4/21/10 - Fur Seal - Tony

Dustin, Anthony and I met one last time at Fur Seal studio in Minneapolis to work out the final mixes for Modern Day Fairy Tales. Nick regretfully couldn't be with us tonight, but he said he trusted us to make the right decisions.

Earlier this month, Joe was able to get the first mixes to us and we all listened to them and made notes. We all got together and compared our notes for the purpose of making sure we were all on the same page before going back to Fur Seal. We thought it would suck to get there and completely disagree on some minuscule thing and waste Joe's time arguing.

So after we were all in agreement, we went back to where the magic happened two months ago. For the record, we all really like the initial mixes, but we are nitpickers and end up bordering on perfectionism sometimes. Joe did a really great job on setting us up, and our notes just finished it off. Dustin and Anthony hadn't yet heard the mixes for "Bumblebee" and "Like a Dream," so the night started with listening through those tracks and writing down some tweak ideas. Then we gave Joe a copy of the notes and jumped right in.

It was a really smooth process. Joe would bring up the session files and simply tweak, nudge and dial up or down as we told him. We ate some pizza, drank some soda and had some laughs. That's about as much as I can say without elaborating on the boring details of every single thing we worked on. Let it suffice to say we got a lot of good work done; tedious detail work. And it made all of the tracks even better than before. We started at 8:00 p.m. and left around 2:30 a.m., with the final mixes burned to discs in our hands.

Now all that's left is mastering, artwork and printing. It's happening, and hopefully it'll all be said and done by the end of May. No promises, though.

2/17/10 - Fur Seal - Tony

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.

2/16/10 - Fur Seal - Tony

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.

2/15/10 - Fur Seal - Tony

It was day three and we were ready to roll. Our start time was set for eleven a.m., but we trickled at times either earlier or later, I won't say which. Let it suffice to say that this is rock and roll, and there are no rules.

The main goal today was to get a good start on Anthony and Dustin's guitar work. Anthony took the helm first. The recording area is called a "drum riser," but it has been acoustically designed to record anything there -- guitars, vocals, percussion -- not just drums. Anthony set up in the riser and Joe double amp-ed him, set up mics on both amps, and he was good to go.

We worked almost entirely with Travis today on our tracking. It was all good, since he also seems to know what he's doing behind the board.

Anthony burned his way through a good number of songs while Nick and I filmed and took photos. Anthony began tracking probably around 11:45 this morning and, taking a rest, handed it over to Dustin for a bit. Dustin got some of his preliminary tracking done today. No solos -- that's tomorrow. Dustin knocked a few of them out of the park and Anthony took over again to finish out the night.

Recording an album seems so easy compared to some of the reading I've done on studios a couple decades ago. It's all so smooth. There's no fear of wasting tape. There's no literal cutting. We have click tracks and punching in and all kinds of fantastic technology. The only thing to waste is time.

And waste time, we did. I introduced Travis to Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg's "Motherlover" video, as well as the original "Pants on the Ground" followed by Jimmy Fallon's impression of Neil Young performing said song. I then sought out Fallon's Young performing the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" theme song. Classic videos all.

It was all good, though. When you're in the studio from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., you sometimes need a distraction to break up the monotony. After about nine hours of recording and engineering, your brain turns to mush. But we insist on going beyond that. Because it's what we do.

We ended tonight on Anthony's guitar part for "I'm a Bad Mamma Jamma (Who Works at Wendy's)." He went through it a few times and we thought he had nailed it. Anthony really wanted to do it again, though with a tweak on the effect. So he did. Then we thought he nailed it again, but he still wasn't happy with it. We decided that all of our heads were melted and it was time to call it for the night.

So we wound down a bit by telling wildly inappropriate jokes and we put the process on pause until tomorrow.

2/7/10 - Fur Seal - Tony

Fur Seal Studio
Minneapolis, Minnesota
2/7/10

Since we got so much more done yesterday than we expected, we were almost at a loss for what to do today. I had left my drums set up over night, just in case we needed to re-record anything after sleeping on it. But alas, we did not. So the day started with Travis striking the drum mics and me striking my drum kit, while Nick listened back to yesterday's tracks to get a feel for what bass tracks needed to be redone. Striking, of course, means taking down and putting away, rather than physically hitting them with hands or sticks. Listening back means hearing with ears and paying attention to the sounds. Just wanted to clear that up for you.

Nick overdubbed some bass parts while I took photos and video of him and the engineers. It only ended up taking about an hour and half to finish up the bass tracking, leaving us still ahead of schedule. So Joe sent Travis out to pick up some lunch for all of us from the SoHo Cafe (he is an intern, after all) and we regrouped. After some amazing pizza and gyros, along with funny and inappropriate stories, it was decided that Anthony and Nick would track "Lullaby," since it had not been recorded at all yesterday. There is no drum set on the song, so there was no need. Today, however, Anthony's guitar and Nick's bass were laid down, meaning that all of the songs have now had some tracking done and finished. As I understand it, both drums and bass are done recording.

We finished all of this stuff up fairly early in the day. After some discussion and deliberation, it was decided that Joe would take the rest of the day to do the essential editing on the drums and bass that is necessary to continue with further tracking. This way, he doesn't have to cut a day off of the end of our schedule to perform these tasks. So we will convene once again next week to track guitars, vocals, percussion and everything else from Monday through Wednesday. Then Joe will mix after that and we'll be done, minus mastering and printing.

It seemed to be a pretty brief day, but we got stuff accomplished. And I was home in time to watch the Super Bowl with my wife. We have a week off from the studio now, but we go back in on Monday the 15th.