We had booked time last July to go back up to London Bridge to polish off 3 more songs. With the other 9 that we've recorded, we figured 12 would be a great number to put out on vinyl. We've been talking about it over two bands for years, but now we are finally getting close.
But then life got in the way and Robb lost both his dad and father-in-law within a few weeks of each other and the recording understandably got put on a hiatus. We decided to finish the summer and fall with some gigs, then go into hibernation for the end of the year, with a new date booked for January 2025, which happened to be today.
(Un)fortunate for us, it was MLK day, which meant days off for all of us (except Jonathan, but he's doing what he loves, so he gets a pass). The unfortunate part was that it was also frickin' inauguration day, with a new madman taking the place of the American presidency. However, this blog is not about that, so on with the studio recap.
 |
| Nice touch by JP! |
For the day, I brought Goldie with rounds, and the Butter bass with flats. I grabbed my Orange Terror Bass, along with my pedal board. I also brought my Avatar 212 just in case. I packed a lunch (studio days are notorious for no eating) and made my way north.
 |
| Avatar used as a table and nothing more. |
After complaining about politics and how cold it was (like 40°F outside, and barely 65°F in the studio), we got setup and then got to work. We went in with the plan to record songs we'd recorded already, albeit in Robb's basement: The Loud Silence (titled as such for now, it may change), Holiday Daydream and Panic Attack.
We got our tones dialed in and we started with TLS. I played the Butter bass via the Orange and got a nice tone. I had my tone dial about 50% with volume dimed. I did use the Tone Hammer for some EQ, but other than compression, it was all bass and the Orange. We had some trouble with a weird overtone sounding like an octave pedal on the 7th fret (E) on the A string. After some troubleshooting, I lowered the gain on my Spark Boost and increased its level and that seemed to smooth it out.
We ran TLS a few times and, as usual, Cass had his parts dialed. He was able to get a great take after one or two tries. Me and Robb had some different challenges, but we were able to make pretty good time. I had a few punches I had to do, but otherwise pleased with the performance. Tone-wise, the flats were cool sounding, the Orange added appropriate dirt and grit, and in the mix (and especially on the studio monitors), the bass sounded fat and full and gnarly. The only thing I would change (but didn't really know how) was how clicky my pick attack sounded. When soloed, it's pretty obnoxious, but on the rough mixes JP provided, with the full band, it sounds fine.
And did I mention the drums? As always, LBS makes drums sound so good. I'm sure JP has something to do with it as well, but man, Cass' drums sound epic. All good stuff.
 |
Cass on the drumzzzz
|
 |
| Pic by Mike Mitchell |
On my way up, I reached out to Mike Mitchell and he and Amy agreed to come by for a bit to hang and listen and take some pix. So that was cool! I say this because I didn't take many pix, but did take some vids for IG stories. Mike, however, came in clutch and got shots, including a few of Robb with his new Les Paul, which was cool. Both the pictures and the guitar.
 |
| Robb and his new Les Paul (Mike Mitchell picture) |
Speaking of that guitar, man, it sounded great! Robb usually plays Teles and they are a little twangy for my tastes. However, this LP had some girth and thickness to it and on TLS, it really worked well.
We finished up that song and then moved onto Holiday Daydream. I thought this one might be challenging because it's pretty sparse and there's not a lot of fireworks, except for at the end. I try to keep my part really simple and lock in with what Cass is doing. I do build with some melodic lines in the second verse and then we all open it up at the end. I played the Butter bass again and played fingerstyle as well, to mellow the sound a little. I kept the tone overdriven, though, and still loved how it all sounded.
Listening back while Robb was doing some guitar overdubs, I mentioned to JP how I'd love to hear a second guitar doing some chord stabs on beat 4 of the 6/8 measures. He brought it up to Robb and Robb was able to pull it off. I also told him to emphasize a double snare/bass hit that Cass and I do and he did it as well, which all sounded great.
As usual, Robb tore through his vocals and this tune turned out really nice as well. When that was done, we started up with Panic Attack. As recent as our last rehearsal, Robb decided he wanted to cut out a little guitar run in the middle of this song. He sometimes stumbles on it and it had gotten in his head a little. So we decided to skip it and pass the responsibility to Cass to throw in a great drum fill, which he did.
For this song, I switched over to Goldie with the rounds for an even more aggressive sound. We did a few takes before JP realized I forgot to mention something and due to the hotter output of the G&L, the bass levels were all out of wack. He got me dialed in and we did a few more takes. Of course, Cass got his takes done and so Robb and I were doing vocals and bass respectively. He had guitar done enough, but this way, we multitask and JP is good enough to handle it all.
As Robb finished up his guitars, I mentioned we should have hand claps and/or tambourine during the solo section, so of course, JP dialed it up and we all jumped in to do the claps. JP did tambo though, as Cass isn't great at it (his words, not mine).
With our instrumental parts all done, Robb finished up some vocals and then JP gave us some quick and dirty mixes. To my untrained ear, especially on his huge studio monitors, we sounded great! I told him in all my years of recording, I think the bass tones I got today were the best I've ever had. Last time we did it, they were OK, but we went a bit overboard with the distortion. I just did a quick listen to some of those songs and yeah, they're a bit distorted, but not bad and maybe with some mastering, it'll tame it a bit.
Anyway, overall, a great day and one that was able to take our minds off of real-world events, despite us seeking that info in-between takes and during down periods. Next up is for me to do my backing vocals, get Jonathan to mix the songs (and two others) and then find someone to put it on wax for us.
 |
| pic by Mike Mitchell |
 |
Pic by Mike Mitchell
|
 |
| Pic by Mike Mitchell |
