July 15, 2016

Home, UK

Today is the day my three daughters got their American Passports, and we spent most of the day in London at the US Embassy and then on to a museum where the children (and adults) could work off the frustration that always results from hours cooped up in an administrative building. I'm pleased to say it was a successful trip and I am now the only true Brit in my house. I'm also the only man. Being a minority is cool.This is a slightly odd week, in that four of us have returned home for 7 nights before heading back to the US, whilst our remaining two colleagues stay out in America and rest. Well, have fun more like it, but I'm sure there will be some resting involved. It was a no-brainer for me; the chance to spend the first week of the school holidays with my girls was obviously too big a draw to ignore, and I've enjoyed being out and about with them. Our workload in Salt Lake City is well-balanced next week, and we know the repertoire well, so there's not much need to work on music this week and I can relax a little!Pat will be joining us in SLC and we'll take the opportunity to rehearse with him as well as introduce him to some of our closest musical friends - The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, under the superb direction of Mack Wilburg. Because we'll be pretty much straight into recordings in September/October, it's so important to get Pat singing with us frequently so that he gets used to sitting inside the sound. It's more of a "feel" than anything else; you don't remember the sound so much as how it feels to create that sound, and replicating that feeling each night is the strongest way to achieve consistency of sound, balance and blend. It's great fun to experience the bedding in of a new singer, and it's a chance for each of us to look at ourselves and make sure we're doing our job as well as possible. There's always some fine-tuning that takes place throughout the group, and so far it feels good.We'll be announcing Pat's first concert very soon, with information as to where and how you can buy tickets. Watch this space!