Centred around brother and sister act, Eliza Rogers (Ruby Boots band) and James Rogers (Harlequin League), Perth based outfit Patient Little Sister has been accumulating fans at an ever-increasing rate after stellar performances supporting They Might Be Giants, Husky and San Cisco as well as a much-talked about showcase at the 2012 Adelaide Fuse Festival. Patient Little Sister has just released ‘Bit by Bit’, a luscious new EP full of feel-good, harmony-laden folk pop tunes. Singer/guitarist James Rogers tells us in his own words, how their second EP came together
The Recording session for ‘Bit by Bit’ started at RADA studios in West Perth with Dan Carol around June 2013. The project didn’t reach completion until the end of that year.
At first we wanted to record everything to tape. But the tape machine was out of action so we ended up going with Pro Tools. The way we did the tracking was that Eliza and I would be in the control room singing and playing whilst Alex (megaw, drums) and Matthew (Mullin, bass) played away in the studio.
After the initial bedding sessions we realised that the bass parts weren’t cutting the mustard and I had to redo them. I felt pretty guilty but it had to be done. We ended up getting Jason Bale to play bass for us and he redid my bass lines.
At the time we were meant to commence post-production, we were launching our debut EP, which had been recorded the previous year. This meant post-production would inadvertently take a back seat. Our time management really wasn’t very good. When we thought we had some time, there was a double booking, and when I finally had a chance to redo some vocal takes … I pulled a chest muscle opening a piano lid rendering me useless, I couldn’t sing or play guitar.
We originally wanted this EP to be a stripped back affair, but the initial recordings were lacking something. We added electric twelve string guitar to the tracks ‘Friend’ and ‘What a Fool I Am’, we added some analogue synth to almost every track and Michael Rogers (my dad) added piano and electric organ to the whole EP. The Vocals really needed a lot of attention, Eliza and I did simultaneous vocal takes.
Finally completing post-production was a relief, no single song actually came together too easily in the studio and a song that would sound great in the rehearsal room, didn’t always sound good on record. We were certainly glad we had this experience and that we came out at the other end with a new bass player. It was great working with Dan Carol and Matt Gio, they really had a knack for keeping a bunch of frustrated musicians calm. The mastering was done by William Bowden
At this point in time we are in pre-production for our third EP. We hope to have it out this year. So far I’ve been doing a lot of the engineering and producing myself which has been fun so far.
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