Recording Diary – Part the First

I’m recording up at Verdant Studios in Vermont. Kristian very kindly agreed to take the day off on Friday to make the drive up here with me. I hope that he’s have a nice relaxing time (the recording studio is in a gorgeous converted barn with a wood stove and couches, so it’s a great place to lounge). Personally, I am working my little tuchus off.

Day one of my long weekend in the recording studio is over. Technically, it was a half day, but we spent a good 5-6 hours laying the groundwork for when the drummer and bassist show up today. I’ve never doubted for a moment my decision to work with Pete Weiss, but yesterday just nailed home what a smart decision I made.

We took songs that I liked fine already and turned them into something that really and truly blew me away. People who are used to hearing songs the original way might need some getting used to it, but I think that most people will agree that we made some major improvements. Songs that were once fairly straightforward now have bridges and instrumental sections. We added in some funky chords. It was a great collaboration.

I had doubted my decision to pay for this myself (if only because I now have a very strange relationship with my savings account these days), but I am really loving the ability to say “that sounds great, let’s use that bit,” or, “I liked that part, but maybe we should slow it down a little.” These are still very much my songs and I think that everyone who loved them before will still love them. After working on these songs a bit, I’m thinking that I should take some more music theory classes, if only to be able to explain myself better.

Pete, to his enormous credit, was perfectly willing to take me saying “I like the doo do doo part,” but could it go “do do doo do doo instead?” and attempt to figure out what in the hell I meant. I don’t believe that I even gave him any headaches.

Last night we worked until the point where we both turned to each other and said, “my brain is pretty much fried now” and then Kristian and I went out for mexican food. Authentic mexican food. Did you know that you could authentic mexican food in a tiny little town in Vermont? I didn’t, but Kristian gave it his seal of approval. And he’s an authentic Mexican. Well, half of one. So he’s semi-authentic and that’s good enough for me.

In true Vermont style, we ate some Ben and Jerry’s last night and then went to bed early. Now we’re just waiting for Pete and his wife to join us for breakfast. Then the bassist and drummer show up and then the fun really begins. We have about half of the songs mapped out (and we’ve recorded guiding tracks for the guys to play along to), so hopefully those songs should go pretty smoothly. Then we take the remaining songs (minus one that will probably just be me singing and finger picking) and attempt to work some more magic on them. I’m very excited to hear what we come up with.

I’m excited for you all to hear it as well.