Last Saturday was the original date, but due to band member illness, we postponed to today. We got a chance to play through the songs on Thursday and headed over this morning. Joining us was our friend Jeff Barlow, aka @drawitinone over on Instagram. His schtick is to draw a band in the span of one song. He and I have become friends over the last year or so and I invited him to join and capture the moments.
As with any studio day, it's a lot of show up and wait. As we had students in the house (all adults, but new to recording), we had to wait for them to get set up. We showed up around 11, they started setting up, we probably started playing at 12:30.
Today was my third time recording at Bob Lang Studios. The place is super unique. It's like the Bat Cave. Picture a large home on a hill. You enter at the bottom of the hill, in what looks like a standard door. However, behind that door, about 20-30 feet, lies a professional recording studio. Real bands have recorded there. Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Presidents of the USA, Soundgarden, AIC, etc, etc. I recorded some instrumental tracks there in the mid-90s with While Away, and then again a few years with Stereo Embers. This time, though, with PITO, the songs will see the light of day and we will put some effort behind promoting it.
Anyway, we were slated to play one song today, called "Splinter." Couldn't tell you what it was about but apparently the lyrics were written by Robb's friend Jake Uitti, a local writer that Robb's been in bands with through the years. It's a cool little indie tune and I played my Thunderbird on it, pick style.
Not only are these songs new to us/me, I'm still working on figuring out my parts and what I'll be playing. Luckily, the song isn't terribly difficult, but still, trying to see what works and what doesn't.
Cass started the song with a tribal tom beat, Robb singing indie lyrics and playing guitar, and I was playing fifths, D to G. Very basic. Nice woolly sound on my T-bird, but after playing a few times and getting a drum take, I ended up switching to the L1k because I wanted to use the Hipshot to drop to a low D at the end of the tune.
I did a take on the L1K in the control room and it ended up being great. Fat and full, even with the rough mix. Robb did a few vocal passes and within a couple hours of starting, we had captured what we wanted for "Splinter."
The engineer, Kevin, and his student, Chris, then asked if we wanted to do another song, as we had all day in the studio, so we jumped back in the main room and dialed up a song called "Decisions." Similar situation for me as on the first song. Still feeling my way and trying to remember changes, etc. We played through a few times while they were recording and ended up keeping most of one of the takes. Robb called my name at one point to call out a change and we left that in the recording. I really dug in with the pick on the T-bird this time and really REALLY dug the tone I got. Pretty aggressive and angular and will work well in the mix.
I ended up being pretty busy on the take, removing whatever handcuffs I put on myself when I was in Embers. Tim was always saying "less is more," and stuff like that, but sometimes, I took it too literally and really neutered a lot of what I played to fit what he thought we should sound like. For this project though, I'm trying to play for the song. "Splinter" was chill and basic at the beginning. For "Decisions," I just played. I didn't over think it and we ended up using a take that had some cool runs and a few weird moments on it as well.
After getting the music done, we did quick mixdowns and I think we are all pretty pleased. The previous sessions at Lang's was fun, but there was some drama. Tim was having some issues with something and just had a weird time at the studio. Musically, we were trying to figure things out as the songs weren't quite ready and it was just weird energy the whole time. And then we booked a show to put the music out and it ended up being canceled due to COVID. So those songs never got a real chance to grow.
Now that we have the PITO project, new and improved energy, and no worry about the "brand" of the band or any reputations to protect, we are feeling good. The studio was so FUN today. We were handing out suggestions to each other, really talking and listening and just being a band. Really looking forward to playing some more tunes and going to another studio (London Bridge/Sangster's/Bob Lang again) in the future.
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| Got to play through the Ampeg mini-fridge... |
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| until it was deemed too noisy. But still big sounding. |
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| Cool touch on the mixer console. |
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| The studio is under this house. |
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| Inside the studio room. |
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| Inside the control room. |
