Hello again!
I find that all my update titles need to have an exclamation point; now is this because what I am saying is so exciting...or just how I feel? Not sure!
Yesterday was another crazy day of thunder and lightning, high winds, tornado warnings nearby and torrential rain. I could even hear the thunder sometimes in the recording booth. Luckily all the musicians had their phones set up to receive weather warnings based on their location!
But back to the music...these musicians are AMAZING! The studio owner Paul Scholten made out charts of all of my songs. We'd play through each one once and already gorgeous stuff was happening. Then we'd run through a second time to get out any "clams". Then one last time...and 3 times seemed to be the charm! I was playing with a drummer, bass player, keyboard/pianist and an electric guitar player. I did my own acoustic guitar.
The process is to record the song with me singing and playing guitar...then we'd replay the band portion while I did a track of just the guitar. You don't want to have a track with more than one instrument on it because it sounds muddy. All the musicians were in their own room (although we could see each other through windows). The studio owner Paul was also the drummer; he has an uncanny knack of just knowing if the track is good or not! he said that is what he gets paid for...but still it feels like a magical intuitive talent!
We recorded 5 songs...then were done for the day. We went and had dinner at a great music joint in town called Western World...it used to be a boot store. Now they have the walls lined with boots but they are not for sale! Too bad because I can always use more boots! Dinner was cheeseburgers and fries with water (for vocal hydration) and some whiskey (just because)-- all to the soundtrack of a live country, Americana band that smoked! Then we headed home to our sweet room. I fell asleep instantly! Oh and did I mention the sun came out Seattle style...about 5 minutes before sunset.
This morning I was woken up by brilliant sparkly blue skies and a caucophany (no idea how to spell that word) of very busy birds. Cheerful, raucous, delighted to be in the sunshine is how they sounded.
I headed back to the studio late morning to do final vocal tracks. They had reserved 10 hours for me to do lead and backing vocals..but I finished in 3 hours! Yet another wonderful engineer Craig recorded me and guided me through the very different world of harmony and back up vocals!
Already the music sounds beautiful and I am so excited to share it with you when it is done! Tomorrow I will help my friend Dennis do back ups for his music-- and take a day off. Saturday we'll be mixing...
Signing off so I can go outside and enjoy the sun!
Love Tiger