Welcome…

Calamateur

I’m Calamateur, A.K.A. Andrew Howie.

Thanks for popping by… :-)

I’ve been writing, playing & recording my own music since 2000. You can find out more by reading my full bio here.

You can see, hear and buy all the music I’ve ever made here.

Please say hi, send me an email, connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, etc. and let me know how you found out about my music.

Sometimes I make noisy, experimental music, as is evident on my new album, ’The Quiet in the Land‘, which you can listen to / buy / share here:

And sometimes I make quiet, acoustic music, which is the kind of stuff you’ll hear me play if you come and see me at a house concert. Have a listen here:

 

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Recording – day 21

Recording - day 21

Today I finished recording the main vocal parts for all 12 songs that needed them (there are 13 in all, one’s an instrumental). Tomorrow I give the big fancy microphone back to my friend who I borrowed it from. The … Continue reading

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Recording – day 20

Recording - day 20

The first thing I did today was record the vocals for “The Vows and the People Who Made Them”, a song I wrote for, and sang at, Iain Hutchison‘s wedding a few years ago. I still like the song a lot … Continue reading

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Recording – day 19

Recording - day 19

Yes, a rare picture of yours truly. With a new haircut too. Aren’t you lucky? Today I recorded the vocals (no surprise there) for two songs – “The Post-Evangelical” and “Devices”. Both were subject to last-minute lyric changes. It’s amazing … Continue reading

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Recording – day 18

Recording - day 18

I didn’t have much time today but I managed to grab half an hour to record the vocals for “Lovely Thing”, a song I dreamt a few months ago. The lyrics are border-line cheesy (let’s face it, using the word … Continue reading

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Recording – day 17

Recording - day 17

Today wasn’t so much a recording day as it was a listening one. As you can see from my illegible handwriting, I’ve been listening back to each song and doing my best to objectively judge it as to whether it’s … Continue reading

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Recording – day 16

Recording - day 16

Writing this post a day late… I can’t imagine that will upset anyone too much I’ve reached a bit of a crossroads with these songs I’m recording and beginning to realise that a few of them either  aren’t good enough … Continue reading

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Recording – day 15

Recording - day 15

As you can see, I had a nice view out my window today. But despite the pretty scenery, it was a bit of a frustrating day. I tried recording vocals for one very new song called “Arab Spring” but I’m … Continue reading

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Recording – day 14

Recording - day 14

As I’ve said before, I’m not spending all day, every day recording this new album – just trying to find an hour or so here and there, slowly piecing it together. So don’t be surprised if, at some point, you … Continue reading

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Recording – day 13

Recording - day 13

What you can see here is five separate vocal takes for the same vocal part in the same song. Tomorrow I’ll scour through them, listening out for the best take, and then fill in the dodgy bits with bits from … Continue reading

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Recording – day 12

Recording - day 12

On my last album The Quiet in the Land I made a conscious decision to record things as quickly as possible, using whatever microphone was closest to hand and not caring at all about the sound quality. It was partly … Continue reading

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