Reflection and Predictions

Some basic info:

Personnel:
MJ - Vocals, Guitar, Piano & Organ
Greg O'Keeffe - Drums & Percussion
Matt Lux - Bass & Hilarity
Jim Becker - Guitar and Bass

Russ Arbuthnot - Engineer extraordinaire

Recorded to Quantegy GP9 on a Studer A80mkIV at 15ips through a SONY MXP3036 console outfitted with 8 John Hardy 990 mic pre's at the Loft in Chicago.

At the moment there is not a record label involved. Working on changing that status...

So we wrapped up this phase of the recording on Friday, and it is now Monday. I've been able to literally do nothing and listen back to this stuff. I've learned so much during the past week or so about nearly every aspect of this elusive creative process.
I am feeling pretty certain of how to proceed and what kind of work needs to be done, and more importantly, how much work needs to be done. In the past my instinct is to layer and layer sounds and instruments. This is a direct result of working in the ProTools land and having nearly infinite tracks to fill up and use. The process of working on 2" 24 track analog tape is definitely more challenging, yet I feel that having to commit to ideas all day long is a much more realistic and suprisingly, fruitful method.

I've been having a discussion with my friends about computers and music. I certainly think they have their place, and are never going to go away. However I feel that, like the way that "Free Market" economics has turned into the "Nearly Good Enough" model, so it is with music. If you can make a reasonably good record at home, so can anyone else with a computer recording setup and enough hard-drive space. Great records have been made this way, and will certainly continue. I've learned that working with a group of thoughtful and talented humans you relinquish a certain amount of control and it is that interaction that fosters creative ideas and directions that otherwise wouldn't have been approached. It is in this delicious lack of control that you can really get some wonderful moments that resonate with you and hopefully other music fans. Our engineer was as important to the success of this session as the musicians. Knowing a fair bit about recording, I would always check in with him to see if there was anything we could do to make his life a little easier. It usually meant turning down an amp or something like that.

Another important part of this process has been the difficult challenge of writing something, caring deeply about it putting as much emotion as I can into it, wanting it to be the best ever, and then letting it go out in to the world and hear it develop and modify itself. Then the perfomance becomes more about listening to it for what it is and take those strengths and charactersitics and then reinforcing and embellishing them. I read a quote by Robert Fripp who considered his songs children, and I'm going to agree with the wiry gentleman from the UK.

This week will see some tinkering and perhaps some lovely vocal overdubs by the talented John and Frank Navin of The Aluminum Group.

Stand by...

Day 5 - MJLP01

I guess this is one of those things that fall under the heading of "good problems," but I'm quickly running out of finished songs to present to everyone. I had been monkeying around with this particular musical idea that was hatched during the 'Ghost' sessions in NYC in the fall of 2003 and decided to give it a whack. I wrote some potential lyrics for something and tried them with this song, and "Surrounded By Ruins" was born.

There's that wonderful intensity that happens as a result of working under pressure, and this song and the recording simply knocked me out. I am so anxious to finish this and get it out to all you people.

So then what? I dug deep and remembered a really simple little song that I wrote this summer which I hadn't planned on recording, but with three sets of eyes on me and the mic's set up, we did it. It's such a pretty song and reminds me of the great days of last summer, I hope it will for you too.

Now everyone is ready for more, so we begin working on the fragment of a song that I have called "Buy Your Blues." A bridge suggestion later and we're navigating the historical waters of 100% Pop. I think we tried 4 takes, tops, before we got it - live vocal and everything.

Ok, so now that's three down for the day and there's still about an hour or so until people have to take off. Instead of moving on to overdubs, I yanked out some hippie rock and we all droned in F# for about 6 minutes. You could almost smell the Pachouli and Nag Champa.

Finished some more vocals and other miscellaneous overdubs and then listened to all of the songs in a sequence. It was really inspiring to hear all of these ideas that, in my mind came from very separate, discrete places, unified in this package called a rock album. It's going to be great, I promise.


Alright, Song Of The Day:

"The Four Horsemen" by Aphrodite's Child from 666


I first was exposed to this record in the summer of 2004. It's a concept album, and at the moment I'm too tired to remember the story, but it's really fantastical, yet earnestly done. This was Vangelis' band before his "Chariots of Fire" era.

Pick up this record, you'll be excited and tickled by it.

More recap tomorrow.

MJ

Day 4 - MJLP01

We began with guitar overdubs on "Monster" and man did they come out fantastic. Exciting.

I have been less than satisfied with "The Love Days," and I decided to try it again with a different approach.

It did not work.

I'm going to try and record it solo acoustic guitar and voice, but not before I practice the fingerpicking for a week and get all the flubby fretting noises out of the picture.

We then moved on to "Sister Bruford" which was a song I had very high expectations for yet, was also quite intimidated by. Initially I built the song in the computer, and was thinking that would be the way it would happen during recording. Piece by piece, section by section. But I wrote out a very rudimentary score for everyone to follow and we began playing it. Within three takes it was humming along in a way that exceeded my expectations by about a million percent. What started out as a fake stride piano idea turned into some kind of Motown pop shuffle. The lyrics are most certainly the weakest link, and in the next week I'm going to have my work cut out for me to come up with something that complements the solid basic track.

Song of the day:

"Motorcycle Man" by John Simon from John Simon's Album

John Simon was the guy who produced the first two Band records. This is his solo effort from around 1969-70. The whole thing is super awesome. It's too much to talk about right now.

Just get it and enjoy it.

More soon.

Mikael

Day 3 - MJLP01

After a nice little breakfast at my semi-favorite cafe we headed up to the loft for some more recording.

I did some electric guitar and vibraphone overdubs on "The Love Days" (shudder) and was very pleased.

We then re-attempted "When I'm On The Rocks," this time tracking the basic with me on piano instead of acoustic guitar and when we listened to the playback, it sounded like real music. It took much longer than I had imagined for this little pop number to come to life, but I'm beginning to really understand that it's nearly impossible to predict anything anymore, but in a good way. Threw a reference vocal and two strummy acoustic guitars on and packed that one in for the day.

We moved on to "What do you know about you?" which is just supposed to be a fun, comic relief song. I think we got it in about 5-7 takes.


Song of the day:

"Swansea" by Joanna Newsom from The Milk Eyed Mender

Joanna is the absolute real deal. This whole record is just fantastic. Her harp playing is so delightfully suprising and inventive. Granted, I don't know any other singer songwriters who write on harp, but the way she constructs her songs with the fabulous range that the instrument has to offer is kind of intimidating.

There's such a wealth of cultural reference points in her music. Western American mythology, blues, European folk music, and vivid, imaginative lyrics wrapped in a deceptively sweet package make this record a must-have.

"Watch while the freight trains pound, into the wild wild night."

Day 2 - MJLP01

First song - "Monster"

I made a recording of this song over a year ago using the RMI Rock-Si-Chord, Korg MS20 and some real drums. I think it is fantastic. Judge for yourself.

The version we recorded today was a power trio version that kicks a lot of the same ass, but in a much different way.

Second song - "The Love Days"

While I am growing incredibly weary of the title, this song continues to reveal a different personality each time I try and record it. It's elusive. It tricked me today. I wrote it in Drop D, with the high E string also dropped to D and originally sang it in that key. While preparing for my solo show last November, I tried raising the key by one step until it was unsingable and then lowered it to the comfort zone, which wound up to be capo 3. In the excitement and anticipation of recording this song today, I completely forgot about the capo until after our bass player had to leave to go play a show. We fought with it most of the afternoon and evening, finally arriving at a version we were all somewhat satisfied with. When I tried singing it, it just wasn't happening, and then it became really obvious why. It was one and a half steps too low. I grabbed a different guitar and placed the capo on the 3rd fret and it was meant to be. It sounds fantastic. All the struggle of the afternoon paid off in a way that was completely unexpected. This is fun.

Song for the day:

Paris 1919 - John Cale - Paris 1919

I'm sure you all have this already anyhow...

Day 1 - MJLP01

We were all greeted with a fresh blanket of wet snow on Saturday morning, which gave Chicago this borderline Norman Rockwell look. It was a wet snow and as a result the branches of the trees were weighed down in a two-tone droop.

Nevertheless, we began recording with a song called "When I'm On The Rocks," and it went fairly well I suppose. We are all playing in a big room with no separation between instruments. I was playing acoustic guitar and singing while the drums and bass were bashing out next to me, and after playing it for nearly 3 hours, tweaking along the way, we finally got a take that was really good. I'm not 100% convinced that it's a keeper but there's time to try it again and see what happens.

The first song that you record in a session is kind of like the sacrificial lamb. Everyone is getting comfortable and used to a new situation. The engineer is busy trying to funnel a lot of new information into two speakers. If the results aren't great, that's fine. It's more important to just start doing something and get the ball rolling and create some momentum.

Once that was over we started working on "Precious Like A Sneer" which is a song I've had the music for, for about 7 years. The lyrics I wrote about a month ago and one day last week while mocking-up the demos I tried them to this old song and it was just 90% perfect.

I finished the demo version and ftp'ed it to my drummer in Brooklyn. I was really excited about this one, and a bit nervous because the demo version was so excellent, that the "real" version had a lot to live up to. We rocked it. It's going to be fantastic. The drums and the bass parts seemed to write themselves and it was more about just performing it correctly than figuring out any arrangement questions etc...

With everyone excited about that version, we moved on to "Big Sleeved Man." This one is the most musically idiomatic song I've ever written. While I was practicing it the other day on electric guitar, I tried to play it like a 60's ballad and I must admit, there was something pretty cool going on there. So while the original inspiration was this very folky strummy kind of thing, it now sounds more like "Sleepwalk" by Santo and Johnny, minus the slide guitar. It was late when we started this one and I was tired and making really bonehead mistakes, so I called it and we would reconvene the next day.

I'm absolutely thrilled with the first day results and how well all of us work together. As I've mentioned before, this is a new experience for me to be the shot-caller/decision-maker and it's too much fun to call work. This record is going to be awlsom.


Song for today:

"Oh Girl" by The Chi-Lites The Story Of Brunwick: The Classic Sound of Chicago Soul

Fantastic arrangement. Check out the bass, I think it's tuned down to B below E. Burning. I'm a bit worn out so I'll leave the analysis up to you today.

Stay tuned...

Mikael

It begins tomorrow (sorta)

My drummer gets in tomorrow evening and we'll be setting things up at the loft. I have to pick up tape in the morning and run a bunch of errands and then I'll be as prepared as possible for this crazy endeavor. Our engineer will come by and line up the machines and strategize on how to record this behemoth.

I've been busy making mock-ups of some of the songs this week at home. I imagine my neighbors know most of the lyrics by now. Singing with headphones on in the livingroom felt a bit strange at first, but the unexpected result was completing and revising a few lyrics along the way.

Another purpose these mock-ups served was a kind of "practice" for being in the studio. While I'm no stranger to the recording studio, this will be the first time that I'm the taskmaster, whipcracker, final-say-haver. So to actually sing into a microphone, and really examine this new thing I've discovered I'm able to do suprisingly well, is empowering to say the least. Art school & fear held it ransom for nearly ten years. I'm glad it's back.

Song for today:

[untitled] (track 15) - Plux Quba

This entire record is pretty unbelievable, but what makes it even more tone-defyingly wicked is that it was made in, my awkward year, 1987.

I've nicknamed this track "scatter" as it sounds like just that. Like so much rock salt being thrown on the icy winter streets of Chicago, sounds are thrown out in discrete little showers with a warbly avian "melody" weaving in and out.

No Protools.

No Reaktor.

I'd venture a guess and say not even MAX or MSP.

It's perhaps no secret that I'm a fan of electronic music, but in recent years my interest in electronic laptop-related music has waned with the advent of all your Reasons, Garagebands, Guitar Rigs etcetera... As with most cultural innovations, the originators and true pioneers are obscured by a flurry of train jumpers (myself included) and it dilutes a rocking potency of the spark of inspiration that caused someone to try something either new, or deeply personal. It is my humble opinion that this is one rockingly potent record. For any naysayers who disparage electronic music as being emotionless, rigid, calculated and cold, I defy you to listen to this wonderfully colorful, beautiful, humorous, melancholy record on its terms and not be moved in some way.

Enjoy life,

Mikael

Eight days to go...

Alright children, the sun is out today and the expected high temperature will be in the 50's, so I anticipate some walking around this afternoon. This is some real welcome weather in the middle of the bleak midwestern winter.

The first official recording session for MJLP01 begins in 8 days and I'm really excited about exploring the songs that I've been writing, revisiting and resurrecting over the past 6 months or so. I've been working at home with my lil' protools setup recording ideas on acoustic guitar and recently, piano.

The business of lyric writing began as an intimidating process. But as I've gained more confidence as a singer, the words are coming a bit easier now, and I hope they remain interesting over time. Hard to tell at the moment.

I met with my bass player and instead of us playing music, we just played each other the music that recently had some resonance for us. In the next week I'm going to do a little review, analysis, recommendation of a few songs.



The Rolling Stones - "Gimme Shelter" - Let It Bleed (1969)

Man, I know this song exists in the realm of cliche for so many people, but as a recent Stones convert, this shit is so new and exciting to me. This late 60's early 70's era Stones is quite easily the most important discovery I've made in recent years. It has revitalized and redefined my love and appreciation of music. It does that thing that no drug, liquor or woman can possibly approach. Their pursuit of this extremely fleeting moment when a group of humans are playing music together and the shit - is - just - clicking and you and everyone around are transported to that place that music can only provide, inspires me to try and take myself there and hopefully a few friends.

A friend of mine hipped me to the term Stonesgasm, and there are several in this song, but I'll simply point out two of my favorites:

The transition from the intro to the first verse, and in particular the sloppy lead guitar and the ridiculously beautiful chug of Keith's rhythm guitar, Charlie, Bill and Jimmy Miller. Fucking hell if that isn't a reason to get up in the morning.

Merry Clayton's simply outrageous vocal performance, and specifically around the 3:00 mark when she seemingly has nothing left to give but just continues to rock forth and what I assume is Mick's reaction just afterward (it's fairly quiet, but that "WHOO" lends her already otherworldly performance even more gravity).

As per the original recommendation, play it as loud as possible.

Bad Blogging and more to come

So it goes without saying that I'm a terrible blogger, but I'm fine with that.

I'm about to begin recording my solo record here in Chicago. Check here for updates and progress reports.

More to come, I swear...

All the best in Ought Six,

Mikael