this week marks one year since we began recording the album, tentatively titled wiseblood, formerly titled ...and then we shall walk in endless light. at one point during the drum sessions, it was called "rock happens."
we initially recorded about five songs worth of drum sessions at the home studio where the (now dissolved) band stateside had just recorded the album phonograph. i was working on album art and photography for their album as we began the sessions. we tracked using thomas mimikakis' vintage ludwig kit, which made the sessions sound big, round and earthy, including possibly the best snare sound in north america. very anti-modern rock. think honky tonk women by the stones. i tracked the drums during these sessions.
we later set up a tracking room at ashby's and proceeded to put meat on the bones of these early drum tracks. that pretty much ate up the rest of winter and part of spring.
in april / may we set up a pre-production room and a drum room at our (new) friend josh cooper's house in order to get the rest of the drum tracking completed. these sessions involved a lot of experimentation. josh played drums on a track and provided several tracks of improvisational percussion on other songs. drummer david crenshaw played on tracks where he was particularly stellar, such as lovers in antipodes and blackout, among others. during these sessions, i provided drum tracks for the songs (tentatively titled) midmorning and beautiful.
in late spring i began rehearsing with jesse payne's band to prepare for the recording of his debut album, humming.the.tunes.of.luxury. i tracked the bass parts at synchromesh studios in early june.
the summer was a repeat of the spring. pianos, scratch vocals, tons of guitars, bass tracking and re-tracking, editing and re-editing, mixing, etc. this is when the the majority of the recording took place. mid-summer, we switched gears for almost a month to begin rehearsal for a show at workplay.
although i/we felt under prepared going into the show, the video footage spoke differently. we emerged from the studio a much more subdued and murky group. at the very least, we could now completely leave girls+cars behind. everything we played was new. this was also the first show in which we used a piano. before we had always used a fender rhodes.
the fall was spent editing, and finishing up acoustic guitar tracking while ashby was in his first semester of law school following in the footsteps of john strohm.
i began rehearsing with jesse payne again in the fall and played a few shows during late fall, including his cd release in december. between the rehearsals, shows and other commitments, there's about a month in there somewhere when not much work got done.
the winter has been spent editing, intermittently recording acoustic guitars and now final vocal tracking. the vocal tracking will take a few more weeks.
we still have a lot of road to cover. harmonies, final bass touch-ups, sequencing, grand piano sessions, mixing, more editing, re-tracking the entire song na na na and recording some piano/vocal downtempo songs. many tracks, recorded with protools, still have to be optimized, comped, and edited. we might re-mic or re-track as well.
we may decide to enlist performances by a friend or two before this is over. most likely we will mix the majority of the album at synchromesh studios...
if we get the album out by the last day of spring it will be a surprise. as long as it comes out by my birthday, i'm fine with it. we still have about 2 more albums worth of songs left.
we initially recorded about five songs worth of drum sessions at the home studio where the (now dissolved) band stateside had just recorded the album phonograph. i was working on album art and photography for their album as we began the sessions. we tracked using thomas mimikakis' vintage ludwig kit, which made the sessions sound big, round and earthy, including possibly the best snare sound in north america. very anti-modern rock. think honky tonk women by the stones. i tracked the drums during these sessions.
we later set up a tracking room at ashby's and proceeded to put meat on the bones of these early drum tracks. that pretty much ate up the rest of winter and part of spring.
in april / may we set up a pre-production room and a drum room at our (new) friend josh cooper's house in order to get the rest of the drum tracking completed. these sessions involved a lot of experimentation. josh played drums on a track and provided several tracks of improvisational percussion on other songs. drummer david crenshaw played on tracks where he was particularly stellar, such as lovers in antipodes and blackout, among others. during these sessions, i provided drum tracks for the songs (tentatively titled) midmorning and beautiful.
in late spring i began rehearsing with jesse payne's band to prepare for the recording of his debut album, humming.the.tunes.of.luxury. i tracked the bass parts at synchromesh studios in early june.
the summer was a repeat of the spring. pianos, scratch vocals, tons of guitars, bass tracking and re-tracking, editing and re-editing, mixing, etc. this is when the the majority of the recording took place. mid-summer, we switched gears for almost a month to begin rehearsal for a show at workplay.
although i/we felt under prepared going into the show, the video footage spoke differently. we emerged from the studio a much more subdued and murky group. at the very least, we could now completely leave girls+cars behind. everything we played was new. this was also the first show in which we used a piano. before we had always used a fender rhodes.
the fall was spent editing, and finishing up acoustic guitar tracking while ashby was in his first semester of law school following in the footsteps of john strohm.
i began rehearsing with jesse payne again in the fall and played a few shows during late fall, including his cd release in december. between the rehearsals, shows and other commitments, there's about a month in there somewhere when not much work got done.
the winter has been spent editing, intermittently recording acoustic guitars and now final vocal tracking. the vocal tracking will take a few more weeks.
we still have a lot of road to cover. harmonies, final bass touch-ups, sequencing, grand piano sessions, mixing, more editing, re-tracking the entire song na na na and recording some piano/vocal downtempo songs. many tracks, recorded with protools, still have to be optimized, comped, and edited. we might re-mic or re-track as well.
we may decide to enlist performances by a friend or two before this is over. most likely we will mix the majority of the album at synchromesh studios...
if we get the album out by the last day of spring it will be a surprise. as long as it comes out by my birthday, i'm fine with it. we still have about 2 more albums worth of songs left.