THE CROW DIARIES | A-Murder-Of-Crows

A MURDER OF CROWS - mp3s & Video releases

The first time A Murder of Crows got together and recorded at the Beet Mohua - more or less, just to see what transpired - it was an old song (written by Jason, Carl & Mike Rimu), during the winter of 2021.

'Dirty Coal' came from a jam at Jason's house on Abel Tasman Drive, Takaka. He came up with and drove the Am guitar riff . Carl took the USB home and formatted and added lyrics to the instrumental composition, turning it into a song, of which the eventual Crows version was largely faithful to the original demo.

The song title was suggested by Mike Rimu. It was based on the (then) New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, having imported low grade, sub-bituminous, ’dirty coal’, from Indonesia - more than a million tonnes of it in 2020.

Meanwhile, with great irony, our higher graded domestic coal, not kept for our own denizens, was shipped off to China.

While the date of the original jam is not known, the first completed demo version of Dirty Coal was created on December 28, 2021. The musicians involved (as per the recorded version) were Mike on bass, Carl on rhythm guitar and Jason on lead.

A full four years on - when Carl. Levity and Alan decided to 'lay down a track and see what happened' - Dirty Coal’ had been adjudged the most polished of the old collection of demo's. Structurally, it was a sound piece of rock/pop, ready to go and not a lot to it.

Recording began in mid-October, 2025, at Alan’s ‘Drum Booth’ and was finished at 'Beet Mohua', before Jason laid his lead guitar tracks down. The files were transferred back down the road and Levity, Alan and Carl spent a couple of hours at 'Beet Mohua', mixing in Jason's guitar.

Levity's 'master' appeared on 13 December (‘LB MASTER 002’). Under the temporary band name of ‘Gerald’s Elephant’. Carl made a video for the song and put it up on his YouTube channel (@piccoloattic). Black and white footage was used, from a 1957 NCB Mining Review of Ashington, Northumberland (the biggest coal mining village in the world) and a 1955 clip on the opening of the Woodhead Tunnel, which provided a streamlined rail link between the east and west of industrial England.

Alan's father, a Scotsman, was a coal miner in the North of England, during the time this footage was filmed.

SPELLBOUND

SpellboundA Murder of Crows

00:00 / 03:32

**temporary mix only

Alan called a pre-production meeting for the Saturday evening of July 25, 2026 and he, Carl and Levity sat chatting around his fire for a couple of hours.

Al and Levity spent a couple of days in early August, setting up the 'Drum Booth' to start recording and on Saturday, August 8th, the trio spent a couple of hours, running through Carl's composition, 'Spellbound', then recording a demo (called ‘scratch’).

The idea was that this would be track one on their proposed ‘LP’ - so that the first thing a listener would hear from a debut band, would be eight bars (later changed to four) of drums.

Somehow, in what can only be described as a 'happy accident', Alan - looking bemused that Carl wanted the song to sound like Australian Crawl's ‘Reckless’, or some such epic - wondered if he'd been sent the right demo.

He played back on his phone, what Carl had forwarded, but he had somehow sped it up by 50% (a new feature available in Facebook messenger at the time).

No-one could work out how it had happened, but liking the change of pace…ran with it.

On August 11th, Carl added a 'scatting' part toward the end of the song, on his home computer.

8th August, 2026. Alan, at home in the 'Drum Booth', laying down the drum track on the 'scratch' version of Spellbound

The following Saturday (15th), Levity, Al and Carl, once again convened in the 'Drum Booth', with the aim of recording the proper drum track for Spellbound.

Levity (and Alan) had added a bridge piece between the 2nd & 3rd verses and Carl recorded his scat pieces. The recorded session was then shipped off to Jason, for him to work out his guitar parts.

Levity put the bass track down for Spellbound on August 22nd, in the 'Drum Booth' and the following Saturday, Carl laid down the vocal track proper back at 'Beet Mohua'.

Alan and Levity had done a bit of work mid-week on the musical side of things. Levity replaced his bass track...then tweaked it some more.

On Friday (28th), Alan had ‘acquired’ - on ‘long term loan’ a Fender telecaster - and quietly suggested that Carl replace his rhythm guitar track, plating it through a Bugera amp.

So around 7pm on Saturday night, Carl did that. The tone changed the timbre of the song entirely.

It was left it there, for Levity to come back on Sunday, pick up and make a rough mix, which he did and later that afternoon, then emailed the rest of the band a 'premix'.

Levity putting the bass down at the drum booth on August 22nd.

Carl laying down the rhythm guitar track for Spellbound on August 29th in the 'Drum Booth'.

During the week, conscious that new material would be required for the album project, Carl began work on a song entitled Pushing Through the Rain (which Alan described as "Lennon meets Bolan"). Likewise, Levity had come up with piece called The Future of Joy, inspired by Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart.

The Crows met at Jason’s home at 3pm on September 5th and had several runs through Spellbound, so that he could work out some lead guitar for it. He had come up with some swirly guitar for the intro and soaring lead toward the end.

There was some genuine chemistry in the room.

"At times, I thought the roof might come off," Carl later stated. "Not so much the volume, with sheer explosive vitality. I wondered just how good it (Spellbound) could become?"

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A Murder of Crows rehearsing at Jason's home, on the afternoon of September 5th.

On September 12th, a second session was held at Jason's for him to continue working on his guitar pieces, which he later recorded in the 'Drum Booth' on Sunday, 20th. On the 24th, Al and Carl joined Levity at 'Beet Mohua' and - as they had done with Dirty Coal - the trio went through all of Jason's recorded parts and formatted/incorporated his guitar into Spellbound.

Jason in the Drum Booth, recording his guitar pieces for Spellbound. 20th September.

Sunday, September 27th - Jason's 61st birthday. Wednesday, September 30th, Alan's 65th birthday.

Levity was busy mixing and mastering. Alan had arranged for Peter Kearns (in Christchurch) to add some keys. He told Alan he'd get back to him by the end of the weekend, but he had returned a masterful set of stabs and atmospheric phrases by the afternoon of Friday, October 2nd.

The following Friday, Levity's first master (MASTER 002) was in. Followed soon thereafter, post an amendment to the snare, MASTER 003.