Tracking Day 2
Saturday morning, 11:30AM.
We reconvene at the studio. On the drive down, I’m running scenarios in my head where we don’t get basics done by end of the day tomorrow. Not helpful.
When I walk in the door Matt makes my day by saying that on re-listening this morning, he’s satisfied with one of the takes for “Red Marker.” Whew! One of my nightmare scenarios is that we end up struggling with this tune for a big chunk of the day. Now we can start fresh with a new song and a new challenge. Everyone is much happier.
I mull over what song to do next. It needs to be one using Reade’s Gretsch kit (breaking down and setting up another kit will take a long time) and needs to be kind to my voice. It’s not particularly good for the voice to start your day by singing at the top of your lungs for several hours.
I take a gamble and pick “Low Ebb.” This is a big, dark, brooding, Neil Young-esque rock tune. I sing the thing pretty low in my register and it’s on Reade’s kit so it fits the bill, but it’s a gamble because it’s an epic tune and needs great performances all around to work. I tell everyone we’ll run the song and if we’re not feeling it we can come back to it later.
Apparently everyone brought their mojo this morning.
After a couple of false starts, the engine kicks over and we rumble through the first take with the kinetic energy of Jake and Elwood’s ’74 Dodge Monaco. Reade and Liam are dialed in, Matt’s guitar is a force of nature and my vocal take and rhythm guitar hang on for dear life. Sonic mayhem served up just the way I like it.
When you’re recording, you have to learn to keep perfectly still and quiet as the long tail of the last note dies out. Otherwise you risk destroying the recording by having noise where there’s supposed to be perfect silence. On a great take, it’s during this handful of seconds that everyone’s looking around the room at each other saying with their expression, “That was IT for me! Don’t tell me you need another take for your part.” That was tracking “Low Ebb.”
Yesterday we made the mistake of eating lunch at 4PM and pushing our dinner out so late that it was impossible to be productive afterward. So at 1PM we stop for lunch.
After a good break and we’re settled back into our respective stations in the studio, I pick another rock tune, “Nothing but Skin and Bones.” This song has undergone a pretty significant transformation as part of our pre-production rehearsals. When I wrote the song I envisioned a kind of classic southern rock sound. But the strumming pattern I was employing on the verse and bridge sections just didn’t work for Matt. And while he’s been pretty game to stretch his playing to my rootsy sound, he also felt the song was far enough outside his comfort zone that Liam would be better suited to the guitar part, so they switch roles. I’m incredibly fortunate to have two great guitar players with very different styles in the band. Matt does the big, sweeping, evocative effect driven soundscape thing like no one I’ve ever played with. Liam brings great melodic note playing and a physical style informed by his love of African guitar, Soul, and Rhythm & Blues.
Matt really showed his producer chops on this tune. Rather than stick with a more straight southern rock thing, he wanted to change the song to a darker swamp rock vamp. Liam and Reade oblige nicely. Liam comes up with a cool guitar riff, and Reade moves away from the higher toned rack tom on his kit and comes up with a floor tom dominated pattern. To put the final touch on the new sound, Reade switches out the snare to an awesome old Gretsch snare he owns that has the same late sixties head on it as when he saved it from a friend’s storage unit years ago. Then we find the darkest, deepest floor tom available out of the three kits in the studio. The result is a much cooler, gritty, bluesy sound that works great with the vocal. It takes a little time to dial in the new sound but when we do, we quickly get a take everyone feels great about.
The next song we track is “Wrecking Ball.” Originally Matt also played guitar on this tune. But as the song developed, Matt decided Liam could bring more to the tune and handed over guitar duties. “Wrecking Ball” isn’t that demanding from arrangement standpoint, but there are a couple cool ‘moments’ that need to be just so. Liam delivers a beautiful guitar performance. Seamlessly marrying Americana and African notes and phrasing with some truly remarkable passages during those ‘moments.’
Photo: Lord Fotog (left to right: Tracy Winjum, Liam Blodgett, Reade Whitwell, Matt Brown)
Because of the stellar stuff I’ve just heard come out of Liam I figure he’s earned the Tequila he’s been making noises about. Since we’re now ready to switch drum sets, he and I take off to find a liquor store and by the time we’re back everyone’s ready for some dinner.
Recharged from dinner, I choose “Miss Yesterday” to track next. This is meant to be a Jazz Standards/Western Swing sendup. I have an old ’68 Slingerland kit we use for rehearsals that Reade’s tuned up beautifully. He wants to play this kit to get a period ‘brushes’ sound. Reade’s exceptional in a number of ways. He has enormous experience—in Rock, Jazz, Country. He’s also got great feel and the technique to pull off sick drum fills. But he has that rarest of qualities for a drummer. He loves songs, melodies, and most importantly for a singer-songwriter—words. I’ve not met many drummers that stop rehearsal to ask what the line is you’re singing to inform what he’s going to play. That’s Reade.
The first half of “Miss Yesterday” is laid back, but the second half kicks up a notch or two. It took us few cycles of track, stop, listen, to get the feel right on both halves without it feeling forced, but we eventually nail it. As soon as the recording is stopped, I know it’s time to knock off for the night. We’ve gotten through four songs, and it’s getting late. Everyone’s feeling pretty good though so we all stick around for another hour listening to some music and hanging out.
Day 2: 13 hours and 4 songs
