Yesterday was one of the best. One of those that shift your perspective, refresh, rejuvenate, and also exhaust!
The band are recording a new EP, which you will already know if you have read previous posts. I’ve been looking forward to it for weeks, and we have been planning for it for weeks/months too… deciding which 5 songs to record, work on them, refine, rehearse, and perform at every opportunity so that they are they best they can be before we hit the recording studio. We have to know them inside out and make the decisions, on our own time, not the time we have to pay cash for.
I have discovered that I absolutely love this process. I love being in the recording studio. I even love being shut up in a small soundproofed booth singing the same song six times in a row “just go again, when you’re ready, rolling” says our producer, engineer, advisor, mentor, general all round great guy Michael Clarke. So, we go again. “Let’s just get one more in the bank, one more to play with”
We did five songs. We have to wait for them to have a preliminary mix, then we will go back in to add backing vocals and twiddly bits, but this collection of songs has been recorded live, all of us at the same time, in order to capture the things we are good at, and without a click track, just reacting and building from each other. This can make edits a bit of a pain I’m sure, but that’s where being well-rehearsed comes in. We are pretty consistent. Listening back in the studio they sound pretty good to me.
By the end of the day we were flagging. It’s been five years since I did Nine Women, the last big bit of recording I did. I’ve done small amounts of backing vocals for other people’s work, but nothing this big… I had forgotten how exhausting it is. Concentration levels are intense. You need tea breaks, lots of snacks to keep your energy levels up.
By the last song we were definitely flagging. We wanted to leave it till last because it is the one we need to be well warmed up for… but actually I am wondering if I will need to re-do my vocal… It felt weary as I was doing it. But it’s ok, the advantage of me being isolated is I can do it again if needs be. Michael will be honest and tell me if so… or if I listen and feel I can do better, I can go back in. By the time we finished we did have a discussion about whether to do “just one more?” But truly felt by that stage it could only get worse!
I have been feeling a bit down… but yesterday has given me a much needed creative boost. I recognise in myself a real determination to go back into the studio for my own solo project. I have ideas that are scratching at my insides, desperate to get out.
All I need is the money…
