Welcome to Guitarland. Drums are done and dusted, Paulie is back at the Cubase helm, so now we begin our journey deep into the Valley of Strings.
We’re having to do things a little arse-about-face to begin with, as our very own Mr. R. Fingers has gone and got himself some proper gainful employment as a Tattoo Artist and, as the Universe undoubtedly has a perverse sense of humour, today is his first day on the job. Fear not – he’ll be back on the Manor later this week to fulfil his 5 string’d duties. I’m sure you’ll all join me in saying – Nice one Son!!!! Congratulations mate, let your talent shine through and you’ll be on to a winner. Can’t wait to get you back into DNHQ later in the week though. I’m feeling a little lost without my Hetero Life Partner…
Meanwhile, back in Guitarland, Leelo is pressing on with his trademark Booty Shaking/Face Stomping riffery. As I write this, it’s just gone 3pm and he’s in the process of adding a few embellishments (…that’s “Self-Indulgent Noodling” for the uninitiated) to Clueless and I’m finding it harder and harder to keep my head and my ass from shaking of their own accord. He’s evidently doing something very right indeed.
I myself am firmly back in the tender embrace of my always welcoming and eternal lover: Uselessness. With my comic foil and ever faithful sidekick starting his new job today, I am reduced a party of One, while Lee and Paulie huddle around Cubase like cliched Shakespearean Witches (…only hairier), doing “Things” and speaking a language I do not understand. Every once in a while, one of of them will rip their gaze from eerie blue glow of the monitor and look over at me, sitting quietly at the back of the room. This is invariably followed with a “…whudda you think?”.
The Prison Guards have whacked on the search light just as I’ve caught my nut-sack on the barbed wire at the top of the outer fence. I am On The Spot.
Shit! Should I admit I was paying zero attention (pre-occupied as I am with waffling in your general direction at the moment), or do I bluff it and nod enthusiastically, perhaps adding the odd “yeah man, like it” in response for good measure?
Of course the obvious answer is “PAY ATTENTION! ASS-HAT!” and it’s a fair argument to be sure. The problem is that as much as I love being here, doing what we’re doing and hanging out with the boys all day, by and large studio time is almost immeasurably dull. Until it’s your turn that is. Then very suddenly it becomes acutely stressful. So, blessed as I am with the natural attention span of a methed up Golfish with ADHD, you may be able to appreciate why I’m sitting here now, essentially writing about nothing.
…well, I guess that killed an hour or so at least. =)
--- Sorry, s’cuse me a second ---
Apologies, my invaluable skills were needed for about 1/8th of a second there.
I think, gentle reader, that it might be time to duck downstairs for a crafty fag and maybe even a (…dare I say it??) Beer? (…I said it)
Yes. Yes I think indeed it is.
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UPDATE
As I write this, the time is hovering somewhere around the 1.15am mark, and we’ve been tracking guitars since about 11am… errrrm, technically yesterday morning now, I suppose…? I think that’s right? Quite honestly you could tell me I was a barn owl living in Guam and I’d probably believe you. All three of us are starting to lose our minds in very personal and specific ways.
Paul has been sitting in front of the speakers for so long that he can now only hear with his feet. My problems, I suspect, need no further embellishment and Lee has tied both his hair back and his beard forward in order to keep them away from his guitar, the upshot of which is no one’s longer sure which way he’s facing.
Confusingly forwardy/backwardy he may well be, but damn it all if he isn’t still going strong! I feel immense guilt here, as I half expected him to cry off shattered at about 9pm (…as did he, for that matter) but no!! It transpires that everyones favourite Wookie has been raped by the Energizer Bunny. Not only has he drastically surpassed everyone’s stamina expectations but he’s still shredding away at just under Mach 4.
Bear in mind the poor bastard has to do EVERYTHING at least twice but as I found out today, there’s a lot more everything than you’d expect. That could probably do with a bit of clarifying and to do this, I will need to bust out a spot on impression of that vacuous bint from the shampoo adverts. You ready?
…Now for the Science Bit.
God I hate her.
Anyway – using “Edge of Everything” as an example (primarily because we’re working on it at this very minute), when we play that song live and there’s just Lee and one guitar, there’s roughly around 15 separate riffs contained within it’s five and a half odd minutes.
However, within the luxury of the studio, we get to layer things up a bit – partly out of necessity to thicken up the sound of the recording a bit and partly because we can make things sound all fucking FAT and spanky!!
So, if we take double tracking as a start, those 15 single riffs suddenly become 30, and each take of each riff needs to fit and mesh identically. That’s for the main Lead guitar part.
Add another 30 (15x2) after that for the rhythm parts which sit underneath the lead – same rule of identical takes applies.
So you’ve got the meat and potatoes of the song there. Want to add any embellishments – swirls, harmonies, noodly-noodly solos etc? Then take each one of these little bits of icing on the cake and… yup – do them twice. …apart from solos for some reason but for the answer to that you’re better off asking Paul.
The final thing to consider here is that when you’re recording, your performance is under the fucking microscope in a fairly major way. Any tiny little mistake or variance, any dropped or unconvincing note, anything fractionally before or after the beat, even anything of the type that if you were playing live, no one (including yourself) would even notice, show up in day-glow beach wear, weighing 30 stone and waving huge banners that just say: YOU SUCK.
It’s hard fucking work, and having the rest of the band sitting around watching you and ONLY you play - judging each and every individual note for it’s singular worthiness and it’s position in relation to the whole – can, on occasion, tend towards the trifle stressful.
That, my friends, is a snapshot of what we (by we, I mean Lee) have been up today, and will be doing pretty much solidly for the next seven days as well.
…and you get to read all about it. Lucky you.
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Andys Studio Diary - Day 4
Guitars – Day 2
Wow.
Yesterday was painfully Epic. As was earlier this morning when we finally called it a day recording the guitars at around 3.45am. Lee did immensely well yesterday, pushed himself to the limit and to say we were proud of him would be a massive understatement.
Sensibly enough, not long after putting his guitar down he decided he’d had enough of consciousness for one day and went to bed down in the rehearsal room. A sage idea it was too, and one that Paul and I should probably have followed… but no – staying up till half 6 listening to music and generally taking bollocks seemed like a better idea at the time.
In retrospect it probably wasn’t.
Fair play to Paulie though – he was up at about 8 and him and Lee were back upstairs tracking guitars by about 9am. I, however, was completely oblivious to all of this, still fast asleep on a mattress downstairs in the middle of the warehouse. By the time they’d wandered back down shortly after 2pm to wake me up (by shoving a fucking camcorder in my face – cheers for that by the way boys…), Lee had already nailed Tribal and fancied a spot of lunch.
And so the saga continues. It’s racing towards early evening at time of writing and Leelo is up to nuts in riffery again. With Tribal put away, we’re about half way through Endless Strength, fucking moster of rolling grooves and shredification. Safe in his “Comfy Guitar Pants” and with his hair and face all backwardsy/forwardsy again, Dragnerves own Gandalf is once again off and running.
Considering he’s currently surviving on about 12 minutes sleep in the last 14 years, Paulie is remarkably fresh faced this afternoon. It’s fucking amazing actually because I got more shut-eye than both of them put together and doubled, and I’m currently in a crumpled heap on the Useless Sofa again.
I am seriously looking forward to my own bed and a shower (good GOD I need a shower!!) at some point but no doubt there’s a fair old way to go before the cleansing torrents of water blast this accumulated scum from my reeking dermal layer.
I… Feel… Shit.
Depending on how long we run on for, I may or may not make it home tonight but I’ve decided I’m not drinking alcohol today just in case I have to drive later. …there are other reasons of course, but that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. If we’re still here after 2am, I’m going to cut my losses and bed down in the warehouse again.
…so maybe I’ll have a couple of beers later if it looks like I’m kipping here.
GAH!!
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…well, looks like my liver has been spared further punishment – when we hit about half nine tonight, our collective will just gave up and died, so I am home, sinking into the wonder that is my sofa and relishing being connected to the world again via t’interwebs.
Another successful day in the studio done - although I do feel like we cheated a bit because it’s only just turned midnight and we’re not still working.
Let’s see if I’m still saying that in a couple of days when it’s time to start on the vocals…
Nighty night world, more to follow tomorrow.
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