page_title: Dust (Peatbog Faeries album)
section_title: Recording
hierarchical_section_title: Dust (Peatbog Faeries album) / Production / Recording
caption_attribution_description: English: Cumbernauld College
context_page_description: Dust is the sixth studio album by the Scottish Celtic fusion band Peatbog Faeries, released on 8 August 2011 on Peatbog Records, although pre-release copies were released on 20 July 2011 through the band's online shop. Following the band's 2008 tour and subsequent live album, the band's fiddle player Adam Sutherland and drummer Iain Copeland left the band, replaced by Peter Tickell and Stu Haikney respectively whose experience helped stir the band in a new direction. The band set to record Dust in 2011 with longtime producer Calum MacLean, beginning work in Orbost and concluding work at Cumbernauld College. Haikney brought experimental fiddle techniques to the band, and similarly experimental production techniques, whilst the entire band experimented with various genres of music including African music, funk, reggae, ambient music and electronic music alongside the band's traditional Celtic fusion sound. The brass sound of previous albums also returned. The album was also an attempt to translate the band's live sound to studio work.
context_section_description: The band hired long time co-producer Calum McLean to produce the album who later described working on the album as "the best musical experience of [his] life." The band "wanted to bring a bit more of the live feel to the album and that [listeners] could also really hear the band playing". The music on the album had been "gathered up" for two or three years prior to the album, as the band wanted to be in a situation where they had "an excess of material to choose from". The melodies were written by band members Peter Morrison and Peter Tickell who would meet up in several locations on the band's native Isle of Skye, mostly in Orbost, and try out ideas, this location forming the first part of the album's recording. The band prioritised live takes as the starting point for the album.
  The new fiddle player Peter Tickell had been depping for his predecessor Adam Sutherland for approximately four years, so his turn as the successor to Sutherland was described as "natural" by the band. Tickell writes a large variety of music, which encompasses a lot styles, and the band had "masses of tunes to choose from" that he put forward. Tickell was also noted as bringing a standard of professionalism to the band having played as part of Sting's backing band. Stu Haikney replaced the band's long time drummer, Iain Copeland who left in 2010. Though Copeland's departure "left a big hole to fill", the inaugural run-through that the band had with Haikney left the band surprised to see that he had "written everything out" and thus he counted the band in and "off [they went]." Tickell's affinity with technology had already been used to great effect on the band's live performances and got "completely immersed" when it came to recording Dust. Tickell was noted for his experimental fiddle techniques, having been noted that he could not "stop buying effect pedals", but on the album, himself and producer Calum MacLean "got into recording things", with Tickell playing many individual notes on the fiddle and assigning each to a channel on the desk, followed by MacLean playing the string parts using the faders on the desk.
  The final takes of the album were recorded at Cumbernauld College. The band described their experience there as about taking them out their comfort zone and "having to work really hard." The band also asked the students to dress up in laboratory coats to look the part, but they were "also fast to learn and always willing to be helpful." The band enjoyed working the students and picked four of them to take part in the engineering process.   During the band's stay at the college, MacLean kept tabs on "everything that was going on." Each track was assigned a sheet where all the work that had been done to that track had been logged, so by looking at the sheet it was possible to see how far along the track had been developed. Members were not allowed to work on a track unless they had the sheet, so the sheets were "flying round all the different studios."
caption: Part of the album was recorded at Cumbernauld College (pictured).
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