rock'n'rill

Recording countdown

Hi guys,

been a little quiet here in the blog lately, I know.
Gearing up and preparing to go into the studio starting next week Thursday. So I’ve been weeding out songs, thinking about arrangements, polishing up a few lyrics. It’s all nitty-gritty work that’s important and it’ll pay off but it’s nothing exciting to blog about. (Yes, in case you haven’t noticed, the other stuff I blog about is supposed to be exciting.)

An example? Sure. I changed a line from “things will soon be better” to “things are bound to soon be better”. See? It works for me but I doubt it’s super-exciting for you at this point. Hopefully, it will be once you hear the song (A Braver Smile).

There’s 14 songs we’re planning to record. Ten or eleven with drums and a few quieter acoustic tunes. The band knows eight of those ten or eleven songs. There’s a few I like to confront them with in the studio. Why? Because I think there’s some magic in creating a song and playing it for the first time and I hope we can capture that moment in the studio.
The first time we played “In My Bones” in our rehearsal room all the way through … I don’t mean to sound smug but we all felt it had come together beautifully and we all wish it had been recorded right then and there. Now when we go in to record this song, we’ll be chasing something that’s already happened, trying to recreate something rather than trying to create something. It can work (and I sure hope it does) but sometimes that feeling of chasing after something can create a difficult mindset in the studio.
A similar thing happened when we were recording “The Kid From Tupelo” for “Wild Blue & True”. We did several takes trying to get it just right, the way we heard it in our heads. It got a little frustrating. Then Tom – the producer/engineer – played us a rehearsal take which had a much more relaxed feel. A slightly different drum arrangement than the one in our minds but still, it had that intangible vibe that you’re always shooting for. Needless to say we went with that rehearsal take for the album (and have also adopted the much more natural drum/rhythm arrangement since).

But then there’s other songs that want to be prepared a little. Maybe because they’re a little more intricate or maybe because I imagine a specific arrangement that I want to be able to try out and tweak before we actually record the song. “Your Own Private Rainbow” from “Wild Blue & True” is an example of such a song.

In general I’d say maybe it’s the slower songs on which I lean toward a spontaneous approach and maybe it’s the one or two songs on each record that you imagine might be a little more radio-friendly that I think will profit from a more thought-out approach.

But then, of course, there’s also other songs that I just want to play to the band as soon they’re written because I feel they’ll be a great asset to our live show and I’m excited about them RIGHT NOW. You’ve heard some of them in our shows over the last six or eight months, The Facts About My Life is a good example. In other words, my excitement about a new song often gets in the way of my considerations of what might be best for a particular song when it comes to making an album. It’s often difficult to constrain myself.

Back when I made those three albums in Nashville, before I flew there, I asked the participating musicians whether they wanted to hear solo demos of my songs before going in to record them and the usual reply was they like to hear them fresh in the studio and be able to approach them with an open ear and an open mind in the studio. I love that attitude and I learned greatly from it. Of course, you can only allow yourself that kind of attitude when you know you have the chops to handle absolutely anything. And when you trust your instincts. And when you don’t get nervous in the studio situation.

I’m working on it.

Markus
PS: By the way, this Thursday, Jan 19, I’m at Wunschlos glücklich in Würzburg, next Wednesday, Jan 25, at Stadtcafé Hünfeld.

17 January 2012 ·

• Tags
• recording
• album
• arrangement
• Troublemakers
• music
• Americana