Keeping on trend

The scene takes place on a midweek afternoon at Trend Recording Studios, on the outskirts of Dublin. Veteran ballad singer, Patsy Watchorn – currently touring with The Dubliners and previously a member of the Dublin City Ramblers – has gathered together the cream of Irish session musicians to record an album of well-known and not so well-known ballads.

The musicians include: banjo and mandolin virtuoso Gerry O’Connor (producing, as well as playing on this session); guitar player to the stars Anto Drennan; and legendary session bass player Paul Moore who has performed with Van Morrison, among many others.
The idea is to record the songs as a live performance, in as short a time as possible (mainly due to the touring commitments of the musicians involved). The lights in the “live” room are dimmed and, in the control room on the other side of a large glass window, the engineer is poised at the giant multi-track desk ready for another take. Standing in a circle, with expensive-looking microphones carefully placed in front of each of the musicians, they run through a version of ‘Dirty Old Town’, Ewan McColl’s classic, made famous by The Dubliners in the ‘60s and more recently by The Pogues.

It’s a rare treat to witness such an intimate performance at such close quarters. O’Connor is gently plucking a mandolin; Moore is picking almost jazzy-sounding lines on a stand-up bass, while Drennan adds chord textures on his acoustic guitar, swapping it for a National Steel halfway through the song for some tasty bottleneck/slide playing. The sound is warm and organic, Watchorn’s voice is powerful and commanding without being overbearing and the all-acoustic accompaniment is beautifully understated. The overall effect is to allow the lyrics – the heart and soul of the song – to shine through.
According to O’Connor, ballads such as the one they’ve just performed can benefit from a different treatment to the way they are normally recorded. “We’re really taking these songs out of the pub and bringing them back into the parlour,” he explains. “That’s where most of them came from in the first place, where people would gather around in front of the fire with a few drinks and sing all night long.”
It’s an interesting approach and one that may be long overdue. The ballad boom of the ‘60s as fronted by The Clancy Brothers, The Dubliners and others was characterised by bawdy, ‘shouty’ performances usually in pub venues such as the Embankment in Tallaght, the Abbey Tavern in Howth and the Wexford Inn in Dublin. The performers had to be heard above the din of chatter, laughter and clinking glasses, hence the familiar versions that have become known worldwide. It was only in the ‘70s that artists like Christy Moore, Paul Brady and Andy Irvine adopted a more intimate approach.

Patsy Watchorn agrees: “A lot of ballads are sung in exactly the same way, in the same tempo all the time – but there’s a new generation out there who seem to want to hear these songs in a slightly different way. It’s not about getting away from the original sound too much or about doing country versions of them. I really love the way Shane MacGowan sings ‘Dirty Old Town’ but I like to do it a little bit more laidback.”
Gerry O’Connor elaborates on their approach to today’s recording session. “The general idea for us is to play less,” he says. “The biggest fault with musicians like myself and others, is that, at times, we tend to overplay and to fill every nook and cranny of a song. It’s not always the best approach. When you hear a really well-recorded and well-mixed album produced by someone like T-Bone Burnett, you can really hear how the music is underplayed on those recordings. That’s what we’re trying to achieve with this project. Patsy has such a strong voice anyway, so it’s not a problem for us letting him be heard.”

The final track-listing has yet to be decided but it will, in all likelihood, include the aforementioned ‘Dirty Old Town’, along with Pete St. John’s evergreen ‘The Rare ‘Oul Times’ (first recorded by Watchorn in 1977) and the notorious ballad about Dublin’s infamous red light district, ‘Monto (Take Her Up To Monto’).
“It’s incredible,” says Watchorn of ‘Monto’. “The younger crowd who come to see The Dubliners all want to hear it. The last time we were in Vicar St. for two nights, they were shouting up for it the first night but I hadn’t done it for a long time and didn’t have it ready. When we played it on the second night they all sang along to every word. We’ve trimmed it down to five verses for this album which will have about 12 tracks in all – we don’t want it to be too long. But it’s been enjoyable re-visiting these songs in a slightly different way and I think it’ll turn out to be something special.”

Trend Recording

Established as far back as 1968, Trend started life as a recording facility and during the ‘70s virtually every well-known Irish act, including Thin Lizzy and Horslips, passed through its doors at one point or another. It later grew to be better-known for high quality mastering, duplication and manufacturing of cassettes, videos, CDs and DVDs. More recently, it has returned to its roots as a recording studio while maintaining its core operations.
Trend Recording Studio is a high-spec facility based around a Pro Tools HD system, using the AVID Control 24 as its main console. It offers three fully air-conditioned recording spaces, including a live drum room and two studios purpose-built to provide the best quality sound. Trend Studios is equipped with all the usual mic suspects including Neumann, AKG and Sennheiser.
According to John D’Ardis, Trend founder and current chairman, they can now offer the complete recording package from beginning to end. “We’ve been around so long people think Trend is a bit of an institution, like Bank of Ireland,” he laughs. “We’ve only got back into recording music recently and it’s really beginning to pick up nicely. What’s been happening is people are coming in for other people’s sessions, like the one you’ve seen today, and it’s becoming a word-of-mouth thing. There’s really nowhere for a standalone folk group to do a session. And we have some nice toys for mastering and of course we can press CDs however small the run, including all the printing.”

Other gear at Trend includes Avalon 737SP – “Wonderful analog tube compressor and EQ that we use mainly for mastering and sometimes during recording,” according to John D’Ardis. “The 737 adds body and warmth often lost in digital recording”.
Also at Trend are the Universal Audio 2-610 Mic Pre Amps – tube pre amps by the legendary manufacturers UA. “These add a smooth distinctive analog tube sound and it also features on board EQ for fine tuning. Other equipment includes Neve 1073DPA Mic Pre Amps. Says D’Ardis: “These internationally renowned pre amps by Neve are considered to be the worlds ‘premier’ mic pre amp. They have been used on some of the most significant recordings throughout the last 40 years.” 
D’Ardis should know – a fair share of significant recordings were captured in Trend alone over the years. ‘The Farmer’, Thin Lizzy’s debut single in 1970 was just the first of many, as Trend provided a musical home to many of the our country’s greatest bands. The release of the previously unheard Lost Recordings of Phil Lynott, in conjunction with Hot Press, reminded the industry of that fact in 2006. Not only that, legendary international stars were clearly keen to work with the studio.

In ‘71, Leonard Cohen’s National Stadium gig was recorded by Trend for CBS Records. The first ever multitrack recording on Irish soil, it is the perfect example of their initial trailblazing existence – the installation of the first ever 16 track tape recorder in Ireland quickly followed in 1973. The ‘90s also brought much success, as they were involved with the Riverdance For Rwanda video, the biggest-selling Irish VHS of all time. Now enjoying a second lease of life in their state-of-the-art premises in Park West, Trend have found an expert balance between both old and new worlds. They understand the importance of moving with the times and technology whilst retaining their long-term devotion to the tried and true methods of the golden age of Irish rock. Long may John D’Ardis and his team continue to do so.

Contact Trend Studios on +353 (0)1 616 0600 or log on to www.trendstudioslive.com.