Doing our Housework (the ironing is delicious)

Way back when after the first session on the songs with Pacey and Gertie…Somewhere between scotch number 3 and 5 (where I do some of my best work) I earnestly turned to Pace and said ‘all I want is an amazing unique album of really strong songs. And to play kick ass shows… the likes of which have never been seen before’. Pace assured me that these ambitions were achievable. And Pace knows things. Apart from hitting the skins in the stunts engine room, he’s worked in the industry, always seems to “know the guy that does the thing” and has likely forgotten more about music than us mere mortals will ever know. And he has just the right mix of intelligence, patience, empathy, and musical nous needed to gently steer me from the wildly impractical idea to the possibly achievable one. For example, the stunts feature film screenplay I wrote will be sitting in the bottom draw for the time being. He’s a good egg our Pacey and the best sounding board and friend a sensitive, singer, songwriter needing constant reassurance could ask for.

And “know the guy who does the thing” Pacey did. The guy was award winning producer Matt Fell. And the thing was someone to turn our earnest demos into the aforementioned amazing, unique album of really strong songs.

Thanks to lockdowns and restrictions, gigs were something you read about in stories so rather than honing the songs at gigs, the album it was decided, was the first part of my ambitious 2-point plan we were going to channel our energy towards.

A meeting with the esteemed Mr Fell was arranged. And we weren’t laughed out of the room (bonus). In fact, Matt put us instantly at ease and if he was to be believed, was really excited about the project. We scheduled in two weeks at Love Hz studio and set about working on the songs, so they and we were cherry ripe to record. Heck I even got voice coaching from the best in the biz, Leigh McCrae to try and tame some of the rougher edges of the rough diamond that is my voice.

When studio time approached, covid looked almost certain to scupper our plans like it has done to just about everyone else’s over the past couple of years. But we scraped in and wrapped Housework just three days before the announcement of a harder lockdown which would have made it practically impossible to do what we’d just done. Score one for the little guys.

It’s impossible to put into words what working with Matt Fell was like. I’ll just say the man is a genius and a machine. Highly recommend. 5 stars.

We always knew that Racey was something special… but we were all floored by how much she rose to the occasion. She killed it dead. And Pace smashed through drum day with brutal efficiency all the while sending text message updates like he was rolling out a new IT system to various stakeholders. And it was done (and can’t be undone). stunts had an amazing, unique album of really strong songs. That album is called Housework.

Well not quite yet. Matt mixed and mixed. And emails flew back and forth with our feedback to finish the mixes. Then they were Mastered by the magician that is William Bowden of King Willy Sound. We shot photos for the album with the incredible Lisa Tomasetti (I really am running out of superlatives… might be time to invest in a thesaurus). And we worked with the most talented designer on album designs.

I promptly celebrated all of these achievement by having a violent seizure brought on by a yet to be discovered brain tumor that had been along for the ride all the whole time. I’ve always been a massive fan of Ian Curtis… but surely this kind of emulation of one’s heroes is unhelpful. Frightening stuff to be sure. But it’s out and I’m well. 

Are you still with us our new conceptual/hypothetical fan? We’re almost there I promise. If you’ve made it this far then all I can say is ‘wow. That’s some kind of effort’. Drop us a message on socials saying ‘the ironing is delicious’ and we’ll know you passed the test and we’ll get something sent out to you as a thank you for your impressive commitment to this long and meandering story.

How soon is now?

Which brings us back to me sitting in front of my computer talking to you our still very conceptual/hypothetical fan and inviting you to join us on the rest of the Stunts journey up to the release of Housework on out August 11 and beyond.

It’s now 116 days away so we’d better get to work. Not to mention pulling together a kick ass show…the likes of which has never been seen before’.

Much to do.

Lots of love,