From the Source - day of recording recap
Recording-win continues apace.
It is a huge boost to my confidence, feeling my art bend itself to my will again in front of a big microphone and a Pro Tools rig. Today was so effortless in so many ways, when recording with gingerdoss is already such a great experience. It's better every time, it's different every time, there are always mind-blowing discoveries made...and she and I have been working together for five years now. G. has had a hand in every album I've released starting with Tangles and including Mythcreants. Every session is like coming home, regardless of which spare room or basement or broom closet we're working our gypsy musoid magick in.
You see, we were originally going to finish the songs we're working on now back in January, except that I had to have surgery instead of going on the road with the Traveling Fates. As I've said so many times lately, getting to do the work now--and do it in Florida, while doing shows on the weekends, which is the exact situation in which we were going to be working before--is a very big deal to me. Everything is falling right into place, as it so often does when you're on the right track.
On Tuesday, we finished the final mix of "Ravens in the Library" and started work on the "Cheshire Kitten" final mix--"Ravens" has been waiting since spring of 2008, and "Cheshire" since February of this year.
On Wednesday, I think we finished "Cheshire" but I want to give it another listen before we call it done. No doubt G. will want to check a couple of things, too. We also reviewed and tweaked a couple of things on the existing "Witchka" tracks.
We also started tracking djembe on "Neptune" and "Witchka". One of the things you'll hear on "Neptune" later which you'll think is the familiar sound of waves crashing into the shore is actually something quite else. G. and I stumbled upon a really nifty discovery. And yes, we're 20 minutes from the nearest beach right now.
"Neptune" and "Witchka" are another two song sessions that have been waiting to be completed since April 2008, not by our choice. I've had grand plans for both of them since long before then. We are further realizing those plans at last, and it feels so good.
Both songs, like "Ravens", include cello work by stealthcello , recorded last spring. I had forgotten some of the amazing things stealthcello gave to me in the tracks she laid down. Hearing them again for the first time in so long made me see stars (my god, it's full of cello).
Today we reviewed both "Neptune" and "Witchka" and cleaned up the drum parts on both.
I added hand claps (three tracks. ow.) and finger snaps to "Witchka", and I rounded out the number of backing vocals to nearly a coven's-worth, putting in some of the things I had missed or hadn't thought to add before. What's left is possibly tambourine, possibly doumbek, possibly shaker, and possibly just a little bit of electric guitar, and then the final mix. The goth-industrial mix will have to come later, but for now...what we have here is a damn sexy song.
After we had found the golden ticket as far as the djembe part for "Neptune" was concerned, I added a bit of doubled guitar in specific places to it (we did some isolating of the picked sections and the strummed sections), we recorded a track of gorgeous guitar harmonics (silly me, I thought I'd just do one note here and there, but the ex-lover of the Lord of the Deep had other ideas), and I nailed down the two backing vocal parts. We've got two solid lead vocal takes to choose from, with a new one recorded tonight (I thought I was tired, but I surprised myself in very good ways on this new take) and I will probably record a third next week, just to see if I can beat what I've already got.
More background on the song and what went down today are under the cut, for those who wish to see.
Recording new backing and lead vocals for "Neptune" tonight provided me with a lot of unexpected healing. Hearing this song come to full life at last, the way that I've heard it in my head since the moment it first leapt from my throat and my fingers and my mind back in 2006, sitting with
yuki_onna in sinboy and rosefox 's wonderful NY apartment....it happens with every song I write and am fortunate enough to record, but it's still different every time. With "Stickit", it was a playful victory. With "City of Marrow", it was like pulling out my viscera, slowly... like a nightmare of Auschwitz. I had to go to some terrible places in my mind for that song, and I did. It was what had to be done.
I was thinking that "Neptune" was going to take just as much out of me, if not more.
It's one of the few relationship songs I've written that I've actually written for me, to bind up the wounds left behind by someone I chose not to give any more of myself. I wrote "Neptune" more than two years after that period of my life ended, more than two years after that particular painful transformation. I hadn't realized that I was holding that song inside me at all. It took a long time to--forgive me the pun--surface.
Tonight while recording the backing vocals, I surprised myself again. In the middle of a long note, I let go another little pocket of pain I'd been unconsciously holding.
Songs are good that way--and if you don't waste your time while you're recording, they're cheaper than going to therapy.
After that backing vocal take, I had to ground. I had to take a few minutes to gather myself before we tried tracking a lead vocal.
Some of you know about the vocal troubles I've had in recent months.
Tonight, while tracking that lead vocal for "Neptune", I proved to myself that those troubles were coming to a close.
I always get nervous when I track vocals, even if it's just a little bit. This time was no exception.
The vocal part I have written for "Neptune" is not an easy one. The melody is slippery, the timing is tricky, and the dynamics shift several times throughout the song, as does the tempo. And believe me, this is one of those that I have to get right, or I won't be able to live with it. Add to that the little epiphany I'd just had, and some of the memories woven into the beautiful images that this song evokes...and you've got a potential powder-keg of self-doubt.
I got damn close to the perfection I was after, far closer than I expected to, at the end of a long day of recording.
I soared.
I have a page of notes next to me right now, of tiny details in my vocal performance of this song that I'd like to try to top next week, when we record another take--this will be the third take, and I think the last of three.
The list is so much shorter than I feared it would be.
So many victories, all wrapped up in one.
Victory over past pain. Victory over my own perfectionism. Victory over my fears.
Back to the realm of the sky.
It is a huge boost to my confidence, feeling my art bend itself to my will again in front of a big microphone and a Pro Tools rig. Today was so effortless in so many ways, when recording with gingerdoss is already such a great experience. It's better every time, it's different every time, there are always mind-blowing discoveries made...and she and I have been working together for five years now. G. has had a hand in every album I've released starting with Tangles and including Mythcreants. Every session is like coming home, regardless of which spare room or basement or broom closet we're working our gypsy musoid magick in.
You see, we were originally going to finish the songs we're working on now back in January, except that I had to have surgery instead of going on the road with the Traveling Fates. As I've said so many times lately, getting to do the work now--and do it in Florida, while doing shows on the weekends, which is the exact situation in which we were going to be working before--is a very big deal to me. Everything is falling right into place, as it so often does when you're on the right track.
On Tuesday, we finished the final mix of "Ravens in the Library" and started work on the "Cheshire Kitten" final mix--"Ravens" has been waiting since spring of 2008, and "Cheshire" since February of this year.
On Wednesday, I think we finished "Cheshire" but I want to give it another listen before we call it done. No doubt G. will want to check a couple of things, too. We also reviewed and tweaked a couple of things on the existing "Witchka" tracks.
We also started tracking djembe on "Neptune" and "Witchka". One of the things you'll hear on "Neptune" later which you'll think is the familiar sound of waves crashing into the shore is actually something quite else. G. and I stumbled upon a really nifty discovery. And yes, we're 20 minutes from the nearest beach right now.
"Neptune" and "Witchka" are another two song sessions that have been waiting to be completed since April 2008, not by our choice. I've had grand plans for both of them since long before then. We are further realizing those plans at last, and it feels so good.
Both songs, like "Ravens", include cello work by stealthcello , recorded last spring. I had forgotten some of the amazing things stealthcello gave to me in the tracks she laid down. Hearing them again for the first time in so long made me see stars (my god, it's full of cello).
Today we reviewed both "Neptune" and "Witchka" and cleaned up the drum parts on both.
I added hand claps (three tracks. ow.) and finger snaps to "Witchka", and I rounded out the number of backing vocals to nearly a coven's-worth, putting in some of the things I had missed or hadn't thought to add before. What's left is possibly tambourine, possibly doumbek, possibly shaker, and possibly just a little bit of electric guitar, and then the final mix. The goth-industrial mix will have to come later, but for now...what we have here is a damn sexy song.
After we had found the golden ticket as far as the djembe part for "Neptune" was concerned, I added a bit of doubled guitar in specific places to it (we did some isolating of the picked sections and the strummed sections), we recorded a track of gorgeous guitar harmonics (silly me, I thought I'd just do one note here and there, but the ex-lover of the Lord of the Deep had other ideas), and I nailed down the two backing vocal parts. We've got two solid lead vocal takes to choose from, with a new one recorded tonight (I thought I was tired, but I surprised myself in very good ways on this new take) and I will probably record a third next week, just to see if I can beat what I've already got.
More background on the song and what went down today are under the cut, for those who wish to see.
Recording new backing and lead vocals for "Neptune" tonight provided me with a lot of unexpected healing. Hearing this song come to full life at last, the way that I've heard it in my head since the moment it first leapt from my throat and my fingers and my mind back in 2006, sitting with
yuki_onna in sinboy and rosefox 's wonderful NY apartment....it happens with every song I write and am fortunate enough to record, but it's still different every time. With "Stickit", it was a playful victory. With "City of Marrow", it was like pulling out my viscera, slowly... like a nightmare of Auschwitz. I had to go to some terrible places in my mind for that song, and I did. It was what had to be done.
I was thinking that "Neptune" was going to take just as much out of me, if not more.
It's one of the few relationship songs I've written that I've actually written for me, to bind up the wounds left behind by someone I chose not to give any more of myself. I wrote "Neptune" more than two years after that period of my life ended, more than two years after that particular painful transformation. I hadn't realized that I was holding that song inside me at all. It took a long time to--forgive me the pun--surface.
Tonight while recording the backing vocals, I surprised myself again. In the middle of a long note, I let go another little pocket of pain I'd been unconsciously holding.
Songs are good that way--and if you don't waste your time while you're recording, they're cheaper than going to therapy.
After that backing vocal take, I had to ground. I had to take a few minutes to gather myself before we tried tracking a lead vocal.
Some of you know about the vocal troubles I've had in recent months.
Tonight, while tracking that lead vocal for "Neptune", I proved to myself that those troubles were coming to a close.
I always get nervous when I track vocals, even if it's just a little bit. This time was no exception.
The vocal part I have written for "Neptune" is not an easy one. The melody is slippery, the timing is tricky, and the dynamics shift several times throughout the song, as does the tempo. And believe me, this is one of those that I have to get right, or I won't be able to live with it. Add to that the little epiphany I'd just had, and some of the memories woven into the beautiful images that this song evokes...and you've got a potential powder-keg of self-doubt.
I got damn close to the perfection I was after, far closer than I expected to, at the end of a long day of recording.
I soared.
I have a page of notes next to me right now, of tiny details in my vocal performance of this song that I'd like to try to top next week, when we record another take--this will be the third take, and I think the last of three.
The list is so much shorter than I feared it would be.
So many victories, all wrapped up in one.
Victory over past pain. Victory over my own perfectionism. Victory over my fears.
Back to the realm of the sky.