Smith the mighty
1993 – 20 songs soon became 10 and the band headed into PIJ studios in Bristol to record the “Untouched” album (Sarah 615) and “Loveblind” single (Sarah 71). Before the recording Jamie had met Kathryn Smith and asked her to lend her helium-fuelled vocals to the album. No-one (including Kathryn) knew what to expect…but it was a special moment hearing her vocals overlapping and swooping around Jamie’s for the first time.
The recording of Untouched was for the first time enjoyable. We worked with an engineer called Corin Dingley who knew exactly how to get the sound we wanted. He actually recorded feedback as an instrument on it’s own and had tons of ideas. The clichéd hazy, drink-fuelled night time recording sessions that you only associate with bands like The Stones actually happened to us (if you count 3 cans of Fosters between 6pm and 10pm in the evening). The album and single took five days to record. Jamie spent another 3 or 4 days mixing (ie, adding lots of reverb) at La-di-da studios in Brighton.
At the time we didn’t know what song would be the single. “Temporal” seemed to be in the running for a long time but “Loveblind” just had something extra. It was great to play live and considering before most gigs we only rehearsed once anything good to play live was a bonus!
We seemed to be vindicated in our choice of single. Despite one of the most negative reviews in the history of the music press (NME) Radio One picked up on Loveblind (John Peel and Steve Lamacq) and gave it a good slice of airplay. As a result we made our first and only appearance in the indie charts.