FUN and authentic five-piece band, King Dinosaur, have recorded their first album the old fashioned way on a vintage 24-track tape deck machine writes Kat Archer.

King Dinosaur, who describe their genre of music as ‘Spaghetti Western Swing’ wanted to give their album a vintage sound and a warmth that captures the sounds and energy of the 50s and 60s, but with a modern twist.

The band is made up of musicians from across the Tamar Valley, Cornwall and Devon, with the band consisting of Matt Taylor (double bass), Paul Bullock (drums), Jacob Kodicek (piano), Alik Peters-Deacon (guitar) and Ed Hart (vocals and trumpet).

King Dinosaur was formed around four and a half years ago and since then the group have played gigs across the South West and have also played at festivals.

The band’s unique and high-energy sound, that defies genre, was inspired by the influences of jazz, latin, Mariachi, Eastern European folk and swing. The main inspiration was a musical genre called ‘Western Swing’ which came out of America in the 1940s explained group member, Matt Taylor.

Matt said: ‘ Western Swing came out of California and is a slightly different genre of swing. It’s slightly more influenced by country music.

‘We wanted to update it and bring it to a new audience.’

Last month, the band recorded their debut album entitled Walking, Dancing, Dying which they recorded on a 24-track tape machine to give their sound that authentic jazz/swing feel of the 50’s and 60’s. The band not only wanted to capture that authentic sound, but also replicate the old-fashioned process of recording on tape, replicating the likes of iconic albums such as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon and Queen’s A Night At The Opera that have also been made on these machines.

The Studer tape machine. (Submitted)

The group recorded the album at Middle Farm Studios, a residential recording studio situated in South Devon run by record producer, Peter Miles. Middle Farm studios is home to the iconic Studer tape machine. Recording on the 24-track tape machine has resulted in the production of an analogue album.

The album was recorded in one day on September 11 and took around five hours to complete.

Matt said: ‘We wanted to capture the live, vintage sound.

‘It’s got an energy. A bounce. We wanted to keep this energy.

‘It’s recorded very simply. We just played live in the studio and recorded the whole album in one day. We wanted to try to replicate the sound and get that warmth of the era of the 50s and 60s.’

Matt said the group made the collective decision to produce an analogue album due to the growing market for vinyl, as reports released this year stated UK vinyl sales are set to overtake CDs.

‘Our album would’ve never seen a computer, never been digitalised’, said Matt.

‘In the digital world, everything can be tweaked and it’s very different.

‘There’s something about vinyl that people have come back to. It’s a statement about you. A personal statement that decorates your world in more than a musical way.

‘We wanted to produce something that was beautiful.’

Recording is complete for the nine-track album consisting of all original songs with lyrics that take the listener on an exploration of life.

The next stage for the band is to produce a run of vinyl and CDs, however due to the expense of the vinyl production process, the group have set up a Crowdfunder to raise funds for the project. Individuals have begun pledging their money which will allow them exclusive access to the debut album.

Matt said: ‘This way, people are pre-ordering the album and we can send it out to all the lovely people that have pledged their money.’

So far King Dinosaur has raised £1,656 via the Crowdfunder page with the hopes of reaching their target of £3,500 that will enable them to produce a run of vinyl and a small CD run of tracks.

For more information about the crowdfunder visit: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/kingdinosauralbum#start

If you wish to see the band live, they will be playing this Saturday October 29 at Annabel’s Caberet and Discotheque at 9pm.