rock'n'rill

Done tracking

Hi guys,

we’re all done laying down basic tracks for 14 new songs at 7V Studios in Bockenem. Felix (guitar), Chris (bass), Aggi (drums) and I were up north from Thursday to Monday and we had a terrific run. In fact, we were done tracking on Sunday afternoon - that’s when Aggi drove home.
On Monday, Chris and I decided to give this one all-acoustic song a different arrangement. It’s no longer all-acoustic :-)

We tracked everything live with me in one room and the guys in another (Chris’s bass going through a DI, Felix’s amp being miked in another room). When Chris played upright, he moved to the bathroom.
We also overdubbed some cool stuff ourselves - baritone guitars, accordeon, harmonica, those kinds of things.

On Tuesday, Heinz Rebellius joined us with an assortment of interesting guitars and other stringed instruments. He overdubbed tenor guitar, baritone guitar, tambura brac (kind of an Eastern European approximation of a mandolin) and b-bender guitar on about five songs. He rounded things out beautifully.
A bunch of songs are done or almost done by now.

This is pretty much my view while I was tracking. I was perched on a barstool in the control room, the guys were behind glass in the recording room.
Photos by Chris Reiss

I have to say I’m very very happy with how everything came out. It’s gonna be a real good and interesting record. We have some real rocking stuff, beautiful atmospheric songs and some that bring new and interesting textures to our sound, ranging from soul to old-time and blues with a Tom Waits influence.
The fact that this was all laid down by the four of us makes me most proud.
As most of you know, I’ve been fortunate to record three albums with some of Nashville’s (and that means the world’s) finest Americana musicians. Now I am extremely grateful to be playing with a great bunch of guys whom I consider my friends and a damn fine, versatile, kickass band.

There will be some more overdubs for harmony vocals, fiddle/mandolin and piano/organ, perhaps cello. I hope we’ll get ‘em done soon and have the mixes done by late spring/early summer.

If you want to get an idea what these new songs sound like, please come out to the upcoming band gigs. All the dates are up at www.markusrill.net
At most of these gigs in February/March we will be joined by piano player Jan Reinelt or fiddle ace George Bähr.

Look at the next few blog posts for a video and more pics and earlier progress reports from the studio.

See you around soon,
Markus

2 February 2012 ·