This isn't a learning curve, it's a brick wall.

Ok, we're finally starting to get somewhere. When we started mixing, it felt like being given an Airfix Kit and told to build a fully-functioning Concorde. In a few weeks.

After feeling a little overwhelmed for a few minutes (read: days), things have started to work themselves out. As I said before, I was working on a song called Your Foot And The Floor - I spent about a week learning about how the bass and the guitar should sit together, about how best to work with my voice (if you're interested, i've found that compressing the hell out of it makes it sound a lot better, you gotta get round the fact that I can't sing that well).

Once I was happy with the way everything was sounding, I moved on to a song called Warm Glows and White Lies, which is track 2 on the record. This is something that I really wanted to get right - this will be one of those songs that ends up getting put out on compilations (those punk things we always get offered and yet seem to disappear after the first week..what is that about anyway?) so I wanted it to sound great. And I'm happy to report that it does. There are still a few things to do, and some decisions to be made about it, but I learned a lot in a short space of time and it was hard, but we're getting better every day.

So what now? Well, I am moving a lot faster through the songs now. In the last couple of days I have sorted out the main parts for a song called Fireworks, it has got a really contrasting intro that I spent like an hour trying different ideas out on last night, but the boring bits are done I think.

Tonight, I am getting Dancefloor sorted out. At the end of each chunk of work, I'm pulling together a list of what needs to be done to each track. Then it's just a case of working through all the lists til we're happy with the results. Unfortunately, some jobs take 10 minutes, others take hours.

I don't care how long this is taking, i'm not letting it slide now, we're close enough to taste it.

Max.