New Toys and Little Boys
ALBUM UPDATE #3 — At the end of April we started working on the control room for our makeshift, farmhouse studio. This would be the final stage of preparation before beginning to record. Jordan packed up all the equipment from his home studio, along with new speakers and a snake we purchased, and headed out to Littlebeck Farm with David.
When Jessica and I arrived the next day, it was the first time Jessica got to see the guesthouse set up for recording. There’s a nice couch and easy chair on one side of the control room with a coffee table and rug, and all the recording equipment on the other side.
Over the next week, I put together some photos from the past few years to have on the wall, and we added a coffee maker and some books to help spark creativity. It’s become one of my favorite rooms of any place I’ve been. It’s comfortable, a great place to hang out, and fun, creative workspace. My brothers and I found ourselves acting more like twelve-year-olds than professional musicians (but I’m guessing that a lot of musicians become professionals so they can act like twelve-year-olds most of the time).
On Sunday, May 15, we started recording the scratch tracks. Scratch tracks are the basic vocal and rhythm instrument tracks recorded and used as reference for a song that will later be redone. There were some technical difficulties in the morning, but we still finished all the scratch tracks for 13 songs by the end of the day.
We laid the foundation for both the workspace and the song recordings. The following weekend we started on the drums. Stay tuned for the next update.