Once More with Feeling
So I’m deep into recording now, which currently entails overdubs and vocals for the six songs recorded with John and Larry (the “trio songs”). I’ve forgotten what an emotionally herky-jerky experience recording can be. One day I’m convinced my guitar lines are garbage, the next day I think they’re pretty keen. One thing’s for certain: it’s best to record overdubs before vocals. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but having to listen to a song several times over before singing it gets you more intimately familiar with its dynamics, which better prepares you to sing. Or so the sub-par, all-in-one-day vocals from a couple weeks ago lead me to believe…
I have most of the non-vocal tracks done, which is the good news. The bad news is that I’m a tad under-rehearsed for cutting vocals now. I took a break from practice after that last show, a solid week of not playing except to record. I kinda wanted to immediately record some of the faster covers I’d learned…but I just got caught up in other business. Not to worry. I plan on playing and singing every day until I feel comfortable enough to sing on the one hand…and to lay down some covers on the other.
Yeah, I don’t want to jinx it or anything, but I’m planning on a digital-only, totally-free EP of stripped-down covers. Considering all the design work and mixing to be done on the trio songs, the covers thing should be ready well beforehand. I’m just excited that some of the covers I’ve done over the last year or two have reversed my usual trend of slowing down something sprightly to find its melancholy core. (Wow, there’s a turn of phrase. Must save for future press release.) The Bevis Frond, Shakespeare’s Sister, Johnny Boy and Oasis songs are actually quite brisk, and I’d just like to capture them while I still have the stamina. I hope to dial up a boomy, room-heavy guitar sound, and then just roll tape. (Or megabytes, I guess.)
And then, after THAT, I still have the scruffier solo stuff I’ve been tooling around with since Soda & Sympathy. Those songs will form a more kitchen-sink release — some instrumentals, some fake drums, some of the slighter or goofier ideas I’ve had, plus whatever “proper songs” didn’t make it to the trio sessions.
Can I get all this done before 2011? While still playing shows? Oh, the drama.
By the way, because everyone needs a goofy name for their studio (even if said “studio” equals a basement with a handful of microphones and a years-old iBook), mine’s called French Excellence. It was inspired by a video Scott and I were appreciating / imitating a lot during his 2009 trip here, which was the first time I’d ever used my set-up to record someone other than yours truly. Ever since, that Orson Welles picture (above) has been my screen saver on the iBook, and I continue to thrill to the man’s poetry, captured here:
