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Loz's Suade studio diaries part 1
2008-05-30 - 1:17 a.m.
*Just thought I'd keep track of how the sessions go as we lock ourselves away in our secret studio location for at least a week. We hope to come out having put together the body of the next Suade CD, which at this stage includes 11 originals and 4 covers.* Day #1
The less that is said of day #1, the better. What was supposed to be a quick 'round up the gear, take it to the secret stodio location and set up' extended into an 8-hour marathon. Suffice to say that we can now say with authority that 55km/h is the exact speed at which a mattress strapped on top of a car develops enough aerodynamic lift to overcome its own weight. By 8pm we've got the studio pretty much set up but for a preamp, which the Colonel and I pick up from a bemused-looking reggae band in South Melbourne, a 2 hour round trip away. Not much gets done on day 1. Day #2
First day of Getting Things Done. First things first, we go down to Aldi to fight off ravenous packs of old women to get at the weekly specials bin, where there's a bargain on thermal underdurps. We notice as we're leaving that many of the people who rushed into the store the second it opened weren't actually buying the specials. Yep, in these parts they go doorbusting just for Aldi's everyday low, low prices. Underpants had a big part to play in the recording of the first album, and as we fire up the iMac for our first tracking session we muse that these toasty warm undertrousers might prove just as important for this record. We start with a gimme: my tracks on "I Miss the Rain," which we decided were a bit wimpy and lacking presence on the demo recording. Logic's instant loop multitracking makes it easy to put down 5 takes of a section in one sitting, straight over the midis and scratch lead track. It's then a piece of cake to comp together a track from the best bits of those takes, with automatic cross-fading between takes. Sweet! From there we move to "One Week At a Time" - and it's an absolute blast. We sing this one in big broad Aussie accents, putting on a bit of a raucous footy-fan-type character, so we're going way more for feel and fun than pitch perfection. My vocal bits come together in a couple of takes, and the Colonel's non-lead tracks are equally fast and fun. We track an ambitious vocal percussion bit for the bridges into the choruses, it sounds great but I wonder if it might be a bit far out and disruptive in the overall mix of the tune... We'll see. From there it's on to a couple hours hard slog on "Slice of Heaven." The original is a real messy bloke-fest of a song, so like the last tune, we're emphasising anarchy over accuracy in the search for riotous fun. But there's also a lot of synth parts we're trying to replicate from the Kiwi original that need to be spot on in order to work, so we play with a few ideas in search of a good balance. I then stick a baritone part onto the bare midi/scratch lead track of "The Way You Look Tonight." The Colonel wants it at a super-slow tempo, which we barney about briefly before deciding to give it a shot, making every 16th note count in the lazy, sexy rhumba feel. Jury's still out on that one when Roy and Ian arrive. We throw Ian in the booth first for his freakishly high 'Slice of Heaven' parts, and then a run through at what I'm secretly hoping will be the standout track on this new record - "Steal Your Heart." We're getting a process together - one section at a time, four or eight bars in a loop, concentration moving between vocal tone, vowels, pitch, timing, and dynamics. This song is a bit of a pocket epic, with hints of an orchestral feel, and as Ian happily tracks away in the booth, I'm getting a few shivers down the ol' spine as I hear the music start jumping off the page and becoming reality. This, folks, is what it's all about. Despite all the mechanical technicality involved in recording music, it's really the process of capturing a message and an emotion. From Ian's whoops and cheers after each successful take, I'm not sure it's technically the *right* emotion going on in that booth, but the tracks feel good so, frankly, he can do what he likes in there! Roy's up next for the last track of the day, his track on "Steal your Heart." His huge bass tone obviously a benefit of owning 14 testicals. I get the feeling if I ever mention lengthening or shortening a quaver again, Roy may kill me and my family. Time to finish up at about 1:30am - which makes it a 15 hour workday for the Colonel and I. Bright and early tomorrow then? :)
Loz
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