Musicians save best notes for old bank

The West Australian Yesterday, the old bank at 214 William Street, Northbridge, was a mess but, from noon today until Friday afternoon, the disused building will become a makeshift studio

for 10 local bands recording live in front of passers-by. The Bank Notes sessions were organised by local record label Love is My Velocity for the 2009 WAMi Festival, an annual celebration

of Perth's music scene. Spokesman Matt Giles said he expected about 30 fresh songs to be created across the three days of "fast and rough" recording with veteran Perth

producer Laurie Sinagra. The mostly inexperienced musicians will hope that the old saying about pressure creating diamonds comes true. The new tracks will be mixed quickly and uploaded as

free downloads on the Love is My Velocity website only hours after each session. Mr Giles said Bank Notes aimed to give emerging musicians the chance to record in an unusual environment.

"The idea is to make sure the bands we like — often low-budget young people who aren't the most organised or well-funded musicians — produce recorded material," he said.

"It doesn't have to be perfect." He hoped the public recordings and free downloads would help the bands, which include Astral Travel, Boys Boys Boys, Carbuncle and Extortion,

connect with new audiences. The first local artist entering the Bank Notes pressure cooker is Abbe May, who added a third WAMi award for best female vocalist to her collection this week.

"I'm going to try a little bit of random experimentation tomorrow and also use a few old faithfuls to back me up if it doesn't work out," the bluesrocker said yesterday.

May, who recorded her most recent CD in a few days, said that knocking out new material in the space of a few hours was "a little crazy" but she welcomed the challenge. "A lot

of the most memorable and classic songs were often done on the last take because they had a bit of space on the reel, so working with that in mind we could have some gems pop out of

here," she said. Bank Notes runs from noon today until 3pm on Friday. The 2009 WAMi Festival runs until Sunday. SIMON COLLINS MUSIC EDITOR GET THE LATEST NEWS FROM THEWEST.COM.AU IN

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