of that paragraph that she was a former intern, that is only since last week. Sad to see her go, we all decided to have a party for her in a bid to make it an awesome last day. Beginning with drinks at the bar, all the while it being the same day as more investors came to see Galaxy and Mollywood so we were drinking with them really, onwards to the Go Karting track in Mol. In Mol? Yup. It turns out it has a pretty awesome track to race around, fueling the speed demon in all of us (though I got stuck on the tyres a few times) and we didn’t do awful! Ok, I only made it into 9th place out of 14 but you could tell that that the top 3 go a lot. And I mean, at least once a week. Maybe they really like or there is nothing else to do in Mol except drink, I don’t know but when you have personalized helmets and suits to race a public circuit, I think you may have gone too far. They beat even out best racer, Lady T. by a full second and she is the still-living reincarnation of Michael Schumacher. This was followed by yet more drinks (oh and piece of advice, don’t drink more beer in-between the races. Not for drink driving reasons but because beer really doesn’t like to sit still when you are flying around the corners!) and on to a village party. Possibly the strangest experience I’ve ever had. When Cis, one of my colleagues told us there was a party I assumed he meant house party. Fine, I can deal with that. Apparently Belgian’s go a step beyond that. Rather than invite your friends and their friends….you get a massive tent and invite the whole village. I still haven’t quite got past this idea that 16 year olds can still legally drink beer with us and so to see all people, young and old and all shapes and sizes drinking together and dancing was a little bit surreal. Possibly the funniest part was the cycling team who strolled in still in their special shorts and jerseys, they looked a little bit ridiculous. Ah, Belgium. I’m going to miss that.

So aside from my work with Anne, I’ve been working with a student of Kingston University too, creating the music for an iOS game called Bar Shooter. It’s coming up to completion now but we are behind schedule as I don’t have my laptop in order to complete the music. However, you should check out what we have so far, you can find it all the Facebook page here.

On top of that, this weekend we had a re-recording of a piece that was recorded here last year. The singer is Inge Van Kemenade who is the CEO of clothing store Top Shelf in Belgium and she has been recording here off and on for the last year along with her backing singer, Danni (who is just incredible!). It’s kind of MOR country-rock with a soft rock influence. Think Bonnie Tyler, Sheryl Crow and Shania Twain. Guitar solos, big drums, Fender Rhodes warbling away. That kind of thing. And she’s nice. I know this because she has brought us pastries for two days, so automatically I like her. Danni brought us cake which makes her even better. Not too mention that Danni is just amazing. She’s been singing professionally for about 30 years and she is so easy to work with. Three takes maximum to get what you ask for and so versatile, she’s just easy to work with. We are recording again on Friday so I’m looking forward to her coming back.

Which brings me to the last point of interest. In one week my internship is over. Three months will have finished and they have flown by, I would have liked to stay longer, I was hardly ever bored by lack of things to do and I often found things to do if I had nothing else. The problem now, is deciding where to go from here. Do I continue on towards post-production? Do I improve my compositional skills? Video game music and sound design? Do I apply for work in local studios and make my back towards to London? Do I start my own studio? Do I pair up with my buddies and begin our own production company? I’ve started writing up ideas, charts, diagrams for gear I might need, things that I do or might do, expenses and costs, information to research. It’s not going to be an easy ride from here I can see that. And the final problem with living here for three months? I don’t know how other places will compare to Galaxy. I’ve gotten so used to the way things are done here, so accustomed to the gear being readily available when I want them, the attitudes of the people here and not to mention not being stuck in the middle of a city block, but out in the countryside with space around me….it’s going to be hard to beat, I think. What ever happens, I know one thing is for certain, I have learned more here in three months than in the last three years. I feel now, I could walk into any studio and be ready to use it in a matter of moments. I like that. I’m going to keep practicing my Dutch, even though it’s a limited language – only about six countries worldwide actually use it. So long as I keep it up though, I’ll have achieved something else that I set out to do – learn another language properly. I would like to come back, visit the friends I’ve made here, be able to walk around without being a state of confusion half the time. That would be good. And in a conversation with Jan, I might learn Mandarin too. Because why not? It’s one of the most spoken languages in the world, and it would be awesome to learn. Or I might go back to Japanese. Either way, it was an unexpected bonus.

Thanks for reading, and as ever, like, share, comment, blog, re-blog, tweet, tumble, reddit, whatever. If you like it and you want to keep reading, please go ahead. If you like it and you want other people to like it, be my guest! If you want to ask me a question, feel free, you can catch me here or on the numerous networks I’m on.

A.