So, Thursday was our last day kind of recording as a band, with Mike, Jay and I all there–Jay had to go out of town for more tour dates Friday! It was kind of amazing how much we got done–we laid down songs 9 and 10 before it was even really lunchtime and were done. We had such a great time, I was sad to see him go, but I’m sure I have not seen the last of him. And I get to listen to his kick-ass parts over and over on the rough mixes we’ve got. :) We don’t even know him well and he’s already been such an incredible friend to Mike and I–like he’s sort of taken us under his wing or something, althought I think it’s just natural for him to be so kind.
I wouldn’t say I was dreading it, but I was definitely almost more nervous about going in and doing the clean-up work. There’s some stuff to fix and in some cases just add in the bass parts, and there are some vocal things to clean up, or at least re-record a few times to give myself options. But Ryan’s fantastic, with such a great sense of when to just push someone gently to keep trying, when to crack a joke, when to take a breather. Basically, he just really gives you whatever you need. He’s very into keeping everything natrual and capturing truly good performances, but is also lightning fast at cleaning little things up.
Mike really did the hard work yesterday, though, slaving over a bunch of kind of tricky bowed parts for a while and then creating some really fantastic new bass lines too. A couple times Ryan and I just looked at each other and raised our eyebrows, like, ‘wow, where did that come from?’ :) Mike has thought about and worked so hard on this album for so long, really. I’m very lucky to have his support and creativitiy on my side…honestly, I think just working through so much stuff and getting feedback from him over the last couple years made it so much easier for me to just go in and really feel prepared, especially on my guitar stuff. It was really no sweat compared to all the work we’ve already put in.
I didn’t actually do any singing yesterday, and I’m amazed Mike was able to get through such a long day of basically all bass. So much intense listening to small segments of songs got me into this place where I was starting to hear my vocal in such a weird way–like I wasn’t even sure if what I was hearing was reality anymore, and I was getting really nit-picky in a way I hadn’t been thus far. So I think it’s quite wise that we took today off to relax. Plus I wish we didn’t have to make Ryan work on the weekend anyway, but my job situation kind of demands it. I’ll go in tomorrow and re-do some vocal stuff and hopefully be able to resist the urge to over-think things.
After tomorrow we’ll pretty much be done, but we’re going to be sending some files to a keyboard player Jay referred us to (an incredible one. I so want to drop his name but won’t lest I jinx it). Jay seemed to feel really strongly that we should get him, and it looks like it’ll happen. Hell, I’m not complaining. Then we’ll move into the mixing process. I’m not really in a rush after having waited over 3 years to release a new album. I want to feel as good as possible about it!
In other news, we signed a lease for our new place, we’ll be moving next week, and my parents are coming to vist. Yikes! What a month.