Catching up Pt.2

The home studio.

So the past three weeks have been slow at the “real” studio, and the other guys have had plenty of free time as all the work we had put in the many weeks prior had been loaded up on an external hard drive and dumped into my home set up for me to add all the keyboards, noises, beeps and other random headphone type deals. It’s a little ass backwards that I spend so much time on shit that most people will not even notice on the final recording, but I just really love when bands pay attention the small details, the type of shit that creeps up on you only after a couple of listens via a good set of headphones. I listen to music all the time, but I never really consider it a “good listen” unless its turned up through a good stereo with a few adult beverages or cranked up on a nice set of headphones along with a couple puffs of grass. Any band you consider worth a shit should get your full attention and should be treated the same as watching a movie. Cut out all outside distractions and just enjoy the ride. I’m not saying you shouldn’t jam out to your favorite band while you dust the house or mop the kitchen floor, but just do yourself a favor and spent the time to really listen from time to time. I’m thinking this is becoming a lost art…..people actually “listening” to an album for the sheer enjoyment of the listening experience. Tis a shame, but if you take my advise you’ll be happy you did. It’s a lost art in the “digital” age. I love my ipod too. Shuffle rules, but you gotta get back to basics and just sit and listen to a full album now and again.

Sorry for the rant, but I’ll bring the whole thing back to my own “self promoting” ways that this whole blog is based on yeah?

I spent the last three weeks adding “sounds” to the first twelve tunes we completed at our studio and brought back to my home studio. The first week was easy. I just plugged in the parts that were already written via my early demos. Then the next two weeks were spent playing, deleting and re-recording tracks for hours on end every night to the point that I could even tell if what I was doing was good, bad, awful or awesome. At the end of every night the beers and weed told me all I tracked was gold, but the sober morning listen would usually tell me otherwise. After a few nights of suck I got on a roll and knocked out all the tunes and have now been cleaning them up at our proper studio.

Another weird/fun part of every album I’ve recorded dating back to all the albums I recorded with my old band Lenola is that I’ve always started every album with a solid eight or nine songs knowing I had to write a few more tunes to complete a full album. I like the pressure of having to write some good shit quick to complete the project. This album is no different. I’ve spent the past three nights with gtr in hand and finalizing lyrics for the “late comers” of the album. They usually end up being some of the best tunes of any record I make.

We were actually in the studio tonight putting vocals on one of these “late comers” called “Internal, External” and I must say it was an amazingly productive night and I tracked some of the best vocals on the album so far. Good times…..

Cheers!

-j