Monday, October 01, 2018

An A-blog-pology!

Yeah, so it didn’t quite work out like I had planned . . .

As I mentioned a while back, my intention was to blog about the various steps and recording sessions involved in making my album . . . photos, video clips etc.
Unfortunately, after the last blog below, I did three or four sessions which were really productive and interesting but, during which, I completely forgot to take photos or make videos; this was compounded by the fatal mistake of thinking, ‘ok, I’ll get round to blogging about all this later . . .’

I read somewhere that there is a Korean proverb about procrastination which goes something like, ‘saying you will do it tomorrow means you will do it in ten years’. I’ve just been looking for it on Google but I can only find:

오늘 걷지 않으면, 내일 뛰어야 한다
This translates as, if you don’t walk today, you must run tomorrow.

And this one:
오늘 한 시간이 내일 두 시간 보다 가치있다
One hour today is worth more than two hours tomorrow.

Or, as it says on the paperweight which Renate (in Piano Session below) gave me, ‘Übermorgen ist auch ein Tag’ – the day after tomorrow is also a day.

There is also a really great TED presentation about the subject by Tim Urban.

Anyway, you get the point . . .

Then there were also lots of almost never-ending sessions which involved me, sitting all alone in front of the computer, just working on a few bars here, a couple of notes there, a guitar part somewhere else. Highly absorbing and satisfying for me, but really difficult to photograph or describe in a way that would not bore you, dear reader, to distraction. This is the nitty-gritty work you have to do to make sure the recording is as ‘correct’ as possible (and I am always surprised by how much I enjoy doing it) – correcting little bits of timing you missed in the recording session, cleaning vocal tracks of nervous throat clearing or coughs and sneezes, taking out extraneous noises which the sensitive microphones pick up if you are recording in a living room – DHL ringing the doorbell insistently to deliver a package for a neighbour, a dog barking outside at the bloody DHL guy, irritated DHL guy slamming the door of his truck, etc etc.

However, there were great sessions with Gabe and Hector where they played some amazing fiddle and mandolin on Set Me Free. Then Paul came along and did the critical harmonica for the same track.

I did backing vocal sessions with the highly talented Tanja-Maria for Wendy and Love and Understanding.

There were sessions with Katie who played some beautiful viola on Before It’s Too Late and somewhat more aggressive strings on Wendy.

I went to the Express Brass Band’s practice room to record some amazing brass with Teresa, Michael and Simon under the conductorship of my old mate Neil; extra trombone was recorded at Neil and Angelika’s, played with the perfect emotional tone by Teresa.

Then it was again down to me . . .

I did lead and backing vocals, completely redid the bass on Wendy, re-recorded from scratch part of Diamonds for a Dime (ARGHHHH), put on guitar fills for Crab . . .

Then I set myself a two-week deadline to have the final mixes ready to send off to Ruairi in LA for mastering. The deadline was a deliberate tactic on my part to force myself to do all the last little bits I had been leaving till ‘tomorrow’ (see above). That turned into a week of pre-procrastination, where I hadn’t even started procrastinating, four days of medium, rising gradually to pathological procrastination, followed by three days of panic-fuelled intensive work during which I repaired and altered much more than I’d expected (and I think for the better) and in a strange way discovered all these songs anew.

And so, I sent them off to LA – and found that I was utterly unable to even contemplate listening to them again. I had a physical aversion, a stomach-churning dread of having to listen to the final mixes again. This, I am told, happens a lot and it is a very valuable process because it means when you finally get back the mastered tracks, they come as a complete surprise (in my case, thanks to the amazing work Ruairi did on the mixes, a very positive surprise).

So, I have the music! Now there is the cover to do and the ‘paperwork’ stuff with Gema etc and then we will be off to the press!

3 comments:

Renate Linder said...

According to what you write it sounds like a really terrible thing to produce an album ;-) - but the result of this almost neverending story sounds SOOO GOOOD!!! Thanks for giving me the opportunity of "prelistening" :-D!

Neutron said...

Thanks for the comment - glad you like what you heard.

As for the terribleness of 'producing an album' - I really enjoyed the process; recording, arranging, editing, mixing, etc, but I seem to make it sound boring and terrible when I write about it...

Anyway, I'm already looking forward to making the next album, so it can't be that bad! ;-)

Anji said...

I forgot to keep a look out to see how you were getting on.

"Highly absorbing and satisfying for me, but really difficult to photograph or describe in a way that would not bore you, dear reader, to distraction. This is the nitty-gritty work you have to do to make sure the recording is as ‘correct’ as possible (and I am always surprised by how much I enjoy doing it) – correcting little bits of timing you missed in the recording session, cleaning vocal tracks of nervous throat clearing or coughs and sneezes..."

This is exactly how I feel when I correct my writing! Looking forward to reading (and hearing) more when you have the time