Quecia: Latest News

A quality rather than quantity audience last night. Great to be back at The Robin as we always love playing there. The sound in that room is awesome and its a pleasure to perform.
Mangrove were superb, great musicians performing their unique style of progressive rock songs. We wish them well with their new album.
Our next show and probably the last of the year with be at The Lucorum in Barnsley, with the brilliant Breathing Space on Thursday 27th of November. Hope to see you there!

Here's a review of last nights gig from James Allen's Blog on myspace, for which we thank him
Just to explain my current mood : disappointed because of the very low turnout at this gig. I just think bands like these two should be playing to larger audiences.
I had seen Quecia before, supporting Panic Room in Wolverhampton, and had been worried that the illness which had forced them to cancel a recent support slot with Breathing Space would also see them have to pull out of this one. But they pulled through, and there was no hint of them being under the weather, which is testament to their professionalism. This was an acoustic set, two guitars, two stunning voices - Kirsty's voice is very reminicent of All About Eve, and, frankly, Hayley's vocals are too good to be just backing vocals. Very strong melodic rock, and the new songs sound like they are taking the band up another level. They are playing with Breathing Space at Barnsley on 27 November, and I expect they will go down very well with that audience.

This was Mangrove's final date on their two-date inaugural UK tour. Their new material sounds very strong - Beyond Reality almost has a touch of the Scorpions at their ballady best within it, but they have their roots very firmly in 70s Genesis - think Trick of the Tail. They are clearly enjoying themselves on stage, and while Chris Jonker was not in the tin foil suit he was wearing on Saturday, Roland van der Horst made up for this by wearing a metallic blue dress shirt - its all about fun and a bit of theatre. And the music is good - yes, there is pomp; yes, there are some self-indulgent parts, but when they are played this well I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. It certainly wasn't seen as being a bad thing back in the 70s. The gig had an excellent tempo, lots of dynamic moments, really good melodies and fine solos. I hope they come back to the UK again, and I hope they get bigger audiences next time around.

Unfortunately Quecia have had to pull out of tonights gig at the Black Market in Mansfield, due to illness, but the show still goes on with Breathing Space so get down there and support them. We are really sorry and hope everything is ok for Monday night in Bilston.

We had another fab night, this time at The Stables in Milton Keynes, with the excellent John Young Band. The venue is a fantastic theatre and the room was perfect for our acoustic show, with an excellent sound provided by Matt the resident engineer.
Again we played a mix of old and new songs, which seemed to blend perfectly for the night and thanks again to everyone who bought albums and merchandise.
The hospitality was second to none at The Stables with everyone paying great attention to detail, to help make the night run as smoothly as possible. So thank-you Linda and the Management and Staff of The Stables. The sandwiches were particularly good, (according to Herb, the rest of us didn't see any!) and the drinks were much appreciated.
Our show was over all too quickly but it was great to meet everyone afterwards and thanks for coming over to say hello.
Finally we have to say The John Young Band were on fine form, brilliant musicianship and awesome songs, we loved working with them.
That's all for now so take care and keep supporting Live Music, we hope to see you in Mansfield and Bilston next week.

Unfortunately the gig at Riffs with Breathing Space on the 21st of November has been canceled. The information we have is that the venue is closing down!!

Great night at The Little Civic in Wolverhampton yesterday after what seemed like a never ending journey from up north. The traffic on the M6 was terrible which meant we didn't have much time for a sound check, just a quick line check to make sure everything was working and away we went. Nothing like a bit of pressure!!
Thanks to everyone for their support in buying our CD's and T-shirts, (designed by Kirsty no less). It makes a big difference to us and allows us to put funds back into the studio and production of the new album.
Thanks must also go to Panic Room for a brilliant show and to Stephen Lambe for putting the night on.
Finally, great to meet up with old friends and new alike. We love the fact that you turn out to support real Live Music and we look forward to seeing you at the next one.
Photographs by Stephen Turner

We really enjoyed the gig at The Limelight in Crewe. Some people had traveled great distances to see us and Breathing Space and both bands really appreciate it.
Thanks to those who bought our CD's on the night and we're looking forward to the next gig with Panic Room this coming Friday, the 24th Oct at the Little Civic in Wolverampton.

Hopefully we'll have some more pictures through very soon. And here they are by Chris Walkden

Not a great turn out for the gig in Sutton-in-Ashfield, but its quality that counts and we've had some great feedback from those of you who attended. Thanks for getting in touch and we really appreciate the kind comments. Here are just 2 which make it all worthwhile.
Thanks to Helen Davies for coming down and the lovely message she left on Facebook "Fab gig on Sunday Guys. The girls have beautiful voices - I was mesmerised!"
Also to Paul (aka Vivaldi Temple) who messaged us on myspace to say "Just wanted to say a big thanks for the great music you all gave us on Sunday night at The Diamond, it was a fantastic experience. You now have two more fans, my wife Kim and myself, and am so glad to have made the connection with you."
Thanks must also go to Breathing Space who put on a fantastic show. Loved the new material.
Here are some pics taken on the night by Michael McNeil who kindly forwarded them on to us.

Hope to see you at the next gig, which is at The Limelight in Crewe with Breathing Space - see Live Dates page for more details.

We are all looking forward to the gigs with Breathing Space. The first one being next Sunday the 5th of October, at The Diamond in Sutton-in-Ashfield. See the Live Dates page for more info and a link to the venue website.

The album is coming on slowly bit surely, Chris and Paul have finished the music to the track "Sanity". All thats needed now is Kirsty and Hayley's vocals and we have another one in the can. An Acoustic version of the song can be heard live next week at The Diamond, along with other new material. Hope to see you there.

Thanks must go to Andy Towell our new found friend on Quecia's Facebook group, Andy has helped us get some radio airplay, over the last week or so.

BBC Radio Guernsey played "Fight For This" last week and also "Alive" last night, both from "This Is Where We Are"

The "Magic Bus" show, is presented by Jim Trott, every thursday evening between 7pm and 9pm.
Its well worth a listen, and they play some great music!!

Hi Everyone - we'd just like to thank everyone for joining the Quecia group on Facebook, we have over 300 members now and still growing, so thanks to everyone for spreading the word.

We've had a brief period of inactivity, but are still working hard behind the scenes to bring you that elusive 3rd album.

Chris has been in the studio this week sorting out some of the boring technical issues for recording the drums with Baz, that has now been resolved, and we can press on and get some of the songs finished and up online, for you to check out.

Another gig at the Robin in Bilston is on the horizon 23rd of September with The John Young Band. We'd like to see as many people down there as possible. Invites will be sent out via our mailing list and Facebook group, so please get down if you can.

Take care

Pictures by Stephen Turner
Thanks to everyone for a great night at The Robin In Bilston yesterday. Our set was acoustic with songs from both our albums and quite a few new songs, from the soon to be released 3rd CD.
The reception we got was fantastic considering most of the audience hadn't seen us before and were there to support Quicksilver Messenger Service, what a great band and nice people "Happy Trails" everyone.
Here we have some live pictures from the gig, taken by Stephen Turner. Unfortunately the pictures Chris took from stage of the audience didn't turn out - maybe next time!! Ha
Thanks to everyone who bought CD's we hope you enjoy them and come back to see us play live again at The Robin, 23rd of September with The John Young Band

Days 7, 8, and 9.
We've spent the last few rehearsals spending time and playing songs with our new drummer, Baz Lowe in his studio in Bolton.
A new track came out of those rehearsals "Footsteps Up Above" and we recorded it in demo format, we'll knock it into shape in the next couple of sessions.
Today, Saturday was spent recording the track "Don't Ask Me Why". We managed to get the majority of the tracks down with an excellent vocal from Kirsty and loads of harmonies from Hayley. We've always played this song just on acoustic guitars, but we decided to give it the full treatment and it turned out better than we could have hoped.
Those of you who've seen our acoustic shows will know this song well. Speaking of which, we hope to see everyone down at The Robin next Wednesday the 27th of August, for what promises to be a great night with Quicksilver Messenger Service.
We seem to have some momentum going now with the recordings and live shows, so hopefully its full steam ahead, and on we go.

Quecia wil play The Point in Cardiff on Friday the 17th of October with The Reasoning as part of their new album release tour.
We are all looking forward to going back to The Point, a great venue for Live Music.
The Reasoning are another great Progressive Rock band from South Wales, so it promises to be an excellent night.

For those of you who like to use facebook, we have just added our own little site, so you can keep in touch with us easily.

We'd love you to be on our site all the time, but realise that's not possible. Ha!

Just type Quecia into Facebook's search engine and hey presto! Say hello

Pics by Martin Kessler
Thanks to everyone who came to the Limelight in Crewe last night. It was a great turnout for a sunny Sunday evening.
We really appreciate the reception we got for the new songs and old and so many great comments about the new album release.
Magenta were on fine form also and it was great to catch up with them again.

Our next show is at the Robin in Bilston, 27th of August.

We are pleased to announce another show, this time at the Little Civic in Wolverampton, on Friday the 24th of October with the excellent Panic Room (ex Karnataka). Again this will be an acoustic show for us.

Day 6
I recorded the bass line to “Can’t Go On” at home and went to the studio around 4pm. Only Paul and myself this time, as Kirsty and Hayley were unavailable. We cracked on with the new session and started work on a song called “Sanity”, (or maybe it should be titled “Insanity” after I’d been in the studio with Paul for hours on end - he knows I don’t mean it).

This is a big ballad, and again we set the tempo with a drum loop from EZdrummer. Paul played his Godin Electro/Acoustic guitar over the top. We recorded 2 tracks of the Godin and panned them left and right for the stereo effect. We then added some rockier guitar tracks using his Ibanez 550 through the Line 6 processor and plan to do more guitar tracks with his Mesa boogie amp, to fatten the sound and give us some different sounds when mixing.

As Kirsty wasn’t there to do any vocals we experimented with the drums and percussion until we were happy with the arrangement – overall the sound was pretty powerful and a good nights work. Next session is in 2 days time plus a rehearsal for the gig.

This week we'll have a couple of nights rehearsals. The gig with Magenta at the Limelight in Crewe is next Sunday night. Hopefully we can progress with the recording also and get more of the tracks down.

Day 5

After a couple of nights off, 3 of us, (without Hayley) reconvened at the studio. Nothing as grand as our last studio, but a good place to get the job done. (Hopefully we’ll have some pictures of the recording sessions in the near future.)
We listened to the previous tracks and we agreed we shouldn’t lose the essence of what Quecia is about. It’s got to sound right, but with today’s software, it’s easy to get carried away and put too many bells and whistles on the track and lose focus on the bigger picture. The song is more important. (Ok, I’m off the soap box).
We started work on the backing track to “I Can’t Go On” This song came about from a jam in Wales, we’d all had a few beers and vodka and were just enjoying the moment. Luckily I’d pressed the record button or I’m sure the next morning it would have been lost forever. The delay on the guitar sets the tempo of the song and away we go, quite a long intro for us and then the vocal is in.
I think it will be a powerful track when done and we got the backing track sorted, hopefully in a week or so, we should be ready to record the vocals which will be used on the album. Finally, I took the files home and added a new bass line to “Still Life”.

Just a quick note – we are all sorry to hear Steve and Steff are leaving the Bluebell Inn and we hope the bastards who broke into the pub and smashed it up are caught soon.

Introduction

We met at the studio on the Monday afternoon to continue recording our 3rd CD, hopefully to be released around September or October of 2008. I say we, by that I mean myself (Chris), Paul, Kirsty and Hayley. The songs have been written around 3 years now, (with new ones coming on board since then) and we went to Wales some time ago to record them, but we were never happy with the outcome of those recordings. I think possibly we were too much in holiday mode and that combined with the acoustics of the rooms in the cottage meant we were never going to achieve our goal.
This time we began with a chat about what we are trying to achieve in terms of sounds on the album. This is where being in a band becomes very difficult. Hayley in particular wanted to be more modern in the approach, for example possibly using brass, Kirsty likes things to be simplified, with more use of acoustic guitar, while I like keyboards and longer songs in the prog rock style. Paul is happy to play more rock electric guitar. As you can see, not an easy solution in sight!

Day 1
We decided to press on with the first song “There For Me”. We created a drum track that everyone was happy with, which acts as a guide to the arrangement, so we can add all the other instrumentation when we need to. Also once everything else is added, because you have a rhythm/click track, live drums can be added at a later date.
Next Paul recorded an electric guitar track straight in to the computer via a Line 6 Toneport interface, with Kirsty singing along at his side to keep him up to speed with the arrangement of the song. (For those technically minded people, I use the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) Cubase SX3 to record and mix the audio). After we had drums and guitar, Kirsty added a guide vocal, then Hayley recorded her backing vocal ideas. I added the bass and we basically had the structure of the song. It took around 3 to 4 hours and everyone was happy with the results.

Day 2
I met up with Paul and we decided to put some acoustic guitars on to “There for Me”. After the previous nights work, I’d gone home and recorded some piano parts and strings, to be used or not. It’s always best to record as many ideas with different instruments as you can, so when you come to mix it, you have many more options. Paul’s acoustic guitar tracks sounded good on the recording, but on playback, he wasn’t playing the riff he normally plays in the song, when we play it live. We decided to look at the drum track again, to blend in better with the acoustics and allow Paul more freedom to play what he wanted. Paul also laid down a great melodic guitar solo (Take 2) and more electric guitars in the choruses.

Day 3
We’d got so far on the first song and Kirsty and Hayley were keen to do all the “proper” vocals at the end, when on the tracks are put together, we thought it best not to get bogged down with that and maybe it was better to start on another track. The next song we picked was “Still Life”. Again we found the tempo on a great little program I use called EZdrummer (which pops up in Cubase SX3 as an instrument) and created a drum loop that we were all happy with, or so we thought. The same process with guitars and bass were repeated and we had another arranged track.

Day 4
Kirsty wasn’t feeling too well this day, but myself and Paul, thought we’d put some guitar tracks onto “Still Life”. Hayley came in and we were just chatting. The previous night I’d been messing around with a program called “Reason” which is a great software synth and told them I’d been playing around with some drum loops. (I’d managed to link Reason together with SX3 via a program called Rewire and both pieces of software were able talk to each other). Anyway to cut a long story short we listened to all these different drum loops and added a couple to “Still Life”. This completely changed the song. It also gave Paul the freedom to experiment with different riffs on the guitar, instead of just playing chords. It also made me re-think the bass line and brought a much more modern outlook to the song. (I’d like to thank Jay Z for his inspiration on this track. Ha!)
Watch this Space for more diary updates.