Session Log: 1.15.07

Monday, 1.15.07: 10:00a - 3:30p
'Eleven Seventeen' - (Take 1 and Re-make - initial instruments)
Studio: MAJA Audio Group - Philadelphia, PA
Producer: Jim
Engineer: John Anthony

Tracks (in order):
* Hand rubbing (x2)
* Hand clap/slap
* Foottap
* Loop made of above percussion tracks
* Acoustic Guitar

Ah, the holidays. I knew I was going to lose the last two weeks in December, but I thought I'd be back up and running before this but it didn't work out that way. There's been no opportunity to do anything with the band because they lads are taking vacations that only overlap by a couple of days and stretch out over about three weeks, so I thought I'd concentrate on a few of the other "solo" tunes.

I'm really excited to be working back at MAJA Audio with John Anthony, who did such great work on the 'Fidelity' album. We've been trying for over a week to get this session in, but John got hit hard by the flu and I'm uncomfortable making music around people's bodily fluids, so we had to wait it out a bit.

The idea I have for this song is pretty simple and intimate, basing it mainly around a single acoustic guitar and some hand percussion. But unlike the hand percussion in 'R2' where I was playing small percussion instruments, this time I wanted JUST the sound of the hands themselves.

I'm generally pretty humble about my musical abilities, but one area of conceit I have is hand-clapping. I am, by my own informed opinion, a MAJOR TALENT when it comes to hand-clapping. I've got a deep, fat pocket (slightly behind the beat, which makes the thing feel bigger - odd, since my guitar playing tends to be a little "on top"), I can get a variety of tones - I'm telling you, if Motown were still making records like they did in the '60s, I could make a comfortable living for a family of 4 off hand-clapping sessions alone.

So, after doing a couple of tracks of rubbing my hands together in time (this gives you a sound that's like a cross between a small shaker and brushes a drummer would use), I was ready for my big hand-clap moment.

But this would turn out to be no ordinary hand clapping gig. What I was looking for was a cross behind clapping and slapping, doing a syncopated beat instead of the usual clapping on the backbeat. Even though the song is nothing like this, the best example I can give you is how some of those Gypsy Kings songs have the really involved hand clapping.

Well, apparently this "Spanish-style" clapping is a whole different animal from the Motown school of clapping where I studied. I was abysmal at it. Out of time, not putting the accents where I wanted to - it was bumming me out. It took almost an hour to get the track together enough and, yes, we had to cheat by punching in and looping. I came back into the Control Room and bitter, broken man.

Oh yeah, then I also played some guitar and got a big blister on my thumb because of the way I was playing. Art = Pain, both physical and emotional.

You can watch me be humiliated by my own lack of co-ordination here (don't judge me too harshly).