Sorry for the infrequent updates. We're coming down to the wire, having finished out the guitars, adding the last few instrumental flourishes and ripping into the vocals and piano. We've been split up into two different studios all week, which has proven to be very effective.
Jeff and I are in the main studio working on synths, vocals, piano, rhodes, and assorted other stuff. Matt has Dan, Jon, and McKenzie in his fabulous home studio working on all manner of guitar craziness and elaborate percussion arrangements on certain tracks. We're operating at maximum efficiency.
The good news is, pretty much all the instrumentals are finished and sounding fantastic. The sound is rocking and powerful with an extremely diverse array of tones and dynamics. The guitar arrangements drive with synths and pianos filling in the gaps. A&R Peter Torres stopped by on Friday and seemed very happy with the sound of even the raw tracks.
The bad news is we have about a week to knock out vocals for 11 tracks, and under the studio microscope the quality of my voice can be hit or miss. I had a great day on Thursday and knocked the hell out of "Pretty Black Dress". Friday things weren't feeling quite as magical vocally, but we did git done the bulk of piano work.
This weekend our good friend and fabulous guitar player Aaron Kipnis flew out to LA specifically to play one glorious guitar solo on the record. I have yet to hear it, but apparently it rules so hard that no one will shut up. I can't wait.
Otherwise we've been workaholics, keeping our social lives responsibly low key. On Friday night we kicked it in the home of producer Jeff Turzo. We drank beer and wine, and Jeff was inspired to make everyone gourmet cheesesteaks at 1am, after someone made an offhand comment about Pat's and Geno's. Also, we learned that Jeff has not one but two hot wives. Who would have thought that the more demure producer maintains a harem? Later Larkin and I attended an after hours speakeasy in Silver Lake replete with secret password and attractive Japanese servers.
The rest of the weekend was spent quietly entertaining Mr. Kipnis, consisting largely of LA-only fast food joints, drugs, sex, rock and roll. He leaves tomorrow morning full of In n' Out Burger and happy memories.
Back in the fracas tomorrow morning. Wish us luck...
Matt
Showing posts with label Guitars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guitars. Show all posts
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Friday, April 6, 2007
Day 17 - 20 - Holdups Galore
Sure, we have a lot of ambitious guitar arrangements. But for reasons mostly beyond our control, this shit is taking forever as we enter our second week of goddamned guitar tracking. The primary issue is tuning. We're forced to go back and painstakingly retrack parts chord by chord because frets are simply not staying in tune for sections played high up on the neck of the guitar. Its just barely, barely off, but enough for the discriminating listener to hear the twang.
Matt M and Jeff remain patient, focused, and positive as we work through this stuff, but we band members are going mildly nuts. Matt Mahaffey brought in a flat screen TV, PS2, and collection of bizarre games and DVDs which has dulled the pain - McKenzie and I are in the midst of our second conquest of the Star Wars universe in Battlefronts I.
We had Thursday and Friday off. Thursday Jeff had some things to finish up and editing to catch up on. Friday we were kicked out of our studio by Donna Summer. Diva! Would have been nice to meet her though.
Briks, Larkin, and McKenzie had been talking about a visit to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, an LA only chain, for months. We finally went for lunch on Thursday. It was a delicious and strange combination, leaving us with that warm, greasy feeling on the inside. Seeing we were close to the Hollywood sign and seized by an adventurous need to work off some fried chicken, we hiked a trail that led right around the back of it. Seeing as the sign is covered with an array of cameras and motion sensors, we chickened out of climbing over the fence and down the rock wall to touch it. But we did manage to peg the letter H with a rock. Take that, I guess.
Tonight we're heading to the Hellogoodbye show with Jeff, and tomorrow we're back to work on Synths and Vocals. Tour dates are filling in rapidly! Check out our myspace for details.
Updated celebrity encounters: Tommy "Tiny" Lister - http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0001474/
Matt
Matt M and Jeff remain patient, focused, and positive as we work through this stuff, but we band members are going mildly nuts. Matt Mahaffey brought in a flat screen TV, PS2, and collection of bizarre games and DVDs which has dulled the pain - McKenzie and I are in the midst of our second conquest of the Star Wars universe in Battlefronts I.
We had Thursday and Friday off. Thursday Jeff had some things to finish up and editing to catch up on. Friday we were kicked out of our studio by Donna Summer. Diva! Would have been nice to meet her though.
Briks, Larkin, and McKenzie had been talking about a visit to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, an LA only chain, for months. We finally went for lunch on Thursday. It was a delicious and strange combination, leaving us with that warm, greasy feeling on the inside. Seeing we were close to the Hollywood sign and seized by an adventurous need to work off some fried chicken, we hiked a trail that led right around the back of it. Seeing as the sign is covered with an array of cameras and motion sensors, we chickened out of climbing over the fence and down the rock wall to touch it. But we did manage to peg the letter H with a rock. Take that, I guess.
Tonight we're heading to the Hellogoodbye show with Jeff, and tomorrow we're back to work on Synths and Vocals. Tour dates are filling in rapidly! Check out our myspace for details.
Updated celebrity encounters: Tommy "Tiny" Lister - http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0001474/
Matt
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Day 11, 12, 13 - Guitar Tedium
After Tuesday’s session wrapped, we had a great sounding foundation of drums and bass that Jeff immediately set to editing. With each pass, the sounds get better and the performances are tweaked to precision.
We moved immediately onto guitars, with Matt Mahaffey taking the helm. Clashes over the guitar work sparked our first true creative conflicts.
Conflict #1 – For efficiency’s sake, we’re getting a good guitar tone up first, and then moving through the songs trying to think of which parts should utilize the selected tone. This is theoretically faster than doing one song at a time, as it reduces hours of transition time it takes to move from one sound to another. However, this causes a tendency to force a sound that doesn’t fit the part, and creates a general sense of chaos and uncertainty in the workflow.
Conflict #2 – Dirty or polished? Those freak nasty guitar sounds can be really effective, but how much is too much? I’m going after a more modern, dare I say radio friendly sound, where the rest of the band (and the producers) prefer vintage grit and some messiness. Is my perfectionist nitpicking counterproductive?
Conflict #3 – Are we trying to recreate our old demos with superb production, or are we trying to break out of the box and freak out? We have some really good arrangements down in our home recordings – is it worth changing them? Matt and Jeff have come up with some excellent new parts, but we’re also asking them to painstakingly recreate accidental nuances from our old demos. We’d like to trim the fat out of our traditionally complicated guitar parts, but find ourselves adding more and more stuff.
And so on. We’re trying to make decisions definitively as we go, to avoid having to fix too much in the mix. This is why I fucking hate the recording process – we’re under pressure to create the definitive version of these songs for all eternity that will make or break our music careers. I want every note to be perfect. I love high production value music and the creative process, but in the studio I turn into a little gremlin that smirks and second-guesses everything.
We do get to have some fun though. Creative epiphanies abound, and on Friday we got to rock some simple stadium guitars in the big room to create the “A&R wall of rock”, as heard in Hinder and All American Rejects songs.
We have this weekend off, and are about to head to a BBQ in Studio City. Surely some Mexican beer and hotdogs will get our heads back in the game.
More updates and photos soon.
Matt
We moved immediately onto guitars, with Matt Mahaffey taking the helm. Clashes over the guitar work sparked our first true creative conflicts.
Conflict #1 – For efficiency’s sake, we’re getting a good guitar tone up first, and then moving through the songs trying to think of which parts should utilize the selected tone. This is theoretically faster than doing one song at a time, as it reduces hours of transition time it takes to move from one sound to another. However, this causes a tendency to force a sound that doesn’t fit the part, and creates a general sense of chaos and uncertainty in the workflow.
Conflict #2 – Dirty or polished? Those freak nasty guitar sounds can be really effective, but how much is too much? I’m going after a more modern, dare I say radio friendly sound, where the rest of the band (and the producers) prefer vintage grit and some messiness. Is my perfectionist nitpicking counterproductive?
Conflict #3 – Are we trying to recreate our old demos with superb production, or are we trying to break out of the box and freak out? We have some really good arrangements down in our home recordings – is it worth changing them? Matt and Jeff have come up with some excellent new parts, but we’re also asking them to painstakingly recreate accidental nuances from our old demos. We’d like to trim the fat out of our traditionally complicated guitar parts, but find ourselves adding more and more stuff.
And so on. We’re trying to make decisions definitively as we go, to avoid having to fix too much in the mix. This is why I fucking hate the recording process – we’re under pressure to create the definitive version of these songs for all eternity that will make or break our music careers. I want every note to be perfect. I love high production value music and the creative process, but in the studio I turn into a little gremlin that smirks and second-guesses everything.
We do get to have some fun though. Creative epiphanies abound, and on Friday we got to rock some simple stadium guitars in the big room to create the “A&R wall of rock”, as heard in Hinder and All American Rejects songs.
We have this weekend off, and are about to head to a BBQ in Studio City. Surely some Mexican beer and hotdogs will get our heads back in the game.
More updates and photos soon.
Matt
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