Recording Blues

Feeling a little... glum.

I can't remember ever using that word before, but it's the only word that feels appropriate right now.

Two episodes of Sex and The City and a walk in the sunshine have failed to lift my mood. Hmmm, definitely something wrong.

I had a recording session for the final three album tracks scheduled for 11.30 this morning. It was teed up earlier in the week, and I had been looking forward to getting these tracks down and getting the album finished. In anticipation, I'd borrowed a Hammond organ and I even had a guitar lesson with Ric yesterday after Paris inspired/commanded me to learn guitar on a couple of songs, in a conversation that went something like this:

"I didn't know you played guitar!! Awesome! Learn as many songs as you can."
"Uhhh, I'm not very good..."
"Doesn't matter. How cool would it be at a gig to have you up there playing guitar on a few songs?"

I'm inclined to agree with her. I have been trying to teach myself guitar for the last 10 years, with not too much improvement. I am not, however, a very disciplined student.

So, I figured out my lead line for Better Than Life on guitar, plus chords for a few more songs, and went to see Ric the guitar guru for some polishing. He was extremely helpful and I am actually feeling optimistic about my future as a guitar goddess. Unfortunately that was only yesterday, so it hasn't all quite had time to sink in yet.

Nonetheless, I was up early this morning (despite being up till 2am and our newly wedded friends Louise & JP's house playing Monopoly). I did some cleaning that desperately needed doing, listening to Laura Veirs, Wilco and David Bowie for inspiration. Then I sat down at the piano and jammed along with a few songs to get warmed up.

By the time Tom arrived at 12.15 (he's not known for his punctuality), I realised that I probably didn't know these new songs as well as I should have, I'd spent a bit too much time on the guitar and not enough at the piano cementing the chords in my brain. Oh well... at least you could do multiple takes in a recording; more than one chance to get it right.

I'll spare you the blow by blow description: the recording just wasn't happening. I think I understood what I was aiming for, but several things were keeping me from achieving this. Firstly not being familiar enough with the songs. We'd played them in one rehearsal several weeks ago. Then the drums & bass had been recorded, which had been sent through via email. I'd listened to them and jammed along a bit, but it takes longer than that for me to really know a song. I'm just not a fast learner when it comes to music. Also since then, they have put down the guitar parts, so there's a whole lot on the recording which I'd never heard before and was supposed to fit in with.

Secondly, not being familiar enough with the Hammond. I was having trouble getting a sound which suited the track, I think we got there in the end, but I didn't know it like I know my instruments.

Thirdly, just not being a good enough piano player. One of the tracks that needed piano has a great feel which is a bit like Heroes by David Bowie, and also a bit like a Wilco song called Handshake Drugs. This song has a fantastic piano part, really bluesy sort of feeling and loose but tight if that makes sense. I realised yesterday that this song had a similar feel to ours, and had been trying to internalise it, and completely independently today Tom said "to get some ideas, maybe you should listen to this..." and played the exact same song. I laughed and said I'd been listening to it all day. But as we found out, it's gonna take a lot more than listening for me to be able to emulate something like that on the piano. We tried it, but after one shitty take I said I think I need to work on this a bit more.

Same story for the Hammond on the next track. It just wasn't happening and I couldn't work out why. I kept stuffing up the chords and couldn't remember for the life of me what I'd played in rehearsal that day. I know I was happy with what I did then, but I've no idea what it was. We had a listen to the recording we'd made that day, but it was too crappy and neither of us could make out the keyboard part. I realised later, that was because the majority of what I was playing that day was on tambourine!! No wonder I didn't know the song. All I was doing last time was keeping time!

So then we came to the guitar part, which fortunately worked better than the keyboard stuff. My hard work had paid off - mind you I still don't think I got one take of the verse perfect, but hey, I guess rock n roll's not meant to be perfect. At least this time I knew what I wanted to do, it was just a matter of getting it right. I think I got enough bits right for him to be able to cut & paste it together. My left fingertips are very sore now. Need callouses badly!!!

So that was it, and I feel crap about it. I should have been much better, but it's not all my fault. I hate this way of doing things, showing us a song once and then expecting us to record it. It's not the way I work well, something needs to be really in my bones before I feel comfortable enough to record it. In the past we'd worked on songs for ages in the rehearsal studio before recording them, and I know there are drawbacks to this but it's definitely my preference. Either that or spend months in a recording studio with someone else paying for it and have the chance to jam, experiment, etc until it feels right.

I asked Tom to email me the two new tracks with the guitar parts so I could practise with them. I'm going to have to ask if I can keep the Hammond for a couple of weeks I think, it will probably take me that long to get these tracks down. I'll have to try and learn that Wilco piano part and practise some blues... maybe that will help this little white girl get some soul.

Now I'm off to the Espy to help out on the door for RRR's 30th birthday gig. A great lineup - including Ground Components, Black Cab and Macromantics. Hopefully this will put me in a better mood!!!!