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.