Thursday, April 9, 2009
Studio - Day 6
Okay so we didn't know we had to write anything for this blog so that's why we're starting at day 6. Then our manager forced us to tell you about fun times in studio. Know that we would never say anything about this process if not for Todd (our manager). Yay! 12 hours of sitting around! Yay! Shouting on occassion! Yay! Playstation! Uno! Backgammon and various nerdy things that you'd expect guys in a band to not do! We are tools! In short...

Day 1 - Chris Shaw (our producer) arrived. 24 hours of flying, so he was tired. He is American, from New York, and fits in with us because he is also a nerd. Like many nerds, he is also a genius. He mixed and produced for artists like Bel Biv Devoe, Public Enemy, Dereck Trucks, Wilco, Bob Dylan and Weezer, and more. So it makes sense that he would be producing us - a retarded ska band or something.

But in reality this album won't JUST be ska. It'll also be OTHER unpopular styles, like RnB, and hair metal. Todd (our manager) says, just kidding about the 'unpopular' bit...

To sum up, pulled some drum sounds and listened to some crazy rock stories from Chris Shaw, and that was about it.

Day 2 - 13 takes of "The Devil". Scrapped the lot of them. Wrong song to start with in retrospect. Too fast, too noisy. Needed to be comfortable in studio before getting into the drunken, brazen, sweaty songs like that.
By night we were into the more mid tempo "Head Of The Hawk". Drums sounded fatter, band more locked in, studio felt more like home. Finally, I don't want to kill myself!

Day 3 - "So Miss Johnston" and "Medication". "Medication" rules! Should probably think carefully about how much like DFA 1979 it sounds.... hang on.... who cares? DFA 1979 are AWESOME. Dance, you slightly behind-the-times hipsters.

Day 4 - "Broken Leg" and "Facelift" (Attempt 1)... The first thing you need to know is that "Broken Leg" RULES. This song has an internal life that i can't get past, I love it so much. I am most proud of this one, and perhaps that's why, when we try to record "Facelift", it just sounds a bit silly. We're tired, so we call it a day after about five relatively mediocre takes.

Then we played GTA4 and i complained to Scott Horscroft (The Presets, Silverchair, heaps of stuff) about not being very good at things, and making an not good album. He was very supportive, and said don't worry. Then we drank wine and made fun of each other.

Day 5 - "Little Emperor" and "Another Lie"... What you begin to learn about recording is that things work, things don't work, and usually in that order. So! "Little Emperor" is a nice little rock and roll song, and once again Chris Shaw has pulled an INCREDIBLE drum and bass sound. He is gifted in that sense. Bourke Reid (a producer who used to be in Gerling, and currently produces records for Jack Ladder, The Drones, and more) is also now subbing for our engineer Simon Berkfinger (who sings in Philly Grand Jury, and produced some of Sparkadia, Deep Sea Arcade), who is sick, and also on tour.

"Another Lie" is a song that me and Jerry wrote, about being a liar. And I like it, but EVERYONE thinks it's "not quite working yet". I take offense, but I'm willing to work with this opinion. It's a krautrock song with a major key melody. It's good, but we'll see...

Day 6 - "Facelift" (Attempt 2)... This worked much better today, partially because a) I was drunk, and b) i was wearing sunglasses. This is the only reason. Now I'm sitting around, writing a blog and drinking beer with our friends, The Vasco Era, who are mixing their record. Sid has recently fallen off the wagon. Which is good for him. He's playing guitar next to me right now.
0 Comments:

Post a Comment