August 14, 2003 - 2:40 a.m.
Dear Diary, You can see pictures at the bottom of this page. It opens in a new window. Last night was the first in of our two-day stint in the recording studio with producer, Paul Shellack. I love recording! I love it because when we first get to a studio the first hour is spent setting up and making fun of each other�s mothers. Really. The producer probably thought the four of us just rolled in from a bar. It took us forever to set up because Paul forgot that we were recording to tape and had the board set up to record in Pro-Tools. Pro Tools, digital recording, there is not a more vulgar phrase in the English language as far as I am concerned. For those of you who don�t know what I am talking about, PRO-TOOLS is a digital medium that is controlled from a computer. I prefer good old-fashioned ANALOG tape. I could fill an encyclopedia with reasons why I feel so strongly about this but I�ll spare you the boring read. I told Paul that if he didn�t get that two-inch tape on those reels right away I was going to leave, just like that. We get the reels up, drum sounds, and away we go� I was stashed away in my own red room with a window that looks in on the other guys. That was fun. We would have to talk to each other via mics and headphones. Okay, now I am not one to believe in omens and other such hocus-pocus but at the very beginning of the recording things just went wacky. We were cutting one of the longer more epic songs, when all of the sudden we get to the last note of the tune and all of the lights suddenly go out. Apparently too much electricity was being used in the building. Between the air conditioner, the instruments, the soundboard, and the other recording gadgets, the main power fuse got tripped and needed to be reset. I was in my own booth. I had my eyes closed because I was all into the song and focusing what was coming through on the headphones. All of the sudden I get to the end and everything goes black and silent. I couldn�t even communicate with the guys because the mics went dead as well. It made for a very surreal moment. One of the songs we are recording for this EP is a brand spankin� new one called, �Second Hand Smoke.� How new? I�m glad you asked that question. The song is so new that I re-wrote one of the verses while Anthony was getting keyboard sounds. It�s so new that John never finished writing his drum part and swears he still hasn�t. It�s so new that Mike re-wrote his bassline after every take. Still, after all the struggling and sweat, it�s coming out fantastic! I wrote this song as sort of a sentimental little track about home. We also recorded a song I wrote for my little brothers called, �The Dolls.� This is the one that most of our listeners and friends are looking most forward too. It�s a favorite when we play live. In fact there is a live version of it posted on our mp3 page. By the time we finished our basic tracks and touch ups it was teetering into the neighborhood of 2 in the morning. I ended up only being able to lay 2 scratch vocal tracks down. I did �Single File� and �The {W}hole In Us Both.� The latter being an emotional roller coaster that ended up sounding like a captured mood swing. Since the chorus is mostly a group backing sort of thing I tried to lay it down myself for scale and ended up sounding like Cher. Yes, when I attempt to sing after a hard night�s work into the wee hours of morning, I very much sound like Cher. Embarrassing, really. Okay, it�s late and we have to go back to finish this EP tomorrow so I�ll write about it more over the weekend. In the mean time, enjoy the goofy pictures. Doug
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