So begins a new chapter in this storied history of ours. Here's the thing: Junebug has so much material, old and new. Now that there are TWO members of the band (Dustin and Tony) that are capable of running recording sessions, there is no reason not to record our stuff. The way I (tony) see it, there should never be a time from here on out that we don't have something in production. So we decided to start.
As you may or may not know, we recorded our first studio album Share at the Institute of Production and Recording in Minneapolis. It just so happens that now I am a student at IPR and have access to the studios. So why not take advantage of that? I'm going to be in the studios anyway, recording stuff, so I might as well use it to Junebug's advantage, y'know?
We came in to record a couple songs. As you know, Anthony is a very concept-driven person when it comes to albums, and these are songs that may not have a place on any upcoming albums. These are intended to be ancillary to any albums we put out. They're simply online releases for our fans. But these songs serve two purposes: 1.) I (as a new producer/engineer) personally want to put them out, and 2.) we want to have a semi-regular flow of content even between our regular long-play albums.
So my buddy Collin Crawford and I booked studio 7 at IPR for the afternoon and by happy circumstance, we were able to book studio 4 for the evening. I set up my drums and Collin and I set up the mics as we had planned them to be set up. I told Anthony to arrive a little later than our initial scheduled time so that we had a chance to get good drum sounds without wasting his time. It was only Anthony and me today. Dustin had to work and Brandon's sister came to town last-minute. But no matter. We could easily get preliminary tracks with just him and me, with Collin's help running the session while I sat behind the drums.
If you're not yet familiar with our "new" song "On the Sidewalk," you may be familiar with a similar song from Share. Basically, we're doing a cover of one of our own songs, "Chosen Ones," just in a different style. Think of Paul Simon on the beach, and you might have an idea of how it will sound.
We got the drums done first, while we got scratch tracks of Anthony's guitar and vocal. It's a simple drum part, with a stripped down kit as you can see in the photo above. I got what I needed in three takes.
Next, we tore down the kit and reconfigured the room to record Anthony's acoustic guitar. He got it in about three takes as well. Pretty quick work. We grabbed some vocals from Anthony and some background vocals from me, and it was an afternoon.
But the day wasn't over, since our studio 4 time was just beginning. We trotted on over, and since we had already gotten everything form "On the Sidewalk" that we could get from the two of us, we wanted to do something else. We had free studio time, after all. You might as well use it. Anthony and I were trying to figure out what to lay down, and I recalled a conversation earlier in the day. I had asked Anthony what songs he might want to put out for this "flow of content" idea. He said he definitely wanted to do "Piper" sometime. It's a song from the old Junebug days. We played it at our first show. But by tonight, we hadn't played it for several years.
That changed tonight, however.
After sitting for years on the shelf, getting dusty, we pulled "Piper" down and decided breathe some life back into her. Collin and I got a drum mic setup going and Collin set up Anthony's guitar amp and a scratch vocal mic. We recorded live, at the same time, which is pretty appropriate for this song. It's kind of a dirty, gritty, twangy, surfy kind of thing. So it fit.
We got all the drum and guitar takes we needed. We figured we'd get vocals for that tune, but we were having technical issues and Anthony had to get going anyway. So then we actually did call it a night.
Well, for Junebug stuff anyway. Collin and I stuck around to work on stuff for school since we had the studio time. As it turned out, I was at IPR, in the studio, from 1:00 p.m. until about 2:30 a.m. It was a long day, but it was productive and great.
Junebug is officially back in the studio. And now I hope we never leave.
...tony...
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