The idea here was to write, record, and mix an entire song in a day. On second thought, that seems way too ambitious (and I like to take the time to get things right). I don’t want to make a crap song, so let’s make this a weekend challenge.
Friday night (PRELUDE):
I’m so fucking tired. I was in Detroit this morning. 3 hour and 45 min. plane ride back, and it was one of those where you can just never get comfortable enough. I’m sure I looked 100% mentally ill, continually trying to reposition my blanket, and then my hands, and then a few strands of hair that would fall in my face. After the fourth time doing this, I start pulling out offending strands of hair. The young woman next to me surely thinks I’ve cracked up. After landing and waiting on the tarmac for a while, I’m on my way home. BUT FIRST, I need to load up. This whole ordeal is going to take 5-7 grams of weed, at least. I stop at a new dispensary that my fiancé is recommending. The new patient deal isn’t really much different from the regular price, but whatever. The new patient deal DOES push me into buying 5 grams as opposed to 7, so that’s good, I guess? Actually that’s probably bad, but no worries. I’m to tired to care.
Now I’m home in L.A., watching the “The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs” Season finale on Shudder. The actual movie showing (Joe Bob is a movie host, e.g. Elvira) is “Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2”. It’s one of the few horror classics I haven’t seen, even though it perpetually inhabited the video stores of my youth, and I just never got around to actually renting it. So here I am finally watching it… sorta. Just for reference; Joe Bob’s Drive in (from here on referred to simply as “Joe Bob”), is a national treasure. For those who don’t know who/what Joe Bob is, he’s a essentially a guy who hosts horror movies, and occasionally cuts in with segments about the movie’s history, facts, rants, etc. , He’s probably most remembered from a show called “Monstervision” on the TNT network. His “persona” is that of a Texas redneck… who also happens to know everything about every movie ever made. The best part is, his social commentary isn’t just funny, it’s so on-point that it seemingly drives a Texas longhorn up Bill Maher’s ass.
I’m fucking dead. Without thinking about it, in a weird spontaneous act of creativity, I say “fuck it” and pick up my guitar. I figure I might as well start writing. Is this cheating? Fuck it. I’m cheating. I play two chords. Stop. Play a chord progression. Okay, done. That’s it. first thing I played, that’s the song I’m recording. I attempt to watch Joe Bob and Darcy the mail girl give their insight on “Hello Mary Lou”, but I’m asleep within 10 minutes… crashed out on my couch.
SATURDAY MORNING:
Okay, I’m up and pumped. I got the main part (writing the actual song) out of the way. Cheating or not, I’m in a good place for this challenge. Sometime around now, I decide that I’m definitely devoting two full days to this. If I’m going to do this for real, then I might as well PLAY the fucking drums. Even if I’m a shitty drummer, I must have an E-drum kit for a reason… right? I’ve never actually tried it with my new PC, so I might as well test that out. Everything hinges on how well this works out… previously, when using the electronic drums as a controller with my old studio computer, the latency and response wasn’t quite 100% there. Since then I’ve upgraded both software (Superior Drummer 3), and hardware (a new i7 PC with 32 GB RAM), so I’m hoping that fixes it. I go ahead and hook it all up… Viola! What do you know? That did fix whatever the fuck was the issue, and the latency is not really an issue now. I’m thinking if it wasn’t a RAM issue, it might have been superior drummer 2, Because now in SD3, the MIDI mapping presets seem a lot more comprehensive. Instead of one for all “Roland” drums, they now have multiple Roland models, including the TD-11 (my kit)!!! I’m jazzed. Now this Drum debacle in my living room doesn’t seem like a terrible investment after all.
Now, you might think that I’d be immediately recording drums, as one would be inclined to do. But as I mentioned, the drums are in my living room (along with the rest of m “studio”), and living with my fiancé, the living room is a very shared space. She (the fiancé), is very much the type of girl that you’ll find in LA. She’s a vegetarian, Buddhist, and honestly a very sweet and wholesome person. I’m not sure how or why she puts up with my Satanic bullshit, lol. Anyhow, she’s about to begin (Buddhist) chanting, and since that happens in the living room as well, playing drums will have to wait.
I’m now playing with my cat, or more accurately, trying to avoid serious injury from my cat. We’ve recently determined that in all likelihood, he’s part Bob-Cat (hence, his name is Prince Bob… we didn’t name him). Prince Bob’s M.O. is to stalk you, demand attention in the form of body rubs and head scratches and if you rebuff him or attempt to walk away, he’ll jump up and pseudo-attack you. I say pseudo-attack because I’ve seen his real attacks, and this is literally 1% of that. but even his 1% attack can break the skin, so he’s not the most popular cat around the household.
Anyway, at this particular moment, Prince Bob has taken a shortcut through my drums to now block my path after I walked away from him, as if to say “and where the fuck are YOU going?”. He was being pet a second ago, but now he’s getting ready to spring. I’m staring back, locked in a battle of wills. At this moment I suddenly realize… my girl hasn’t begun chanting. God damn it. I don’t even have to ask, but I do anyway, “honey, are you still meditating?”. An irritated “YES!” squeaks out of the bedroom. So, she has a meditation regimen that she does before actually chanting. I’m supposed to refrain from noise for (at least) this part of the day, and I try not to be a total asshole and oblige. So, I guess I’ve got a bit of a wait before I get to it.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON:
Finally recording drums now. At least my girl is out jogging for the time being, so this won’t be so totally annoying. The goal here is to record a few drum parts that I can string together into a song. Nobody’s got time to arrange beforehand and play an entire drum track from start to finish. Lol, what is this, the 80s? So as I said, the goal is to get at least 1) an intro 2) a few drum “riffs” and to get all of this recorded with at least some semblance of “rhythm” via a click track. Truth be told, I use a lot of Toontrack’s MIDI packs. For metal, they rule, and there isn’t much they haven’t already covered. The song that I wrote the night before is a slow, doomy riff. Really slow, DSBM to be specific. Now, one hole in the Toontrack MIDI library seems to be super SLOW metal. They have a “doomcore” release, but it’s not slow enough IMO. They have rock stuff that might work, but it’s still not really what I’m looking for. Well shit… I can play super-slow doom/black metal. Now I don’t feel like a piece of shit for having a Roland kit taking up space in my house, and I can do this challenge 100% legit. This is working out nicely!
I record a pass… I’m not really into the swing yet. I’m now thinking about writing this blog, and in some crazy effort to document it all, I decide I need 4K video footage of me playing drums. Get that out and set that up. Okay, now I’m spending more time getting myself framed in the camera than playing drums. Lol. I get back to the drums. Record a few more passes and get into a groove (finally). Suddenly, while in the middle of playing drums, the power goes out. Really? This is pretty rare where I am in L.A., but whatever. I realize that the computer turned off right in the middle of the best drum take that I’d played so far. I turn the computer back on, and yup…. it didn’t save. Neither did the take before. I pretty much have to start recording from scratch, as everything useable up to that point had been in those two takes. Ugh. Time to smoke some weed.
I’m now stoned, and back to tracking. I’m really getting into some beats. There isn’t anything quite like getting baked as fuck and hitting drums. Anyway, I get my intro, several riffs, and some extra parts recorded. I do a little dummy check, and actually play the riff I wrote the night before (in my head) against the click track… just to make sure I’m actually playing all this shit at the right tempo. Why did I not check this before, lol? It seems to match up, so there’s a sense of relief. Maybe my musical instincts are better than I think, maybe I’m lucky, maybe I’m jut a total retard. Who knows.
I realize I have all the drums I need recorded, but leave the drums plugged in just in case. I start to edit parts, and the fiancé comes home. I mention that she’s just in time. Weirdly, one of the parts that I end up using is the very first thing I played, even before the power went off. Editing takes a lot of patience… which really means a lot of time and extra pot smoking. I’m quantizing drum MIDI by hand in order to preserve the human feel. The velocities are mostly fine. This is taking a lot of time. 6 hours, 1.5 grams of pot, and a nap later, I have what amounts to an arranged, in-time drum part. Did it really take that long? Who knows… I probably spent a lot of that time napping. I literally only slept 2.5 hour the night I was working in Detroit, and I’m still exhausted.
SATURDAY NIGHT:
It’s getting pretty late by now. I was hoping to have at least SOME guitars recorded before I call it a night on Saturday. At some point after drum editing, I began “celebrating” having completed that part by smoking yet more weed and watching some TV. And by TV, I mean streaming horror movies. No joke, I’ve got Netflix, Hulu, Shudder, and a million free Roku channels, and all of them are basically there to stream horror content 24/7. Earlier in the day, I’d already re-watched “The Last Drive-In”, both movies, as I’d fallen asleep halfway through “Mary Lou” the night before. I’d also watched “I Spit on Your Grave 3” at some point during drum editing, much to by fiancé’s dismay and disgust.
So there I am, trying to find a good werewolf movie on Tubi, and it’s getting WAY too late. WTF am I doing? Procrastinating, that’s what. It’s literally 1am… fuck it. Okay, this is it… I’m entering the most productive hour of the evening. Fuck it, the most productive part of the day/night cycle. The night’s energies are flowing through me… literally like some Dragon Ball shit. I’d start screaming/yelling in an effort to power up even more, but I don’t want to wake ep 3 dozen neighbors. No kidding about that- I’m juiced, and definitely on some weird Goku shit. I feel energized and alive. I have no idea how late it is, but it’s definitely past any reasonable bed time. I pick up a guitar. My Les Paul… The strings are still pretty fresh. I tune it up, and play the thing that I wrote the night before. First take is actually okay. I repeat the part for a double. Okay… I guess I got what I wanted for the night. That whole effort took maybe 15-20 minutes.
SUNDAY MORNING:
All right… I guess I’ve got my work cut out or me today. In addition to more guitars, I’ve got bass and vocals to do (at least). Likely keyboards as well. One good thing; my girl is taking off for a few hours in the morning to do charity work, so that leaves me with a solid window of time to do vocals. Vocals are one of those things that are a little more tricky that the other instruments, as I’d rather have some privacy. I mean, it’s not that I mind screaming and gurgling black metal vocals while my fiancé is home and trying to relax… but it’s something that definitely gets more than a side eye from the lady. If I were to try that (and I have), it’s literally a side eye, followed by a pout and a loud “really?!?”. Or an audible “sheesh” with her arms crossed. That’s like the first warning. If I just sit there and keep on tracking vocals in front of her, it won’t be long until she literally storms out of the room with her arms up in the air, loudly exclaiming “oh god!!!!”. Then, periodically she’ll poke her head back in the room, and loudly yell “HOW LONG IS THIS GOING TO TAKE?”. Whatever number of minutes I respond with, will be met with a “JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY, JUST PLEASE HURRY UP”. Now, I know what you’re thinking… my fiancé sounds like she might be a little bitchy at times. And you wouldn’t be wrong… but really… how many people ARE cool with their living room becoming a vocal both for the heights of demonified black metal? I cut her some slack on this one.
Before my girl actually leaves, I have to write lyrics, as well as finish one guitar part that hasn’t been written yet. Easy. She’s doing her morning chanting now, so I use the quiet time to work on some lyrics. I get a few lines down, which is a decent start. I plug in the Les Paul and cue up the one section that needs guitar. Again, pretty much the second or so riff that I try out makes the cut, so I go with that. It’s only a short triplet riff anyway, but it differs from the rest of the song and needs to “pop”. The writing part takes less than 5 minutes, and the part is tracked not long after that.
I’m doing pretty good, and am actually ahead of schedule. It would be nice to have the bass guitar laid down to do the vocals over as well, but it’s not necessary. I should use this time to work on lyrics, but first I have to smoke some weed. That always helps with the lyrics. After literally smoking a 1/2 gram bong load, my body is ready. I pen some more lyrics, but am quickly distracted when my fiancé complains about the dishes I didn’t do the night before. I remain distracted and play with the cat, cue up “The Car” (a movie about a Satanic car that terrorizes a small desert town, Starring James Brolin), and start tripping out on how weird the 70’s were. I’m also dead tired, still. I’m watching the part where “the car” emerges from the desert, and think “fuck… like that Satanic sedan in this movie, I too must emerge from the wastelands and do some damage”.
I pick the lyric book back up, and get to it. After I have a page full of lyrics, I arbitrarily say “that’s about enough”. My girl is almost out the door, so the clock is ticking. I get the vocal shit set-up; the mic’s shock mount and the foam vocal shield are already on stands and ready to go. I place those in the middle of the living room, and start running cables. Unfortunately, my cats love chewing mic cables, so I have to keep those wrapped up and away except for when I am actually using them. Now that the everything is ready, I bust out my brand new MXL Revelation. I only got it a month or two ago, and still hadn’t used it.
So the Revelation is a tube mic. It’s a little bit of a pain… you have to be careful with the multi-pin cable, you have to turn the power supply on. you can’t use 48v phantom power on it, or you’ll fry it. So I’ve got it all set up, and there’s some major Mexican radio broadcast clearly coming through the lines. I change the mic cable and channel on the interface… no change. Wait, am I stupid? I do what I should have done first… flip the ground lift on the mic’s power supply. Ah! That’s it… No more Spanish language DJ. Now I have to do all the incidental prep-work; I unplug my fridge. I take down the wind chimes by the front door. I make sure the windows are closed. Most importantly, I pump myself up. I hold up the lyrics in an Adonis-like pose. I already have on the white gloves that came along with the microphone (don’t ask why). In my head, I am thinking “I am the excelsior, the height of demonificaton, the golden god… I am here to do this… now”. My head is raised and cocked, with a definite “my shit doesn’t stink, but I am now smelling SOMEONE’S shit” look on my face. I am beyond ready to spit black metal venom. But first, I have to arm the track and all that shit. And also make sure I’m not stepping on a spot where my floor boards creak (for real). but 30 seconds later, I’m back on my X, and I’m ready to breathe fire.
The first takes are magical. The second takes are more magical. If I’ve I have any advice, it’s always do at least 2 takes per vocal part. you never know when you might need to comp a single work, syllable, section, etc. The more, the merrier, but 2 is really the bare minimum. Even on days when the first take seems like the one, I find two is always better. For a lot of people (and this is really so simple when you think about it), it just comes down to being warmed up or not. Even for specific lines, I believe you need to have your mouth and vocal cords warmed up by performing THOSE specific words and notes. Like, it seems to me that the second take is always better because the first take is essentially a warm-up. This might not be the case for vocalists that actually REHEARSE in full before hand, obviously. This might sound even weirder, but I SWEAR TO GOD… when I was an A&R guy, and used to listen to probably several dozen different bands every day, there was a definite “thing” on demo songs, where the vocalist would often sound way better on the second verse. Almost like they didn’t even have the melody or rhythm of the vocal part dialed in at first, but on the second verse they’re in the groove and it sounds better. As an engineer or producer, it astounds me why people just don’t go back and RE-DO the shitty parts of a recording, but also as an engineer and producer, I’m really not surprised. It seems like the average local band and/or producer’s nerves, OCD over expensive studio time, general unawareness of the quality of performance, and any number of other factors usually take over at the end of the day, and the result is a rushed recording where the singer really doesn’t realize that the second verse sounds like “the song”, while the first verse sounds like “huh?”. Anyway…
SUNDAY AFTERNOON:
It looks like I’m done with the vocal madness a bit early. At one point I realized that I had meant to take some video (like I did with the drums), but only after I had done most of the vocals. So I did a “throwaway” 3rd take just for the cameras. This ended up getting used. Also, since time allowed, I did some random “ad libs” which was an on-the-spot improve of whatever the fuck I was thinking at the moment. This turned out to be the laughter that goes over the triplet part. So, being done early, I cleaned up the vocal stands, put away the mic, and made it look like the chaos never happened. When my fiancé came home a few minutes later, she was delighted to hear, “oh I’m done, you missed all the fun!”.
It looks like I’m in a good place. I’ve got drums, one whole guitar part (doubled), and the vocals done. It’s now really just bass and another (doubled) guitar part to meet my bare minimum, and a keyboard on top of that to meet the standard minimum. Really, it probably takes an extra guitar solo and some weird noises to meet my true “standard minimum” of tracking requirements, but who’s counting? Especially on this day. I’ve got a fucking deadline! Even if it’s a self imposed one. So what do I do when I have a deadline to meet? Smoke more pot, of course. I mean hey, I’m in a good spot, right? Wrong. At some point, I check my Facebook (for probably the 100th time that day), and there’s a curious reply on my post about recording a song in one weekend. To sum up the reply, it was “How come it takes you a whole weekend? I can record a song in a few hours”. And like that, my attitude shifts. I think, “Fuck… the dude’s right”. I mean, why does it take me an entire weekend? It really shouldn’t. I’m writing parts as I record them. I’m using a lot of templates and presets, and mixing as I go. The total time spent actually writing, and recording parts comes to mere minutes- maybe an hour or two combined. Even lyrics (something that I have agonized over in the past), came about really quickly with this song, as they do when I have a clear idea and motivation.
Now, IMHO, there are two reasons why I DON’T choose to write and record a song in 6 hours; The first, frankly, is energy. I’m old and can’t do that anymore. I mean, I absolutely COULD power out a song in 6 hours if I had to. I would if I were being payed a handsome sum of money, for instance. But short of that… why wreck myself? I’m already slamming energy drinks non-stop just to be able to sleep properly. Some people also don’t understand that the real energy involved in a creative effort like this, is MENTAL as opposed to physical. It’s weird, but people forget that thinking burns calories too. I have a theory that the neuro-chemicals and transmitters in your brain (perhaps cholesterols), are depleted when you do something mentally strenuous… like creating new music, or mixing it, or both simultaneously. And those chemicals need to be regenerated (by sleep) at a certain point, or you’ll start making bad creative decisions.
The second reason why I’d rather take two days to record a song instead of 6 hours, is because… it’s not a race, it’s fucking ART. Lol. Am I right? I mean, I get that I’m choosing to do a weekend song challenge, and there is an amount of “sizzle” or publicity flair in even saying that, but two days is (I think) enough time to make something GOOD. When I say it’s not a race, I mean that at the end of the day, when anyone listens to your music, it wont matter to them if it took you 6 hours or 6 years to record it… what’s going to matter to the person listening, is if the song is any good or not. The production, and weather or not the listener “likes” that, is going to matter… not the fact that it only took X amount of time to produce. I think a lot of people who make music for a hobby, and who don’t consider the “audience”, fail to realize that ultimate importance. For them (the musician who doesn’t pursue an audience), I guess how I can see that the “making of it” is what counts. Anyway, I personally like to take the time to get things “right”… even if that really doesn’t take long. I find that coming back to a song after a nap, a night’s sleep, or even just a few minutes away to “refresh”, works wonders for creating new and interesting song parts, melodies, arrangements, etc. I think it comes back to what I was saying about the brain-chemicals needing to replenish. I couldn’t imagine all the cool things my music WOULDN’T have if I were forced to call it complete it before it actually matures and is “ready”. Sometimes, creativity isn’t something you can force down an assembly line.
At this point, I should probably mention WHY smoking more pot is so important at this juncture, and is actually a requisite. I’m going to paraphrase Daniel J. Levitin, author of “This is your Brain on Music”. Basically, how you learn and how you practice your instrument (meaning the state of mind you’re in), is how you should perform. So essentially, if you LEARN the guitar while stoned, drunk, or whatever, you should do the same substance and be in the same state of mind when you perform. It’s why every legendary musician is basically a junky, and it’s like “oh, nevermind that I’m out of my mind high… it’s no problem”, and it usually sincerely isn’t. It has to do with the neural pathways in your brain developing your musical skill while in a certain state, and those pathways have to be in the same state to repeat and retain those abilities. It makes sense, really.
Next on the chopping block is bass and guitars. This means I need to be really fucking high. I don’t even know what I’m watching at this point. Halloween? Chernobyl? I’m not even sure. I grab the neon-maniac, Agile Les Paul copy, and tune that bad boy up. The second guitar part is then down, doubled, and done. More weed is smoked. Not long after, the bass guitar gets recorded. Fuck, is this thing really perfectly in tune after just sitting on stand for a few months? Apparently it is. It’s a 6 string, and the hi G and C strings needed a little tweaking, but it was essentially perfectly in tune. Now that the bass is done, it’s really no sweat… at least that’s how I’m feeling. time to celebrate, and smoke a heroic amount of marijuana.
SUNDAY EVENING:
At a certain point, I think during my girl’s evening meditation regimen, she got pissed because the noise emanating from my closed ear headphones was fucking up her shit. I mean, I’m sure it was… but I guess that means I just have to sit idle for a minute while she… meditates. No worries. I’m going to open another energy drink (full disclosure, this is at least my 6th can of Rockstar since I began recording), and take the opportunity to smoke more herb. As soon as I could make noise again, I realized that the arrangement still had one missing section; a seven string part. I’d actually been procrastinating this most of the afternoon. I finally get to it, and when I go to check it with the bass part… I realize that the bass part during that section is actually incorrect. It clashes harmonically with the guitars, as there’s a descending half-step while the guitars are doing an ascending half-step. Basically, it sounds like ass, and it’s only become obvious by doubling the bass with a seven string. So I proceed to grab the bass and overdub that one section. No problem. The seven string part then follows, and I know I still need to lay down keyboards before dinner. Before I started, I told myself “This is going to be a raw black metal track, so I’m not going to edit the guitar tracks (for timing)”. Yet here I am, laying down guitar parts 2 and 3, and I’m editing the shit out of them. I mean, not REALLY, but I’m editing them nonetheless. Ugh. Fuck my life. Not to mention, I need to actually mix it down before it gets to late. I’m giving myself a 10pm deadline to mix it due to noise laws. Actually, I guess the city is giving me that deadline, not me! I get cracking on the keyboards. I keep it simple… choirs. When in doubt, call up a choir patch. After I record that, I realize that there must be a little more flavor, so I go with a generic synth sound and record some arpeggio bullshit. It’s actually pretty cool bullshit, and after almost having arpeggios for most of the song, I cut it down to a two bars at the end. Sometimes, you need to keep it tasteful.
Now tracking is done, and I need to mix. This actually entails that I reset a few things around my studio/living room, since the cables I have don’t quite reach my monitor speakers without doing so. I assure my girl that this will only take a few minutes, and it’s the last step in the process. I’d already had a decent headphone mix worked out, so I really just need to check overall levels, and hear what the low-end is really doing, before I hit “render” and call it a mix. In doing so, I realize that the vocal levels do indeed need to be adjusted a bit. the bass guitar also needs ne be tightened up. All of that takes… 10 minutes max. I try not to be indecisive about it, so I commit to levels, hit “render”, and call it a wrap. I do end up deciding that vocals need to be brought down a bit, so I do that, and then truly call it a wrap.
At this point, I’m beyond exhausted. I barely have the energy to upload this mix to FB, which is necessary just to prove that in did in fact finish it on time. Before I can do that, I actually need to render a new logo graphic to stick in the soundcloud song image. Ugh…. Do I really have to? I guess so. At times like this, I do what I’ve often done before, and that’s take an emergen-C vitamin packet, and pour the entire thing in a half-full can of Rockstar energy drink. It’s pretty nuts… but it’s that extra boost when you need it. I do that, and proceed to open photoshop, render a new graphic, and then upload it, along with mix, to the interwebs. I can barely smoke herb at this point, but I do so while waiting for the upload to chug along. At last, it’s done.
POSTSCRIPT:
Well… What’s ever done, right? Although I posted Sunday’s “finished” mix in a million Facebook groups, I felt that it still lacked some things that I was hearing in my head. Like I said, creativity isn’t an assembly line. So, it got not one, but three extra guitar parts (the nylon string intro, the whammy stuff, and the extra 7-string part). I also had to change out the kick drum sample, and felt like a dummy for not going with the 22″ kick in the first place. The new mix is posted here, along with a completely raw un-mixed version, complete with clean guitar DIs and zero FX whatsoever. Arrangement and levels are the same. That was done mostly just for… kicks? I guess I also did it to give those new to mixing an idea of what a completely un-mixed song might sound like. The song is titled “Back To Black”.
Realizing that this blog post was going to need some original art to go along with it, I started drawing that up Wednesday morning. Of course, this art is too good to waste on some web graphics, so let’s make a full-blown T-shirt out of it! Why not? I figured it would take a few hours, but the artwork took all day. That part (the graphic art), actually takes longer than the damn music! I literally spent the last two months making an animated music video for a song that probably took 2-3 days to record. Good grief. It’s a process.
