Christmas time is here again - awesome. Big thanks to all the folks who chose to get their recordings and video projects produced with me at BB Studio. It’s really appreciated and I’ve enjoyed making them all come alive.
Many people ask why the business is called Born in a Barn - the truth is that it’s really got nothing to do with any little babies or mangers. When I set the studio up in 2004 it was cold - real cold - and I figured the phrase ‘were you born in a barn?’ was very appropriate but underpinning this was the notion that many musical artists’ careers would be born in a barn using my studio set up - and they really have.

However this year, my own bands and music has been born too.

High Command was an adventure in going back to live drumming with a band and we recorded a superb 4 track EP, played 3 gigs and made a tongue-in-cheek video. Now the band is on Winter Break (not my term!) cos Greg the guitarist is in Thailand avoiding the chill in resplendent self-indulgence!!

Cup of English (aka COE) is a new venture which started as a studio production group, for 4 individuals with similar tastes and interests. This has grown now to a 5 member band and we intend to start live rehearsals in January. The band make trance/hypnotic indie-based music (loosely) with a good few twists as you might expect from something I get involved with. To date we have 6 tracks on the Lemon Soul EP, which is growing fast into an album. This is an underground group and it’s been a wonderful refreshing project to immerse myself in. Can’t wait to get it out there - but you gotta wait!!

I myself had a great year outside of the studio with the highlight being running my 1st marathon, in Dublin. I trained for this in 8 countries and ran just a little over 1000km, plus raised over €1,200.00 charity cash for the ISPCC or ChildLine Ireland.

Enjoy yourselves this Christmas to the max, but take a bit of time to reflect on the year you have had and other people you know who may be less fortunate.

The music industry goes crazy this time of year with all the gigs and shows. Be careful enjoying yourselves.

Who knows what is coming next year with Brexit?
One thing’s for sure - there will be plenty of stuff to write songs about!!

But lastly ….. here are some big baubles!