One might be forgiven for relishing in the recent sudden downpours of rain as it has certainly been super hot in the past few weeks – not least here in Phluid Records’ Painedemonium Studios, where Leo had the great pleasure of recording and producing another music video for Cameron Mills’ youth music initiative The Rock Project.  

This time capturing the audio-visual performance of young rockers Combustion from the Project’s Exeter arm, with their rendition of the AC/DC classic Highway to Hell.

The Band, whose members ages range from 13 to 17, has been blazing quite the trail on the west-country gig scene over the past few months.  

Undeterred by the unfortunate rain-out of the Coronation Festival the Band has gone on to perform at multiple venues and festivals across the region including The Exeter Phoenix, supporting none other than 80’s legends Carol Decker of T’Pau and Owen Paul at the United For Music event, alongside Adam Hinks whom we had the great pleasure of hosting and recording on the New Music For Life Stage at May’s Cancer Research UK Relay For Life here in Liskeard and melodic black-metallers Mordrake, who you may remember featured in our article here a couple of weeks ago.  

Our roving photographer Neil was on-hand to capture the gig in a series of phenomenal photos which you can find right now, along with many more awesome event pics, on our website at www.phluidrecords.co.uk.

Having just stepped off stage at the Exeter Phoenix a mere 12 hours prior, the five members of Combustion managed to cram themselves into Cameron’s rather natty Mini with their guitars, bass and a pair of sticks to make the hour-long journey to our Studios right here in Liskeard – arriving bright and early and about as full of energy as one might expect from any group of teens on a Saturday morning, let alone off the back of a huge gig with living legends.  Consummate professionals as they are, it took no time for them to settle in and channel all their collective energy and excitement of the last 24 hours into an incredible performance of the 1979 Rock classic.

Within a mere two hours they laid down their own energetic spin on the tune, tracking the final recording live together in a single take with just a few vocal overdubs added for that distinctive multi-layered vocal effect.  

Incredibly professional and tighter than a Tory public-sector pay rise, one would think the band had been recording together for years as they took to the studio like swans to water.  

From adjusting their individual fold-backs to balancing their overall sound throughout, the session went as smoothly, perhaps even more-so, than some Leo’s had to endure from far higher profile music industry veterans in the past.  

A testament to the great work being done by Cameron and his teams at the Rock Projects across the region, they were in and out in time for a late-lunch of local pasties… wham, bam thank-you man, leaving Leo with a fantastic multi-track recording alongside 7 cameras worth of Full-HD footage to edit, mix and master.

As with any process, it helps to start with the best possible quality and work from there, with the resulting recording being a prime example.  

The excellence of performance and capture meant Leo had light work ahead of him in producing the final audio and video.  Calling on over 27 years of mixing and engineering experience for multiple worldwide chart-topping artists and specifically his command of traditional analogue technologies and techniques, Leo managed to reproduce as authentically as possible the original mixing methodology employed by Mutt Lange at London’s Roundhouse studio in April ‘79.

The final video was premiered on last week’s Wal of Paine Show which is available to view On-Demand, along with the stand-alone video in its full-form on our website at vision.phluidrecords.co.uk.