Rick Brewster, co-founder Angel & motionless lead guitarist, was intrigued to hear about this "Studio in a box". A machine that could record masters digitally and was not much bigger than a brief case. He had to have one, or as he put it "The band had to!"

This "studio in a box" was a catalyst to The Angels recording Skin & Bone. Rick Brewster took to the task with both hands. No sooner had he taken delivery of the Roland VS880 multi track digital recorder than he had other Angels hunched over this machine laying down guitar tracks and spitting out vocals. The machine was not ideally suited to recording drums but that problem was easily overcome. Rick Brewster was producing a new Angels album.

Call That Living was the first track completed and on a whim the band offered it to 2MMMFM who were relaunching themselves in Sydney. They loved the song and put Call That Living on high rotation. Adelaide, Melbourne & Brisbane radio stations picked it up too and all of a sudden The Angels were back on the airwaves with a vengeance. The fact that the track was only available on DAT and never commercially released seemed a minor detail as the band toured nationally on it's strength including it's first tour through the Northwest of Australia.

The trip through the Northwest was special. It was extraordinary. Not only because of the reeking frontier spirit of the area but because it fired up The Angels creatively. Firstly Invisible Man was written in Broome and then Northwest Highway was conceived during a soundcheck at Tom Price. Both these songs remained in the show until they too were captured on the hard disk recorder. Northwest Highway is written about the band's experiences on that tour. It was also in Broome where The Angels & Shock structured a new recording deal.

There was a strong gut feeling that this was all leading somewhere. The momentum kept building. It was now time to go back through the catalogue of demo tapes, recorded soundcheck jams, individual strum-alongs and la-la scat vocals to see what had the potential for further development. Some exceptional jam sessions from the ABC at Gore Hill provided a gold mine. (For two months the band had rented an office inside TV rehearsal room 4, and everyday had gone in and jammed - everything had been taped)

With the best jam sessions selected The Angels took to the task of refining arrangements and writing lyrics. With that mostly done they booked into Darling Harbour Studios Tour Room to lay down drums tracks. The tour room is a cool place...a good vibe... it's built from old theatre props but it does leak and it's big
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windows facing the Powerhouse Museum make it so bright you have to wear sunglasses. The Angels brought in all the necessary equipment (including a 24 track analogue tape machine) and played along with drummer Brent Eccles as he laid down 13 drum tracks. They were then transferred to the "studio in a box" and the band went back to working in Rick Brewster's home studio "Denman Lodge".

It was during this crucial time of committing to final parts that the band really questioned whether it should or should not take the songs down a new path, to represent The Angels in a different way, bring in some different instruments, some other sounds. It was the topic of much discussion, and argument. Tracks like Skin & Bone, Wasteland and Invisible Man went through a complete metamorphosis but in the end reverted to a rootsy approach with little more than two guitars, bass , drums and vocal which is simply the essence of what The Angels are and what they are good at doing. Skin & Bone you might say.

To record guitars successfully at his studio Rick (lead guitar) had brother John Brewster (rhythm guitar ) & Jim Hilbun ( bass guitar) bring him as many old amps, instruments and guitar gadgets as they could find. At times the studio looked like the best kind of second hand shop of much loved musical instruments and things that you could wish for. Rick also had to build a special box within a box to allow for high volume guitar recording that didn't interrupt lessons at the nearby college nor the day to day functioning of his family.

The lead vocals were next. Doc Neeson had cut only half the vocals at Denman Lodge when he and Rick suddenly decided to return to Darling Harbour just for a change of scenery and also Rick's wife Mandi wanted to kill them. Over the next two weeks all the remaining lead & backing vocals were cut with Brewster reckoning that he had gotten some of Doc's best ever recordings to tape (disc actually). On the down side the "studio in a box" did manage to erase an entire song. Roland said "sorry" but we didn't know if they felt sorry.

Shock's David Williams & Andrew McGee came to the studio to assess what they were about to release. They were confronted by Rick Brewster & Doc Neeson standing in front of a 1971 National Panasonic CD4 Compatible Discreet 4 channel Quadraphonic sound system with Honeycomb Woodgrill & Joystick, which they were using as a foldback system for the authentic home sound. The tracks sounded a little furry but there were smiles all around.

The last process involved and probably the most critical was the final mix down. This was done expertly at Studio 301's Phoenix room by Kevin "Caveman" Shirley who Shock had flown in from New York. There were some anxious moments as the "studio in a box" spat it's parts back on to analogue tape to synchronize with the Darling Harbour drum tracks.

It Worked!

It was done. The fucking thing was done!

Track By Track
What The Angels say about Skin & Bone

Northwest Highway
* It's one of the rare times The Angels have written so specifically about an Australian place.
* Rick wrote the riff for Northwest in a hotel room in Newman,W.A. and played it to John whilst driving through Hammersly Gorge en route to Tom Price. Then it was developed more that day at a soundcheck jam (Rick, Jim, Brent) at Tom Price's Spinifex Hotel.
* Lyrics were then written en masse in a hotel room in Karratha (another first for The Angels)
* The Angels have since re toured the whole Northwest region and on that trip got stranded in the desert for 16 hours
* The lyric "bus surfing road crew" actually happened
* Didgeridoo courtesy Charlie McMahon, at Doc's insistence

Skin & Bone
* Song inspired by a great guitar riff from Rick and first version "Laydown" recorded with John
* Was originally played acoustically & Brent heard the demo down the phone & wouldn't shut up until it was written.
* Called "Lay Down" then "Mail Order Bride" but finally settled on "Skin & Bone" when Brent had a crack at the one note 'football war cry melody' he's so good at.
* Doc came in with a set of lyrics about Alien Abduction...being taken into space then dumped back to earth as "Skin & Bone". One of his less unusual ideas.
* Middle eight vocals Jim Hilbun

Caught In The Night
* Virtually a completed song presented by Jim Hilbun when he rejoined The Angels in 1993
* For a while Jim sang this song in The Angels live set. It went down great.
* Rick & John resisted recording "Caught" until they heard Doc's final vocal.

With Or Without You
* This was the last song written for the album. It started with an idea Jim had whilst working on "Movin" On". Rick knocked it out in an evening after buying his white SG and it was literally recorded a few days later pieced together from the original jam.
* John says his guitar part is a first take blow and that there are a few mistakes on it (how can he live with himself?) but it works.

Invisible Man
* Written in Broome from a riff of John's inspired by Broome's famous Camel Trek on the beach. He took the riff next door to Rick's room and then after a couple of hours with Doc it was almost there
* Refined the next day (after a few chord changes from Jim) at Port Hedland then put straight on stage that night at the Pier Hotel in the outdoor boxing ring. Right from the first night it went over great with live audiences
* Doc later reworked the verse lyrics into a dark urban tale of inner city one sided love (funny how these things start!)

Wasteland
* "I don't know if we have ever re-written, re-arranged, changed the parts so many times for 1 song. I think there were moments when we could have thrown it in the bin but we persevered and in the end we have what to me is one of the stand-out tracks" - John Brewster
* This song has been around for a while and with all it's versions could make one whole album...but you shall will be spared that.
* Jim still wants to use the original middle 8 (recall all CDs immediately)

What The Hell
* This song came from a jam session at the ABC TV studios in Sydney
* The ABC sessions also spawned a bicycle time trail obstacle course, a badminton court, a sideshow alley and office chair slalom! (the music was good too)
* The whole jam was transferred to disc where it was rearranged and added to.
* Jim's original guitar performances remain in the final mix
* Rick Brewster plays bass
* Demo was sung by Jim in fact the whole song was first written whilst Doc was overseas. Upon his return Doc rewrote the verse into a surreal commentary on the hypocrisy of "the princess" and "the new world order"

World Stops Turning
* Brilliantly sung by Jim Hilbun
* Another song that came from an ABC jam
* Jim & Rick swapped instruments for the original jam which sounded good so we left it like that
* Song rips it up live

My Light Will Shine
* This track was written about the time that John Brewster & Jim Hilbun rejoined The Angels in 1993
* An old riff and an old melody finally saw the light
* "To me this is the best song in this style we have written since "Love Takes Care" and "Be With You" - John Brewster

Soul Surgeon
* From the ABC jam sessions and originally sung by John but better with some lyric changes and new vocal from Doc
* John got a chance after many years to feature his sensational harmonica playing
* Re-written & re-arranged after the drums were recorded, a feat which would not have been possible on anything but a hard disk recording. Much holding of breath when the original drums were edited to sync up with the guitars & vocals
* "The lyric offers the listener a choice- a reminder of a big night out or a postcard from Dante's inferno" - Doc Neeson

Call That Living
* A very definite Australian working class theme to this one
* Track was released to radio only in 1996 and got high rotation on rock stations around the country
* This was the track that inspired The Angels to get stuck into the album
* First lyric written on the drive between Cobram and Albury.
* Kills it live

Movin' On
* Rick wrote the guitar riff at Gotham Studio whilst "Redback Fever" was being mixed. Was originally called "Inside the Rain" and was almost buried for good after that demo.
* A fresh version featuring a great Doc vocal with lyrics written mostly by him (and John) about his positive belief in future love.