|
2004-03-31 - 12:42 p.m.
honky tonk
A few weekends ago, I went down to Mat’s place in Takoma Park for my first official paid recording session in Olympus Mons Studios . We’d done a couple sessions in the past couple months already, but Mat was still in the process of setting the studio up in his basement at that time, and we were really just feeling stuff out and figuring out who to turn my demos into studio recordings. But now that OMS is a fully functioning business, Mat is charging $15/hr, which is still a ridiculously low price for studio time, especially considering the amazing amount of gear that he has at his disposable, and his expertise with all those wonderful toys. So I’m happy to pay for his services, especially if that money is invested back into the studio facilities. When Mat first heard my demos late last year and we started talking about doing some recording in his studio, I envisioned us more or less polishing up my demos, adding live drums where necessary, EQing, stuff like that. But after the first couple sessions, where we mainly just added drums to stuff, Mat suggested that I try and use the studio more and re-record songs from the ground up there, and be more open to trying new things with them. Which at first I hesitated to, because a lot of those demos I’ve worked long and hard on, and don’t want to have to work hard at reproducing them when I already have takes I’m happy with. But the more I thought about it, the more I was up for it. I still come into the studio with a pretty set idea of what songs I want to work on, because I like to be prepared, but I think as we continue to work together, I’ll become more open to trying new things in the studio, using Mat’s equipment and writing new stuff off the cuff. The first couple sessions we’d done earlier in the year were valuable learning experiences, but we didn’t have much to show for it, save for a maybe-keeper take of drums for one song. A lot of that time we were just figuring out the best way to transfer tracks from the digital 8-track I record on at home onto Mat’s ADAT. But by this point, we’ve pretty much established our working method and got a lot done in that first paid session. And with Mat’s assistant engineer Gordon there, it’s basically a meeting of the minds. The two of them are constantly trying out new equipment and creative solutions for various recording problems. Those guys are born producers, I’m just a guy who tries to make music, and learns as much as I need to to be able to record it. All in all, we laid down live drums for one song that the melody line had already been recorded for, and recorded another song from scratch, keyboards and drums and bass, and added keyboards to a song we did drums for back in Febuary. We’re working mainly on melodies/rhythms I’ve had written to some extent for a while now. A lot of them are about a year old, and a couple are even 3 or 4 years old. Since I’m rarely able to record live drums at home, a lot of these songs that I’ve wanted live drums on, I haven’t had a chance to practice those parts or record them for demos. So we’d be recording a part I’d had in my head for months or years, but had never actually played, and sometimes it took me a few takes to get used to playing it. But Mat’s a drummer too so he was always able to provide worthwhile feedback on what works and what doesn’t. One of the biggest dilemmas I’ve faced with these sessions is what synth sounds to use. Because drums and keyboards are really the meat of the music I’m making, and most of my demos are made with the Casio I got for Christmas when i was 17, usually with some kind of effect or distortion on it. And while Mat loves Casios too and used them to make his first couple albums, he has a lot of much nicer keyboards with more features and options at his disposal, so I’m trying to break away from the comfort zone of my Casio, which I kind of use as a default just because I’ve used it for so long that I know what everything sounds like and how to get what I want out of it. At one point, it was time to lay down the bassline on a song, and I pretty much had the sound I wanted for the track with a Casio patch, but we decided to try out Mat’s Juno and maybe get a better quality bass sound. But those things have so many knobs and dials that aren’t clearly labelled that I can’t really find sounds quickly without some guidance, and it’s hard for me to explain exactly what I’m going after. So when Mat and Gordon went outside for a minute to take a smoking break, I switched back to my Casio, and when they came back in the control room, I said I was ready to do a take and laid down the track with the Casio. And they had no idea, they couldn’t hear the difference at all, and since I was in the other room, they thought I was still on the Juno. I didn’t even tell them that I’d used the Casio until I finished the take and we decided to keep it. I fooled them! I replaced their regular coffee with Folger’s crystals and noone was the wiser. Mat and I both keep pretty busy schedules, so so far we’d only really gotten together to do studio work maybe once about. But a week after that session was my spring break, and my schedule was more flexible, so we did a couple shorter night sessions after Mat got off work. I laid down a few more drum tracks and a lot more keyboards, and am finally starting to consent to use the Juno. We got a really good full sound on one song in particular. Since I’m used to recording alone at home at my own pace, working with other people kind of takes some getting used to. I mean, at home I can lay down a track, listen to it over and over for an hour, and then go watch TV and come back to it and figure out what I want to do with it. But when the clock is ticking and there’s someone else there asking what I want to do next, I have to stay focused and have a clear idea of what I’m doing. But it’s kind of refreshing to be in those circumstances, sometimes you do your best work under that kind of pressure. One thing I’ve been meaning to try in the studio is to just start a song from scratch, without writing anything at home, just start with a drum track, and add everything. We got down one fast, kinda sloppy beat that I have some ideas for, but we haven’t added anything yet. And I had one kind of spontaneous epiphany with another song that I’ve had partially written for a long time. Basically the song has an A-B-A structure, and while the melody and rhythm for the A section is all worked out, all I had for the B section was the rhythm. But while I was messing around on the keyboard after recording the A section, I realized another old song/riff I have is in the same key and works perfectly as the B section. I didn’t get a chance to record it like that at the time, but I’ve since demoed the idea at home and it works perfectly and really makes the song complete. One thing that these studio sessions have brought to my attention is that as much as I’ve already accomplished, there’s still a lot to be done. For instance, I have no intention of releasing a record of instrumentals, I want vocals on my songs, but I’ve been really procrastinating on writing lyrics or recording my voice. I have a lot of anxiety about my voice but I know I can get over it, I just have to focus on it, like anything else. I’ve been writing ‘lyrics’ on and off for half my life, but the last few years I’ve focused more on writing melodies and recording stuff. And at this point I have probably dozens of melody ideas that either are or easily could become fully formed songs. So what I’m going to focus on for the next few weeks is really writing lyrics again and finishing some songs. I never really stopped writing down words all the time, I just became more scattered, a line here, and line there, never focusing enough to turn it into a full song. So I’m going to start recollecting all the lyric ideas I’ve had over the years that I still like and figure out what fits where. So it might be another month or two before I get back in the studio with Mat, but when it happens I will probably have a lot of stuff ready to go. Right now we have about 7 or 8 songs recorded to various degrees of completion on Mat’s ADAT, and I think that if I focus, we might be able to get twice as many completely finished this summer. I’ve been writing and brainstorming for years, I’m so backed up with ideas that they’re just dying to get out. Mat wants to put out my record on Olympus Mons Records, maybe as the first release besides his own albums. I’ll probably have enough material for a full length album by the end of the year, but I think I’m going to shoot for putting out an EP this year, and then keep working some more until we have enough for an album next year. At least that’s how I envision things working out, time will tell. I’d been unsure what to call my ‘band’ for a long time, but recently I decided on Paragraphs, and I think I’m going to stick with that one, it feels right. This is exciting stuff, I feel like I’m really making something happen, finally. -al
previous - next
|
