Months of planning and thinking and writing and rehearsing all came to a point on Saturday. I woke up at 9.15 feeling tired and sluggish but my throat felt good and my nose was clear. These are two very good signs. I'd had a blocked nose the night before for a little while, and that is never a good thing!
I was due to pick up the boys all just after 10am, but it was 10.05 before I got out of the house, and we arrived at the studio around 11.05.
After some introductions and settling in, we completed the first setup: a fully-mic'ed grand piano and a very very fancy german microphone for my voice. The piano had such a rich, warm sound and I felt like I just couldn't play a wrong note on it. And amazingly, I barely did. I guess I kinda knew the songs, after all.
Break Your Heart was recorded fairly fast with me playing and singing simultaneously, and sounded very rich and clear through the speakers. I'll have to hear it through the cans (headphones) again to completely check it with my over-critical ears, but I think it's good. We were done at 12.30.
We started to set up the room for the band recordings, moving the piano into the other corner and setting up partitions for the bass and guitar. When the drummer Reuben arrived, he was full of energy and enthusiasm and was just such a nice, genuine guy. We set him up in a separate room and closed the door on him, communicating only through the mics and cans.
Jeeves was filming the entire time, and during the drums setup, TK told him to take the camera off him or they were going to "group bash" him. A hilarious moment, and he was totally kidding (but Jeeves turned it off anyway!)
We played through Hiding, and in the chorus, Reuben started playing along with just the best sound. Tons of kick/bass drum and a hell of a lot of energy. Then in the bridge I asked him to mix it up, and he played a military-style riff on the snare, which was so good it made my hair stand on end. It also made the silence so much cooler having the drums involved and he ended the track with some heavy tom which kicked butt. I was so proud of the song and so crazy about how it was sounding. The drums really pulled it all together.
Moving on to Find the Light, I told him that it was a very standard pop song with a bit of cheese, so I'd love him to try and play it a little differently, a little less cliche. He came out with some great ideas, particularly after I told him to change it up a little bit in places - he obliged me with some kick-ass beats.
Both tracks made me want to drum along in the air. If they can produce the same effect on other people, then that's awesome. So I'll have to wait and see.
We packed him up and I walked him down to the cash machine to get his payment. On the way he told me how much he liked the tracks, and was excited about getting his copy. This was awesome, as your friends can tell you how much they like your songs until they're blue in the face, but a complete stranger? who has heard the songs and played them a few hours? very, very neat. Very gratifying.
He also agreed to play at the party if he was free and I bought him beers.
We set up to play Bright, which I played and sang along to, like the first track. Now we had all the basic guides down, we each went in one by one to overdub our parts. TK changed up the guitar and bass styles, and definitely improved the songs with his choices. While Nick was finishing up his parts, Jeeves and I went down to Satay Kingdom and ordered some takeaway dishes for dinner. When we went back up, Nick finished and we settled in the lounge room to have dinner.
Then I went in and overdubbed my piano parts, including an addition on Hiding over the bridge that I am very happy with. Then we were ready for vocals! By this point we were all wilting a little bit, but I was still energised and ready to go. We laid down the vocals for Hiding and Find the Light, including the backing vocals. During the playback for Hiding I bounced and danced around in the vocal booth, almost moshing. I had so much excitement for how it was coming together. :) The vocals on Hiding were full of energy, which I was happy with. My excitement must have been coming through.
The only things left to do are:
- Small addition of backing vocals on the end of Bright, which we forgot to do on Saturday.
- Chris wants to redo some of his BVs as well, so we'll get all those done.
- Mixing.
- Adding a crackle sound effect to start? Only if TK has it and thinks it's a good idea.
So we're going in tonight at 8 to get onto these tasks. I am excited about hearing the songs again, and especially with fresh ears after 2 days. Hopefully I won't pick up too many problems that need fixing, but I am happy to pay more to redo things and be anal. I held back when I recorded my demo 5 years ago, and there are many things I would have changed.
Chris also has a great, enthusiastic account of it here. His photos should be up soon, and they are much better than my few!
I spent yesterday in my pajamas, the majority of it in bed watching DVDs or TV. It was the ultimate lazy day. My legs ached like hell, and still do (calves mainly), I think from pumping the piano pedals and moving around so much all day.
I also stayed up way too late last night playing the CSI game and then with thinking. It was almost as if I was trying to squeeze more into my Sunday after my Saturday went so fast, but I wasn't thinking about it. I was asleep sometime after 1.30. Thank God it's a short week!
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