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It's always great to catch up with John Rivers about what he's been up to at Woodbine Street Studio in Leamington: though he's been so busy that finding an opportunity has taken quite a while.
He managed thankfully to spare me time this afternoon to fill me in on some recent highlights which might be of special interest to "Hot Music Live" readers.
Satsangi and the Eyes of Isabel are two bands we regularly feature who he's looking forward to recording very soon, along with completing the debut album for the Dirt Road Band: all musicians he enjoys working with & taking on new challenges (he has particularly enjoyed working with Steve Walwyn on developing a new guitar sound using a Leslie speaker).
He also highlighted working with Daniel Barrie (and the streaming numbers of tracks they've previously recorded together have been huge) and Chilean band The Cruel Visions (and if you are wondering why a band would travel that far to record, it apparently was his productions for Love & Rockets which attracted them).
Most poignantly, John played me two unreleased Cakehole Presley tracks: obviously they cannot be shared currently but they are stunning & I hope that John's attempts to get hem released bear fruit so you get to hear them too.
We don't often get to report on the film soundtrack side of music, but it's great to report that "All Roads Lead To Home" whose music was produced & mixed by John, won the Audience Award at the 2023 Birmingham Film Festival (and former Woodbine Street team member Eddy Hewitt even has a small part in the movie as well as performing on the soundtrack).
I asked John for his tips on artists to look out for, as I usually do, and this time he suggested Alex Norris with whom he's recorded five tracks to date & this may grow into a full album. Alex has only been playing guitar for a little over a year but has greatly impressed John: you can check out his track "Nothing At All" via this page, https://woodbinestreet.com/solo-artists pending its release.
