Clever little rat…
That’s right… There’s an un-invited visitor in my studio, or at least there was. Now I am not talking about someone who has leaked my new release date to the press, and no I am not going to write a song about it. The fact is I was hoping to have made an announcement about my new releases in October, but unfortunately I ended up otherwise employed in pest control. Now I am happy to do most things, but dealing with this un-invited visitor is way below my comfort threshold.
I was in bed and could hear scratching and movement noises coming from my studio. Normally I would dismiss this as birds on the roof, but this sounded different. Birds usually don’t hang about, and I don’t normally hear them in the dead of night. I needed to investigate.
The Wrong Clothes
It was 3AM and I unwillingly got myself out of bed to see what the unusual noise was. I donned my dressing gown and trudged up to the studio where I could hear the unusual noises. I also use the room for storage for the house as this also helps with sound absorption. When I got there, all was still and as it should be. I was not imagining the noises, so I sat still and waited for a couple of minutes to see if I could locate the noisy element within. I soon realised that I was not exactly dressed to hunt for vermin or a rogue squirrel.
A dressing gown (and not a lot else) is not exactly the go-to kit for pest control. I felt very vulnerable. I thought I would give it a few more minutes before I went back to bed. As nothing was happening I was about to raise myself from my seat to get back to bed when in the corner of my eye I saw the offender climbing very gingerly over a box at the side of the studio. This was no squirrel, or bat. It was a rat. My stomach churned, and I quickly went back to bed, ensuring the offender could not get out of the studio and into the house. Suffice to say I did not get much sleep that night. It’s amazing how the imagination goes into overdrive when an unknown element enters your world. I was not a happy chappie.
Definitely an un-invited visitor
I have never experienced anything like this before, so I needed to get a low-down on the little critters, and probably some help. First stop – YouTube – the font of all knowledge. There is a huge amount of information here. It turns out they are clever little so and so’s. Once they are in and comfortable, they don’t go away. I believe I have one, which is one too many. But it could be worse from what I have read. If there is one, then a family could be on the way. This was not an entertaining prospect. I also found out that exterminator companies are busy with this issue in other areas too. So, it seems to be a common problem. Maybe because their usual feeding grounds have been closed due to the current Coronavirus situation. Anyway, no help available today so I needed to crack on.
While searching out my unwanted guest, I tried to find it’s means of access and egress. When I started to arrange my studio, there was quite a lot of re-pointing and making good before I was able to do much else. Unfortunately, I did miss one or two gaps that at the time were not really apparent. So any gap, small hole, crack or any other repair that had to be made was remedied and made good. Unfortunately, not all faults are immediately visible. I laid a new wooden floor, and the ceiling is cladded with tongue and groove wood to cover underneath the roof. I have not as yet removed any of this and I really hope I can get away without doing so. There are plenty of places for my un-invited visitor to reside so if it needs to be done then it will be done.
Begone foul vermin
As it is, all seems well. No more noises in the dead of night. I am back working in my studio, but not without some level of discomfort. They are not the tidiest of animals to have around and I can safely say that I cannot see any evidence of their presence now so I am hoping it can stay that way. Although my neighbour has now said that they are experiencing noises in the night, and have been for a while before my issue started. I am working together with my neighbour to try to rid ourselves of the un-invited visitor. I didn’t catch it, but it seems to have vacated my premises. However, I am not convinced it has gone for good… but I have a very special set of skills… no lets not go there.
And now…
Writing, recording, producing and mastering really does take a serious amount of concentration and critical listening. And therein lies the crux. When listening so intently to all my instrument sounds etc. any background noise is distracting. I am not looking for perfection, but there are elements that one does not want to hear in a recording. And that leads me on to my next post, which I will be publishing very soon.
Not only have I been clearing out the vermin, I have also been cleaning up on my production and mastering skills. I was hoping to have my music ready for the first release at the beginning of October but for the aforementioned reasons I have not been able to achieve that. Also the overall final production was not pleasing. There were several reasons, which I will be going into in a bit more detail soon.
If you would like more info from me and notifications on my new releases, then please click here and join my growing mailing list. I promise I will not bombard you with a million e-mails. I will just be in contact when there is something going on with my music. Already registered? Then thank you for your support. The new releases will be coming soon.
If you are interested in discovering some of my new music, Reflections is a 3 track acoustic album available to buy and download from my store to get a flavour of what will be coming out.
Please also visit my YouTube channel for some videos – but please remember to subscribe. Your interest and support is very much needed and appreciated.
I will be posting again very soon about why I was not comfortable releasing my music as it was… As long as my furry friend leaves me alone.
Stay tuned and will speak again soon…
Noel.
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