We got started a bit earlier today than the others. Since we had to quit earlier than we had wished last night, we were able to come in earlier this morning. Anthony and I both arrived right about 9:30 a.m. Nick would be arriving later in the afternoon and Dustin, we would find out, was scheduled for a shift from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. So for the earlier bulk of the day it was just Anthony and me. Which is totally fine, because the bulk of what was left was vocals (his and mine) and percussion (mine).
Anthony made himself some tea and mixed some honey into it, since he was somewhat worried about how his voice was holding up. Admittedly, I thought his voice sounded shot. He went through a couple tracks early on and I wasn't sure he was going to make it. Thankfully, though, he just had morning-voice, and those first couple tracks ended up serving as a warm-up for the rest of the day. But the takes were kept. I don't remember what songs they were, but you may hear some vocals in morning-voice. We'll see.
Anthony finished lead vocals somewhere around 11:45 or so, and then I was up next on background vocals. It didn't take us long. Joe mentioned that many bands come through that get guitars done in minimal time and spend more time on vocals, but we were the opposite. He also said he appreciated that the background vocals were already established and not being experimented with too much in the studio setting. It's a testament to our preparedness, I suppose. Anyhow, I knocked a whole bunch of backgrounds out pretty fast. In the process, we discovered that there was a guitar part missing from "Found My Boogie." In the attempt to get all guitars done yesterday, Anthony's guitar solo was overlooked.
I saved "Jumpstart" for last, because I knew it would be a strain on me. I have always sung a harmony on the mellow portion of the song, but recently, in particularly energetic shows, I've been singing a high harmony in the chorus immediately following it as well. I don't do it all the time, because it tends to be more than I can muster, but I did what I could to scream it out. It was a good thing I saved it until last, because it did seem to cause some temporary fatigue in my vocal chords. Nothing that a Shamrock Shake™ couldn't heal, however.
After my vocals were complete, we still had gang vocals left to record on a few tunes, but since I was the only member of the backup gang present, we decided to wait until Nick and Dustin arrived. Looking down the instrument list, we decided that I would go grab something to eat (I didn't have breakfast) and pick up the bells from home (I forgot them this morning) while Anthony recorded his nearly forgotten lead on "Found My Boogie." Oh, and he wanted to redo his guitar part on "Jumpstart My Rocket" (see yesterday's entry).
I returned from my break to find Nick in attendance and Joe fast asleep on the couch in the control room. After everyone got up and got going, we started my percussion parts, which were easy enough, I suppose. Earning its Junebug debut on this album is... the cowbell. Nice, right? I had planned on putting it into two songs, but if I remember correctly, only one made the cut. I don't recall.
"Fargo Gypsy Girl" ended up getting a cool percussion break that consisted of me playing all but one of the parts. There's shaker, triangle, guiro, claves, beaded gourd and more, including the box drum. I have never played a box drum before, so when were going through all the available percussion instruments, I said Joe should give that one a whirl, since he is a drummer/percussionist himself. It's a good'n, I tells ya. It's one I look forward to hearing all mixed and purdy. Joe also lent his triangle skillz to "Casanova."
Just as I was finishing my percussion tracking, Anna Wosika, Nick's wife and one of our guest musicians, arrived with baby Cooper in tow. We promptly put her to work. She tracked a very brief, but delightful blurb in "Casanova" to start out her evening and quickly moved on to "Bumblebee," which, it turns out, she has never heard. It appears that she wasn't told she'd be singing on this track and therefore wasn't able to prepare. But, being the consummate professional she is, she didn't fret and just went for it, and performed beautifully. Next on the docket was "Lullaby." Anna had been able to prepare for this song, and what she came up with was just lovely. There were a number of takes with various harmonies and such, resulting in a small choir of Annas singing along with Anthony. While she was tracking, I looked over at Anthony in the control room a few times and his eyes would widen and his mouth would open, as if he had just been pleasantly and unexpectedly shocked with every cool thing Anna sang. Finally, we had her sing the chorus on that ol' crowd favorite, "I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's)." You know that part in the chorus that I normally sing? Well, she sings it on the album and really takes the song to a whole new level. She made it what it was meant to be, in my estimation. It's another one I'm really looking forward to hearing once Joe is done with it. With that, Anna was finished and headed home.
I had heard from Dustin by this time and he told me that we could go ahead and do certain things without him and he wouldn't be bothered by it. So Nick and I decided to step in and do the gang vocals that were slated for certain songs. "Refrigerator," "Found My Boogie," "To the Next Episode" and "Bad Mamma Jamma" all have some form of group vocal in them, and since we are only two, we double tracked them. We slightly altered our voices in each second take to make it sound like it was actually four people instead of just us two clowns. That's studio magic, people. Two become four.
We knew that Hannah Murray, the violinist, would be arriving around a certain time, but strangely it seemed that we were somehow ahead of schedule again. We had about an hour to kill before she was to arrive. So I decided to attempt an organ part for "Casanova." Some of it turned out all right. We're leaving it up to Joe to put the pieces together into something usable. There was still a little time left, so Joe recorded a triangle part for the same song, and then I decided to add some more vocals to a portion of "Bumblebee."
Just as I finished with that, Hannah arrived, and Dustin very soon after. You may or may not know, but Hannah was a member of A Whisper in the Noise and she is currently a member of Wive, of which our Dustin is also a member. A few days ago when we were trying to figure out who we were going to get, Anthony asked Joe if he knew anyone. He acknowledged that he had a few names and numbers. Dustin piped up and said, "I could call Hannah..." I jumped at that idea, knowing that she is pretty much amazing. Joe said she was actually one of the names he was going to give us. So it all works out. Hannah has recorded with Joe at Fur Seal in the past. So it was all old hat for her. Like Anna, Hannah had been given two tracks to work with, but had more sprung on her when she arrived. She played on "Cake," "Like a Dream" and "Lullaby." When she was tracking on "Lullaby," what she was playing was so moving, I wanted to lay down and weep. I don't use those words lightly. She's incredible and we're very pleased that she agreed to be a part of our album. She took those songs to heights we could not have reached on our own.
For all intents and purposes, we are now DONE. All of our tracking is finished on time, with periods of spare time in the midst of them. All that's left is a special session on Saturday with rapper Lil Buddy Mclain, who will be throwing down some guest vocals on "Casanova." But aside from that, we're wrapped.
Fur Seal was a great place to make a record. The atmosphere was just right. We were all laid back and light-hearted. There was a perfect mixture between goofing off and getting work done professionally. Although we were getting things done in a short amount of time, we didn't feel all that rushed. There was no stress or any real conflict of any kind. We got in, got the job done and got out. And we're going to have a record to show for it.
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