Andy Timmons records rare Lennon/McCartney song "I'm In Love" at Abbey Road's Studio Two.
Andy Timmons has released a new recording captured at Abbey Road Studio 2. His critically acclaimed 2011 instrumental power trio version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band received rave reviews from everyone from Beatles engineer Ken Scott to being named Top 10 Record Of The Year by the writers of Guitar World magazine.
He shares, “I was familiar with ‘I’m In Love’ as recorded by the Brian Epstein managed group The Fourmost for years. When John’s original piano/vocal demo from 1963 surfaced in the early 2000’s, I was completely blown away by how great the song really is. I truly felt The Beatles should have recorded it! My version is a humble attempt at how the arrangement might have been fleshed out by the Fab Four.
Andy Timmons records rare Lennon/McCartney song "I'm In Love" at Abbey Road Studio 2
Andy Timmons reflects, “Entering Studio 2 is like walking into a movie you’ve been watching your whole life. So much of my favorite music was created in that room, and it looks the same as it did all those years ago. It has a palpable magic. That said, once the awe sunk in, I had one of the best working days of my recording career. Someone asked if it was intimidating to work there, and strangely, I felt completely at home. Very much like I was meant to be there.”
Timmons was born in 1963, and grew up with a brother twelve years his elder. Every Beatles record was inches away and truly a significant part of the soundscape of his youth. He shares, “I’ve literally experienced all their music from the cradle to today. My earliest musical memories, and essentially my musical foundation, were all formed in the Sixties with their music. I can’t imagine life without them.”
The recording features Timmons performing drums, bass, guitars, vocals and handclaps. Background vocals were contributed by Matt Bissonette. Additional handclaps and acoustic guitar was performed by Craig Hopkins and Dennis Poggenburg. Lastly, some additional handclaps and the 1961 Vox AC30 was provided by Daniel Steinhardt.
The recording was engineered by Chris Bolster at Abbey Road Studios in London. Additional engineering and mixing by Casey Diiorio at Valve Studios in Dallas, TX. Mastering by Alan Douches at West West Side Music. The video footage from the sessions was captured by Dennis Poggenburg, while the clip was then created by Rich Sumner at Surfware Media.
Earlier this year, Timmons released a tribute to his guitar hero Peter Frampton titled “The Boy From Beckenham,”. The recording and video feature a collaboration between the two artists. At the time of release, Timmons shared, “Inspired. Joyous. Driven. Inventive. Determined. Thankful. Funny. So many words and emotions come to mind when I see Peter Frampton do what he LOVES to do. Easily one of the greatest guitarists I've ever seen. Despite incredible adversity, he plays with more intent, love, joy and wonder than anybody. I hope everyone who sees and hears this song or video connects with the music and feels the impact of how special he is from the archival footage as well as his outstanding modern day playing shared within one of the most meaningful recordings to me personally I’ve ever created.”
For more information, please visit andytimmons.com.
It’s almost over, but there’s still time to win! Enter Stompboxtober Day 30 for your shot at today’s pedal from SoloDallas!
The Schaffer Replica: Storm
The Schaffer Replica Storm is an all-analog combination of Optical Limiter+Harmonic Clipping Circuit+EQ Expansion+Boost+Line Buffer derived from a 70s wireless unit AC/DC and others used as an effect. Over 50 pros use this unique device to achieve percussive attack, copious harmonics and singing sustain.
Does the guitar’s design encourage sonic exploration more than sight reading?
A popular song between 1910 and 1920 would usually sell millions of copies of sheet music annually. The world population was roughly 25 percent of what it is today, so imagine those sales would be four or five times larger in an alternate-reality 2024. My father is 88, but even with his generation, friends and family would routinely gather around a piano and play and sing their way through a stack of songbooks. (This still happens at my dad’s house every time I’m there.)
Back in their day, recordings of music were a way to promote sheet music. Labels released recordings only after sheet-music sales slowed down on a particular song. That means that until recently, a large section of society not only knew how to read music well, but they did it often—not as often as we stare at our phones, but it was a primary part of home entertainment. By today’s standards, written music feels like a dead language. Music is probably the most common language on Earth, yet I bet it has the highest illiteracy rate.
Developed specifically for Tyler Bryant, the Black Magick Reverb TB is the high-power version of Supro's flagship 1x12 combo amplifier.
At the heart of this all-tube amp is a matched pair of military-grade Sovtek 5881 power tubes configured to deliver 35-Watts of pure Class A power. In addition to the upgraded power section, the Black Magick Reverb TB also features a “bright cap” modification on Channel 1, providing extra sparkle and added versatility when blended with the original Black Magick preamp on Channel 2.
The two complementary channels are summed in parallel and fed into a 2-band EQ followed by tube-driven spring reverb and tremolo effects plus a master volume to tame the output as needed. This unique, signature variant of the Black Magick Reverb is dressed in elegant Black Scandia tolex and comes loaded with a custom-built Supro BD12 speaker made by Celestion.
Price: $1,699.
Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine is one of the loudest guitarists around. And he puts his volume to work creating mythical tones that have captured so many of our imaginations, including our special shoegaze correspondent, guitarist and pedal-maestro Andy Pitcher, who is our guest today.
My Bloody Valentine has a short discography made up of just a few albums and EPs that span decades. Meticulous as he seems to be, Shields creates texture out of his layers of tracks and loops and fuzz throughout, creating a music that needs to be felt as much as it needs to be heard.
We go to the ultimate source as Billy Corgan leaves us a message about how it felt to hear those sounds in the pre-internet days, when rather than pull up a YouTube clip, your imagination would have to guide you toward a tone.
But not everyone is an MBV fan, so this conversation is part superfan hype and part debate. We can all agree Kevin Shields is a guitarists you should know, but we can’t all agree what to do with that information.