Day 1:
i almost didn't make it in time to greet Nathan and Amanda at the door. saturday morning came too soon, even though i went to bed at about eleven and woke up around ten.
they showed up at my place, we loaded Nathan's previously broken down drum kit, as well as my gits' and Cam's bass, into my pops' van, and we headed for Epik Productions.
on our way down, we were supposed to pick up Cam from the downsview subway station, as the studio is semi-close by. as we we're driving around, i received a phone call from Cam and decided to pull the van over on a side street. just as i was making a right hand turn at the intersection, a crazed, old, italian (or something), man on a bike, carelessly drove himself into our lane and tried semi crossing the street. he drove right in front of the van. if i hadn't have seen him, the weekend would have not ended up so great after all. luckily, i did see the man, and proceeded to yell at him through the passenger window. i doubt he even knew what was going on. meanwhile, Cam tells me he's getting a ride from his bro and he'll meet us at the studio.
we find the place, meet Cam there, and enter the studio premiss, only to be greeted by my friend (now our friend), our producer, Stephen Kerr.
we set up Nathan's drums, plug the bass and git into the sound board, and run through the tracks. Steve gives us some advice, we change a few tunes a bit, and proceed to beginning the scratch tracks. for those of you that are unfamiliar, scratch tracks are recordings of instruments in which to use as a basis for the actual instrumentals of the song. for us, we recorded bass, guitar, and vocals to a click track, so that Nathan could put his actual drum tracks to the song, then we go from there with the actual rest of the tracks. get it?
this whole while, Amanda, Nathan's wife, is taking awesome pictures of our performance, and sleeping on the couch in the studio. simultaneously? see the pics HERE if you "like" our facebook page (i think.).
lunch time. oh em gee. theres a California Sandwich right around the corner from the studio. we ate like starving kings. shit was spicy but fucking delicious. nuff said.
We finish lunch and Steve commences setting up the nineteen, soon to be fifteen, microphones surrounding the drum kit. We get time enough for Nathan to lay the tracks down for the first tune off the record, then it is time to call 'er a wrap for the day.
Cam takes off, Nathan, Amanda, and I drink beer in my backyard with friends till about midnight, then errbody takes off for a shnooze. surprisingly enough, I'm super tired, even without doing that much.
Day 2:
day two starts with a trip to Hot Stacks with Nathan and Amanda. Amanda had the short stack pancakes, Nathan had the lumberjack, and I simply had scrambled eggs and bacon. needless to say, it was awesome. Amanda had her own shiat to do, so Nathan and I headed down to the studio to record the rest of the drum tracks.
i somehow got a cold (which i still have.), and spent the entire time blowing my nose and clicking Halls off my teeth through the talk-back mic at Nathan. he was not pleased.
At one point Nathan got the studio blues and got rattled while trying to record part of a tune. he then walked outside and stabbed a man with a broken drum stick, came back inside, and finished the track (yes to all, minus the murder.)
somehow, i end up tired again. me thinks my brain was just getting into the paralysis state known as studio mode. this is totes a possibility.
and that was basically the day. the drums are gonna sound dirty, in a good way. to see a brief video of the tracking, click HERE.
we couldn't be happier working with Steve at the beautiful studio that is Epik Productions. so far, we're diggin' it and we can't wait to reveal this record to you. next weekend we lay down guitar and bass. get ready, cause she's gonna blow some skirts.
bs
