Category Archives: Recording

Quick Mobile Tracking with Liam Davis

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So last Wednesday I packed up French Excellence Studios again and headed to the lovely West Town abode of one Liam Davis, Chicago singer-songwriter-producer of note — and a helluva guy in general. Liam was kind enough to lend his dulcet tones to “The Oldies Station,” and after some scheduling difficulties, it was finally on. For the trip, I swapped out the regular milk crate for a longer version, which made everything fit a tad more comfortably:

Dog Shown Actual Size (Small)

Liam already records a bunch, so he had his own microphone set up, and the lyrics all printed out, with his parts highlighted and everything. Professional. After assembling and plugging everything in, and taking a couple minutes to discuss Ryan Adams, Liam crushed it. I must say, playing/recording with others is truly rewarding. The way Liam sang it was different than I would have done, and it was awesome. When you’re exposed to other folks’ methods, it invites you to approach things in a fresh way yourself. I mean, I haven’t mixed the thing yet, but just trying to replicate the part for Amy afterward proved that I’m really stuck in my own singing style, you know? It’s cool to get a glimpse outside of that box I always hear people talking about trying to think outside…of. Yeah.

Anyway, thanks to Liam for the hospitality and ass-kicking. This thing is really shaping up!

Show Me Wax On

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It's Daniel, Son!

Well, that was weird. And yet at the same time, it makes perfect sense…

This past spring and into the summer, I homed in on a handful of cover songs, ones where I felt like I’d put a personal stamp on them. At the same time, with the arrival of my new guitar and some semi-regular gigging, I’d improved (slightly) as a player, and these covers seemed to showcase it (at least in terms of sheer speed and stamina). I wanted to record these songs, and make it snappy, have something to put out there just for fun. Only it wasn’t snappy. It was humid and my guitar kept going out of tune, week after week. And it was bringing me down.

And I was still down just earlier this week, and so I told Amy about it. She joked that rehearsing other peoples’ songs maybe wasn’t as fulfilling as rehearsing my own, since they couldn’t possibly be as good. There was actually a kernel of truth to the joke. Not that I have or ever will write a song as good as “Common People” (for example). But, you know, “personal stamps” aside, in the end the thing is written in someone else’s voice, and coming out of my larynx, those words and melodies will never quite resonate the same as my own.

I don’t know. I think maybe covers are meant to be one-offs. Learning one on a lark, seeing how the chords mesh, being surprised by it and then throwing it into a setlist to spice things up — that makes sense, it’s fun AND educational. Keeps you limber as a composer, and they’re (usually) crowd-pleasers. But playing a cover over and over again… It can be a drag. (Unless it’s a Feelies song, of course, heh.)

Plus, I’m serious about that humidity thing. I’ve been riding my bike to and from work four days a week, 10 miles each way, and the last thing I’ve wanted to do when getting home was heading to the basement and sweating some MORE. But I’d been doing it anyway, and between my overheated dispiritedness and the strings going out of tune every two minutes, it just felt like a huge uphill battle.

Then Thursday I got up and it wasn’t that humid for a change. I had regular coffee instead of iced for a change. And then, just to have something to do, I changed the strings on the guitar. Had some more coffee. And then, trying not to get my hopes up, I set up the microphone in front of the amp. Played with the dog and had some more coffee. And then I dialed up GarageBand and set up a click track. I’d been thinking a mechanical approach might help me finish the recordings. The click track lasted thirty seconds until I turned it off.

After that, it was like Karate Kid, like I’d been painting fences all summer, and now I was waxin’ on and off and on again. All that uphill battling had me more familiar with the songs than I’d realized, and all I had to do was relax into it and have FUN. And that’s exactly what I did. I did guitars, vocals, and harmonies for all five covers in about two and a half hours. I cranked the box fan between takes, dried my brow regularly with fresh bandannas (wow, which Daniel AM I?), drank plenty of water — in short, did everything I could to keep myself comfortable, and by golly. I got it done.

Violin with Elizabeth Canasta

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Tuesday night I packed up the studio (French Excellence) and drove up to Lakeview to record Elizabeth from Canasta, who was kind enough to agree to play on “The Shape of the Machinery,” one of the trio songs. Almost from the moment I came up with the chords for that thing, I’ve pictured a stabbing, dramatic violin part on top. Anyway, this was the first time I’ve ever taken a portable studio anywhere. The setup certainly packed down well, as you can see here:

Yeah, Deans, I Stole from Ya.

And then it fit well onto Liz’s kitchen table, like so:

Mini-Mission Control

It was an easy operation from a technical standpoint, so I was kind of left wondering why I didn’t (don’t) do this more often. I mean, duh, this is what laptops are for, right? And Elizabeth made the session just fly by. She’d not only learned the melody and harmony for the part I’d sent her — she threw in a lower harmony AND an octave-up from the original part. That’s right, I got QUAD FIDDLE on this piece! I might not stack all of them for each passage…but we’ll see.

I rang the buzzer at 7:30, and was walking back to my car at 8:28. That’s what I call pro-fessional. Thanks much to E.L. for her good spirits and excellent playing!

Focus Pocus

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Somewhere around the fourth of July, my work schedule got crazy at the same time as my social schedule, and I had no shows booked, so I fell out of practice, guitar-wise and blogging-wise. My apologies for the latter. As for the former…

Well, it’s been hot. And yet I’ve been riding my bike to and from work with a vengeance. It’s just that time of year when I kind of run myself ragged, physically. This tends to temporarily slow down my functions, almost to the point of discouraging me. I don’t feel like picking up the guitar, and when I do, I flub chords and forget lyrics, and it all compounds the less often I do it. So I have to commit, of course, to doing it anyway. Which makes me think I might just become one of those “gotta practice every day” guys after all. We’ll see…

But aside from just putting in the time, I have to adjust my attitude. I’ve lost some focus, I think, since the last show. That show was a little disappointing, I have to admit. I just practiced a lot, and was playing guitar better than I ever have, and I guess I foolishly got my expectations up there in terms of how many people would show up. (In case any bookers are reading this, yes, I did promotion.) It’s a shame that in spite of all the psychological steeling I do, telling myself it’s the great unknown of gigging that’s fun, I can still dissolve into pouty diva-tude if a show isn’t as boss as I’d hoped. I guess I’m only human.

Anyway, I went from that show straight into recording. And the overdubs and vocals for the trio songs went well, if I do say so myself. But — and I don’t know why I did things in this order — when I turned around to work on the EP of rough-and-ready covers, I found myself under-rehearsed and frustrated. Again, I wanted the guitar tracks done in a snap, I was pushing for magic when it just wasn’t meant to come.

So I lowered expectations in the recording arena, too. I actually wrote out a setlist with all the covers I want to record, along with newer stuff I need to keep fresh anyway, along with some especially difficult pieces, just to keep me limber. I’m doing that set every day, as though I have a show coming up. (Which I don’t, but I’m working on it.) I’m not rushing myself, I’m not getting impatient. One day I’ll feel like it’s time to set up a mike, and I will. And soon after that, a digital-only covers EP, the first “release” of mine for 2010, will be all yours.

French Excellence Update

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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: