Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand
by krisis
The awful part of this situation is that it’s all the fault of our own stupidity for not having a second tape ready to be seuged up to the exact second we needed, so now we have to do it the idiot’s way. Ugh. This is why, ultimately, i am meant to be a recording artist and not a recording engineer. Also, the more digital, the better, that’s what i say.
by krisis
With the aid of the intrepid Bill Hull today in the recording studio, i complete not one, not two, but half the vocal/guitar tracks for my newest demo cd. Towards the end of the session we recording “Angel,” “Lost,” and special guest-star “Bridge” all in a row with a single retake on the former two just to be safe. However, the highlight (as well as the major time-consuming task) of the day was “Under My Skin.”
Bill had heard “ums” enough to have an idea of what i wanted to do with it, and we agreed that we needed to get the basic guitar track down first because anything else in the song would be based around the nearly-random guitar solos i’d invent while playing. I think we made an attempt at getting the basic tracks for an entire hour, and nothing would work. Even when i could get through an entire take the song just didn’t ring true. Suddenly, into the studio popped Laurel, who came to hang out at Bill’s request. Bill and I idly chatted with Laurel for a few minutes while cuing up a tape, and then i launched into the song once again. There was a moment in the beginning where i almost aborted the take because i did a line very late (which came back to bite me in the ass when we overdubbed background vocals), but i hung in and finished; i don’t know if it was because i had an “audience,” or if it was because the audience happened to be the girl who the song was written about, but everything clicked. When we listened back to the track, Bill turned to me and said “we’ve got to keep these vocals; you’re really feeling these words.” And i, of course, agreed.
Then the fun began: it took thirty minutes (at least) to lay down a bass track after i fumbled twice during the solo. While i was playing bass, Bill kept gesturing to Laurel, who was quietly singing along from her seat. With much maneuvering (much to my delight as i continued to play), he got a mic in front of Laurel so we could hear what she was singing. As we finished the bass i turned to Laurel and said: “You’re next.” So, with much coaxing and with me singing along kareokee style in my own mic, Laurel and i made a few passes at the song in harmony (yielding some really scary bits where there’s two of me singing the wrong thing to each other), and then Bill and i left Laurel to her own devices to add a last vocal track onto the song. At this point the three of us had heard about as much of “Under My Skin” as we cared to in any given day, and so we put it aside and moved onto the other things mentioned above.
Tons of fun. “Never Say Goodbye” and “Crashing” will be valiantly attempted at some point tomorrow (as well as the equally intimidating “Relief“). Audio of “Under My Skin” by this weekend’s Trio. Awww yeah.
by krisis
I literally ran into Laurel in the middle of the street the other day, and we talked for a while (after removing ourselves from the traffic flow). I don’t know about what. She said that i’ve come out of my shell (i made sure to clarify that “shell” didn’t have anything to do with “closet,” and she assured me that everyone was quite sure i was still inside of that), and while i first i was a little offended (Did she mean to imply i was some sort of corner-lurking little dweeb? I mean… moreso than i actually am?) as the conversation ebbed and flowed i saw that i really didn’t seem like the same person i was a few months ago. One of my other theatre friends recently commented that she couldn’t have lived with “the me from last year,” but she could definitely live with me now.
I feel like i should spend time staring in the mirror after comments like these to try to see what’s different, but i think that’s something the old-me would do. Maybe the new me isn’t such an obvious narcissist…
by krisis
I think that i’m under the impression that if i keep writing, something good might come out. Funny, eh? Do you know what amazes me? Arrangements. While i am always amazed at a solo guitarist’s ability to hold the stage with a single instrument, by that same token a well arranged rock band can totally awe me. I have trouble focusing on the fact that each instrumentalist has their own function, their own independent role in the creation of a song. I’m not much for arranging, seeing as it’s usually just me and my guitar, but my sudden fluency in the studio has left all of my songs open for additional parts.
But, it’s not so easy. Sure, i could layer on tracks of bass playing the root of the chord and guitars playing riffs in the same fashion, but arrangements that truly stun me add something with every part they introduce. A terrific example of this is “Goodbye Sky Harbor” at the end of Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity. The song is 16 minutes long, but essentially for the latter dozen minutes the band just repeats a single figure. It start with drums and guitars, and slowly a vocal comes in, and by the time you’re well on the other side of the 10 minute mark the guitars fade away leaving you with just a chorus of voices repeating the same pattern over and over. Eventually a new drum loop is introduced that has nothing to do with the one before it, and you realize that you’re not really listening to the same song – except it is the same song because everything you’re hearing emerged from what came before.
That’s the point of arrangements. Arrangements for my songs should be so that you can take away everything except a backing vocal and a bass and then build a different but familiar song back up from them. Those are the arrangements that feel like more than just a backing band plugging away at roots and downbeats. I’ll have to give it a try…
by krisis
It’s funny, because we do sorta resemble 90210. Gina, Joey, Justin, Matt, and I (and Ariel just down the street at Penn). We all were friends throughout highschool, and we all unwittingly wound up at the same college. Some characters left the ensemble, and a few new ones joined. Matt fell away from the core cast but then roommate Matt was brought in as a replacement. The plots suddenly stopped just being about the four of us and expanded to include a cast of new characters with new quirks and problems that were never even touched on in highschool. Now Justin has decided to leave the show, and he’s being written out at the end of the season by transferring to another school. I don’t know how we’re ever going to find a replacement for him. And, we had finally signed a girl to play opposite of me who had the right chemistry, but she’s going on hiatus for a few weeks as the end of her plot gets worked out. And, for sweeps week we’re sending the beloved Laurel away to Europe so that all those Neilson bastards will shed a tear. And my character is still as charmed as ever, even after miserably failing half of his classes this semester. Because, some things always stay the same.
90210 had to end eventually, though, even after they managed to bring back some old favourites. It really hurt to see it go for a lot of viewers, because the show kept on evolving but all of the characters stayed the same despite years and years of experience. But, i never really liked that show. I bet the last episode would’ve gotten a tear out of me, though.