LIMERICK’S Protobaby have had a great 2011. The band releasing the debut single and video ‘State Of Affairs’, toured all over Ireland, got tipped by Hot Press as ‘One’s to Watch’, got lots of local and national airplay, played on the main stage at a huge Polish festival and finished off the year having the video for the second single ‘Traditions banned by YouTube. 2012 is shaping up pretty well too with the release of Protobaby’s debut album ‘The Spark’ this Friday.
‘The Spark’ was recorded by Owen Lewis, production duties were handled by Owen along with Protobaby guitarist Tony Monahan and Richard Dowling of WAV mastering, who also mastered the album. Limerick Post caught up with Protobaby’s Tony Monaghan to hear about the making of ‘The Spark’.
Limerick Post: How has Richard Dowling of Wav Mastering influenced the recording of the Spark?
Tony Monaghan: “Richard took interest in the band from our first self recorded EP ‘Freedom’ when we went to get him to master it. I recorded this EP from home and he pushed me into making it better offering advice on mixing etc. When we did hit a studio with our first single ‘State Of Affairs’ he was a huge part of offering advice on where to get it recorded and mixed. He helped mould the sound and was a part of getting it to sound as big as it could. This was also our first time working with ‘The Production Suite’, Chris O Brien & Graham Murphy, who mixed ‘State Of Affairs’ on Richard’s recommendation and they were a huge part of getting the Protobaby sound.”
LP: What did Owen Lewis bring to the process?
TM: “When time came to record the album we weighed up our options and had heard a lot about Owen Lewis from other local bands. We knew he had the technical skills to record us but a big part of recording for us was that the person recording us got what we were about and also that we got on with them. We met with Owen and hit it off right away. We met him at his studio and that environment certainly convinced us this was the way to go. Owen records in an old mansion in a joint venture with Noel Hogan of The Cranberries nicknamed The Bishops Palace.
Recording began in August and lasted over a month. Owen made us feel relaxed and we got the drums and bass recorded very quickly. Most of the time was probably spent on guitars and vocals. Owen brought a real quality to the recording. He likes as much as possible to capture sounds naturally including reverbs from halls and the mansion was ideally suited to this. He also loved to experiment with guitar sounds and old synths. All this really suited me in particular as I always try to create soundscapes with the guitar. Colm felt very relaxed recording vocals as Owen likes to do them at night and it created a nice relaxed mood. I was there though all of this and Richard also dropped by to over see things. I think we were all on the same page from day one and I was really happy to hear our sound develop as I heard it in my head.”
LP: The Production Suite were again used to mix for Protobaby?
TM: “When it came to mixing we decided to again work with ‘The Production Suite’. Richard became even more involved at this stage and attended mixing sessions with me and together really helped forge the sound of the album. I cannot understate enough how much Chris and Graham brought to the album with their mixes. They brought out the quality of Owens recordings. It was a real collaboration Owens recording and capturing the sound, The Production suites mixes and myself and Richard over viewing. I think key to it all was never settling and lots of hard work.”
LP: The performances by the band on The Spark are very polished. Was the pre-production process / live gigging important in accomplishing that?
TM: “On Owen’s advice we had all our songs prepared before recording especially from a drum perspective. Owen dropped by to rehearsals took notes and we took it from there. Having the drums and bass done quickly allowed time to experiment more with guitars and vocals. Myself and Colm had a good idea of all our main parts but it was fun to experiment on backing vocals and new sounds. Gigging helped with a lot of the songs but we wrote four of the tracks about a month or 2 before album recording sessions. Of those four I think we played Traditions live once along with Microchip. Hollow Minds and Nobody Knows weren’t actually performed live before recording.”
LP: Can you give us an idea of the story behind new single ‘Fluorescent’ and its spooky video?
TM: “Reaction to that has been funny – most guys tend to love it and most women tend to find it weird and gross! The concept was developed by ourselves and Shane Serrano. The theme of the video is escaping reality. The guy in it played by actor Adam Traynor is obviously a slob who doesn’t want to go out and only does so to buy food. He lives in a place with nothing in it, as all he needs is the visor he puts on in the video to escape from his reality. You never see what he sees so its up to the viewer to decide whether he is just a nut job and isn’t seeing anything or maybe this visor is an amazing piece of kit that shows a place better then any form of reality. It follows the theme of the song about escaping from reality and becoming whatever you want. Shane Serrano has done a fantastic job.”
Protobaby have a number of dates coming up nationally in support of the release of the album starting with Dolans this Friday. Protobaby will also appearing at the Great Friday festival on Friday April 6 and are due to returning to Poland to play Juwenalia 2012 in May. Protobaby’s ‘The Spark’ will get it’s hometown launch in Dolan’s Warehouse this Friday March 23.
