Goodbyehome in the Studio: Episode XI - The Final Tracking
That’s right, tracking is complete! Well, for me, anyway… Now, only a smattering of cosmetic tracking overdubs remain. Bass tracking will be touched up today, and some vocal re-tracking for “Bicycles” will be complete soon. And then the mixing and mastering process begins.
I continued the tracking with some minor guitar work for “Chemicals & Compromise” and “County Line Road”. Minor, inasmuch as two triumphant guitar solos - moreso on “County Line Road”. I channeled a bit of Iron Maiden’s dual harmony leads for the ending. Good stuff. I even switched to a Fender Strat in homage. CLR was a bit trickier, and ended up taking more time than I had anticipated, but excellence comes with time, I suppose. Chemicals was done within three takes - watch for some Chet Atkins-inspired licks towards the end.
With those two out of the way, it was time to shift to the title track, “The Troubles”. A little bit of mandolin to fill in the gaps. Seasoning, if you will… The gorgeous sound is almost entirely courtesy of the hand-carved Washburn mandolin that I was only more than willing to play. There is really nothing finer than a well-crafted instrument…
Next time I’ll have to play less instruments. The Mandolin brings me to five.
Or I’ll play more. I haven’t decided. But for now, back to the regularly scheduled work in progress.
Finally, we ended the session and my album contributions with the closing notes of “Rain Dance”. I am thrilled to death to finally be able to relax and eagerly await the mixes that are forthcoming. This song is going to cook. This album is going to be epic. It has to be. We have all worked ourselves stupid over this project. There were echoes of talent hidden behind our first release, but we all knew that we could do better.
This is going to be better than we realize…
I went in yesterday to complete work on a few other songs. It was time for a bit of accordion goodness. First up was a tasty track on “Apache Hotel”, which will likely be our first Million-Dollar hit. Very radio-friendly waltz number. Good times.
When we determined that the Irish portion of the evening, Ellis and I decided to bluegrass it up a bit. I snuck out the banjo again for some foot-stomping bounce to add to “Bicycles”. The fingers were flying all through another of our oldest tunes as a band.
The session started off with the supplemental lead guitar part for ‘Why I Never Run’. One of our only purely acoustic tracks on the album, I pulled out the Alvarez Yari to lay down the melody guitar line. I am constantly amazed by how simple and beautiful this song is. The melody line on the guitar was pretty constant - I only vary it momentarily before a tiny solo interlude after the first chorus (which took way longer to record than I had expected). Regardless, this song will be beautiful upon completion.
And then it was pickin’ time again. Ellis and I were able to agree upon a nice bouncy arpeggiation for ‘I Still Feel the Same’ that drives the song along, and gives it a more down-home feel. I am very pleased with how this track came out. I had initially played the song on guitar, but steadily grew bored with playing a virtually identical part as Greg. This new instrumentation makes the song a lot livelier, and adds a bit more depth.
After the pickin’ party, I settled in for a few vocal tracks and overdubs. ‘I Still Feel the Same’ initially took a bit of work, but once everything was warm and I found the pitch, it was extra smooth sailing.
Greg was joined in the studio by Ms. Donna Frost of Nashville to sing backup vocals on our hauntingly beautiful duet ballad, ‘Why I Never Run’. It’s always a pleasure to be able to share the stage with her, so it was only fitting that she join us in our recording endeavor. You can find Donna on tour in Chicago pretty frequently, either by herself or with The Bunnies. Soon, you can find her on our album…
So, I decided to begin making my entry into the “unorthodox instruments of the album” category. I began recording the banjo track for ‘Don’t Break Down’. That’s right, finger-picking goodness for all of you! I’ve still two more banjo songs to lay down tracks for, so I’ll be flexing my fingers until the next recording session tomorrow.
As you can tell, being the hottest day of 2009 so far, it was a bit toasty in the studio, so the sleeves had to come off. We’re hoping for a cool-down soon. 5 hours in a studio with no air in August can wear a man down. But until then, we here at Goodbyehome will keep on doing what we do, striving to make a great record for all of you to enjoy. And we’ll just drink lots of water along the way. Because keeping hydrated is important.
On this toasty afternoon in Chicago, Christine joined me in the studio to complete a veritable orchestra of violin parts for ‘Why I Never Run’ and ‘Stepchild’. The former will feature a nice sampling of jazz, country, and a spot of Irish flavor. Most excellent work indeed…
It’s guitar time. Possibly my favorite time. Even better than Peanut Butter Jelly Time. Yesterday saw the construction, and deconstruction, and re-construction of the epic blues guitar solo for “Stepchild”. I even chose to forego my trademark neck pickup for a meatier double humbucker setting. I might have to do this more often.
It’s Greg day today!
Greg started recording, and after a number of takes that just weren’t where we needed them to be, we proposed a radical shift in the song: altering the key. So we popped a capo on the Guild, and discovered that the vocal shift made a world of difference on how comfortable it was to sing the song. So we tracked a new guitar part, and went about the rest of the afternoon.
As a side note, it is tremendously entertaining to record a guitar track in Eb, while listening to a vocal scratch track recorded in D. Challenging, but tremendously entertaining.
Clearly, we have all started to go a little nuts. Recording will do that to you. But we all handle it with a smile. And possibly also a drink or two.
More and more is getting done, though now that the major work is done, the minor work is increasing - and has been taking more time than anticipated. But all in the greater good. This album is sounding fantastic by the track. And there are a lot of them. Christine has turned into an entire string section for a number of songs. Brilliant work!
She completed a number of violin tracks, and has since moved on to more vocal work. The two of us were recently in the studio recording our respective backing vocals. Vocal harmonies aren’t as easy as they look… Especially once you actually take a look at them in the studio setting. So we’ve been spending a lot of time just on vocal tracks. But man, when they’re on, they are a thing of beauty!
I’ve been laying down the beginnings of a number of electric lead parts, which has been tremendous fun. I also fell in love with the Fender Jagmaster while recording lead overdubs for “Impossible Light”. Such a wonderful feel, and an even greater tone. This song is going to explode when it is put on the album…
More guitar tracks to lay down, including an army of chiming glorious guitars for the closing bars of “The Groomsmen”. Some of these songs are becoming more epic than we ever would have anticipated.
Song one is nearly complete! It’s a beauty… Several more are well on their way. Greg came by to lay down three solid vocal tracks, and Christine and I stopped by to add our vocals, her violin, and my guitar leads. Here is Christine, flashing her million dollar smile, in preparation to lay down the backing vocals for the million dollar song. Pretty coincidental…
We started with Holding Cell, the newest song to be added to the album recording list. I began with some lead guitar work, including a pretty sick triple-lead fingertapping stretch. Eat that, Eddie VanHalen! Added to that, were a few octave runs, and a nice bit of ambience, courtesy of the coolest guitar invention since the humbucker.
The Ebow = Supremely Awesome! It makes an appearance on a number of our tracks, notably Holding Cell, Don’t Break Down, Devils & Lies, and Impossible Light. And possibly a few more from time to time. It’s a very easy tool to overuse, so we don’t want to get too crazy…
The machine lurches ever forward! After a very productive day of recording, we slowed down a touch on Monday evening. The boys gathered to begin the acoustic-based tracks for the album. Ironically, some of our older material has been more difficult to nail down than the newer tracks. But our rhythm section has been hard at work to lay down the foundation for a tasty tasty album for the Goodbyehome fans.
And lo and behold, the elusive lead guitar player gets his picture taken with a portion of the pedal family that just keeps growing and growing. And yes, those are ear plugs. I have been losing my hearing since I was an infant. With that said, I fully expect the barrage of “What?” “I can’t hear you” jokes to commence shortly.
Ellis Clark is rapidly climbing the list of my favorite people in the world. He has graciously offered his studio space and time to produce our record. We like him. He has managed to bring out some great tracks from us thus far.
Christine, on the other hand, will be overdubbing pretty much everything.
