Session Log: 11.29.06

Wednesday, 11.29.06: 3:00p - 1:00a
'Take It As It Comes' / 'Last Trip' / 'You Won't Be Long' (Rehearsal takes only)
Studio: Miriam Audio - Philadelphia, PA
Producer: Jim
Engineer: Pete Donnelly

A bunch of time in the studio with Mike Frank (keys), Pete Donnelly (bass), and Roger Cox (drums) learning tunes and working out arrangements in anticipation of recording backing tracks.

I went to the studio at 3p, vacuum in tow and spent a few hours cleaning the studio. This is not a typical scenario in the world of recording, but I feel more creative when I'm not worried about mold spores invading my body (sorry Jesse, I love you but you're messy).

Lee Schusterman arrived around 6p to tune one of the pianos. You can see Lee explain the differences between the varying types of upright pianos - not once, but twice - in a video here that I SWEAR to you is much more entertaining than what it sounds like it would be (by the way Lee - it was a whole step). While you're over at YouTube, you may want to watch my Lee-ona impression here, which is almost exactly as entertaining as you think it would be, which is to say, not very (but it's short).

The boys arrived around 7p and we spent the next 6 hours getting the tunes in shape. This process usually starts with me showing everyone the basic structure and chord progression of the tune and then running the song down several times after that, each time giving a little bit more attention to individual details about the arrangement. I generally have a fair amount of things that I know that I'm looking for - a certain drum beat in a particular section of the song, a specific part on piano or bass at this point or that, but there's a lot of input from the guys as well. I've been playing with Mike for probably about 15 years and Roger for nearly 10, so they always have an instinct for the things I'm hearing anyway and Pete is one of my favorite bass players in terms of style and note choice, so there's a lot of great ideas to sift through.

You can (I think) kind of get an idea of what that process looks like (in highly edited form) in a video here that follows us through learning 'Take It As It Comes' (don't get to attached to the title, it's probably just a working one).

Two days of work in the studio and we haven't yet committed a proper take of anything. That will change tomorrow.

Session Log: 11.28.06

Tuesday, 11.28.06: 4:00p - 12:00a
No recording.
Studio: Miriam Audio - Philadelphia, PA
Producer: Jim
Engineer: Pete Donnelly


A day of loading-in, setting up instruments and getting sounds. The grunt work that needs to happen before recording can begin. You can see some video from the evening here.

Session Log: 'It's Over' (working title)

Tuesday, 11.14.06: 3p - 8:30p
'It's Over' (working title)
Studio: Miriam Audio - Philadelphia, PA
Producer: Jim
Engineer: Jesse Honig

Tracks (in order):
* Acoustic Guitar
* Foot Taps (recorded simultaneously with Ac. Gtr.)


Another quick one. I'm rather consciously ramping up slowly for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I'm trying to create the same kind of process that produced 'Fidelity is the Enemy', which had more time in between recording sessions than actual time in the studio. I like to be able to think about the next move a bit and I've also found with going into the studio for a month at a time you inevitably hit periods where you wind up "punching the clock" - there's a checklist of things to do and only so much time and you start plowing your way through simply to get things done. I'm hoping to keep each session a bit more inspired and to always WANT to be recording.

Another reason why this process will take a bit longer is lurking in the title of this song, the part that says working title. Again, much like when I started making 'Fidelity', I have several songs that don't have complete sets of lyrics, but are finished in terms of melody, chord progression and a lot of the arrangement ideas. I don't mind working this way, in fact it helps me finish the lyrics, but I would be lying if I didn't also say that I feel the pressure of having to come up with lyrics on a schedule. Lyrics are ALWAYS the last thing to get done and the pacing item of my songwriting - I just have to not freak out about it.

The other thing that is adding to the lyric pressure is that I'm fairly determined to implement a new working method with lyrics. Having perhaps exposed myself a little too bare on some of the songs on 'Safe in Sound' (to the point of not being able to play a lot of them live on a lot of occasions), I'm trying to create lyrics that have some kind of emotional truth as a personal starting point, but then to invent a completely different storyline around it. Essentially finding the midway point between the completely made up story song writing I did way back in the Ultrasound days ('Evelyn', anyone? 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Theatre', no? Ah well.) and the first person life experience stuff that sorta creeped in during the "b@#*h ex-girlfriend trilogy" of the late 90s.

Anyway, the working titles are almost always phonetic interpretations of what comes out of my mouth when writing the melody. Whether this song winds up having anything to do with "It's Over" is entirely up for grabs.

I haven't really told you much about the session, have I? That's because I made this video for you to check out. It'll be just like being there. The big issue at this session was shoes. I wanted to record a foot-tap along with the guitar, but my ever-trusty Chuck Taylors weren't really as sharp-toned percussively as I wanted. Luckily, Jesse Honig and I have the same shoe size and - with both of us fearlessly ignoring whatever fungal exchange might occur - he lent me a pair of his dress shoes for the occasion.

Keeping to the "full performance" edict required 12 takes of the song, with Take 11 being selected as best. The fairly high number of takes was almost entirely due to my inability to adjust to regular shoes - my tapping kept going out of time. It's all in the video.

Oh yeah - in the video I'm talking about working titles and I mention 'Laxton's Supreme' - I meant 'Laxton's Superb'. That was the working title of George Harrison's 'I Want to Tell You' on the 'Revolver' LP. Laxton's Superb is a type of apple. One of George's other tunes of 'Revolver', 'Love You To', had a working title of 'Granny Smith' - another apple variety. Kind of strange that this was a full year and a half before the Beatles started their company Apple.

Next week - the first band sessions with Mike Frank, Pete Donnelly and Roger Cox.

By the way - in case I haven't mentioned it: Check out the video. If you like 'em, I'll keep making 'em.

XM-ing it with Jason Karaban

Took a post-election trip down to our nation's capital to help out Philly ex-pat Jason Karaban on a session for XM Cafe.

Jason's one helluva songsmith and his new album sounds a little too good when I'm just about to start working on my own (I freak out easily). I've known Jason for years, but this is the first time we had a chance to move air molecules around together. Sounded real fine, too (if I'm allowed to say that).

The XM studio complex is one of my favorite places on earth - studio after studio of great gear and folks who know how to make things sound good and who love music like they used to back in the days when people worked in radio because they loved music.

XM Cafe Music Director Bill Evans and Engineer Q both recorgnized me from my stop there with 4 Way Street a couple of years ago, which is something. They were kind enough to ask if I'd play a tune of my own, so I plopped down a version of 'Talk About the Weather' - but it was really Jason's day and I had a great time playing and harmonizing on his tunes.

I think it airs in a few weeks. I'll let you know when I know. In the meantime, check out Jason's album.

Session Log: 'Learning to Forgive'

Tuesday, 11.07.06: 4p - 8:30p
'Learning to Forgive'
Studio: Miriam Audio - Philadelphia, PA
Producer: Jim
Engineer: Jesse Honig

Tracks (in order):
* Acoustic Guitar
* Nylon-string Guitar
* Bass Drum (oversized, played with mallet - NOT a kick drum)


And . . . begin. A rather short session (it was going to start earlier, but I went to vote and discovered that my registration did not follow me when I moved so I had to go back to my old polling place), but hey, the new record is officially started.

This was a really straight-forward session. Started with the main acoustic guitar track, Takes 1-16. Most of those takes were just testing different microphone set-ups and placements finding the right tone. Take 16 wound up being the one used for overdubbing.

One of the things I'm going to try on this record is to have as many tracks be full performances as possible, instead of doing the usual "punch-in" to fix any mistakes. I think in the end everything will sound more musical because you tend to retain the "macro" aspect of the performance - the little nuances that occur as you travel THROUGH the song, rather than just playing the second chorus, for example.

The other thing is that I'm going to try to not use a click track whenever possible. In a lot of my songs there will be sections of the tune where a chord will hold and want to take a really tiny pause or breath before the next section starts and I've found that when I've used a click track in the past, these sections sound rushed or stiff and I wind up editing all the tracks by "pushing them back" a bit. This works, but again it's just not as musical as playing your way through it in the first place.

Cutting to a click is pretty much the norm nowadays because it's easier to edit when your're "on the grid" - but it's not really my job to make my engineer's job easier (sorry Jesse, Pete, Adam and Shane)!

The nylon guitar (you may know it as "classical guitar") part is just a little counter-point line that happens in a few places throughout the song. Oh, which reminds me - the last couple of takes of the main acoustic were done because I realized that the counter-point line required me to change a chord in the main guitar part, so I had to re-cut it. This is one of those times where in another situation, I'd just punch-in and "fix" the original take, but I went back and played the whole thing again. You'll thank me later.

It was Jesse who suggested doing some hits on his over-size bass drum (imagine one of those marching band kinda deals) to give a little touch of depth and drama. The drum itself sounded good, but we wound up pitch-shifting the thing down one whole octave - it sounds like a tympani now.

At that point, I had to catch a train. Looks like I'll be back in next Tuesday and through most of the remainder of the week.

'Somebody to Love' added to regular rotation on WXPN Philadelphia

Well this is cool and unexpected. I was honored to be asked a few weeks ago to submit a recording of a song from 1976 to celebrate WXPN's Helen Leicht on her 30th anniversary on the radio. I chose Queen's 'Somebody to Love' and had a three day romp in the studio making the recording. Helen seemed to really like it, which was good enough for me, but now the powers that be at the station have decided to add it to their regular rotation.

What does this mean? Well, I guess that you are now in danger of hearing it on the station at any time and not just during Helen's show.

I guess it also means that you could call to request it (215.573.WXPN) or request it online. I wouldn't hate it if you did.

Thanks again to Helen for all her support over the years and Bruce Warren, Dan Reed and everybody at XPN as well.

Oh, and check out Helen's Anniversary Bash on the air Tuesday, 11.07.06 from 8p - 11p.

Movie, Movie

I'm happy to announce that this week will see screenings of two films featuring my music. One is open to the public, one is industry only, but I'll tell ya just the same.

ALWAYS WILL - A film by Michael Sammaciccia and featuring 4 of my songs will be screened at the 2006 Delaware Valley Film Festival on Sunday, 11.05.06. You can find all the details on attending here.

INDEPENDENCE - A film by Margaret Norwood and featuring 2 (or is it 3?) of my songs will have a couple of private industry screening this week - I'll keep you posted when this film goes public.

Mixing It Up in PlayPhilly

I was asked to put together a 'Mix Tape' column for PlayPhilly magazine. Seeing that we just turned back the clocks, I worked up a set called '10 Songs to Help You Ease Into Your Seasonal Depression". You can pick up a copy here or check it out online.