Blizzard '05

Just wanted to drop a link to some pictures that I took of the blizzard this past weekend. Karyn and I went walking in our new snow shoes that Ima got us. It's loads of fun trudging around in the snow with those things on. Floatation is questionable; it seems to depend on the depth of the snow and its density. Any way, this is my favorite picture from the excursion:

The rest of the pictures are here.

Dream/Been There Done That

I worked with a kid this past weekend who took up a lot of email time.
Dreams, Fire Alarms, and Genetics
But first let me tell you about my dream. In my dream Ima had died. I can't remember exactly how or why, but she was to be buried in Jerusalem. I was in Jerusalem, in the funeral home, but it was more like a hotel lobby. I don't think I could really talk, but someone there wanted to talk to me about Rick Berlin, because they somehow knew we were from Boston. I think I told them I'd be able to talk to them later, but that right then my mother had just died and I couldn't talk about anything - we were trying to locate her grave site I think. I woke up very disoriented and worried. I was incredibly relieved to realize it was just a dream.
I wonder if it has anything to do with a thought I was having last night while watching West Wing. That thought was that I felt like I would always think of Ima when I have a tearing moment; which pop art can make me have. I am often moved to tears by people's courage and principles. I think that's an Ima trait. I also have begun to think that Humor might not have all come from Myron, but rather from her.
About Dreams:
It makes me wonder why people think that dream journals are important. I've tried to keep them, but I haven't been able to maintain them over long periods of time. I am also prone to sleeping a lot, so I think I have many dreams that are not very important. Even this dream that I woke up from feeling awful, was one from over sleeping I think, and somehow I discount that type of dream. This morning for instance, we had a fire alarm from 7:02 to 7:25 am, and then again a few minutes later. Both times the fire people came and shut off the system; finally they had to disable it. I had the dream between 8 and 11 when I got another three hours of sleep.

OK, back to the session from this past weekend.
Jay EF
The session wasn't nearly as extraordinary as the fallout from the session has become... When I started this post it was just another mediocre session; it's now been elevated to the strangest session ever! Let me try to tell what I meant to tell first.

The Emails Before the Storm Session
I had spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what this guys wanted to get done. I had initiated our email with a 9 point questionnaire that would help us both understand what he wanted to achieve. (As an aside note, this was the first time I had really done that in a systematic way. I was kind of excited about the service I was providing both of us.) We continued that conversation for the rest of the week; I tried to talk him into cutting expenses by not buying analog tape and digital back up tape and just going for the digital experience. He almost went for it but finally decides to stick with tape. He had mentioned a few records and bands he liked through out the conversation, Guns and Roses being a major one, and some other bands that I had never heard of being mentioned as well. He finally mentions a band called Alter Bridge saying that their record is EXACTLY what he wants his song to sound like.
Now this was my initial point of the post: Why would anyone want to record something in a way that someone else has already done it? Why don't people want and expect the unknown, or just the new and exciting when they record? Wouldn't that be fun?!

Session Day
Setup
I get to Q as early as I can because I have to calibrate tape machines and make sure that stuff is working properly. After all, Dr. Smith had a session canceled the previous weekend for some mysterious reason and I under no circumstances wanted that to happen on my time. I had a great intern who knew the mics and could set shit up, so I left him to do that while I took care of control room stuff and machinery. I spent a bunch of time trying to get the computer to spit out time code, to no success, but since we were going to be on tape that wasn't essential, but would be very useful.
The session moves on more or less like sessions do. I am unhappy with the kick drum and prefer the original snare the drummer had to whatever little snare I found in the hall way. I don't like the bass at all - it's five strings and they opt for a jazzy sound, instead of what I consider a good rock sound. I tell the drummer as much. Also during the bass setup Jay does something funny, which is insist on putting the bass mic at a particular spot on the cabinet and at a certain distance... I let him start with that, but I have to change it to eliminate a loud note. I don't say anything, I just change it.
Tracking
We track a bunch of takes and Jay like the very last take of drums and bass best - to the drummers surprise. He doesn't want to edit or do anything like that. I let them listen by themselves with Mike the intern running tape and mix for them. When I hear the take we're keeping I understand the drummers surprise - it has some very unsteady parts in it. I don't say anything though. Maybe I should - but I figure I'll just try to fix it in PT later. I don't want to cut tape and I don't have synch, so I'm at a disadvantage.
We move onto a basic guitar so that Harris the singer can cut some vocals. I can tell Jay gets frustrated at this point, but I don't know what about. I think it's guitar sound, but it turns out there is a part issue. Then he wants to change the bass part, but I had already moved the outboard and and mic pres for the bass, so I try to explain how I wouldn't be able to get that sound back. I guess I feel it's not that important, and as though it's a slow down to our progress, I mean we're almost at the point where this guy is ready to sing!
Vocals
Good News: The singer can sing. Though it's a genre I obviously don't listen to, he has a decent voice and sounds best on a U47. I only audition that and a M49, because I want to move things along. We end up keeping two takes and then punching on a third take. I think it goes quite well. I have a few bad punches but we fix and move on; I think absolutely nothing of it and only feel bad about one punch where I accidently erase a word because I went in one line early. We fix it and it seems fine. It's not the most completely seamless vocal track, but I feel like I can make it work, so I don't make a huge deal out of the punchiness of things; I really want to keep momentum.
It's getting late at this point (like 10 p.m.) and I tell Jay that I'll stay as late as necessary to get all the vocals done, without charging over time; he's had a female singer there since 4 or 5 in the afternoon. I say that after that if we want to continue with guitars as planned we'd have to go into over time. I think this is a very cool offer. While we eat, intern Mike and singer Harris put down a couple of back up harmony track ideas. I am so grateful Mike can run the tape machine and that I get some time out to eat and check my email for a second.
Jay decides to send the chick singer home... We comp backup vocal ideas to two tracks of hi harmonies and low response parts. Jay gets worried for some reason that we're not going to have any mixing flexibility with backup vocal levels, that we're going to have limitations. I and everyone else explain that we still have lots of options, that in fact putting the different parts on different tracks gives us options.. He presses more and I say somewhat irritated that tape has limitations; that's why people use it! I kind of explode (because I am seething all day that we're using tape and not pro tools), but in what I consider to be a friendly way...
Good Night
We make a rough mix and call it a night. I make sure the CD works before I send him on his way, and I explain that I'm doing that because I don't want to have to come in a week later and make him another rough mix because that CD was unreadable. We part on what I thought are good terms, end of story.
BUT No!
The RantMan
Tuesday morning, at Imas, when I finally get around to starting this post about the session, I also get an email from Ed V asking if I had a rough session. He's asking because Jay has emailed him a letter that says that. In Ed's words it's kind of "over the top." I respond in amazement, thinking that we had a decent time! Turns out the guy thinks I am the Biggest Dick Of an Engineer at Q Division. Ed wonders if he simply hates short people. He then goes back and forth with Ed V and Mike Deneen, both of whom defend me incredibly. I am moved beyond belief at their lack of hesitation.. Of course the guy comes across as a complete douche in his emails, so it's easy to see that he's got issues. He emails constantly. I should probably collect and publish his emails, they are an incredible testament to this guys boredom.

Create

The desire to make things has taken a little bit of a hold on me during the last week. It has probably been brewing for some time; the past few years (especially since the completion of PYGA) have been kind of barren for me both intellectually and creatively (I'll even go out on a limb and say that engineering isn't always the most creative and satisfying way to spend my time!). Spurred by a cancellation of scheduled band practice I began recording and found myself surrounded by nearly all my instruments a few days later. I even started another song when I felt the first (I think I'll title it Grim Work) had been completed enough to be left alone for a few hours. I tend to think some music sounds really fun because it's been groomed quite deeply. And by that I mean every little sound is special, unique, inhabiting a special world of its own. And the question I struggle with is when to leave well enough alone?

I'd like to try to document how I recorded Grim Work:

1. Basic dobro rhythm pattern was played and looped.
2. Three notes were chosen and overlaid in a sparse pattern using the dobro, then doubled.
3. Some of those notes were reversed, arranged, then doubled in harmony to make a chordal like pad that worked with the first three note pattern.
4. Arppegiated chords were chosen and doubled over the length of the song. Four different patterns were played in a systemic order, to make it easy to double them. Those patters were later arranged in various orders...
5. Toy piano was introduced at this point; many variations were tried until an additional three note pattern stemming from the arppegiated guitar pattern was arrived at.
6. At some point a few toy piano notes were stretched and gated using the original hypnotic dobro rhythm part as the key signal. This introduced another beat and a dance club feel. The key'd gate was also applied to the original three note dobro part for a few measures to create another rhythmic element.
6. I think ebow and electric guitar parts came next. I later returned to one of the guitar parts to double it with a harmony that leads into the bridge.
7. A radio sample made it's way into the song somewhere in this area. I had been wanting one that dealt with the Tsunami disaster, so I tuned into the BBC and recorded a little story about mass graves. The entirety of the short clip fit perfectly into the first drop section.
8. Soon I start missing having percussion and felt that a beat for the climax at the end would be a good change (the song clocks in at 5:20!). A percussion section came together: first using sand paper, then a nut can (later nixed), followed by hand claps(x10), and finally a cat litter box being hit with an inhaler.
9. Last real instrument to be added was the Crumar, acting as both bass and ethereal filter sweep guy...
10. Tweaking; arrangement tweaks are the major thing now: Adding kick drum to earlier parts, putting some cut up BBC in the second break, changing the sound of the hand claps, fixing levels and timing oddities that I overlooked because I was working quickly... I've thickened up some sounds with further layering, and focused the bridge by reversing some of the guitar parts. I imagine a toy piano feature still to come in those parts.

It's funny to note how quickly a home made demo can reach 24 tracks!
For a future project it'd be cool to set a time limit. I think a week would be plenty!


Now I'm at Ima's and I'm somewhat in suspended animation here, waiting to get back to my laptop and instruments. Truthfully, I could keep busy messing with images or sending mp3's from my laptop, but I feel bad taking it away from Karyn for whom it is an indispensable tool in her caloric count quest. Besides, it seems as though I could find interest in reading; last night I almost had that old ache for a nice piece of paper and a beautiful and simple black ink pen to draw with - I haven't had that desire in a long time. I hope it returns sometime when I have both the paper and the pen.
My renewed interest in making things is partially the result of frustration with the Invisible Rays overly relaxed approach to rehearsing, and part out of exasperation with my home life that has been void of creativity entirely. I've always thought that I could make things or write down an idea or document a moment at any time in the future, and I still feel that way, but I've already collected way too many moments that need to be dealt with, and I think now that sooner rather than later is better.
There are things I'd like to be able to do better - writing is a big one. I'd enjoy being able to impart a moment in time the way some writers can, capturing the wit of the moment or the grand beauty of fate. I think writing well is a thing that is very difficult, especially for a person like me who can "write." But can I write really well, inspiring?