Recounting: Rehearsal by Skegss

"My dog Blaze was there which was nice. My song Fade Away is about how much I love him and he was in my arms when I did the vocals."

Toby, drummer for Australian garage rockers Skegss, recounts the recording of their new album Rehearsal, produced by Catherine Marks and released via Loma Vista Recordings.

Skegss are Benny Reed, Toby Cregan and Jonny Lani.

"There are some songs that ended up on Rehearsal that were probably in the works before My Own Mess came out.

There was a week where we went and demoed the songs at a farm with Bunny Man, George and Chris Collins. A lot of the work on the structures was done there and Benny wrote some songs. The last track on the album, Lucky, was recorded there, the version that ended up on the album. The photo that is on the cover was shot at the farm by David Herrington AKA Bunny Man.

We went to go record the songs in 2019 but it didn’t end up happening and that was a blessing in disguise really because it gave us time to refine the songs, work on them and replace some… By the time we ended up at the grove studios to do the final recording, Catherine Marks was there and was helping us with sounds and some structural changes. She didn’t like how much we were drinking but she got used to it in the end and realised our best takes were done in the afternoon.

My dog Blaze was there which was nice. My song Fade Away is about how much I love him and he was in my arms when I did the vocals.

At one point Benny had his whole family in the studio to record Picturesque Moment, that was pretty nice.

Jon didn't want to sleep in the house at the studio for some reason so he was sleeping outside in his swag, but then a massive storm came through and all his stuff got wet so he was in the house for a little bit after that. He went back out to camp again and we would bbq every day out by his camping setup.

Then after a few weeks it was done. We had a big party at the studio and ate heaps of tacos then sat inside for about a year!

Hope you all enjoy. Thanks!"

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Rehearsal on LP or CD