Holdup

I’ve had the new studio set up for a couple of weeks now. The boomy reverb is still a big problem.
The bed tracks for the new album have been started. I’m programming the MIDI drums, and laying down a temporarly bassline that will guide the song. There’s really not much else that I can do until I put up some sound-diffusing foam on the walls. That will probably be a month or two. An agonizing month or two – I want to get back to work on this batch of songs, I’m REALLY excited about them. So excited that, this morning while listening to the Your Loving Song demo on my MP3 player, my eyes started watering. It was all I could do not to stop on Queen St, pose a rockstar pose, and start singing and air-guitaring! I’m seriously loving this project, and can’t wait to build it and show it off!

There is an upside to this delay. I’m my own boss, there is no record company pushing for a release date and I don’t need the sales profits yet (I can still buy my own beer this summer). So there’s nothing but my own lack of patience to push the release. My plan is to rehearse the songs over and over and over. Play the guitars and keyboards against the bed tracks, sing karaoke-style with them.
This “pre-production” should help improve the songs in more subtle ways. Maybe a kick drum will seem out of place and I can fix it, maybe I'll discover that something should change after the first verse… I’ve already decided to chop a measure from the middle of Little Rose Tattoo and add screaming background vocals behind the guitar solo (yes there are a couple of those on this record) in a song currently being called You’re A Star but might get changed to When You Are Gone or something completely different. With time, I can keep workshopping these new songs.

So yes, there’s a delay. And yes, it’s pissing me off. But there’s a positive side to it, and I’m going to exploit that to the best of my ability.

Temptation

Last month, I triumphantly reported that tracking had been finished for Lies &Speculation. In a whirlwind of joyous noise, I raced through the 10 songs. Then I took a few weeks off to recover from the stresses of wage-earning, school, Christmas, etc , etc, etc.

Last week I returned to the mixing desk and started digging through the tracks. And they were crap! I was really disappointed with the vocals. On takes where the inflection was right, I was usually singing a little sharp. And where the pitch was right I didn’t like the way I was annunciating.

This is where it got weird. To experiment and play (that’s the beauty of artistic pursuits), I brought an auto-tuner into the track. I clicked ‘on’, chose the key of Emajor, and clicked Play. My jaw dropped. Coming from the speakers was exactly what I’d been trying to accomplish! Pitched properly, with just the right amount of attitude, the singing was perfect. In 3 simple mouse-clicks I had rectified what would have been weeks of re-work.
For about 10 seconds, my jaw agape and eyes glazed, I reveled in the finished product. The album that would define the last few years of my life. Suddenly, like coming out of a bad dream, my eyes went wide. “No,” I screamed as my hands slapped the desk. As fast as I could, I deleted the auto-tuner.

You see, the auto-tuner is the biggest detractor to modern music. Anyone who can’t sing can easily run their voice through one of these and sound like a star. Think Paris Hilton, Keisha, Britney Spears… That’s all you need. No musical skills, just a nice rack and cute bum. Or in Hilton’s case, money.
Even talented stars are now auto-tuning everything beyond perfection. I’ve been told that Justin Beiber can actually sing, but everything I’ve ever heard of him is computerized out of reality. There’s no skill or substance needed anymore, just the packaging. And I just saw how easy and cost-efficient it can be. I’ve been taking singing lessons with a great teacher for 8 months now, and spent days trying to accomplish what I could have covered in 2 hours with auto-tune help.

I pride myself on being primarily a musician. I really do. Not a singer, not a guitarist, not a songwriter, or producer. A musician. I’ve been playing the guitar for over 20 years and am able to play the things I want to hear without much effort. Most other instruments I can warble a basic melody from, if you give me a few minutes to figure it out. And I’m happy that I can actually express myself in this way.
And because of that, I’m uninstalling the auto-tuner, reverting back into pre-production mode, and going to practice, practice, practice. And when you hear me sing these songs, it will really be me. I don’t need perfection, just humanty. That’s what life is all about.

Musical Tangent/ Shameless Plug

My fiancee and I are saving up for our wedding next year, which means no holidays. However, the other day I discovered a contest for Hilton Mexico.

I had a very short time to write a song on why Kate deserves to win a vacation, make a video of it, and submit it to Hilton.

So as of Tuesday, you're able to watch the video, and if you like it
VOTE FOR ME HERE!!!
You can vote again daily, or more often if you run between internet cafes.


Enjoy the video, have a good laugh. it's kinda catchy too...






I'll be taking down loads of Triscuits and maple syrup, and returning with lots of bottles of Mescale, by the looks of it. hahaha

Tangent

A couple of weeks ago, I was having a Lush bubblebath, complete with Cuban cigar and a couple of beers, while watching Hard Core Logo on my laptop, the machine resting safely on my toilet lid. Yes, I’m THAT Rock N Roll.

Out of nowhere, I had a great idea. I have never really been happy with the kick drums in my recordings. They’re usually more of a ‘hit’ than a note. If you listen to some Detroit-era Motown, you can hear what I want: The Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself" is a perfect example. Phoom, ch, ba-boom ch… Not my ‘Thud, ch, thu-thud ch’.

So what if I tracked the kick-drum as I have done, but then mimic the beat with a really soft synthesizer, quietly following the chord progression? Even with the drums on their own, you’d still get the impression that you knew the basics. To make that 'Thud' a 'Phoom'...
I spent the last two weeks recreating the kick-drum patterns, making sure that the synthesized notes were subtle enough, and the right sound. I made sure each track followed the song’s chord progression perfectly.

And yesterday, I realized that it made absolutely no difference. Not a sausage. Nil. Once the other instruments are blended into the mix, the synth notes are either too subtle and unnecessary, or they’re too powerful and muddy up the track.

Oh well, when these ideas succeed they create the magic and innovation that IS music. Unfortunately, more often than not, they don’t.

Guest Vocalist?

My girlfriend, Kate, is a trained opera singer and actress. I am neither.

I am not a big fan of my own singing voice. I sing my own songs mostly out of pragmatism: it's much easier to do it myself than to try to explain to someone what and how I want them to sing.
However, I'm always looking to improve my product and try new things. So I've asked Kate to sing on 'Overture'. I had already wanted her to perform the backup tracks, but she's going to go whole-hog and do the lead tracks too. We're going to start with two tracks to see how it goes. She'll be singing 'No Fun' and 'Pop Song'.
I spent some time transcribing the vocal melodies into sheet music, which was a challenge unto itself. To sit at my keyboard and plink out what I think I was trying to vocalize. Now I have printed sheet music that looks more professional than my usual scribbles.

I'm really not sure how this will work out. She's definitely got a beautiful voice, but I worry that it may be too sweet, the annunciation too precise, just too... correct for music like mine. But we'll see. She's professional enough to understand if it doesn't work (as long as I can communicate that properly). Who knows? If it works, my project will be that much better. And she'll have yet another addition to her repertoire. If it doesn't work, I'll have 'alternate takes', with both my voice and hers as options...