Le Weekend…

Another weekend gone by. I’m amazed by everyone’s focus on this project. We’re on schedule, possibly ahead, we get 2 days off, the weather is gorgeous and none of us have any desire to leave The Glade unless its for more food, candy and/or beer. If you’ve ever seen the Chili Peppers’ doc, ‘Funky Monks’ (documenting the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik), well thats been pretty much the vibe here so far. We get up around 10:30am, make the 5 minute walk to the studio for 11, record for about 10 hours and then retire back to The Glade where we drink until we’re dry or unconscious, work out parts for the next day and then wake up and do it all over again. Our world is us right now and I have to say, I’ve never needed so little in my life to make me happy. This is the kind of atmosphere that creates beautiful music and that’s my kind of atmosphere…

In another mission to Purley, we raided the local Blockbuster’s cheap bins and amassed a small DVD collection of horrible, yet somehow entertaining movies. Last night we watched ‘Grandma’s Boy’, tonite it looks like ‘Brother’s Solomon’, some Will Arnet film I’ve never heard of. I got a membership so once we pillage the bins, I guess we’ll begin to work our way across the “New Release’s” wall.

I’ve got to say as well that the studio diet is working wonders for me. It consists of waking up, eating some yogurt and fruit, then hitting the studio where I drink tons of water but eat nothing until dinner which is usually at around 7pm. When I’m not laying down parts I spend my studio downtime reading, listening to tunes and shooting hoops. Yes, we have a basketball court within feet of the studio. Nothing better than that and the studio diet approves! We don’t get back until after 10 (usually also following a quick dip in the pool), where the diet falters due to beer consumption and snacking, but I did that all before anyways so its not like it doesn’t balance itself out. All in all I feel pretty good. No bad hangovers yet so I must be kinda behaving.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to lay all of the rest of my rhythm parts. I think there’s 8 songs to do still. We’ll see how it goes. My incentive is that Gregg, our engineer, is off on Tuesday and Wednesday to finish off his sessions with Gary Moore, yes THE Gary Moore. So a) I don’t want to be waiting to finish them and, on the same note, b) the 2 days off will feel 10X better if I know they’re done. Good luck to me…

 

Sessions: Day 5 – June 13th, 2008.

With just 2 more songs to drum out, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves this morning. Mainly because we were still on schedule, not that there really is one, but coming over here we’d hoped to be done bass and drums in 4 days. Today was day 5, but we really only spent a few hours on Day 1, laying ‘No Money…’ plus I’d already put some rhythm down on it as well.

 

The last 2 songs were ‘So Be It’, an up-tempo job that has a great chorus, a bangin’ middle-8 (which we actually play twice Beatles style) and then a slowdown jam at the end. B wanted it to feel like Clapton’s ‘Layla’. The challenge today was working out the ending. Francis feels the chorus should return and immediately fade after the slowdown so that’s what we set out to do. In the end this wasn’t the challenge we’d prepared for though. Greg pretty much nailed a roll that brought it back to speed in his first take. Problem solved.

 

Our final job was to perfect ‘What You See On The Way’. You may remember from the earlier blogs that this one failed to impress when we debuted it earlier in the sessions, but we felt we saved it with some re-writes. I was pumped to lay this one down cause it was like we were going to create it and record it at the same time. We ran it about 5 times, tinkering with parts of it after each go, and in the end this version is far better than the one we showed up here with. Gregg certainly agreed. It charges along, running through 7 different parts before ending. I loved it before so now I don’t know how to describe it… Really love it?! I’m all but sure it will be the lead-off track on the release. It introduces us beautifully and OT’s bass line sets the mood for the rest of our material. Not to mention that everyone had something to do with its final form.

 

With drums and bass now behind us (well aside from some overdubs and tracking I’m sure), it is now my turn to get some guitar down. Seeing as we had a couple hours left in our session, that time began tonite. Pretty much my rhythm’s will all be laid as I described earlier when I did ‘No Money Anthem’. One track of DI and then 2 tracks (left & right) of natural acoustic, so far all on Francis’ Ibanez and mic’d with a Neumann U87.

 

I like to throw caution to the wind when I record. I try not to concentrate on playing flawless rhythm because flawless rhythm doesn’t always result in good tracks. Flawless feel does. If flawless time was what made people happy, everyone would love elevator music. I like getting lost in the drums and just letting it happen. To have some bass down was such a bonus. Mix a little of that in, to give the drums a seamless feel, and I’m off to the races. One or two takes max. There may be a spot or 2 I have trouble with. It’s then that the jock in me kicks in and I shift my focus to execution over style. But only then. I don’t know if I’ve ever, by my own standards, laid a flawless track but that’s what keeps it fresh for me; the constant pursuit of it. Can you tell I love to record?!

 

I played on ‘What You See On The Way’ – because it was still fresh, having been the last one to be done on drums and bass – ‘Another Way’ because I’ve been playing it forever, and ‘What’s My Name’ because it has such a great, natural feel and is fun as hell to play. I’m happy with all of them, but I’ll listen to them again on Monday and see how they sound. I think I want to tinker with the intro of ‘What’s My Name’ a bit. Thicken up my acoustic sound because I’m all alone and it needs to hit you in the guts. Aside from that, the weekend is gonna kill me because I just want to go, go, go. I suppose a celebration is in order though. Bass and drums are done. Hopefully tomorrow morning I’ll be happy I’m not playing… doubt it.  

Sessions: Day 4 – June 12th, 2008.

Today actually went really smoothly. We’re now used to the fact that there are going to be hang-ups so by now they don’t faze us at all. Before I’d even got to the studio, OT had polished the bass on ‘Wait For You’. I need to hear more added to this one before I’ll be able to gauge its full potential. Because its a standard ballad, the bass and drums just do totally what I expect them to so there’s nothing surprising about it yet. The piano is all just ghetto held notes that don’t do it any favours either. I think I’ll be on the fence with this one until B puts a vocal on it. That will be its make or break.

 

First on the agenda today was ‘Another Way’. I was interested to see Gregg’s reaction to it because we’d had this one in the mix during B’s solo sessions and it just never became the song I wanted. When T2 joined the band is when this song really came into its own. T2 gave it the Hendrix-y riff at the beginning and filled all the spaces with tasty playing. There are some other alterations as well. While working with Moe, we moved the first note of the chorus from a minor to major chord which took it to another level and then finally B had us move it up a semi-tone which completed its renaissance. Gregg seemed quite impressed with its tweaking.

 

We laid it down off the floor because it’s at its best being jammed. Greg left alone to have at it with the click would never give it the life it deserves. It came out great in the end.

 

Curve was next and also went down really easily. A bit of a surprise because it was probably our loosest track coming over here. Now its up there as one of those songs that sounds better already than I could have imagined. OT and I had worked out a great bass line last night and we continued to iron it out as he laid it down. I think he was stoked because this was one of the songs he may have not been overly keen on but by the time he was through, he felt it may be his new favourite to play (All of our favourites change daily right now). I don’t think I really had much to do with this outcome. Most of my work was simply assuring OT he was on the right track. The magic, as usual, was all him.

 

Finally we laid down one of our faves, ‘What’s My Name?!’ This song has a dope rhythm in the verse where Greg lays back and works the toms. The chorus is probably our heaviest and then it ends with a really cool arrangement that will take you a couple of listens to get a handle on it, but I hope you’ll still feel it on the first go around, regardless of whether you know where its going next. Once again we rocked this one off the floor because I don’t really see any other way of doing it. To maintain the feel between the verse and the chorus, a fixed tempo just wouldn’t do it any justice. Our engineer Gregg didn’t seem to get it at first but by the time OT had put bass to it, he was digging it big time. Gotta love that.

 

When the work was done, we had B’s brother Pat and his buddy James over to The Glade for some beverages tonite. Good times were had. I think we watched ‘Mr. Woodcock’ at some point. I love when Billy Bob plays an asshole. He does it well.

Tomorrow we’re gonna finish off the drums and bass. Two more to go; ‘So Be It’ and ‘What You See On The Way’…

Middle-8’s, Bridges, Whatever, Cont…

Just adding a note on Middle-8’s. A few people have written me still unclear with what one is… The best one I can think of off the top of my head would be the part in Weezer’s ‘Say It Ain’t So’ where the lines are, “Dear Daddy, I write you inspite of years of silence…” I don’t know if that is a perfect “Middle-8″ but its an example none the less. In most pop songs the middle-8 arrives following the second chorus. Hope that helps. Expect Day 4’s post in an hour or so…

Sessions: Day 3 – June 11th, 2008.

Well I was sorta right with my prediction yesterday. ‘Back To Me’ proved to be our most challenging work of the day. It wasn’t the playing though. More so the approach. Actually, before I get into it, I should point out that the weather since we got here has been phenomenal. Sunny days and reasonable early to mid-20s temperatures. The last couple of days, a soft breeze entered the picture making it feel even nicer…

 

Anyhoo, back to ‘Back To Me’… In the verses, Greg goes to a very minimal sidestick beat that Gregg thought he could make more interesting with a drum loop. Though at first I couldn’t hear where he was going with it, by now I trust Gregg when he’s feelin something. The guy is as much a pro as I’ve ever worked with. His patience and care for every sound and beat is remarkable. Shit I would never notice, troubles him so much. For instance, on ‘Heartland’ he must have had Greg tune and re-tune the snare between takes like 10 times before he was content with how it felt. He’s also made Greg swap ride cymbals on several occasions to suit the track we’re working on at the time… So we spent a couple of hours getting the rest of the drums down on ‘Back To Me’ and when we listened back to it, it just didn’t have any life. Then Gregg had a new revelation. Maybe trying it without a click. One take later and we had an amazing drum track and the bass to boot. Weird how these things work. In the end we spent 2+ hours trying to get it right and 5 minutes getting it right…

 

Next we worked on our power ballad ‘Wait For You’. We haven’t decided where this song fits into our sound but fuck it’s a sick ballad and even if it doesn’t work out for us, it at least proved to us that we’re capable of them sort of things. Maybe we’ll pawn it off on somebody else. Needless to say, this song also ran longer than it should have, only because we had to set up some keys and couldn’t find a sustain peddle anywhere in the studio. The downfalls of being studio guinea pigs strikes again! T2 finally just played it sans sustain which sounded pretty hilarious but allowed Greg to nail the drums down in a couple of takes to only piano. I realized laying drums to piano is a good way to go about business in this new technological world, because with midi you can put the piano in perfect time and take the click away. Greg’s feel to an “instrument” is far quicker to come than to a dull click track.

 

Having said that, we returned to the click for our final track of the day, ‘Seamless’. There’s not really much I can say about this one. It was another of those songs that I loved coming into the studio and now, with only bass and drums down, it already sounds better. I must say another thing I’ve been enjoying is being able to really key in on the individual parts. I’m a person who judges a song based on my overall impression of it, so in jams and such I don’t always catch the intricacies of what everyone is doing. This is also due to the fact that since I’m in the band I have to worry about what I’m doing as well. Being here and so far listening to just the drums or just the bass I get extra stoked on what we’re doing. There’s a lot more to listen to in these songs than I thought… well not thought, noticed I guess.

 

We got back to The Glade (our HQ) just before 11, and then our final surprise of the day. Has anyone ever seen the Sandler flick ‘I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry’?? I don’t know if I just figured it would be so horrible, but it was actually really funny. I call this “The Van Wilder Effect”. After the movie we downed a few vodka’s as we discussed the differences between why girls cheat and why guys cheat. In the end we generalized that guys cheat because they think they can get away with it and just want something new on the side while for girls, it’s more emotionally based. Oh, our usual North discussions and debates. On deck for tomorrow, Tom finishing the bass on ‘Wait For You’. Then ‘Another Way’, ‘Curve’ and ‘What’s My Name’…

Sessions: Day 2 – June 10th, 2008.

This morning we got into the studio around 11am. As I mentioned yesterday, ‘Heartland’ would be our starting point. I’m still not a studio veteran by any means, but in my 10 or so experiences, the one thing that happens every time is that you come to a song or part that you think should be easy, but it ends up proving otherwise. ‘Heartland’ is so far that song.

 

If my memory is correct, it is the first song we wrote as a group about a year ago. We played it during the tour and then reworked it during pre-production. Nothing was dramatically changed on it; mainly the arrangement and we added a simple middle-8*. You would think it goes down quickly, but no, it just had to be an asshole. Both bass and drums had hang-ups.

 

Regardless, it took a little more time than expected but we eventually got it right and before the day was through, we put down ‘All These Things I Hide’, which went about as smoothly as you could dream, and ‘Radio’, which both Francis and Gregg believe has a tremendous amount of commercial potential. It contains a super catchy riff that OT wrote, a very “punky” verse and a great chorus vocal and harmony that becomes even bigger at the end where the key of the song is changed. The irony is that the song is actually about our disdain for the amount of awful music circulating on the airwaves these days. Hopefully we can become a part of it all with this one…

 

We also began work on another song, but soon put it on the backburner for a re-write when we decided it didn’t have a proper/any true chorus. Seeing as we plan on ‘What You See On The Way’ to be potentially the title of our project (hence the title of this blog), it didn’t take a genius to figure it was definitely worth a little extra attention. This part of the tale has a happy ending though. During pre-production on another song called ‘Back To Me’, a similar issue came up. In the end, we swapped the chorus and the middle-8 changing the overall impression of the song immensely. So basically we sort of did the same thing with ‘What You See…’ We cut the previous “chorus” in half, made it the pre-chorus* and then took a section of the middle-8 and made IT the chorus. Previously the middle-8 was in two sections, so taking one of them to make it a chorus still left us with a great and, by contemporary song writing standards, “proper” middle-8. Are you still following me?!?! You’ll hear it all soon enough.

 

After today’s progress, we feel good about working out 3 songs a session. We’ve decided to do just drums and bass and then on to the next, mainly to keep some flow to the days. I’m still playing a guide track when Greg’s laying drums but I’ll be much happier playing all my rhythm tracks at once so I can establish some sort of momentum when my time comes.

 

Tomorrow we plan on doing a ballad-ish day. We’re gonna start off with the previously mentioned ‘Back To Me’ which is similar rhythmically to ‘Heartland’ so hopefully it doesn’t fuck with us too badly. Then we’re hoping to lay our power ballad ‘Wait For You’ and then ‘Seamless’, a track I wrote while on the UK tour.

 

For now, its back to home base. T2 went into town and picked up a bottle of Vodka. He’s come to the realization that alcohol is meant to taste badly so you don’t kill yourself drinking it too quickly. On our first night we celebrated with a fine Jameson Whiskey which went down WAYYY too easily and he ended up in a closet in the middle of the night which is a tale I’ll save for him to maybe tell if he remembers. I think back home what they also do is make the good tasting shit really expensive so even if you can drink it fast, you don’t simply for financial reasons. Fifteen dollars for a 26’r of Jameson’s is just not right…

 

* UK-NEAL Musical Conversions

 

The first time I recorded here, on Bernadette’s solo album, I quickly was made aware that the terminology I was accustomed to back home wasn’t the same in England. The following are a few of the terms I grew up with and how they are referred to over here (I may possibly have been wrong about some of these all along. Regardless, the chart will still set it straight):

 

A verse is still a verse and a chorus, still a chorus.

What I would call a pre-chorus, they call a bridge.

What I call a bridge, they call a middle-8.

 

It makes sense because, really, a pre-chorus is technically the bridge between a verse and chorus and a middle-8 usually consists of a fresh 8 bars somewhere in the middle of the song.

 

Some other ones I can think of right now:

 

When doing overdubs, what I call “punching in”, they refer to as “dropping in” and they call headphones “cans”… There may be more as we go along but this should be a good start. Oh, they call dinner “tea”… Talk soon…

Sessions: Day 1 – June 10th, 2008.

Got up around 11 this morning, stoked to get the show on the road. We’d decided the day before to get it going with ‘No Money Anthem’. Rolled into the studio around noon where our engineer, Gregg Jackman, was getting the drums mic’d up for action (Gregg spells his name with the double-G so this should help you decifer between when I’m talking about drummer Greg and engineer Gregg). Seeing as we are the studio’s guinea pigs, Gregg (who was instrumental in its design) was looking as excited as us to see how the construction would pan out. Weeks had been spent getting the acoustics in the main room just right, and today would be the day everyone would find out if much of the guess-work was accurate.

 

Well after an hour or so devoted to getting the drums mic’d and tuned accordingly, the look on Gregg’s face seemed to express a thankful satisfaction that all the lost sleep was not for nothing. In speaking to him during dinner later, he was a little more open about how nervous he actually was. Now that everything had worked out, he could be totally honest about his previous doubts. In working with him before, I would have bet it would have, but then again, its a whole different situation when the failures could all fall on your shoulders. Regardless, bye, bye doubt. It was finally time to get down to business!

 

It looks as though we will be working out the rhythm sections together rather than just doing all the drums. OT and I play along with Greg, and the click, to hopefully get a desired drum track. On ‘No Money…’ after 3 takes both Francis and Gregg agreed that his first take was the best. A few edits later and we were onto laying bass. OT laid it down very quickly, possibly because dinner was nearly ready. Food is always an excellent incentive I find…

 

So after dinner I put my parts down. I must admit I wasn’t overly excited to start with ‘No Money…’ There are a few technical rhythms that I play (stuff you won’t even notice when its done) and to have to do them right off the bat wasn’t my idea of a good time. I was hoping to save them for a day when I was laying a bunch of shit so I could do them when I was well warm.

 

Regardless, they got done. For ‘No Money…’ I played a track of Washburn electric/acoustic through DI and a mic’d Roland cube simultaneously and then followed laying 2 tracks playing an Ibanez acoustic mic’d with a Neumann U87 to help with the attack.

 

After a quick listen, which sounded great, we called it a day. We’re hoping to work through 2 or 3 tomorrow, starting with Heartland. At the end of the day Gregg was extra stoked because he had thought we’d only get the drums done on the first day. Hopefully we haven’t set his expectations too high! ha… Home to watch a flick and get some sleep. “Run Fat Boy Run” seems to be the choice for tonite.

Arrival, Etc…. Relaxation Weekend.

What more can I say. Zoom Air took care of us. After our Air Canada experiences last time we went for the cheap charter and honestly, it was a better flight than the major. Must be a sign…

 

It seems as though we’ve missed out on some seriously disgusting weather back home as well. Like 40 degree days. No thanks. Today was a comfy 22 and the sun was showin some love.

 

Anyhoo, the studio is a dream. A small but big wood cabin in Francis’ “back garden” as they say here (back yard, back home). We all feel like The Band, except its spring in London instead of dead winter in Upstate New Yourk. Yesterday we just jammed and chilled. ‘Quo had a show a few hours away. Macara is opening which is dope. New singer, new vibe. A group of good people, playing solid tracks so what more could you want?! Lady at the helm as well. Just how it should be if rock is ever gonna change its face…

 

Pretty much we’ve spent our first couple of days jamming through the daylight hours and then kickin it with some beverages back in our apartment. Yeah, we have a “living quarters” while we’re here. We’ll basically wake up and then take a short walk to the studio. Are you kiddin’ me?!

 

Today was as good of a musical day as I’ve ever had. Playing songs for Francis is a little nerve-racking. When B and I were here working on her solo album, there were songs he flat out disliked, so after all the work we’ve put in getting this new material ready for him there was a lot on the line.

 

Cutting to the chase, he was completely impressed. But that wasn’t the coolest part. The coolest part was how good we actually sounded. A bunch of make-shift gear to rehearse with and the songs still glowed. I feel better and better about this album with every day that passes. Songs I maybe doubt one day, become my favorite the next. All is well is all I can say…

 

Drums should get under way tomorrow. Greg’s hoping to get a couple out of the way. I have a little more confidence in him. I’m thinking 3 or 4. Either way, I just can’t wait to get the ball rollin… Talk to everyone soon…

The Night Before…

Well it feels like just yesterday I was on the bus, pounding the keys and fillin’ y’all in on what was going down during our UK Tour in support of the Mighty ‘Quo.

After the tour, we returned to Toronto where we continued gigging while putting material together for our first record as The North. We were supposed to be back in London in February to begin recording. February turned to late March, which turned to April, which turned to early May and now here we are getting ready to depart in June. Better late than never I say and to tell the truth, the extra time we had only added to our belief that what we are about to lay down is sure to be a very great effort.

I’ll bring you up to speed on whats gone down while in Canada. We started with about 20 songs, which we worked down to about 17. That was when Moe Berg entered the picture. For those unfamiliar, Moe is better known as the frontman of a great Canadian act called The Pursuit of Happiness. I don’t know if anyone in the UK knows who he is, but trust me when I say that in Canada, you would be hardpressed to find someone into rock that has never heard “I’m An Adult Now”. Anyways, Moe offered his assistance to help produce the album from the Canadian side of the pond. While waiting to get our studio time, Moe worked with us to cut the track list to 12 songs and also helped make those 12 songs as good as they could possibly be. Now we’re set to put our faith in Mr. Rossi once again, and create our masterpiece.

So that brings you all to speed. As for me, the date of departure couldn’t have been timed any better. Last night I got to see The Kooks perform in Toronto. Couldn’t think of a better way to get into a UK mood, watching probably my favorite band at the moment. His voice is one of the best in the business and the set was as energetic as ever, with a good mix of old and new tracks from ‘Konk’… Ok, the limo is here and I’m off to the airport. Hopefully we have a better experience with our flights this time around. I’m sure you’ll hear all about it tomorrow, if not… Welcome Back!