I decided to record an album of my songs and this article is a journal of some of the things that had occurred during that time

After writing songs for 40 years I thought about recording an album in a real studio with a few musician friends and a skilled sound engineer . I did some research and found a place in Mittagong where a studio called LCDA and made a phone call to enquire about availability and cost .
It was February 2022 when I first went over to meet Fito at his recording studio . We spoke about my album and he listened to some of my demo tracks for the songs I wanted to record . We exchanged a few ideas in the basement of his house that was converted into a recording studio .
There was adequate space with instruments and equipment everywhere .
The concrete floor was covered with Persian rugs , Turkish carpets and a filtered light from lampstands around the room . The walls of the studio had artworks and photographs hanging inside frames like a jigsaw of life making up one picture of his life .
After we talked about the songs I wanted to record he went through them one by one and chose a half dozen that he liked which left around at least 4 more to consider for the album . I could see that Fito was a perfectionist and I was glad to have his help on my first live studio recording
”If you’re going to do something , you should give it your very best”
He said ,
The following week I started to records the first vocals on one of the tracks and write four new songs for The Storyteller Album .

Just as I had began recording the first of the songs for the album in May 2022 I was on my way to the studio and my van broke down . I got out and pushed it steering it at the same time to get off the road and rang Fito ; He was kind enough to pick me up and bring me to his studio . It was pouring rain that evening and after the recording session I took a taxi home .
The first song we worked on was , The Love I Have For You followed by another called Buckets Of Roses which is the oldest song on the album written in 1996 .Some of the songs were slowly starting to come together .

Just as things were going well on the album , we were told we had to find another place to live because the owner of the house we rented had sold the place and the new owner wanted to move in . So my family and I began searching for a place to rent in the local area . Everyday we went to inspections of rental properties and applied time and time again without any being approved . It was very difficult to find a home to rent , so we started to look elsewhere, outside the area . After a while we had been approved for a place about three quarters of an hours driver from where we were living and started putting everything we owned into boxes .
After we moved to Couridjah I had to travel a long way to the studio .
The Van was still in with the mechanic and needed a reconditioned head .
Recording The Storyteller now was difficult as my partner and I worked together every evening and working out the times to get to the studio wasn’t easy .
Just shortly after moving into the new house we had torrential rain that plummeted out of the sky for six months , flooding all of the areas around us . The creek next to our home overflowed and flooded the area where we lived . It was impossible to get to work never mind the studio to record .
Later in the year after the floods subsided I was able to return into the studio with Fito .. I went once a week to the studio record , each session was several hours . Many remixes were made , with new vocals being recorded .
I contacted some old friends to be part of the album and during the first few months some great work was being done by on the arranging of various instruments .

Around the end of 2022 we were having issues in the home with the septic tank frequently overflowing causing health issues and other concerns for us and the estate agent were not helpful in any way in trying to assist . The owner had also illegally built a kitchen and made extensions with council approval and we had been told at any stage we could be evicted from our home as all of the work had not been approved or inspected by council for the development . We had no sympathy from out real estate and had to seek an early escape from our lease with the NSW Civil Administration hearing that passed the case over in our favour . Now we were once more looking for a place to live . It was December 2022 . The new year came and went and we kept viewing rental homes within a fifty mile radius and once again every application we made was not approved .

Meanwhile back in the studio the Storyteller album was making slow progress my van was still not fixed and I was writing four new songs for the Storyteller album , “Love Is Strong”: ‘Shine On” “Its A Gift and Sweet Karma “
The lyrics came very quickly for each song and Fito began mapping our arrangements for those songs .
There were always good input by Fito making suggestions with a view to the arrangements . He had a gift and could hear various instruments on the tracks and felt what direction each song should go .
There were now a possible ten songs selected for the album “The Storyteller”
Some of the songs on the album were personal recollections of people and places and some old friends helped me with the recordings . Dave Debs from Bowral came into the studio one evening and played some six string guitar fills adding some blues harp on to a track . I’ve known Dave for 30 years when in 1996 we went to a folk session at the Blue Boar Inn on Thursday
Nights . Dave has a passion for singing and songwriting as well and was very generous with his time on my album . An Irish whistle player Johnny Spillane came up from Wollongong to add his magic on the album and with him Jason Rosewarn came to add his Irish Bodhran . Mark Oates and his brilliant fiddle was added to three of the tracks and now many of the tracks were expanding in their overall sound , Michael Dayoz added his slide guitar , Clare Idris from Canberra provided Flute , Daniel Melillan on the sticks with most tracks and his keyboards prevalent through the album . Darren Powel on Frugal Horn, Chris Hayden from Bundanoon added some mandolin, Tania Doria some harmony vocal on one of the tracks brought a added colour as well to one of the songs and Fito continuing to monitor and arrange everything on his mixing desk at LCDA Studio .
We were moving house again at this point and again began looking extensively for a place to rent .
After much searching and applying we found a place in March 2024 and at the same time The Storyteller album was ready for its final mastering .
I sent all of the tracks over to Terry McGinty at Valley Music in Ireland for that process , In May 2024 the Storyteller Album was released .


By Paul McCann