Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

under my skin

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I’m one of those people that always whines about needless clutter on albums; does that piano really make sense there? Did they really need another backing vocalist? But, at the same time i wince when i hear extra goodies piled on for what seems to be just the sake of piling them on, i do appreciate when some spare instrumentation is used to really bring out the flavor of a track. I feel myself stuck somewhere inbetween … i can justify everything on “Under My Skin” as being warranted, but some of the fooling we did with “Never Say Goodbye” just feel like clutter on a good arrangement. What did i always envision for that song? Backing vocals, sure, but randomly strewn throughout the verses, or just on the chorus? And, is a piano totally unacceptable? At this point, of the two i’d say the piano fits better with the track … all i did tonight was decide what to keep from the vocals and piano – i’ll ultimately decide if either one gets used tomorrow.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/03/2868008/

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I just spent 12 more hours in the recording studio, interrupted only by a short lunch break where Bill and i debated the merits of Britney and Christina again those of Motown girl groups. Before lunch we finally nailed down Bill’s awe-inspiring all-vocal rendition of Rusted Root’s “Send Me On My Way” in all of its glory, and afterwards we started to play with my stuff.


First on the agenda was sorting through the “Under My Skin” backing vocals from last night, which was not easy. I had to go through each set of vocals to see what parts were keepers, then decide if any of the keeper parts would interfere with each other, then mix the keeps down to a separate tape. Next came the bass, which was all fuzzy and un-bass-like. We separated it into a clean acoustic bass (which it is) and the fuzzy electric sound and mixed the two versions to separate tracks on the mixdown tape. Finally, my vocals and the guitar were mixed down as is. So, the mixdown tape now is in possession of all of the right parts, but at none of the right volumes. I made a wan attempt before leaving the studio at getting all the volumes correct into a final mix for cd, but my vocals were too low and some of Laurel’s backing parts were fuzzed over. However, the rough draft mix might be the one that gets debuted on here… we shall see.


After much UMS foolery, we moved on to recording some other things. We decided the “Bridge” from last night sucked and tried it again once before giving up. Then we recorded (mostly in a single take) “Never Say Goodbye,” “Deadweight,” “Relief,” and an obscure new song “will it ever come.” “Never Say Goodbye” was a simple thing to do, whereas “Relief” was awful. It just sounds bad. My guitar has way to much treble for the sound i like from the song, and all of my vocals sounded disinterested. Nevertheless, i finished it and recorded a second take of vocals, and then mixed the song down with the best parts from each vocal. Yummy.


“Will It Ever Come” was weird. Bill was just waiting for me to do something, so i told him i was going to attempt something new and launched into it. What’s hard for me about the song is that there’s lots of little fills on the lower strings of my guitar which i tend to be rather random about, but the vocals must follow the guitar, so i have to duet on the fly with whatever i’m playing. I somehow made it through in one take, and as we started playing it back i found myself singing along in the next octave, so we recorded that too, and now i’m starting to think the octave version is going to be the lead vocal.


Our final endeavor of the night was overdubbing on “Never Say Goodbye,” which right now features two of me, a guitar, Bill, and two pianos. I was planning on just adding my own backups, but Bill seemed to have lots of good ideas that weren’t ever going to be coming out of my mouth, so we got him behind a mic a recorded. Bill’s harmonies were too-perfect at points – pulling me into that dreaded adult-contemporary sound that i am desperately avoiding, so i’m not going to use all of them. My backgrounds mostly involved me singing non-existant harmony and cursing, but there were several pretty bits that i saved. As for the pianos… i was just fiddling with our keyboard while Bill listened to his harmony mix, and he (almost without telling me) patched my fiddling into the tape. After my first pass through we made one more just to be safe, and then called it a night (the song is in “B,” so i basically just played B and all of the sharp keys. Lovely and simple…).

Anyhow, Bill’s off on his Spring Break now, but i’ve got sole possession of the studio until Monday morning, so i’m sure i’ll be spending all of my free time within it. Which means i’ll either starve to death or have my own cd by Monday. Aww yeah.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/03/2867519/

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One thing i’ve started to notice after relistening to both of my previous demos as well as the 7-hours of audio i’ve got lying around on my computer is that my songs always lack momentum when i first play them. Sure, i’ve established a rhythm, but i’m more concerned with singing the melody well for the first time that i am with finding the frenetic pace that suits the song the best, and it shows: “Bridge,” “Deadweight,” “Under My Skin,” & “Lost” are all noticeably lacking in momentum in their early recordings. However, what they do clearly possess is a sort of naive take on the melody of the song that i can never retrieve; certain inflections become locked in after the early performances of the song, but if you catch one of the early ones you catch what my first songwriter instincts were before ease of performance and repetition takes over. The question is: which one is more desirable? Is the naive melody just me figuring out where a song needs to go, or is the gaining of momentum just my tendency to race faster and faster as i get more comfortable? Maybe there’s some sort of middle ground where a song should be recorded for posterity; even slow songs like “Crashing” have picked up several beats per minute since first recorded, and i’m not sure if i can slow them down enough for this record. [for proof of this momentum stuff, listen to a Trio with “Lost” in it, and then go listen to “Lost” at AMkitchen. Trust me, i’m not imagining it…]

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/03/2857422/

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The first time i ever played “Under My Skin” fully on my guitar it had barely been written. Some lyrics were still not solidified, and it hadn’t really been laid out over its chord progression. But, that wouldn’t be so hard to do, i thought. So, i cued up my computer and recorded my first time through the song. It’s really awful and painful to listen to because i have no semblance of a rhythm established and i seem to be highly resistant to actually hitting any notes. The only two copies that exist are (1) on my computer and (2) in Laurel’s cd collection for posterity. However, there’re some shining moments within that naive melody, like where i sing the “unstylish clothes” bit for the first time, or where i ad-lib the entire refrain (don’t ask me how that happened, because i’m still not really sure). The second time i played the song was much more coherent and i wound up putting it on my last Demo just for the sake of it. But, that first time … scary stuff.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/03/2857325/

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Damn, that post took about as long to get right as “Under My Skin” did today. Obviously my brain is fried… or perhaps we tripped my “perfectionist” switch at some point today. If that’s the case, someone really ought to turn it off. (postscript: Of course, in classic fashion, none of the changes i made to the post are there anymore, and i’m not making them all over again. So much for that perfectionist theory…)

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/03/2851180/