Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Back, Jack, Do it Again...


As we said a couple of weeks back, our last visit to Rubber Biscuit Studio was a bit of a bust. The AE did rework the mix from that night, and came up with something that sounded pretty good sonically, but Blake & I agreed that our performance still wasn't what we were looking for.


BTW, we were working on a Nina Simone cover, a gospel-inspired tune called "Nobody's Fault But Mine." Now, when you're middle class white guys like us, you don't just crank out a cover of Nina Simone doing gospel and not bring something to the table. It's the musical equivalent of taking Michael Jordon on in a slam-dunk contest. You're gonna loose, but you hope you'll come out with people saying "Well, shit, they CAN dunk." Last time, we just weren't slammin' it. It sounded OK, but we weren't exactly gettin' air. And remember, Blake's the short one at 6'4".


This time, though, was different. We were gettin' pretty decent tracks right off. Of course, we stumbled here and there. I can't play the same thing the same way twice to save myself, and Blake has been known to have every single note planned out in advance, so there were a takes that came to a crashing halt so Blake could tell me what I was doing wrong. I, of course, smiled and said I would try to do better and went right back to doing things how I do them. 'Cause I can't do them any other way. Hell, I don't even know what chord I'm playing a good chunk of the time. And, frankly, sometimes you just need to hang out on a chord (whatever the hell chord it is) for a while, because it just feels good to be there.


The result? Well, I sat down with the engineer at Rubber Biscuit tonight, and we did a mix. Frankly, I think it totally freakin' smoked. Blake totally carries the tune vocally, and is his typically window-pane-shaking-self on harp. I'm diggin' my gritty resonator tone, and singin' low. Blake added a tambourine part for sizzle, and I laid down a kick track to give it some roots.
Blake hasn't heard it yet. We'll see what he thinks.

UPDATE (By Blake): I humbly but excitedly agree on the essence of smoke associated with this track. Great job, o gods of audio engineering!


And I don't plan out every note....I just like to call it having a vision...and it can be a little rigid at times...

Oh, and I used to be able to dunk. Really! Twelve years and two reconstructive surgeries ago........I can still get rim, though.....
- BAT

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