written on 25 feb 2008 at work...
we recorded over the weekend with andy, it was a lot of fun. a lot of work, but fun. saturday we did drums and guitar, so i didn't have a ton to do but stuck around anyway for comic relief and an extra set of ears on things. we didn't tell andy, but we found out later that almost the entire time we were tracking the drums, josh thought we were tracking guitar and wasn't paying attention at all to his parts. luckily he's just that good, and the drums sound massive and punishing anyway. jason played on his guitar for one track and then did the doubletrack on andy's black les paul, which sounded amazing. he and andy came up with another part to a clean section in "when the lights flicker" that filled it out to the point of fucking majesty. the raw recording sounds huge already, so whatever andy does with it is just going to make it sound 100x better. saturday was the long day, jason and i got there around 10:30 am and i didn't get home until about 11 pm. but we had a great time hanging around and getting stuff done in the studio all day. lots of laughing and silliness and rocking. no heaviness or discord at all. it was super fun. the way work should be.
sunday we were back at noon for bass and vocals. i got my bass tracks down pretty quickly, in like 35-45 minutes. one take on "the endless wait." i was teasing everyone about how quickly mine went, even though my parts are infinitely easier and only singletracked, haha! andy had a toboggan hat down there embroidered with the words "i hate ghost of maine," so i wore that for a while. we flipped a coin to see who would do vocals first, buddy had to go. he was sooooooo nervous. it took him quite a while to get over his jitters, despite our threats to chase him with mayonnaise if he didn't nail his takes. he took for-fucking-EVER, too...so long in fact that i have to go back tonite and do vocals for "when the lights flicker" cos we ran out of time. he was doing the 2 1/2 minute song ("screenwriting a tragedy" - aka - "titanic") when jason and i left to get food. we were stopped by a train, got food, AND went to the bank and when we got back he was STILL doing that goddamn song. but even though he took forever, he did get some pretty brutal sounding stuff down. there was one high scream that had to go. we kept throwing up the horns and metal claws to encourage the jittery bastard.
when it was my turn to do vocals, my how strange that was. number 1 - strange to be singing without playing bass simultaneously (i twirled the headphone cord cos i couldn't figure out what to do with my hands), number 2 - strange because i've never heard my own voice on a recording like that, number 3 - strange because i'm in a room alone being stared at thru a glass window by 4 dudes, and number 4 - strange because no matter how hard i tried, if i tried to push up the volume on my voice i couldn't hold a damn note, cos my diaphragm (even standing up) is constantly being pressed by a certain alien invader residing in my uterus. despite all these, i think it went pretty well, especially for my first time. i took direction from andy and jason without a problem and tried a few different things even though i wasn't sure of them at first. i had a really hard time hitting the high notes in "the endless wait," but andy had me put a harmony part underneath it, and i did the echoes we'd originally wanted, so i think with a little reverb and andy's magic there should be plenty to distract from the weak notes. "this second" is going to sound pretty spectacular when andy's done with it. it was also funny how my voice was always flat until andy put more bass into the headphones, then i was dead on. which of course only makes sense, since i basically sing off of what i play...how else would i do it?
anyway, i'm excited to hear what it sounds like when it's finished. i'm not really looking forward to going in tonite for that last song (cos it will just be me and buddy, which = BORING!!), but i'm confident that it won't take me long.
the boys have got some kid named will who wants to try out for 2nd guitar next week, and i think maybe(?) one other person for later. to be honest i'm not sure how much longer i'm going to be able to practice, it's getting harder and harder. i can hardly breathe, it hurts to sit for so long, and the bass up against my belly is starting to hurt by the end of the day. we'll see. maybe another 2-3 weeks or so.
i really need to get my shit together and start getting ready for this baby. we've done fuckle with his room, and i seriously have to start washing up julian's old clothes for this little guy. and yeah.....it's getting closer every day. about 7 weeks left. seems so weird. april still seem so far away, but really it isn't at all....i'm excited!!
AND.....we got our tax money, dividends too, so i will be calling riley for the exact balance this afternoon. paid off family practice on friday!!! finally --- 3 years later --- julian's birth is PAID FOR. after riley it's my current ob, then NO MEDICAL BILLS UNTIL JONAH COMES!!! and the ob will already be paid, so it will just be the hospital and anesthesiologist. i can't even express how much of a load off my shoulders this is. i feel like we've been working our asses off for so long, and that this is finally the proof that all my optimism and telling myself to just keep my head down and keep going forward wasn't all a load of bullshit, that we really did get it done just like i said we would. we may not be getting ALL the monkeys off of our backs, but we're definitely lightening the load...and just in time. i'm just really glad for dave and i to have accomplished this together. sure it was my fault for losing my insurance, but it proved that we CAN weather a 3 year monetary storm and still come out of it intact --- and with a house and a car on top of it --- along with another baby on the way. i think dave mainly sees it as erasing some debt, but man, i see it as SO much more...just proof that we can make it, and make things better for our family if we persevere. i'm really freakishly excited about paying this stuff off. plus, now i have even more hope that we can dig out from under the credit card debt as well. so even though it's felt like it at times, our life and our money situation is not hopeless.....it's so good to finally have some proof of that!!!
AND my mom called this morning to tell me one of the doctors at her office has a paper for me to type...which is extra cash as well. so i'm all bursting. i love everything and everyone right now. hahaha. now all i need is my new little baby in my arms and a new job. HA!
