Still here and still working....

Ok so I haven't updated this in about 6 months, but give me a break I'm trying to make a record here! Things are still going really good. I've been working on an album now for the better part of a year which seems strange in one way but in another way the time has flown by. I've gotten 10 years of education out of 8 months of recording. In the meantime the studio has grown in terms of gear. Josh has added all sorts of new awesome things and had a certain pride in his eye when he finally filled his rack all the way up!

We have tracking on all of the songs now. At this point we're just going through them and adding finishing touches, missing pieces, etc. After that is mixing, then onto mastering and then we'll have us an album. For little people. The songs have been fantastic. I'm still amazed we've been able to create some of the things that we have. The first song I wrote for the album which was an ode to food called "Mix it Up" we have effectively turned into a Burt Bacharach-esque magnum opus. We've got one of Jeff's songs called Doing the Math that rips itself right out of the Stax catalog. Horns, Steve Cropper guitars, B3 organ....the works. Nothing is left out on these songs which I love. Music a lot of times to me is about the detail.

I was thinking last night how long I've been wanting to create a lush, over the top, Jellyfish or Beatles style power pop record and I realized that I have. It's just that we're singing about dinosaurs and ketchup.

One of the best parts is that we've gotten help from so many people...some from in town and some from out of town. My friend Satish all the way up in NYC has provided horns on several songs, one of Jeff's friends from Auburn has laid down some AMAZING r&b vocal tracks, we've got Jeremy from Bishop Black singing, Mike Kilpatrick playing some drums and singing some rockabilly. We got Jamie from Toyshop and Tim Tucker and the Uh Huhs playing drums for us. As previously mentioned, we've got Tasha Jones singing on two songs, and most recently we've been working with our newest member Whitney who's sang lead and harmonies on several songs. She's even gigging with us. I say us, but I haven't gigged yet. I missed the first gig which was on Halloween, but I will be there for the next one which is right around the corner.

We also have one Mr. Andrew Sharp from Toyshop who will be hooking up with the Tambourine family soon and give us a sampling of his musical genius. I'm trying to type that and sound all cool like it's no big deal rather than evoke the mood of about to pee in my pants with excitement which would lean closer to the truth. I'm even getting on Amanda's nerves. When the phone rings...."if that's Andrew Sharp...you know...my keyboard player...tell him I'll call him back. Which I'll need to do. Because obviously it's band business. Since we're in a band together." I'm sure Andrew would not approve of me saying such nonsense. Particularly being called someone's keyboardist. But his playing and writing are so brilliant, it's just hard to act like a complete doofus. I bought one of Andrew's CDs back in 1993. Anyways....the point of this entire post was that I was going to post some pictures.

Josh's bass rig

















The Bassman...with the jewel light glowing fiercely. And is Jeff Sharp getting ready to audition for the Pink Spiders?





















I'm a terrible photographer but I dig on this one.


















Everyone should own a Tiny Terror. They are vicious. We have abused it on this record.




















Me, Jamie and Jeff jamming. I think of how much great music Jamie and Jeff have made together and I'm humbled. Jeff is doing a rock star pose, but it looks more like a plea for us to PLEASE TURN IT DOWN!!!



















This was a picture not only to show off the awesome Cascade Fathead microphones but also to make a point to Josh that he did not have enough headphones for us. We'd asked several times, so Jeff thought maybe he needed a visual cue. I forget what smartassness Josh pulled on us after that but it once again served to remind me not to attempt to outsmart Josh.


















Great mic. We've done lots of vocals and acoustics with it. I'm a bit baffled by the positioning of the windscreen though. That's going to be a tight fit and they will need a hand held mirror to see the lyrics.



















Couple of me and Whitney singing. Or.....Whitney singing and me being in the way


















Note the Microtech Gefell microphone. It's a great mic but I give Josh a hard time about having Nazi paraphernalia in the studio.



















DO..NOT....BOTHER THE ENGINEER!!


























Otherwise he will attack you and the ONLY thing that can withhold his might are strategically placed microphones and windscreens.


















I thought this would make a good picture but all it really does is provide the puzzling question....why are these mics set up like this?



















Engineer/bossman Josh giving what appears to be instructions to Jeff. What is this some kinda job?



















Hats and headphones.




















All for now folks. I'll update you again soon. Hopefully to tell you that we're done!! We're so close!

Onomatopoeia...I don't wanna see ya...speakin' in a foreign tongue

So......still hard at work. I realized how long we've been working on this thing recently as I saw an email from one of our first sessions yesterday. That's ok though because while I can't wait for a finished project, there's nothing better to me than working in the studio, and I couldn't have better people to work with right now. Josh is putting up a new building right by his place that will be used for studio work. I keep insisting that he has all sorts of amenities for Jeff and I. Snacks, beverages, sofas, HD television, a DVD collection with the Muppets box set included, etc. I am excited about it though and I fear my family will miss me when I move in.


The latest song we've been working on is a tune of Jeff's which I believe is called "In the Morning" but I refer to it continually as "The Onomatopoeia Song." Lots of sound effects and silliness. In working on some percussion we wanted a stomping sound and as I'm brainstorming....waiting for that stroke of genius to hit me and everyone to be impressed and reward me with Oreos and dry roasted peanuts, Josh's crazy ass is under his porch with a bunch of expensive condenser mics and Jeff is stomping on wooden boards. Those dudes are crazy. Then Jeff actually made me overdub it with drums. Me. With drums. I'm the most rhythmically challenged human being ever to pick up an instrument. So in one way it was terrifying but I think I pulled it off.


One of the songs we're working on is called "Shake it Up" and it's a rockabilly song so I've got to brush up on my Scotti Moore chops. Which are extremely difficult but I love doing, so hopefully I'll be able to come up with something.


Josh is getting really good at adapting microphones and preamps to given situations. This is obviously not something I'm good at as I own 3 mics and 1 preamp, but when you have an arsenal like Josh's, for me it would be more confusing, but he's really getting it nailed out. A lot of people tend to think only in terms of vocals and voice styles, but Josh is like "oh..ukelele....we'll need the small diaphragm condensor for that." It makes work and studio time move at a much quicker pace. Things like that I often take for granted when recording. I think that's a huge difference in recording in a professional space vs. a home studio. Someone who knows what to set up, how far out to set it up, how to patch it in, etc. I can do those things...it just takes me about a day.

Ok computer.

This week's session of recording the children's album was a bit tedious as it involved getting pretty deep into some tracks and making minor adjustments until they were sonically crammed into a box of awesome. This happens. It's part of making records. Not the most glamorous or inspiring part. Fortunately I know the least about this sort of doctoring out of me, Josh and Jeff so I can wander around and play with studio toys. An example of what I'm talking about....my breathing between phrases is a little on the gaspy side. That's not something you want on a recording. Anyone who's heard my song "High Top Girl," go pay attention to the vocal track. It's horrendous with the breathing. The phrases are so long I have to rush air in when I'm through singing. Josh showed me the technique of eliminating these sounds from a vocal track. I've yet to do it to "High Top Girl" and probably won't until I re record it properly. So you can imagine going through and finding little clicks and coughs and such nonsense through tracks isn't particularly exciting but helps out the overall sound. And you can believe that Josh will hear it. He caught some guitar fret noise the other day out of about 10 tracks playing simultaneously. Some may disagree and think these things add a human quality to the recordings, and to some extent I'd agree with you, but if you have breathing or fret noise, and you can hear what it is, it's a lot different than what usually happens which is that you just hear some buried noise that is unidentifiable and distracting a listener from the song.

It makes me think of all sorts of studio trickery that goes on. Those things are what make recording a form of wizardry. Seeing as how we're reasonable people though, let's go with "alchemy" instead. I heard Tom Petty on a documentary this weekend talking about working with my musical hero Jeff Lynne who is a very precise one track at a time fellow, and the Heartbreakers were pissed at Petty because they liked recording like a garage band. Petty said he liked making good records, but he didn't care how they were made.

I like the sound of that. I know a guy very deep into recording and he has a firm belief that all of the digital nonsense I indulge in should be considered fraud. Cutting and pasting and pitch correcting and erasing blemishes instead of retracking, etc. I find this attitude backwards and rather infuriating and for me it's always been about getting what is in your head into a tangible product. Who cares how you do it? Sometimes I need a piano on my song and I'm not the world's best piano player so I may do several takes and splice them together. I do that on any instrument. But you get this caveman mentality of "if you want to have a better piano track learn to play piano better." No. YOU go practice. I'll be making good records. What if I die tomorrow? Do you think my son would have liked the idea that he doesn't have any recorded instances of his father because I was woodshedding and "getting ready?" I have a song on this album called "My Shadow" and there's very much an African feel to it that makes it sound like it belongs on the Lion King soundtrack. I wanted African chanting done choir style. Well I don't have the money Paul Simon does to track down Ladysmith Black Mambazo and bring them in, so I did it myself. Screaming and hollering and drenching myself in reverb. And it sounds good. In fact it sounds really good. I was a bit nervous about it at first but Josh and Jeff liked it and so far everyone has liked it and I've heard no indications by anyone that it sounds like me doing it.

But it's more than that, and I never realized it until Josh pointed it out to me in a conversation one night. There is nothing that you can do, or that we do on a regular basis in Pro Tools. Splicing, cutting, pasting, pitch correction, etc. that they haven't been doing from the beginning....they used to record slow and speed tapes up to make singers voices sound higher. The famous solo from Skunk Baxter on Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" was pieced together from a million takes. As was the solo from "Comfortably Numb." And I hate to disappoint all of the guitar dweebs out there, but Jimi Hendrix's guitar didn't actually play backwards. It was a studio trick. One that couldn't be recreated live. Elvis's echoed voice on the old Sun records... The sound that MADE him Elvis and defined Sun studios....was done through trickery. In fact it's called "tape echo." You can't do it on your own. It's simulating an echo which is non existent in nature. The studio is my favorite place to be. And it's because of this trickery, alchemy, magic, or "fraud" if you will that makes it so exciting for me.

Lastly I will say that human discretion is what makes all of the difference. And what a great example when Josh was mixing down some Brian Wilson style vocals all three of us had tracked over a song called "Swing Swang Swung" that Tasha Jones had done the lead vocals on. He cleaned up all of our harmonies with some slight pitch correction here and there. Then he went to do the same to hers. Because her pitch was not perfect, as most people's aren't. But he realized it wound up sounding worse when he did it. On pitch or not, the girl's voice is really beautiful and pitch deviations do not take away from the performance at all and in some ways enhance it. I was really proud of Josh as a producer and engineer for him to say "we'll leave well enough alone" rather than "everything needs to be perfectly on pitch" which is something I think a lot of people may have done. It just reaffirms to me that people using computers to make music is not the same as computers making music. To me it's every bit as organic as sitting around a campfire beating on rocks with sticks, blowing into harmonicas and singing folk songs.

Tangerine Tamborine

So I'm pretty deep into this project to just start blogging of it now, but it's been a great expereince and I wanted in one way or another to document. So, I'm working on a children's album. The brainchild of the musical genius of Jeff Sharp (Whitey Herzogs, Tim Tucker and the Uh-Huhs, Girlfriend Voice). Most of you who have known me a while will know my long time music playing partner Josh Lovvourn whose name I've never spelled correctly. He has a nice studio setup and had been playing with Jeff a while when they started working on this project and asked me to be involved. I've always liked working with Josh and have always wanted to work with Jeff so it was a pretty great opportunity for me.

So far we have a lot of songs...some finished, some almost finished, some not even close. But we've been pulling in people from all over to come out and help us out. We've had guys in playing trombone, drums, percussion, etc. We had Tasha Jones (Tim Tucker & The Uh-Huhs, The Tasha Jones Band, Ben Trussell) come in the other day and put some vocals on a couple of songs. They turned out really great. She is an amazing singer and really fun and relaxing to be around.

The education I'm getting from just recording with these guys and learning their knowledge sets, from Josh's ability to place a microphone, to Jeff's ability to hit an instantly recognizable but still original melody every time he picks up an instrument is inspiring to be around. I get nervous and fumble around when I have to play or sing in the studio. Things I can just throw out with ease under normal circumstances, and a little less ease on stage, I just wilt when it's time to record it. 4 simple notes, and I sound like that rock monster from "Never Ending Story" trying to play piano.

Josh is truly an engineer. He moves around this stuff like he was made for it. Jeff Sharp is truly a producer. He'll do the most bizarre shit I've ever seen. He'll make Josh record something completely stupid that he knows we're not going to keep. And when you see him do it you realize the brilliance behind doing it. You're doing "something." And those things inspire other things. You brainstorm. A bad idea is no reason not to go forth with it until you have a good one. Good lessons for me to learn in the studio and as a writer as well.

I'm so excited about all of these songs. We still have a good ways to go, and I'll continue to update this blog about it.

Superdave and Jeff Sharp rehearsing a part:

















Josh and Jeff not working:

So...I guess I'll continue this blog

Instead of making a new one. That seems so wasteful. My album in a month album is complete. I'm having a hard time deciding whether or not to re-record lots of these pieces through some proper gear and with people more knowledgeable than myself and release it as its own record as well as re-recording some old songs of mine in order to have an "EP" of sorts or whether or not I'll just make one album of blended material. If I did that it would be a long ass record. But a track listing that would look something like this:

1. Whisper Room
2. Dimly
3. Out of Sunshine
4. Out of Sunshine pt. II
5. Jerry
6. High Top Girl
7. She Sure Was Strange
8. Umberella
9. Play My Guitar
10. Said it Yesterday
11. What makes the world go 'round
12. Shell

See? It needs some paring down I think. Either way I'm going to get to recording them before too long. But in the meantime I'll be working on another record, which is what I decided to open this blog back up about. ::See next post::

Pencils down please.

I stayed up....very late. I made a mad dash to the post office after getting enough sleep to function. So the CD is off. I will post it tomorrow right here if you'd like to listen but I burned a CD and listened to it and some of the stuff got truncated. So I'll make a couple of adjustments to make sure the songs are on there in full. That was my fault.

I'm kinda glad it's over and kinda sad. One thing I realized I can do is work and make music and write words and music that I can be proud of. What I realize I'm not very good at is mixing, and EQing and other such technical things I need to work on. I'm also not good at doing every single thing in the world myself. I would love to hear this record one day with real musicans playing on it. I had my friend J come over the other evening and lay down some piano on top of mine for the song "Dimly" as well as adding some mega ELO string sections on it. It was nice just being able to get that. My friend Ian had been providing bass for me and his recording rig broke in the last week so I had to play some of the bass myself. Also not conducive for good music. And all of the flat and sour notes throughout the process? As I listened I was going to go back and repair them but I got a MASSIVE cold this week! I could barely talk much less sing.

Don't get me wrong I'm not whining or making excuses for my music, I'm quite pleased with what I've accomplished, even if it brings out (as you can tell from past posts) some neurosis in me. I'm just thinking I'd like to hear some of these songs...hell all of them, executed in a manner that's more fitting than the constraints of time and ability. But I did it. I was supposed to have 35 minutes. I stretched to have 31, but I have 11 original songs, and the rule was 35 minutes or 10 songs.

Some songs are 5 and 6 minutes. Some are 1 and 2 minutes. I decided to quit letting things hang me up on what is and what isn't a song. If I have a verse and a chorus of a song and that's all the lyrics I need to say what I'm saying then why not just move on and call it a song?

I have some powerpop, southern rock, metal, some trip hop, country, jazz, yacht rock, pop,....not because I'm trying to be eclectic. Because those things are all at least a small part of what I am. Nothing was overly contrived in terms of the styles of the music, in fact quite the opposite, as I get frustrated by not knowing who I am or what it is I do musically.

So my track listing....as I started the project off with the ambition of 5 songs...some are there some aren't. But there's a lot more.

1. Calling Blue
2. Dimly
3. Dorian Grace
4. I feel Much Better
5. Out of Sunshine
6. Shell
7. While You Stare
8. Out of Sunshine part II
9. Whisper Room
10. Evil in June
11. What Makes The World Go 'Round

I will post a mediafire link for everyone tonight or in the morning.

It occurs to me that I make pretty music.

And often hate myself because of it. Half of the time I spend trying to make music is to come up with something pretty. The other half is spent despising the prettiness of it. Sometimes to the point of trying to make it ugly. I make fun of ugly music a lot. Because I can't really make it I suppose. The Ramones, The Velvet Underground, AC/DC, Nirvana, their music wasn't pretty right? On the other hand Brian Wilson's, Paul McCartney's, The Davies Bros.....their music is. I'm not sure where I fit in there. I guess all in all, all music has all shades. I mean let's face it is there anything more beautiful than "Candy Says?" And Wilson can descend into unlistenable chaos at time. But I always feel like I'm straddling that line. Does it even matter? I don't know but it's something I obsess over to the point of it being unhealthy. Who has it perfect? Who balances all of it...making music that's sometimes so beautiful it's transcendent and sometimes so ugly it's uncomfortable to listen to but at the exact same time? David Bowie for me is the first to come to mind. So am I feeling like a failure and wanting to jump off of bridges because my music isn't as awesome as David Bowie's? WTF?

Speaking of awesome music, my friend Sean has finished his RPM record. It's better than anything I've ever done and in my opinion quite brilliant.
here's his blog
http://leatherbackbulletin.blogspot.com/

and here's a mediafire for anyone interested in listening
http://www.mediafire.com/?dm3gvt2zw4n

So another problem that has me severely down...I think one of the Jagger/Richards team said once about how music is an organic experience. I make these records. I make them myself. And in some weird way I get absolutely nothing out of them. Even when I get fantastic musicians I admire to play on them it's usually all but done and I'm like "here, here's how it goes." There's no interaction with other humans. While I'd like to say it doesn't have an effect on the music...and maybe it doesn't, but I think it does, and more importantly it has an extremely profound effect on the attitude I take towards making music. I think we probably need people to share it with. But maybe it's just me. And maybe after a little sharing I'd get pissy and take my ball and go home anyways.

I'm sick. I'm going to bed. I'm going to try to post a song tomorrow called "Me and the Devil" Yes, obviously lift from Robert Johnson and I'm sure I'll change it. Geez.

People who can't play jazz

have something in common with me.

Here's my new song. It's called "What makes the world go 'round." But that's kind of a shit title as well as being a mouthful so if you can think of something more clever drop me a line or add a comment.

It was based on an exercise which was to write a song whose first line is a question, whose last line is the answer to that question, and the lines in between are how you went about finding that answer.

It doesn't really fit in with the 'album' So maybe I'll put it last after my doom metal outro and it will be like "Her Majesty" on abbey road.

Anyways..here it is.

What Makes The World Go 'Round

Out of Sunshine

Hi folks. I have a sample up. It's for a song called "Out of Sunshine" A pretty new song and not originally slated for the record, my friend Ian Miller had played bass for me on the song "Shell" and being that Ian defines everything that is rock and roll, punk, and metal all rolled up into one, I decided to write something a little more shaking for him to play on. So the original idea was to write a Westerberg style garge rocker. To me it wound up sounding like the Stones. To Ian it sounded like Tom Petty. I know I compare everything I do and everything everyone else does to everything else. I can't really help it though. Just how I was made.

Right now the song clocks in at about 5 minutes which is good for time slots getting RPM done in time but bad for the fact that I wouldn't normally sit through a 5 minute pop song without being bored. So I'm probably going to pare it down a tad.

Here's first sample.

Out of Sunshine

Wasting time.

I haven't blogged much because I went out of town last week and have been pretty busy in general. Also frustrated with the creative process. Although those are the times I guess I should be blogging. But this is my first time doing so, so I forget. I worked on a song...I had it all in my head. The lyrics finally started to take shape. I got the perfect drums for them. Everything clicked. Then I woke up....listened to my beats and played the song. And realized I thought it was shit. So I started over. Lots of wasted time there. I probably should have moved on. I guess I'm incapable of 'moving on' when something is bothering me like that though. I have a new version of my new song in the works though. Tomorrow I will see if I can't have a rough recorded. It is called "Out of Sunshine." At that point I will probably move onto the song "Out of Sunshine part II." Which incidentally has very little to do with part I. And I'm not smoking. Which means I've gained weight. Which means I'm pissed off, which means I'm tired from exercise and hungry from starving myself. How was your week?

So...the good part in all of this is that while I'm way behind on material...material is COMING. Like it really hasn't before. I can sit down and stare at half filled in stanzas on paper and words and rhymes and sentences, and cohesive thoughts don't seem to have as much trouble finding their way from my mind to the paper. This has always been the worst part of songwriting to me. I mean lyrics are weird y'know? Everyone gets something different out of music and I get that. But I have people that come to me and say "a song is only as good as its lyrics." I understand people feel that way. I just think they're wrong. The story of Pet Sounds is not told in the lyrics. He could be reading the ingredients to Cheeze Its and I'm pretty sure the emotional impact on me would be identical. I'm neither the musical master Mr. Wilson is nor the lyrical master Mr. Dylan is or any bizarre combo of those two from Pete Townsend to Tom Waits. But I DO have the goal to make my lyrics not embarrassingly bad enough to take away from being able to enjoy the song as a whole. I spend an awful lot of time making sure that doesn't happen and yet I still don't think of myself as a songwriter.

Am I? I write songs? I have no idea. Songwriters to me are people with these things to say that can't stay in their head that must find their way to the paper. Poets with burning souls. Or maybe (maybe not) more superficially, geniuses like Diane Warren or a host of Nashville penners that can knock back #1 hits in their sleep. I don't know what a songwriter is. And I don't know why I write songs and am convinced that whatever the answer is, I'm not one. Which becomes bizarre in thinking "what am I"? My guitar playing went to shit years ago. I was only told I had a decent voice by someone a couple of years ago so I'm still not completely comfortable there. My piano playing definitely won't win any awards. I can't properly mix a song with more than 3 instruments. But in the end, I somehow overcome odds and make music that I'm really proud of.

Is that weird?

Channeling my inner Jeff Lynne

To say I'm a fan is to put it mildly. Anyways, this is the first clip of Dimly. It started out as an overwrought Butch Walker style ballad but as usual ELO winds up creeping in. I'll have more soon. I'm working way too slow on this stuff. But one time saving exercise is that my friend Satish has said he would chart out some orchestrations for me on this song. I mean...it's gotta have strings and such right? Wouldn't make sense otherwise. There's an ego part of me that wants to do it, but it would add about a gabillion years onto my time. This way I get to collaborate with a guy who's brilliant anyways, and get the song done more quickly.

Anyways..here's what I got so far. Just vocal, drums, and piano right now

Dimly Clip 1

Thinking about air a lot.

There's a little dude sleeping right across the hall from me. So most of my recording is done in some way or another via direct inputs. I'm an embracer of technology to be honest. I love old stuff but I love new stuff too. And while we can argue the merits of how much better a guitar would sound through a marshall cabinet pushing air into a microphone, without the technology I'm using I wouldn't be able to do any of this at all. Because I can do it in silence. But I was watching the 'Classic Albums' episode on Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life" Watching those horns. The last thing those notes hit before they were committed to electronics was air. Those notes WERE air. My notes are never air. Therefore I'm plugging in my loud ass amplifier tomorrow and sticking a microphone in front of it and raising hell. I have no idea what my success level will be.

I've taken a couple of days off, and then got promptly back to work. I wanted this album to be melancholy. But now I'm just so wallowey in depressing music, I'm just not so sure. We'll see how it goes.

I'll put clips up soon of the new song I'm working on. It's called "Dimly" Stephen King said he doesn't care for adverbs. However, I'm not so sure I care for Stephen King.

Frequencies and elbow room.

Ok...So I was a little cranky last night. And I don't really even hate Metallica as long as it's before 1986.I've worked some more and I'm going to put it aside for now and this will be my as finished as it's going to get until album finishing time version. Although I started sending it to my RPM buddies and all I got was shit about how horrible the mix was. Why can't I mix? I mean..it's not like I'm completely void of an ear or musical ability. It doesn't make sense. Whenever my friend Josh mixes for me I feel he probably gets frustrated.....he plays many instruments but is by nature a bassist. So I think he doesn't understand how the rest of us (normal people) get so crowded in the mid frequencies. So I'll have organ, piano, acoustic guitar, 2 electrics, 3 harmonies, a lead vocal all taking up the same spot. And in his mind (and he actually understands mixing) he's thinking "where do you want all of this to go???" And I'm just thinking "GET IT IN THERE!" So maybe it's not mixing I'm bad at. Maybe it's arranging. I don't know. I like dense sounding things, but I also like sparse sounding things. Here is my song.

Shell

First fer real song

It's called Shell. And I've been working at it mercilessly for about two days. So needless to say I fucking hate it. The clip you will hear is one of a drum loop, a scratch acoustic guitar and vocal track where I forget the lyrics. and two out of harmony harmonized guitar lead tracks. Which you may think sound ugly but is the only thing I can seem to do to not make this feel like an Air Supply record right now. What in the hell is wrong with me? And when at first I attempted to make a cool harmonized guitar part, I thought it would sound cool because other people who do it sound cool. When Brian Eno does it all fuzzed out on "Another Green World" it sounds badass. Especially combined with the piano. Not so much for me. It sounded like Metallica. And the whole thing has this Dorian like sound so everything I play reminds me of Carlos Santana. Metallica or Santana. I can't decide which is worse. But when Verlaine and Lloyd do it it's awesome. When Tweedy and Nels Cline do it it's awesome. I've already failed at making this song what I want it to be but I have to trudge forward I suppose and deal with what I have. This is why I decided to make the harmonies kind of 'off balance'. I'm contemplating a distorted doom/stoner rock bassline on it. Just to De-YachtRock it some more. I have more done to it as of this writing. Tomorrow I hope to be completely done and move on and wish myself better luck with the next one. Stupid time limits. *kicks ground* So anyways...here it is.

Even the nights are better.

Oh...and happy Mardi Gras, folks.

Ok, so it sounds like self indulgent horse shit right now.

But wait until you hear the REST of it. Then this will seem totally minimalist. ;) I went a little Tom Waits on percussion and banged on desks and Kiss garbage cans. So anyways..here's the soundclip you can judge for yourself.

Intro

This is the piece I've been working on and pretending I'm Brian Eno. At first I was going to try to use it as a backing track, but I think I'm going to use it as sort of an introduction. There's more to come with it, but I've gotten a little stuck so I'm going to go ahead and move on to my song Shell for which the backing tracks will be a horrid nightmare of recording a million guitars. Or..at least a few. But all in time and in tune with each other. Which could prove challenging for a fellow such as myself.

Marital Visual Aids

I thought I would share some pictures with you. Most of these blogs don't have pictures. Piss on a bunch of words.

This is my Desk. From which I work. Or...surf and chat with people online. Notice I purposely have recording software up so as to give the appearance of business. Cubase, for anyone curious. And as you can see I'm using KRK V6 powered monitors, Miller High Life and freshly ground coffee with a splash of half and half, Burt's Bees lip balm, and a ziplock of pills for when it rains.

















Guardian Ace keeps all of my things safe. Namely coffee and beer.

















Mic stand and my Audio Technica AT4040 condensor mic that I use for about everything because it's the only condensor I have. My friend Josh who helps me not be a complete blundering idiot when it comes to making records has an amazing collection of microphones though that I'll possibly utilize come vocal time. :) The keyboard is a Kurzweil K2000. I dig a lot of the piano and synth sounds from it but I'll be using it probably as much as a MIDI trigger during these recordings. Also observe the cool ass reel to reel at the bottom that I have no idea how to use. It was my old man's and even as a kid I thought it was the coolest looking thing in existence. If anyone has any good ideas for me to use it during this process....even just to make racket with, please feel free to share. :)

In the rack is an FMR Real Nice Compressor and Real Nice Preamp both housed in a Funk Logic rack, and a Furman power supply. My Mesa Boogie Studio Pre should be in there. It's at someone's house. I should get that before I start tracking guitars I suppose.



Alright..for the hardcore dweebs....I'm using an RME Multiface (it says Steinberg Nuendo Multiset....apparently that's how they label them in Canada. But Canadians are fucking crazy anyways.) So you'll just have to take my word for it. Since the Multiface does not have the obscure and esoteric and super expensive feature OF A SIMPLE FUCKING VOLUME KNOB and I have a baby across the hall at 3am....and yes there have been many upsets....I decided to get the Presonus HP4 headphone amp. I didn't need a headphone amp. Just a volume knob. But the headphone amp is coming in handy. Maybe I'll use the other 3 one day. But it has a monitor mute button on it too so I don't have to shut down my powered monitors every time I go back and forth from headphone mixing. Also...the cans are AKG K141s, and the little blue you see sticking out of the corner is just a passive direct box.
















And lastly...not to be picky or fussy. But....WHAT IN THE FUCK IS THIS ATROCITY UP IN MY STUDIO???

I don't know what it is. But I'm almost positive I can't make music with it. Unless I somehow wind up joining Sonic Youth.

About the album...and who says 'album' anymore?

So...I suppose I'll start talking a little about the album. I know it's still January! Just getting all set up and such. I tend to be ok at making goofy ass pop songs. So I figured this go round I'd delve into my darker side and make something a little moodier, more personal, and more melancholy. The working title for the album right now is "Whisper Room" and the songs I have some ideas for that I'm going to develop for this record will be:
1. Whisper Room
2. Dimly
3. Shell
4. County Line
5. Hat and Beard

I tell you these now so you can keep up as we go. ;) None of these songs are written at this point. They have a very vague structure in my mind. I've been curious on what sorts of sounds I should use for this record. I'm a fairly traditional guy but I've been thinking of getting into some things I don't normally do on this one.

For example my friend Satish played me a track recently he did as a film score example. Piano, violin and oboe. I thought it was a beatuful track and that I could totally rip it off for one of my originals for the album. So that's what I was up until late hours last night trying to do. IT SUCKED SO BAD! I can get..let's say a piano...then maybe a cello? But then adding the third instrument turns it into clash of the morons. I'm still not ready to give the idea up. And I don't even know what song I would apply that to. But I will try. My wife Amanda says I should include oboe...in fact 2 or 3 or I shouldn't even bother.

Welcome to my recording blog.

I have no idea if I'm documenting this process for me to teach people something, or for me to learn something from them, or maybe even learn something about myself. But I do love making records. The irony lies in that I really suck at it. I've signed up for what's called the RPM Challenge. Last year my friend Paul Belbusti made me familiar with this by making his own record in one month. It was quite a brilliant one called "They Want to Love You." You should go check it out. Paul is a much more prolific artist than myself. So I'm quite nervous about this entire thing. I mean I've failed at making an album in a year before. Scratch that...I'm CURRENTLY failing at having made an album in a year. But that's the idea of this challenge. To kick slack-asses like me into shape. To make you write and record 35 minutes worth of original material no matter how beautiful or ugly it is. In the shortest month of the year.

I have no idea who will be reading this. Friends, family, recording dweebs, musicians? I'm not even entirely sure what I'll be saying. But I will be geeking out a lot in terms of recording and gear talk. I intend to make it quite conversational in here which means my mouth will get to run afoul a lot more than it does at the house now that my little guy is starting to get where he mimics things quite well. I also have very good grammar and writing skills but will be doing this in a much more rapid fire and stream of conscience type manner.

I will also be posting pictures and sound clips as I go. This is normally something that my nightmares are made of as I can't stand for people to hear something unless it's either complete, or at least sounds somewhat like it will sound complete. A friend told me one of the coolest things is hearing the way I develop ideas.

So....welcome to my Album in a Month blog! I'm sure it will take a few days to get interesting, but I hope you intend to hang around to see if I can actually get this done. My money is on the "don't pass" line in case you're curious.