Studio Recap: Day Thirteen

I Prepare to Sing

I finished writing the lyrics for "The Constant," and recorded a passable scratch vocal.

Joe and Jonathan worked on some final arrangement decisions for "You & I in the Formidable Fire."

Joe polished "The Falsified Documents of Ms. B." into a state of near-finishedness.

Jonathan worked on a new verse for "Is There Something Different...?"

Tomorrow will be our last day in the studio. It's a bit bittersweet - I'm ready to get back to NY, back to my friends and real life, but I wish we had more time to work on a few of these songs. Then again, I'm feeling pretty wrung out - I don't think I'd be able to keep up this rate of creative output much longer. Having a deadline can make it possible to push harder.

Studio Recap: Day Twelve

Cinnamon Pecan Roll from Amycakes

We took a trip to the bakery. Spent much of the day writing lyrics for "The Constant." Joe rocked the vocals for "Sunday," after intensive coaching/bullying. We went out for lunch: beer and fried fried fried. Had tummyaches later.

Studio Recap: Day Eleven

Joseph Rocks the Melodica

After our Thursday of marvels, there was no way that Friday could measure up. Indeed, it was a grind of a day, although we started strong, with a few small edits to three songs that helped them shine a little brighter.

Much of the day was devoted to vocal work for Joe, and I think he was experiencing something like what I went through a few days ago: the frustration of the endless vocal takes. One of the downfalls of our glorious modern recording technology is that you can record a song, and think it sounds great - or good, or good enough - but when you sit down and listen to the playback, you hear all of these small - or major - imperfections that you couldn't hear while you were singing. It can be very discouraging. But Joe also managed to rock out on the melodica and trombone, so the day had its moments. And Jonathan is playing with Ableton Live more (normally he works in ProTools or Logic, but Joe and I both tend to work in Ableton for our other projects), so it was a day of working and learning.

I have been working away at writing lyrics for a song we are calling "The Constant." So far it is proving elusive.

Studio Recap: Day Ten

Slinkyvision

Thursday was a day of marvels.

Moods were good, the weather was glorious, we were silly, and I was reunited with my beloved Slinky.

We are beginning to cross songs off the to-do list. We made some mix decisions for "I Let It Stay." Just a few simple changes made all of the difference, and the song has a lot more pizazz now. We also recorded keys and guitar for "Sunday," and the Anti-Tank Guitar for "The Falsified Documents of Ms. B."

Joe Plays Anti-Tank Guitar

I was most excited by the work I did on vocals. I've been feeling really down on my voice lately, and even though I knew that I would get the performances I wanted eventually, I was starting to worry. The combination of lack of practice with the cold weather and dry indoor heating was really creating some havoc in my upper respiratory system. Thankfully, temps have been much milder in the last few days, and yesterday was the first day that I sounded like myself (to myself). So we recorded final vocals for "Ivy Choir" and "Her Gentleman Caller," two songs that I've been wanted to get another crack at since last January. Here's the OLD VERSION of "Her Gentleman Caller." We almost gave up and decided to keep this vocal, but the new one feels so much better in my ear-holes. You can hear the new one soon, I promise!

Her Gentleman Caller by Listing

It's a sweet little song about a lady who sets her hair on fire, a partly autobiographical story. Of course, when I did it, it really was an accident...

Studio Recap: Day Nine

We only had a few hours in the studio, so I spent them working on my vocal for "It Pushes Back" (formerly called "Shivers and -Umbles," which was formerly known as "Slinkitzer"). We ran into an all-too-common problem: I loved the sound of the scratch vocal, and we were unable to match it on the day we set out to do the final vocal. Unfortunately, there were too many problems with the scratch (the vocal in the clip I posted on January 10) for us to keep it - it was the first time I actually sang the song, so there were some melody and timing problems, and I had made some lyric changes. I can live with the vocal as it is now, but I am not in love with the sound or the performance, so I'll probably revisit it if we have time.

While I tried to tweak the vox, Joe worked on a Casio keyboard line for "Sunday" (formerly known as "Convey"), and Jonathan played with some ideas for "I Let It Stay," the pop song with hate in its heart.

Studio Recap: Day Eight

We spent the vast majority of the day Tuesday working on a song entitled "The Falsified Documents of Ms. B." It's one we wrote last year, and it never quite sat right with the rest of the album, so we tried some different arrangement ideas. Joe had been taking the lead on vocals on this one, but we played with some call & response vox. It's not quite there, but getting closer.

We had to wrap up early, because the studio was booked for the evening, so Joe and I went to the pub, had some beers, and tried to work on prioritizing...

Studio Recap: Day Seven

Jonathan Holds the Power of ProTools in His Heart.

Joseph at the Drums

Monday was Drumday. Joe and Jonathan did drum takes for a few of the older songs - "All Forward All," "On the Island," and "Más Más Más" - as well as the new song which I am now calling "Shivers and Umbles." Nice work, guys! I assistant-engineered a little bit, but mostly I worked on lyrics for "The Constant" and provided my invaluable input.

I also taught Joe a few important things about how to use Twitter (@ replies and such) which I am sure he will never use.