27th June 2008
The Super New MJEX Blog is alive!

It is the place to be:

http://messiahjandtheexpert.wordpress.com/

24th June 2008
It’s the Remix

Party People.

So the album is basically done & dusted. We will now just spend the next 2 weeks working out the final track listing (hugely important!) and then we will head off to England to the wonderful Guy Davie and get the album mastered. The album will probably have 12 tracks and be around the 45-50 minute mark.

So during the tail end of recording the album, the Irish band Dry County (soon to change their name) asked if we would do a bit of a remix swap. They wanted to remix the MJEX tune “The Boys Have Had Enough” while I decided I wanted to remix their song “Stop, Proceed”. It’s fair to say both bands were pretty busy for the last while & both of us should have had this done yonks ago but finally we are both finished and are releasing them on our myspace sites free to download. I did two mixes. The first is my attempt at a remix. It is meant to be a quiet lullaby/electro banger. The second mix is a mash up with the MJEX tune “Abandon Ship”. Will try an upload the Dry County remix ASAP. Anyway hope you enjoy them. To download the two FREE remixes go to:
www.myspace.com/itstheexpert


TUNE OF THE DAY: Jape – “Strike Me Down”

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9th June 2008
A plentiful harvest

Hello There Folks,

Believe it or not may well have an album in the bag! We got back from mixing last Monday with ringing ears and overloaded brains and now it turns out, a bunch of tunes we’re very bloody happy with. On the 22nd of May we headed up to the same place we mixed Now This I Have to Hear. It’s a house in the middle of nowhere in Ravensdale Co. Louth. We pretty much immersed ourselves for ten days and tried to make our tunes grow wings and fly. Towards the end I was convinced I had lost my mind but it was worth it….. It looks like we’ve done a more than adequate job. The album covers much new ground is extremely varied and sounds immediate and urgent. Still digesting the mixes but it seems we have succeeded and taken our songwriting on to another level. When it is released later this year I hope you all agree! Love and best wishes.

mj

TRACK OF THE DAY - AFTER THE LAUGHTER - WENDY RENE

19th May 2008
There ain’t a problem that I can’t fix, cause I can do it in the mix.


Party people.

So the end is near (hopefully). MJEX are going away on Wednesday for 12 days to mix our third album. We have been busting our bottoms over the last while to finish this record. As far as I’m aware over the last four weeks, not including Sundays, I have been recording people or scoring for instruments for the album every day bar two. That’s a lot of stuff – trust me. We still haven’t really picked all the takes for some of the songs but this will add to the excitement during mixing. The most fun recording wise happened last Wednesday when we recorded the brass section for the album. It turned out brilliantly and the guys were amazing. We got them to record on 5 songs but god knows how many will actually end up on the record.

We have also finished up most of the songs for the record now bar the odd little bit so hopefully in two weeks time the record will be completely mixed. If all goes well we will then listen to all of the tracks we mixed, and pick the ones we think will make the best overall album. I can’t bloody wait! We will then start getting into all the artwork stuff and then the mastering of the album. I have no other news as I have just spent pretty much every spare second of my life the last few weeks in front of a computer screen working in Pro Tools. I have been getting back into Capri Sun drinks though. They are great. So hopefully the next time one of us is writing one of these post/blog things the album will be finished. Fingers crossed.

My track of the day contains great lyrics such as:
“I had a good time at the party when everyone had left
I flirted with a girl in sign language 'cause she was deaf”
Check it out.

TRACK OF THE DAY: Jens Lekman – “It was a strange time in my life”

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30th April 2008
Delomazing

Party people.

So things have been bloody mental the last few weeks. We have been up to our eyebrows with recording. In the last couple of weeks we have completed a couple of new tunes. One is a rather epic scene setting story track titled “The Predicament”. It’s difficult to describe musically, but is built around a relentless piano line and swirling strings backed by fast thumping drums and bass. The relentless piano feel works well with the predicament the character in the story has I think.

We also put the finishing touches to a song that had been in the pipeline for yonks. It’s a song called “Geography” and we finally finished off the chorus last week thanks to the vocal talents of the Delorentos. We asked them a while ago would they sing on the song but were trying to figure out when we could record it together. So last week they popped up to Labbey Road for the evening. After a bit of banter we chatted about the song and how to make it as good as possible. Kieran recorded his stuff first and then Ro laid down the harmonies. It was such an easy collaboration as both the lads are pros and were really professional. I couldn’t help but think throughout the session how alike we were in many ways. They seemed to have this secret code between them just as MJ & I have, except ours is presumably far more immature. I just can’t imagine many people in the world discussing some of the lewd content we do, but if there is then the world is in a much healthier state than I thought.

We have also been finishing up a couple of other tunes. One track has been causing us problems as we recorded two versions of it so far and neither is right yet but third times a charm! Turd time is a completely different thing but can also be charming, especially if you’ve been holding it in for ages. So things are going well for the new album. It’s a building block thing and all that. Hopefully recording a brass section soon, which should be ace.

On a final note I went to see Bjork in Belfast this week. Holy fuckballs she’s amazing. It was such an amazing show. Great songs, spectacle and performance. I also saw an old man cycling down the road this week with his arms out waving them around as if he was flying – it was great.


TRACK OF THE DAY: The Last Shadow Puppets – “Meeting Place”

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