Day four at Fur Seal started out just fine. When I arrived and pulled my van into the parking lot, I noticed Anthony remained seated in his car. So I didn't bother getting out of my van because I figured we had somehow arrived before Joe did and the door was locked. Nope. After about five minutes of sitting and waiting, I was reminded what assuming does for me. Anthony got out of his car and headed into the studio where Joe was patiently waiting for us. Dustin arrived soon after.
We were introduced today to Marshall, another intern at Fur Seal. Joe gave him a majority of the engineering reigns for the day.
If you recall yesterday's entry, we ended the night on "Bad Mamma Jamma." Well, that's where we started again this morning. Finally, Anthony nailed it to his satisfaction, though we all felt he played it perfectly last night. Sometimes the man is a perfectionist. But I'm not saying that negatively. He only wants what's best for the song.
Anthony plowed through a lot of songs like a work horse. He then worked a bit on "Jumpstart My Rocket" and according to us, he nailed it. But, much like "Bad Mamma Jamma" last night, he wasn't quite satisfied with the tone on his guitar, so he tweaked and went through it again. He then decided to take a break around 3:00 or so.
He handed the torch off to Dustin who then went back to work on a few more songs while I went down a couple blocks to Taste of New York for some pizza. By the time I got back and finished my lunch and had a nice little check of the ol' email and Facebook and such, Dustin was getting started on "Vacation to Oblivion." I had been looking forward to this one, to hear what Farmer D was going to come up with. It's a sort of spacey track with some ambient atmospheric elements. He delivered. It'll be fun to hear this one fleshed out and finished. After this tune was done, he had accomplished a solid number of takes and was attempting solos. But by his own account, he wasn't feeling it on the solos. He was kind of at a loss and not too sure what to do about it.
Well, we gave him a bit of a rest and we decided that I would track my guitar. Yes, folks. I actually play a very small guitar part on one track. "Fargo Gypsy Girl" was written by us many, many years ago. Dustin wrote the guitar part, Anthony wrote the lyrics and I wrote the main solo part. In recent times when we've played the song live, Anthony has taken the solo, since I've obviously been behind the kit, but I wanted it on the album, since I originated it. Graciously, Anthony agreed. So I gave it a whirl, and after a few takes from which we could pull a composite, it was settled. So goes my guitar credit on this album.
Well, we discovered what Dustin's magic ingredient was. All we needed to do was to get about a beer and a half into him and he was rippin' out solos the way he usually does. "Like a Dream" worked out quite well, due to this magic potion. Note: It was Miller High Life, which has "The Champagne of Beers" written on the label. Dustin read it aloud as "Le Champignons of Beers." Which translated from French, of course, means "The Mushroom of Beers." It did the trick, though. The solos are good.
Nick arrived later. He had to work today, but he still made it, with A/V equipment in tow. There was a bit of cliche snafu, tonight, though. We all gave interviews -- all four of us. They were good, too. Probably pretty decent keepers. Except the microphone on the camera was turned all the way down. Oops. No audio. But plenty of footage of our faces talking.
We got a good start on vocals tonight. Anthony went through "Refrigerator" and "Bad Mamma Jamma" for sure. I can't quite recall which others he went through. After awhile all the songs start to bleed together in your head. The point is after everything was all said and done, we got all guitars finished and we got a good start on vocals.
As it went tonight, Joe had to leave because he had a meeting and Marshall had a rehearsal with his band at 9:00 p.m. So the goal was to be out of Fur Seal by then. After Dustin's solos were finished, there was just enough time for Anthony to go in and redo his "Jumpstart" guitars, since he still wasn't quite happy with his guitar tone. We ended up leaving at about 9:15, making Marshall late for his rehearsal, but he was very kind about it, which we are grateful for.
Since we were cut shorter tonight than we had planned to be, Joe told us to come in tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. instead of 11:00. So that's the plan. We have to get everything finished tomorrow. Vocals, backing vocals, percussion, organ and piano if we want it, Anna Wosika's vocals, and Hannah Murray's violin. It'll be a full day, but I'm sure we can pull it off.
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