2014 Journal
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01/14/14 - Listened to My Wing after a month-long break. Decided to add an acoustic track next week.
01/21/14 - Patrick recorded an acoustic guitar track that follows the snare drum on My Wing. Gives the song a nice live feel.
01/22/14 - Began converting the website to PHP.
01/23/14 - Finally updated the 2013-2014 recording pictures.
01/28/14 - Had one last listen to My Wing and decided it was done. Had a round of whiskey (a Girls first) before moving on to the next song. Both Paris and I wanted to
sing Harriet so we decided to try my idea of singing it together. We practiced it a few times and then put down a scratch vocal, singing Jagger/Richards style in one mic.
Talked for a while about how to start the 4th album. We also talked about rehearsing songs from the last 3 albums and performing them somewhere before we begin recording again.
02/18/14 - Recorded vocal several takes for the first half of Harriet. Started to have some compressor issues. Sat around and talked about George Martin, Posh Nosh, the Bible, arborists, whisky, birds and Supertramp.
02/25/14 - Thomas comped my vocal for the first half of Harriet. San the other half tonight and he comped that. Patrick will sing his half next week.
03/04/14 - Paris and I recorded Harriet harmonies. Talked about going Pro Tools and Simmons electronic drums for the next album.
03/11/14 - Steven and I watched Thomas comp Patrick's vocals from last week while we chatted about birds and fishing.
03/25/14 - Steven sang an octave harmony to parts of Harriet. Thomas played with re-using the "it's fine" line in the outro for a trippy bit.
04/01/14 - Thomas added his part during the Harriet bridge. This is the first song that we've all 4 tracked vocal parts for. Also worked more on tripping out the outro.
04/08/14 - Spent the entire session trying to find chimes for a bit in Harriet that Thomas was hearing. Learned some thing but will probably default to Thomas bringing sounds from his Kurzweil. Highlight: Steven describing his stomach's growling style as "throaty."
04/22/14 - Had a couple of weeks off. Decided that Harriet (the song, not the collection of songs) was finished. Decided to finish Mary next. Made sure that it was finished instrumentally. Paris will practice the song ths week and show up ready to sing it next.
04/29/14 - Paris was supposed to sing Mary tonight but was tardy so Thomas spent the evening tidying up some folders and then figuring out what is ready to mix and what still needs instrumentation and vocals. Not sure what happened to this list. We did determine that End of Summer still need parts added including horns. Paris knows some proper horn players so passing on the samples at this point.
05/06/14 - Patrick sang several main vocals for Mary with Steven engineering. We then worked out some backing vocal parts and added those. Patrick auditioned a beautiful mix of My Wing.
05/13/14 - Thomas comped Patrick's Mary vocal. We listened to Patrick's latest My Wing mix.
05/20/14 - We listened to some mixes and then Thomas had another go at the lead vocal on How Do You Sleep. Tracking vocals for Wrong Star and End of Summer next.
05/27/14 - Listened to mixes of Follow Me and Domino. Paris recorded the low and high lead vocals on Wrong Star. Talked about harmonies and about recording a simple version of the song in it's original state with just an acousitc and voices. I would be lying if I said that we did not talk about the dwindling fish population in Steven's water feature. That's what happens when you put your fish aquarium outside, kids.
06/03/14 - Paris, Thomas and I all recorded backing vocals for Wrong Star. A few more tweaks next week and then on to End of Summer.
06/10/14 - We recorded one last vocal idea I had for Wrong Star and should be able to start on End of Summer next week. Thomas played us the most recent mix of Follow Me.
06/17/14 - Recorded a scratch main vocal and backing vocals for End of Summer.
06/24/14 - Thomas brought mixes to audition. While preparing to do the EOS vocal we discovered that the AKG died. Considered firing up the Rogue but decided, for continuity, to wait to see what the verdict is on the AKG.
07/08/14 - AKG has been sent off for repair. Listened to some mixes and discussed changes. Listened to some rehearsals to find a part Thomas did on End of Summer. Next week we'll start working on horn parts.
07/29/14 - AKG is back! Listened to a mix of Follow Me. Thomas said that it's at 105 tracks. He recorded some End of Summer guitar noodles/solos.
08/12/14 - I re-cut some of the little guitar bits I added at the end of last week's session. Seriously. That's all we accomplished. It took like 15-20 minutes.
08/19/14 - So, you may recall that last week all we accomplished was me re-recording a small guitar part. This week we listened to it. Sure, we talked about the future, made some plans, dicked with the computers. Actually, we did fool around with some samples and then aborted. Sorry, America. On the upside, Steven uttered 2 nice lines, at least one already destined for use in Riding a Wave - "cheaper kicker" and "all the loose screws you can use."
09/02/14 - After an hour of chit chat we talked about what to start on next. After some more chit chat we realized that we only need to finish the lyrics for Summertime and try adding a high vocal on Sulphur. That's it. Just mixing and artwork and mastering after that.
09/09/14 - Paris and I finished the Summertime lyrics during the week and he showed up ready to record some takes while reading the words from his phone. After several attempts he stopped in mid-sentence and moaned. He had received a text from his life partner indicating that she had hit a manhole with the lawn mower. Picture a news anchor reading a teleprompter when that bit of information pops up right in the middle of reading a line.
09/16/14 - Recorded the last vocal on the last song. Talked about how to proceed with the next album.
09/23/14 - Talked more about how to get started on the 4th collection of recordings.
09/30/14 - I broke out the Mason jar and auditioned some of my potential contributions (including "Inside the Wall", "Hiding a Slave", "Puff Adder", "Little Shootin' Elvis", "nothingood", "Every Penny Gets in the Way") for the new album for Patrick.
10/07/14 - A few more dips into the Mason jar to celebrate the conclusion of Harriet and working out how to get started on the new album.
10/14/14 - Paris and I got together again with the Mason guitar and some acoustics. He showed me songs/parts of songs for the new CD.
10/21/14 - Got together to make space for the drums and Kurzweil. Thomas played us a mix of Wrong Star. Listened to XTC's Mummer while dragging boxes of guitar catalogs around.
10/28/14 - Set up the Yamahas.
11/04/14 - Got the drums mic'd up. Pull all of the cables from the room to rewire next week. In two weeks we should start introducing songs.
11/11/14 - Installed Pro Tools. Worked on some more wiring.
11/18/14 - Finished setting up the room and played together live for the first time since 08/23/11. Did a hunk of something from each album - Wrong Star, Blunderbuss and Flap. Next week we'll start introducing new songs for number 4.
11/21/14 - Submitted words and chords for Hiding a Slave and Puff Adder via e-mail.
11/24/14 - Paris sent out beautiful demos for Bossa Nova and Dust.
11/25/14 - And just like that, we have a set list. Sat down with a couple of acoustics, bass and keyboards and ran through the first 4 songs. Will add 2 more next week which will give us half an album.
12/02/14 - Added Fountain of Youth, Wall and Breeders to the set.
12/09/14 - Paris was feeling poorly so we got together and worked on my half of songs. I'll be gone next week so Patrick's half can get some concentrated love.
12/18/14 - Gave the artwork links to Maiko!
12/23/14 - Full outfit running through all 7 songs twice.
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