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.

Studio Update, and Another LIE

This was a great long weekend.
I managed to set up my studio. Unfortunately it needs some work. The blue cinderblocks look great, but the sound bounces right off them. I knew it would be a problem, but didn’t know how much until yesterday. I was laying down an acoustic guitar track, so I had a microphone set up in front of the Gibson’s soundhole. It’s a small guitar, and has a thin, whispy sound. That’s exactly what I wanted for the song. I sat down, adjusted all the levels, and recorded the slide-guitar track.
When I listened to the playback, there was a deep, boomy reverberation. The sound was bouncing off the walls, and overpowering the microphone. It made the signal unusable. It was really frustrating – that was a tough guitar solo to play cleanly, and it took a lot of practice to get it right.
A few hours later, I realized that I could get an equally-cool sound from one of my Telecasters. And I could run it directly into the PC, so the echo wouldn’t affect the sound. Ten minutes later it was done. Then I listened to the song a dozen times, thrilled with the way it’s building.

This isn’t a new song either. I was sitting on the sofa watching TV one night, plucking away on the above-noted Gibson acoustic (we keep it in the living room, for emergency access). I absent-mindedly plucked one of the guitar licks from “Love Isn’t Enough,” but at a really slow tempo. Suddenly I realized that this song would work well in a new genre. I rushed down to the studio, programmed a basic drum pattern, and very quickly laid down bass, guitar, and vocal “scratch takes” before I could forget what I had in mind.
I’ve built on it now, but it’s a sparse and lonely take on LIE. I can’t wait to polish and release it online (once the studio echo is resolved).

Found: Fender 12-string!

Over the last few weeks, I have been moving my home (and recording studio).
Everything is still dismantled, and of course this is when i'm having my flood of ideas - right when i can't make a quick musical sketch of them. I have lots of scribbled notes like "change 3rd line of Kill Me to The finish was always my favourite part," "Am brkdown in Crazy - cut out everything but rhythm guitar" and things like that. Hopefully i'll remember what i'm talking about when everything is set up again...

One surprise was clearing out the big closet next to my recording desk in the old home. I grabbed what I thought was an empty soft-shell guitar case. It was heavier than expected, and I found my Fender acoustic 12-string guitar! It had been hidden away in the closet for years, and I'd totally forgotten that I owned it. And I'm sure it'll come in handy on one or two new songs.

Hopefully I can get the new studio set up in the next week or two and get to work!

St. Paddy's Review

The St. Paddy’s Day shows with the Boys From County Hell went really well. Two shows, five sets, two or three encores (I can’t remember), seventeen worn-down guitar picks, five musicians, no broken strings, one hell of a day! Oh – and too many pints of beer and shots of whiskey to count.

After the last song at the Cloak & Dagger, the last song of the night, I was ready to keep playing. I think the others were too. Unfortunately our voices were all disappearing and exhaustion was setting in.
This was the first time I’ve been onstage in years, and I’d forgotten how much I love it. We’ll have to book a few more shows this year. One thing that I didn’t forget – I always look angry or annoyed onstage, even when I’m having the time of my life!

Cheers, and I hope everyone else had as good a time as me!

... and that's a shamrock fake tattoo on my forehead, as I didn't have anything green to wear.

Stagefright

I used to get a really bad case of stagefright. I don’t really know why. I’ve always known what I was performing. Knew I looked and sounded good, and had a show well worth the admission cost. But they were still there.
The jitters eventually subsided, but it took a long time. And once they went away, I missed them. I missed the butterflies in my stomach, the nerves for the day before a performance, when I would constantly run the set through my head, ensuring I knew my parts and wondering what I didn’t know I didn’t know. Without them, performing got quite hum-drum. "Okay, it’s time to get back onstage… guitar – lights – put it in autopilot and go."

I haven’t played publicly since 2003. Not including my wedding, where I whipped out Unchained Melody (guitar and vocals) for my bride. And THOSE jitters had nothing to do with the music!

Tomorrow I have a couple of shows with The Boys From County Hell, and the nerves are back. My main concern is that I’m playing Irish folk music, and until 6 months ago I’d never really listened to it. I’ll be playing these 3-set performances of unfamiliar songs without cheat-sheets to hint at the chord changes. I’m sure I’ll be fine, i've done a lot of rehearsing, but there’s always the things that I don’t know I don’t know… Especially for the first performance with a new group.

I’ve got the stagefright jitters, and I like it!

Boys From County Hell - LIVE

Me. Live. Excited.

In ten days, I may betray my British heritage. I’m playing guitar in an upbeat, and somewhat aggressive, Irish folk band. A band which I believe has NO Irish members…

Anyway, it’ll be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to performing live for the first time in almost a decade (my wedding notwithstanding).

The Boys From County Hell
Saturday, March 17
at The Cloak & Dagger, 394 College St, Toronto
10pm-2am. ish.

Musical Eulogy

My mother passed away almost 2 weeks ago.

I had been writing a song about her, and it's about 1/2 finished. I may leave it as it is, and never play or record it for anyone...