July 08, 2003

The Delightful Horrible Magic of Sound Recording

The first day of recording is fast approaching. I'm glad but it makes me nervous, like an exam-- I've been studying for it for the last three years, reviewing for the past few months, cramming for the past few weeks, and I'm sure we'll end up "pulling" a few all-nighters along the way. I feel pretty well prepared, but you truly never know what will happen with these things. No one "aces" the recording test.

There's this perfect, beautiful, powerful, charming, challenging, irresistible album in my head; and a series of obstacles, hurdles, trick questions, sand traps, land mines, and possible WMDs that will have to be surmounted in the process of trying to render an approximation of the ideal, one that is close enough that something of its character can be grasped by listeners who know nothing of it, who have no stake in it, who may, indeed, approach it with extreme skepticism as a matter of principle.

You can never take the thing in your head and cause it to materialize exactly as imagined. Even if you try really hard and do it really well, and have unlimited talent, time and resources (we don't) the process of turning an idea into an artifact itself changes things about the idea. Sometimes the best you can do doesn't quite make it. And sometimes, you just screw up. Some of the errors, deficiencies and failures will turn out to be inadvertent improvements that you (and only you) will "get a kick" out of every time you hear them; others will be the cause of a quiet remorse that will trouble you for the rest of your life. Oh yeah, and it helps quite a bit if you "have fun" while you're doing it. On that, everyone agrees. I'm going to do my best, but I'm not going to lie to you: my heart will be in my mouth the entire time. It always is.

The first day had to be moved from July 19 to July 22 for studio reasons, which will put us in the awkward position of having two shows (my solo show at the Parkside on July 25th and the MTX at the Lookout Records anniversary show at the Great American Music Hall on July 26th) smack dab in the middle of basic tracks. If you see me drinking too much, give me a friendly reminder, if you would, that being hung over isn't the best state in which to listen to eight hours of someone hitting something as hard as he can over and over again. Ow.

I was planning to do another round of Cyber-Busking before the recording begins, though I don't know if I'll get it together in time, as I'll be pretty busy. I could just throw up another of the "eight little songs", but I think a ninth little song would be more interesting - I imagine most people who read the blog and are at all interested have already acquired the CD anyway. I'm considering "She Runs Out When the Money Does," my newest song which I like quite a lot (but I like them all a lot when they're new, and even probably too much even when they're old); I'm still trying to decide whether it should go on the album or not, assuming we even have the time to learn it well enough. The other option is a grossly irrelevant techno instrumental called "Tentacles, a Love Story." That almost definitely won't be on the album, but I think it's kind of fun anyway. Let me know what you think, if anything.

Also, if I can get it together, I'm planning to try to blog from the studio. I have no idea how well I'll do with it, or even if it will be technically feasible. I'll have a lot of other things on my mind, obviously. There's a lot of down time for individuals in the studio, but as I remarked of touring awhile back it's sometimes difficult to do anything other than stare off into space during those empty moments. I think it's a cool idea though, and I'm going, at least, to give it a shot.

Finally, thanks to all who have left comments on songs here. I'm planning to spend a bit of time today responding to them, so check it out if you want.

Posted by Dr. Frank at July 8, 2003 05:26 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Good luck with the recording! And wish all the Lookout peeps a happy anniversary for me. Or not. I've been following the label since the Kamala and the Karnivore and pre-Very Small days and am quite proud of what folks have built, even if it's evolved. As far as the busking goes, I'd err on the side of the unreleased and oddities... I'd love to hear the techno instrumental. Share your stretching, release what you record... Do the new.

Posted by: Heath at July 8, 2003 07:16 PM

"She Runs out when the Money Does"....what a perfect title for a country tune.

I think putting up both is an option....

Posted by: Jane Finch at July 8, 2003 09:52 PM

Good luck in there, buddy! Can't wait to hear the new stuff.

As for hangovers, I once mumbled some long, incoherent story about why the drummer just *had* to be recorded in a shitty little isolation booth barely big enough for doing vocals. The engineer finally gave in, never knowing the real reason was I would've died had that goddamned drummer been in the same room with me.

Posted by: Ken Layne at July 9, 2003 12:38 AM

I'd love to hear the "Country" tune "She Runs Out When The Money Does" sounds like a fun song. I also stick by my guns saying that "London" would sound wonderful with a string and woodwind section and real bag-pipes, but would probably sound almost as cool if some keyboard player who had a deep midi bank and new what he was doing with making a string and woodwind arrangement and still not have it sound "synth"-etic.

--good luck Frank, Jym and Bobby J!!--

Posted by: Channon at July 9, 2003 12:46 AM

Good luck, Frank. I know it'll be outstanding. Say Hi to Mr. Jym for me.

Posted by: Ben at July 9, 2003 01:23 AM

Regarding a second "eight little songs" vs. a ninth little song: as far as I'm concerned, the more you'll let us hear, the better!

David

Posted by: David Rachels at July 9, 2003 02:01 PM

Not necessarily countering the idea of releasing another song, I think a cool way to build excitement for the new album without giving away the bank would be to release the lyrics to a song, a few songs, all of the songs.

It'd also be fun to see how audience members who knew the words but not the tune would attempt to sing along.

Posted by: Dave Bug at July 9, 2003 03:23 PM

Dave, that's actually a pretty great idea. Making up your own tune to someone else's lyrics is a great, fun exercise, and can even be illuminating. (It works better when the lyrics are good-- and in this context "good" means that they scan and lend themselves to melding with a melody.)

I used to do this myself as a stretching experiment, before I learned to read/guess at music notation well enough to spoil it: get a sheet music book of songs you've never heard, play the chords and imagine a tune and rhythmic phrasing that would "fit." A few songs that ended up on MTX albums started life that way, in fact.

I think my lyrics tend to be "good," in that sense.

Plus, like most things I've never done or thought of before, I of course automatically want to do it.

I could post the "She Runs Out When the Money Does" lyrics; or the lyrics to another possible song. Let's see: "Everybody Knows You're Crying," "Disaster's Recipe," "She's not a Flower."

You choose.

Posted by: Dr. Frank at July 9, 2003 05:16 PM

Frank,
I think you've heard the public, "More, more, more." I would have to agree. BTW, we will be making it to SF for both shows in July. I'm pretty psyched. Hey, I could perform some of your unreleased stuff, if given permission and all...that would be so freaking rad!!!

Posted by: Bill at July 9, 2003 07:41 PM

Just the title "She'll Run Out Before the Money Does" suggests some rhythm/tune ideas, so it might be fun.

I might regret asking for that one, though, as it's also the one I'm most interested in hearing (for the same reasons)...I hope I'm not lynched for delaying the release of a requested tune. (How long 'til there's "Free SROBtMD!" t-shirts?)

Posted by: Dave Bug at July 10, 2003 07:29 PM

On a slightly related note, have you ever thought about sending lyrics (to a song you've already written) to a song-poem factory? I'd love to see them struggle with "The Trebuchet Set".

Posted by: Dave Bug at July 10, 2003 07:35 PM

Finally found this site!

Posted by: Troy at January 11, 2005 04:54 AM