I woke up on Sunday morning still hungover from Friday night's Christmas party. The plan was to lay on the couch, watch bad TV, and recouperate.
That didn't last long. By 10am, I had my guitar in hand and was writing another song. This one's about the time I caught my girlfriend cheating on me at the bar, she held onto my coattails as I walked off down the street, and I ended up having to pry her arms off my taxi and throw her backwards into a pile of garbage bins. All as a patio-full of people watched.
I'm sure it'll be a hell of a song…
The inspiration stuck around, and I quickly connected the vocal mic, set up the PC, and got to some serious tracking. The end result: Lies & Speculation is completely tracked. All recording is complete.
This doesn't mean it's ready to pollute the airwaves yet, but it's a hell of a milestone. Next will be mixing. I could end up with an organ-and-maracas version of Welcome To The Nighttime…. I doubt it, but anything's possible. And that's actually how I recorded the vocals - there was so much going on musically, that I couldn't pitch my voice to the right places. So I muted the drums, bass, and guitars. All that was left was a sparse organ and maracas to keep time. It sounded pretty awesome, but I don't think it'll stay that way - too boring. But that's a great example of how songs can change mid-mix.
In fact, if you listen to Porno and Porno Guitar in the player on the right, those were actually the same recording! I just changed the volume on the instruments!
So for now, it's recorded. And I'm off for a week of non-music celebrating my first Christmas with the Lovely Wife. Have a great holiday season!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Breakthrough
I've been having trouble in the studio lately.
All the music has been recorded. Drums, bass, guitars, percussion, keys, synths, all DONE. I just have the vocal tracks left to lay down. And this is where it's getting tough. Because of all the day-job BS and night-school, the rare couple of hours I have for music has left me too exhausted to accomplish anything.
In all fairness, given the training I've received this year I'm holding myself to a higher bar as far as singing goes. My 3-note warble has grown into a 2.5-octave range of solid notes. And like everything else I do, I try to do the best I can.
Unfortunately, over the last few weeks, I haven't been able to sing properly. When I've tried, my voice just sounds tired, not quite… there.
I've also decided to upgrade my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). That's the studio setup, from the mics and mixers to the soundcard and PC. I was hesitant to upgrade my software in the middle of a project, but figured I had nothing to lose. With no deadlines, I can do what I want. And the benefits to the "new&fancy" could pay off. And they have, in unmentionable computer-geek ways.
This came into play last night. The migration to new software meant a lot of housekeeping, cleaning up and organizing projects and songs. Lots of hours spent staring blankly at the computer doing very unmusical "secretary jobs."
In the midst of a reorganization, I suddenly needed the music. I opened the Sonar file to "All That Mattered," plugged my vocal microphone into the stand, twiddled a few knobs, and burst into "I ran away, I left you to stay with the problems that I left behind…"
Over the next five hours, I laid down the vocal tracks to All That Mattered, Swagger & Twirl, The Dream, Love Isn't Enough, and What to Say. That's half the album done! Verses, choruses, middle-8ths, and background oop-she-doops, ALL DONE!
Keep in mind that Home, Wow, Don't Pity Me, Burn, and Welcome to the Nighttime are all still waiting in the wings...
All the music has been recorded. Drums, bass, guitars, percussion, keys, synths, all DONE. I just have the vocal tracks left to lay down. And this is where it's getting tough. Because of all the day-job BS and night-school, the rare couple of hours I have for music has left me too exhausted to accomplish anything.
In all fairness, given the training I've received this year I'm holding myself to a higher bar as far as singing goes. My 3-note warble has grown into a 2.5-octave range of solid notes. And like everything else I do, I try to do the best I can.
Unfortunately, over the last few weeks, I haven't been able to sing properly. When I've tried, my voice just sounds tired, not quite… there.
I've also decided to upgrade my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). That's the studio setup, from the mics and mixers to the soundcard and PC. I was hesitant to upgrade my software in the middle of a project, but figured I had nothing to lose. With no deadlines, I can do what I want. And the benefits to the "new&fancy" could pay off. And they have, in unmentionable computer-geek ways.
This came into play last night. The migration to new software meant a lot of housekeeping, cleaning up and organizing projects and songs. Lots of hours spent staring blankly at the computer doing very unmusical "secretary jobs."
In the midst of a reorganization, I suddenly needed the music. I opened the Sonar file to "All That Mattered," plugged my vocal microphone into the stand, twiddled a few knobs, and burst into "I ran away, I left you to stay with the problems that I left behind…"
Over the next five hours, I laid down the vocal tracks to All That Mattered, Swagger & Twirl, The Dream, Love Isn't Enough, and What to Say. That's half the album done! Verses, choruses, middle-8ths, and background oop-she-doops, ALL DONE!
Keep in mind that Home, Wow, Don't Pity Me, Burn, and Welcome to the Nighttime are all still waiting in the wings...
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Telecaster Love
Last weekend I recorded all the guitar tracks for Lies & Speculation. It was my favourite part of the recording so far, but that’s not surprising. Aside from the fact that I’ve been a guitarist for over 2 decades now, 9 of the 10 songs were written on the guitar. For me, because of my familiarity with the songs and the instrument, recording the guitar was easy and fun.
The acoustic guitar parts were all done with my Takamine. It has a great full, somber sound. Even though I have 7 or 8 electric guitars, I only used two: My 1974 Fender Telecaster Custom, and my 1991 Fender Telecaster Standard.
I’ve had a love affair with Telecasters since first hearing the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards’ primary sound relies mainly on the Tele. Because of that, once it looked like I was going to keep up my music lessons, my parents bought me one for Christmas (1991).
Other than the obvious importance of the Tele’s SONIC QUALITIES, I love the way they look. Especially as they age. The maple neck on Fender guitars age really nicely. I love that as you play them, the finish wears off and the wood starts to erode. It looks really cool, shapes how you play the instrument, and gives each guitar unique qualities – almost a personality.
On Saturday morning, preparing for the 2-day endurance run (10 songs, averaging 3-8 guitar tracks per song), I changed the strings on both guitars. I had to stop and admire the ’91 Tele’s neck – it’s starting to erode:
My ’74 has a lot of head start. Not only is it 17 years older, but has spent most of it’s life in a working, touring band.
Hopefully the ’91 Tele will catch up. I really do love these guitars – after stringing each one I played it for a half hour or so, reveling in the feel and sound.
The acoustic guitar parts were all done with my Takamine. It has a great full, somber sound. Even though I have 7 or 8 electric guitars, I only used two: My 1974 Fender Telecaster Custom, and my 1991 Fender Telecaster Standard.
I’ve had a love affair with Telecasters since first hearing the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards’ primary sound relies mainly on the Tele. Because of that, once it looked like I was going to keep up my music lessons, my parents bought me one for Christmas (1991).
Other than the obvious importance of the Tele’s SONIC QUALITIES, I love the way they look. Especially as they age. The maple neck on Fender guitars age really nicely. I love that as you play them, the finish wears off and the wood starts to erode. It looks really cool, shapes how you play the instrument, and gives each guitar unique qualities – almost a personality.
On Saturday morning, preparing for the 2-day endurance run (10 songs, averaging 3-8 guitar tracks per song), I changed the strings on both guitars. I had to stop and admire the ’91 Tele’s neck – it’s starting to erode:
My ’74 has a lot of head start. Not only is it 17 years older, but has spent most of it’s life in a working, touring band.
Hopefully the ’91 Tele will catch up. I really do love these guitars – after stringing each one I played it for a half hour or so, reveling in the feel and sound.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Remembrance Day
This morning I woke up with Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" in my head. Not much of it, just the first line: "Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun..."
I've been a Floyd fan for around 25 years, but today for the first time it made me think of my grandfather.
My family is British, and when World War 2 broke out everyone joined up. Everyone. My grandfather was 16 or 17, and went to enlist on Day 1. He wasn't old enough to know to lie, so when asked his age he told the truth. The enlistment officer flatly told him that he wasn't old enough to join the army. He would have to leave, walk around the block, and come back when he was 18. So what did he do? He left the office, walked around the block, and came back saying "I'm 18 sir."
He fought in North Africa and Italy. He was captured at Anzio and saw some horriffic things happen. Stories that I recently heard from my parents that are worse than you see in films.
When the war ended, he went home. He polished his medals and put them in the back of a drawer.
36 years later, he was dying of prostate cancer. He pulled his medals out of the drawer for the first time, shined them, mailed them to Canada and died. I was very close to my grandad, and it meant a lot that he wanted me to have those icons. I received them after hearing of his death, which was quite hard.
These medals sat for for another 30 years in a box hidden away in the various bedrooms I've had since then. For Christmas, my wife had them set into a shadow box along with my only photo of him. This display is mounted on the wall just as you enter my apartment. It serves as a memorial to my grandfather, and also as a reminder to live my life with the honour he did, to make his memory proud.
Thank you grandad, I miss you.
I've been a Floyd fan for around 25 years, but today for the first time it made me think of my grandfather.
My family is British, and when World War 2 broke out everyone joined up. Everyone. My grandfather was 16 or 17, and went to enlist on Day 1. He wasn't old enough to know to lie, so when asked his age he told the truth. The enlistment officer flatly told him that he wasn't old enough to join the army. He would have to leave, walk around the block, and come back when he was 18. So what did he do? He left the office, walked around the block, and came back saying "I'm 18 sir."
He fought in North Africa and Italy. He was captured at Anzio and saw some horriffic things happen. Stories that I recently heard from my parents that are worse than you see in films.
When the war ended, he went home. He polished his medals and put them in the back of a drawer.
36 years later, he was dying of prostate cancer. He pulled his medals out of the drawer for the first time, shined them, mailed them to Canada and died. I was very close to my grandad, and it meant a lot that he wanted me to have those icons. I received them after hearing of his death, which was quite hard.
These medals sat for for another 30 years in a box hidden away in the various bedrooms I've had since then. For Christmas, my wife had them set into a shadow box along with my only photo of him. This display is mounted on the wall just as you enter my apartment. It serves as a memorial to my grandfather, and also as a reminder to live my life with the honour he did, to make his memory proud.
Thank you grandad, I miss you.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Lie, to me
I’ve started recording the bed tracks that will become 'Lies & Speculation'. As happens so often, songs are still pretty dynamic and morphing in unexpected ways.
On Saturday afternoon I was in the studio, laying down the bed tracks for Love Isn’t Enough (LIE). When I demo’d the original, I had a crappy MIDI track playing what was meant to be a violin accenting in the background. The melody was good, but I couldn’t get the violin to sound like anything other than a cheap 80s synthesizer.
So I tried my usual fallbacks: I tried it on a piano. That didn’t work. I tried it on a guitar. That didn’t work either, but wasn’t as bad as the piano. So I kept banging away at the guitar.
On a whim, I picked up the slide and plucked a completely different melody. IT SOUNDED AWESOME!!!! In about 3.5 minutes, I had worked out a beeeauuutiful slide line to flush out the chorus. I wouldn’t need the crappy MIDI violin anymore. A couple of knob-twists, a couple of button-pushes, and I had a new track set up to record the line.
In one take, I got exactly what I wanted. My eyes were watering with excitement as I put the guitar down and set up the PC to playback what I had just recorded.
With almost post-coital bliss I relaxed, a huge smile on my face. Suddenly something moved. The glass slide slowly rolled off the desk, shattering on the hardwood floor!
There would be no Take 2 today. Thankfully Take 1 got the point across. It would retain the magic that appeared, so that once I buy a replacement I can do a proper job of it.
Of course, the new guitar line necessitated changing the drums. And then the bass. And then the background vocals. Kinda like when my wife buys new nailpolish and suddenly realizes that the whole outfit should be replaced.*
It was a really exciting day. I had just hit a new level with this album. LIE would turn out to be the star I first envisioned when I wrote it 2 years ago, and it will pull Lies & Speculation up with it.
* she doesn’t really do that.
* but if you buy more of my albums, we might be able to buy her more clothes
On Saturday afternoon I was in the studio, laying down the bed tracks for Love Isn’t Enough (LIE). When I demo’d the original, I had a crappy MIDI track playing what was meant to be a violin accenting in the background. The melody was good, but I couldn’t get the violin to sound like anything other than a cheap 80s synthesizer.
So I tried my usual fallbacks: I tried it on a piano. That didn’t work. I tried it on a guitar. That didn’t work either, but wasn’t as bad as the piano. So I kept banging away at the guitar.
On a whim, I picked up the slide and plucked a completely different melody. IT SOUNDED AWESOME!!!! In about 3.5 minutes, I had worked out a beeeauuutiful slide line to flush out the chorus. I wouldn’t need the crappy MIDI violin anymore. A couple of knob-twists, a couple of button-pushes, and I had a new track set up to record the line.
In one take, I got exactly what I wanted. My eyes were watering with excitement as I put the guitar down and set up the PC to playback what I had just recorded.
With almost post-coital bliss I relaxed, a huge smile on my face. Suddenly something moved. The glass slide slowly rolled off the desk, shattering on the hardwood floor!
There would be no Take 2 today. Thankfully Take 1 got the point across. It would retain the magic that appeared, so that once I buy a replacement I can do a proper job of it.
Of course, the new guitar line necessitated changing the drums. And then the bass. And then the background vocals. Kinda like when my wife buys new nailpolish and suddenly realizes that the whole outfit should be replaced.*
It was a really exciting day. I had just hit a new level with this album. LIE would turn out to be the star I first envisioned when I wrote it 2 years ago, and it will pull Lies & Speculation up with it.
* she doesn’t really do that.
* but if you buy more of my albums, we might be able to buy her more clothes
Monday, October 11, 2010
Time Flies
I got married.
Serenaded my wife with a surprise performance, a 4/4 version of Unchained Melody arranged for a bluesy acoustic guitar. Made her cry. Made other women swoon (i imagine).
Spent a week in Halifax for our honeymoon. Saw some great bands, and a passionless William H. Macy lookalike warbling his way through classic rock tunes.
Yesterday was the first day in a month that I've been able to work on the new album. The songs are evolving.
The Dream needs to be a few bpm faster.
The last verse of All That Mattered was written yesterday.
Burn needs a more sparse rhythm guitar. Maybe drop it out completely for the riff... (i can't believe i wrote that)
So it's coming along slowly. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
To tide you over, watch some of these clips of The National performing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It's been giving me goosebumps and making my eyes water.
Any fan of pop or rock music NEEDS to hear them. They're easily the best guitar-based band going, and are putting out the only albums worth paying for these days.
Serenaded my wife with a surprise performance, a 4/4 version of Unchained Melody arranged for a bluesy acoustic guitar. Made her cry. Made other women swoon (i imagine).
Spent a week in Halifax for our honeymoon. Saw some great bands, and a passionless William H. Macy lookalike warbling his way through classic rock tunes.
Yesterday was the first day in a month that I've been able to work on the new album. The songs are evolving.
The Dream needs to be a few bpm faster.
The last verse of All That Mattered was written yesterday.
Burn needs a more sparse rhythm guitar. Maybe drop it out completely for the riff... (i can't believe i wrote that)
So it's coming along slowly. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
To tide you over, watch some of these clips of The National performing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It's been giving me goosebumps and making my eyes water.
Any fan of pop or rock music NEEDS to hear them. They're easily the best guitar-based band going, and are putting out the only albums worth paying for these days.
Monday, August 30, 2010
August Update/ Monthly Apology
Sorry, I'm being horribly neglectful to this blog.
Part of it is being busy earning money to pay for the recording I'm about to embark on.
Part of it is being busy earning money to pay for the wedding I'm about to embark on.
Part of it is enjoying the hot Toronto summer.
Part of it is working on the next batch of songs.
I've been kinda busy.
The next album, not yet titled, appears to have been written. The basics are covered and they're looking like a solid family ready to party. They're not flushed out as far as they will be, but the demos have been recorded.
So, unless any surprises appear, the track listing should be:
Love Isn't Enough
What To Say
Wow
Home
The Dream
Don't Pity Me
Stagger And Twirl
Burn
Welcome to The Nighttime
All That Mattered
While I don't expect the production to be different, the songs themselves are structured quite differently due to my newfound singing ability*. You'll hear more than 3 notes sung on this one, my friends!
*Thanks Kate H. - the singing lessons are awesome.
Part of it is being busy earning money to pay for the recording I'm about to embark on.
Part of it is being busy earning money to pay for the wedding I'm about to embark on.
Part of it is enjoying the hot Toronto summer.
Part of it is working on the next batch of songs.
I've been kinda busy.
The next album, not yet titled, appears to have been written. The basics are covered and they're looking like a solid family ready to party. They're not flushed out as far as they will be, but the demos have been recorded.
So, unless any surprises appear, the track listing should be:
Love Isn't Enough
What To Say
Wow
Home
The Dream
Don't Pity Me
Stagger And Twirl
Burn
Welcome to The Nighttime
All That Mattered
While I don't expect the production to be different, the songs themselves are structured quite differently due to my newfound singing ability*. You'll hear more than 3 notes sung on this one, my friends!
*Thanks Kate H. - the singing lessons are awesome.
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