Album recorded by Weird Decibels
Mixed at Steakpie Studios 3 by Pablo 77, with help from Weird Decibels
Mastered by Pablo 77

Pabs, singer of Weird Decibels tells the story of Weird Decibels 1
If you are new to the band this is the album you should listen to first.

The law of diminishing returns. The longer a band or artist is together the weaker their output becomes, apparently. Seventeen years in, we write one of our best albums. When you record music it is impossible to be neutral... Let me give you a brief story of how we made WdB1.
There was a big gang of friends of which I loved being a part of. We often drank until the daylight sharing our laughs and our stories. We were a close knitted pack it was truly unique that so many people could get on so well together. On the 12th of January 2009 the tragic death of Dave Broon changed everything. There are few larger characters than Dave and the party stopped when he left. Many of us took stock of our lives and made big decisions, new beginnings. We're all still friends of course and nothing will change that. When we see each other in our smaller gatherings the laughs are still there albeit without Dave's legendary humour and can of Stella.
We had started writing around the time of Dave's passing. It had a profound effect on the way I write lyrics. I was fed up writing about myself, so I focused on the world around me and created characters to tell my stories. There are some dark songs on this album, themes of class divide, murder, atheism, abuse of power, corruption and bereavement. I'm not ashamed to write of these subjects, music now is glossy, churned out pop. I long for a new movement and I seriously thought these times of austerity would deliver us some great music...
We wanted to write as many songs as possible for the Weird Decibel 1 sessions. We ended up with 15 tracks of which 12 made the final cut. We recorded the drums over two sessions at the practise room, which was bloody freezing. Derek nailed most of the songs in one take. All the recorded drums and guide tracks were ready for our trip to Ettrickbridge where we hired a lodge, perhaps the best we've hired so far.
We headed down to the borders in Greg's brother in law, Iain's VW van. It truly set us up for a fantastic week, I say fantastic now but then... It was not the care free recording experience that nostalgia wants us to remember. There were problems. Day one was spent trying to find a mysterious clicking that resonated throughout the lodge and all my gear. I could not record with this electric pulse through the music. We switched off TV's, Fridges, Microwaves, anything remotely electric, but still we heard, click, click, click, Greg went out for 'some fresh air' I joined him, pissed off with progress so far. As I stood admiring the fantastic view I heard the click again. My ears led me to a outdoor lock up in which there was the offending clicker... An electric fence. Given we were in the middle of a working farm it made sense. We switched it off, the clicking stopped and I watched the bulls in the field next to the lodge with a bit of Pablo apprehension.
Bass was laid well by an on form Greg, pity he spent the morning trying to fix the wiring in his battered instrument. Terrible Tuesday was well named. I struggled with the guitar, take after take, patience running low. Much of my vocals recorded at the lodge were never used. Derek fell ill and lost two days, his catering was immense though and when he recovered we all had a tremendous laugh. Stu had a pick whirlwind frenzy when he lost the head with his ever complicated solo's. We pushed hard on the birth of this album, it was a long labour.
There was much to love about this lodge though. The rooms sound beautifully spills onto the guitars and gives them life. It was a fantastic week in all. However the album was nowhere near complete.
Back home vocals had to be redone in the practise room and this gave us more time to get the sound right. There were a few corrections needed to my guitars.
Then there was the lovely Jemma Burt who has added so much to this album, We decided we needed some new sounds on the record and she beautifully laid some violin on Wonder and Power, raised Pslam with the organ and added some keys to Steel. I hope Jemma is more involved in W dB 2...
I lost a summer with the mixing (It was raining), I'm obsessed about achieving the best sound but it was getting ridiculous. Also some editing decisions were causing tension, then we had to pick the running order.
Weird Decibels 1 has turned out well. It was a graft. A labour of love. I'm devastated that Dave will never hear these songs. He listened to everything we ever did. He might never hear Weird Decibels 1 but he is on the record. His spirit is in the music and the lyrics. I will forever think of Dave when I listen to this album and I'll listen to it loud.