In a year when creativity has taken on new forms, one thing stands out.
Getting back to basics. So recording an album on a 1969 Ampex 440, analogue 4-track tape machine, somehow makes sense in a global pandemic.That’s exactly what folk, blues influenced singer-songwriter Miguel Rios to do in July 2020.

But, this ain’t your average story. There’s

In a year when creativity has taken on new forms, one thing stands out.
Getting back to basics. So recording an album on a 1969 Ampex 440, analogue 4-track tape machine, somehow makes sense in a global pandemic.That’s exactly what folk, blues influenced singer-songwriter Miguel Rios to do in July 2020.

But, this ain’t your average story. There’s something haunting here too.
Miguel’s songs reveal his childhood experiences growing up on a commune, in Far Northern Australia. It’s classic song writing craftsmanship with stripped back arrangements, all captured in live performances onto tape.
The artistic vision - make an authentic, honest and timeless sounding record.
And if you’re going to embrace the reclusive nature of the times....

The album is aptly titled, Slaughterhouse Road.

Slaughterhouse Road is an album 20 years in the making, that was its gestation, the birth was an intense 10 days. Fours days to do the initial tracking on the 1969 Ampex half inch 4 track tape machine,in my Gravel Road Studio on the outer edge of Melbourne, Australia.

We were doing a full moon recording, something my Producer and Engineer Greg O'Shea had told me about years ago. He said, in response to one of my ramshackle demo sessions, whereby my 1969 Akai M8 tape recorder developed an oceanic sound in one of its channels, this sound would come and go but as the session progressed it became more present until  the two track machine became a 1 track machine, and still, there was something far more appealing about this piece of analogue hardware than the thought of going digital, an option literally at our fingertips. At the end of the session Greg remarked I reminded him of stuff he had read about Neil Young. I took that as a huge compliment! Greg went on to say next you'll only want to record on a full moon like Neil does, my immediate reaction was to say what a brilliant idea, lets do that! In the pre production phase I didn't actually think we would be able to include this celestial monthy event, but when I started booking dates, everything lined up for the weekend of the full moon, it was truly magnificent timing...