THE ART OF RECORDMAKING: Day 7

november thirtieth, two thousand nine

10:03p

well. tonight is the night of percussion at The Mansion. the time when Aaron is back to put tambourines and shakers, etc. on the songs. right now we have more ting-tings and ching-changs than an asian restaurant (is that politically correct?). i'll prove it!

this week is a very important one for our beloved record-in-the-works. 

here's the itinerary:

tonight: percussion

tomorrow: finish lead vocals

tomorrow night: midnight choir*

wednesday: odds and ends (guitar additions, keys, etc.)

thursday: horns!

*midnight choir is what we're using for most of our background vocals for the record. it will more or less consist of a gathering of friends, mostly from other local bands. our tentative list of singers is: kirby brown (yours truly), beau bedford (master engineer), josh weathers (jw+ true endeavours), larry gayao (odis), philip creamer (dovetail), pat adams (whiskey folk ramblers), julian pastrana, and maybe a few others. not to mention we'll have just a bunch of our friends hanging around. the idea is to just harness the party vibe and put it to tape. so we'll see what happens.

dig it! so many goooooood vibes.

until tomorrow,

KB

THE ART OF RECORDMAKING: Day 6

november twenty-fourth, two thousand nine

8:23p

guitars are finished! that is, almost all of them. i'm not gonna promise there won't be something we wanna hear later on down the road, but for now they're done.

we've moved onto vocals. since the last track we did guitars for was "throw you away," that's the one i'm singing on first. honestly it's uncanny to me how much it's all coming together. after vocals, we'll essentially just have icing left to put on the cake.

i keep meaning to take pictures of all the guitars, and i'm sure i will.

what i'm really looking forward to is the night of the "midnight choir." that's all i'll say for now, but it's gonna be great.

catch you later, earth.

KB

THE ART OF RECORDMAKING: Day 5

november twenty-fourth, two thousand nine

12:15 am

tonight, we had a visitor. here, putting the melodic reverb-y drone-y goodness on "a highway calls..." is...

MR. ROB BASTIEN!

rob is a guitar player from dallas, tx who likes long  tails on delays, airy clouds of reverb and quiet walks on the beach. he still believes in santa and hopes to find love online. just kidding (but seriously). 

seriously, rob plays in a badass band ODIS. good friends of mine, check em out.

anyway,

hope your well.

more guitars tomorrow!

KB

THE ART OF RECORDMAKING: Day 5

november twenty-third, two thousand nine

8:31p

GUITARS! that's what's happening right now. lots and lots of guitars. working on "generation" right now. finished "young! young! young!" earlier today. gonna be working into the night AND tomorrow. then, onto vocals. really excited that we're gonna be done with all primary tracking pretty soon.

i'll take some pictures later...

THE ART OF RECORDMAKING: Day 4 (part ii)

november twentieth, two thousand-nine 

9:33p

oh. my. lord.

today we've knocked out:

"talk"

"sashay"

"schoolboy"

and it's looking now like "generation" is done. after two-- count 'em-- TWO takes. so awesome. it's probably the most straight forward rock tune on the record. i can't even tell you much we needed this. the day had begun to drag and everyone's energy was all but depleted. nothing like a good dose of groove and killer riff to get everything back on course.

oh boy!

now we're on to the last one for this weekend, "throw you away."

so happy with what's happening right now...

catch you soon.

KB

THE ART OF RECORDMAKING: Day 4

november twentieth, two thousand-nine

today has started off with a bang! bang! bang!

last night we all but got a final pass through a song i'm calling "coattails." this morning when we came in, master engineer Phantom Bedford had done a little editing. really sloppy editing, according to him, but luckily for us it made for a really incredible zeppelin-esque* turnaround. it really got our blood pumping. we all just looked around and went "how did that happen?" 

*i don't very often compare things to led zeppelin, what i really mean to say is that our drum mistake that turned out to be awesome has the same surprise factor as many of zep's drum dynamics do. don't think we're trying to compete or kiss our own asses too much.

i once saw a studio documentary on ryan adams' record "jacksonville city nights" entitled "september." in one of the scenes, the bass player was complaining that ryan wouldn't let her re-track some part she thought wasn't good enough, because he wanted to retain the good vibe that came across even in her error. his words, if i recall correctly, were "you can't pay for mistakes like that." this morning i couldn't help but be reminded of that after an apparent error became one of the most encouraging moments of the recording process so far.

everyones good and juiced up on coffee and we're currently doing the drums for "talk."

today is gonna be a very productive day i can feel it. mainly cause we're out of beer... for now.

lots to do, but we're gonna make it happen. 

--TO DO LIST--

finish tracking bass on "talk" (he's doing that now)

drums and bass for the following:

"throw you away"

"generation of the broken home"

"sashay"

"schoolboy"

think i'm gonna break for now. get back to work. i'll try and write you again today. keep listening, this is gonna be so awesome.

and send your friends here. gotta get as many people involved as possible. thanks for sticking around,

KB

p.s. this is my game face...

see you soon

THE ART OF RECORDMAKING: Day 3

november nineteenth, two thousand-nine

2:00p

today is day 1 of 2 for tracking bass and drums here at The Mansion. let me start with a brief introduction of our personnel.

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

SCOTT E. LEE - BASS

AARON W. HAYNES - DRUMS

...and BEAU PATRICK "THE PHANTOM" BEDFORD (not pictured) is still around here, too, taking on the primary engineering and directing duties.

we're doing all live tracking today. we get in a room and play together, hoping to capture that live band chemistry. viiiiiibe.

-----------------------------------------------------

12:15 am

the guys just left, so i guess i'll unravel a few of the day's gruesome details. after what seemed like forever (in actuality, about 2.5 hours) of running cables and checking sounds and all that tech-y stuff i don't understand, we finally got down to the nitty gritty, so to speak. we finished the bass and drums on 3 songs completely, and another one has been fully arranged, just waiting to be knocked right out come tomorrow morning.

i'm so excited i can hardly see straight. everything is sounding very very right. today was a good first day for this stuff. many a good time was shared, many a frustration overcome.  we're working at a fairly relaxed pace but we've gotten quite a bit done. we'll hit it hard for a couple hours, then relax around the fire or shoot pool or make up really obscure jokes to clear our minds. tomorrow we hope to really complete the rest of the rhythm section tracking and move on to next week's order of business...

...guitars and vocals. ahhhhhhhhh!

i think i'm off here for the evening. my energy's expired for the day, much like my willingness to continue to try making witty banter on the internet. good night world! see you around tomorrow.

sleep well "young young young!," "a highway calls...," and "underground."

as for "coattails," "schoolboy," "generation of the broken home," and "sashay,"

we'll see you bright and early. you can count on it.

adieu!

THE ART OF RECORDMAKING: Day 2

november eleventh, two thousand-nine

KB again here, reporting from The Mansion again, the second day of our adventure  in recordmakingland. so far so good. so far so very good. 

today we are tracking lotzzzzzz of vocals on "my first love maria."  taking it a spacey direction that i'm really digging. i'm excited to get the rhythm section in here next week, but am thoroughly enjoying the chill afternoons beau and i are using to hone in on some of the folkier (or 'something'-er) tracks.

this song "maria" is a real winner. it's a story that tells of a love lost, in a way pointing out that it's dangerous not to say what you mean in a timely manner.  p.s. it's the only song that i've ever written or may ever write that has the "f-word" in it. sorry, mom. couldn't get around it. everyone will know why when they hear it.

the song's giving us lots of room to play! there's a pretty dramatic ending so we're making pad sounds to go underneath with some fuzzy feedback from a hollow-body guitar.  beau's playground.

he doesn't mean it. he really loves you all. he wants to be a rockstar when he grows up.

that's it for right now. may do some more later. 

catch you soon.

KB

THE ART OF RECORDMAKING: Day 1

november ninth, two thousand-nine

hello world! it's me KB. 

today we have officially begun recording for the new and essentially debut album from yours truly. i'm very excited, because these songs will be the final fruition of a vision i had a long time ago. the songs are very important to me, which perhaps plays into why it's taken me so long to record them. as of right now, the record will be entitled "child of calamity." a quick run-down is in order. in musical terms, it will a rollercoaster. upbeat, downbeat, rocknroll, folk, gentle, unrelenting. it should have a little bit of everything. in literary terms, "child of calamity" will be a lyrical meditation on youth. i won't go into the irksome details, save those for the copious interviews with highly regarded elite music magazines in the future (ha!).

pre-production as a whole has come to its close. in the absence of drums (aaron w. haynes) and bass (scott e. lee), master engineer/producer/multi-instrumentalist/all-around-pretty-nice-guy-for-a-piece-of-shit-(justkiddingbutseriously) beau bedford and i started tracking for some of the down-tempo songs. today has been full of me, sitting in front of a group of microphones, singing like i was at home in the bathroom or in your living room, etc. it's been an organic day so far here at The Mansion.

oh yeah! almost forgot to mention... we're recording this ol' record in southlake, tx at beau's place of residence, a ten thousand sq. ft. mansion that i'll from here on out refer to affectionately as The Mansion. (here are some pictures.) it's got a cool billiards table for the competitive times, a nice bathroom for the cool reverby times (or the other not-so-cool bathroom times), a cool media room for the late night popcorn and movie times, and a cool grotto for the nasty party times.

anyway, today we've been focusing on a song called "my first love maria." don't worry, it's much more sentimental than the title sounds (ha!). i had the fine opportunity of tracking some harmonica in the shower today. not while i was showering, but you get the idea. three cheers for natural reverb!

taking a break from "maria" for now. about to start some tracking on "talk," a song i wrote in new orleans. gonna be cool. check back in with you soon, so as to not inundate you with too much in one day.

so cool,

KB

p.s. see the excitement!