I’ve finished up two days of tracking for my new album with Mike, Jay Bellerose and engineer Ryan Freeland. We’ve got a couple more days, although just one more with Jay (sniff sniff). In my wildest dreams, it could not have gone better. The vibe has been completely relaxed and comfortable, I have loved everything Jay has played, and Ryan gets beautiful sounds out of everything. There’s a warmth to everything that was exactly what Mike and I had in mind, and the songs have turned into what I’ve hoped they would become. Please let me not wake up to find this was just a good dream… :)
(I’m such a dork. I feel like Chris Farley in those SNL sketches where he interviews famous people he admires, like, “Um, Jay, yeah, remember when you did that thing with the mallet? Um…remember when you played that tambourine? Yeah…that was AWESOME.”)
For those of you interested in how it all goes down…we’ve been tracking everything live, with Jay (and all his crazy drums/shaker things etc etc) in one room with the door shut, Mike off in the back room with his bass, and Ryan and I in the main room where he’s running everything. There’s a little camera on Ryan and a little camera on Jay, so we can see him and he can see us, and of course we’re all communicating through the headphones. We didn’t really rehearse anything because of Jay’s touring schedule right now, but it hasn’t seemed to matter–he picks up on everything, even the nuances, so damn fast (see, gushing again, can’t help it!). Anyway, when we’d start a new song, we’d all gather in the living room–ahem, control room–and Mike and I would play it for Jay and Ryan. Then Jay would go and mess around with some sounds, and eventually I’d start playing through the form again a time or two and then we’d just start doing takes.
Sometimes we’ll do something like 4 takes in a row, then listen, then do more and other times the 2nd take will just feel really good and be full of great stuff–sometimes happy accidents–and we’ll just quit there. Jay then often will go in and add some shaker or whatever else the song needs, and Mike and I watch him on the screen from the other room, thinking through things. Very entertaining–Jay TV :). Mike and I will probably overdub and/or add a few things in the end, and I’d love for Ryan to do some keyboard stuff on a couple songs, but I probably won’t re-do very much.
I knew how nice both Ryan and Jay were going in, but they’re also hilarious. They’re friends anyway, and they’re very funny together. It’s a nice side benefit to be able to thoroughly enjoy yourself while not playing, too, and it allows me not to take myself too seriously. In fact, partially because the vibe demands it, and partially because everything already sounds so good to me, I just haven’t been that picky about anything. It’s a little out of character for me not to be overly perfectionistic, but I just trust that I’m in good hands and have just played and sang and then sat back and enjoyed it.
So, more to come…I’m just too exhausted at the moment to summon anything. It’s been quite a couple of days…