What an unlikely day to start vocals eh? What were we even thinking? Ha, but so far so good. Started tracking with Shaking Like A Leaf, an older tune from the original recording session, we’ve made a change or two and they are starting to grow on me. We tracked Two Dollar Bills as well, I’ve debated on how to record the track, its a tune I’ve had for a while as a demo with just a guitar and a vocal, very raw, very low-fi. It was a last moment decision to bring it into band form and though we’ve always had a positive response from people playing it live, I’ve always wondered if we were capturing the initial grit and beauty of the song. It’s important to me, but I also realize that I over analyze things from time to time. So even still today, hearing the first verse/chorus solo and then the band dropping in I was in the same spot I’ve been since our first live show, even though I’ve watched every video of us performing the song and always been pleased, still I have this everpresent doubt in my head and we each lay our parts down. But Matt allowed me to track the vocals a few different ways just to get all my thoughts out on the table and in the end, I’m really pleased with the end result. Should it be raw? Should it be solo? Should it be a hidden track? Should it be prestine and beautiful? All these things ran through my head and in some way I think we’ve captured the honesty and spirit of the raw demo as well as the beauty of what additional instrumentation can bring to a song. Mike’s solo is beautiful, very low key and unassuming, really plays well against the vocal emitting the same emotion. As well do Knox’s organ and piano parts and the drums have a nice live vibe going on. It sounds like a lowly soul voicing his heartbreak and then his friends chime in around the campfire to help him in more ways than one embracing the music and the man himself. I’m proud of it and Lane likes it, so it must be good right? I’m going to start using some sort of Lane comparison chart to decide if songs are going well or not. Lane is this amazing creature that we’ve all come to love and adore and want to shut his freaking mouth all at once, ha! I’ll post more videos of Lane as the week passes by, the world must come to know him as we have, I’m not sure I’ll figure him out completely before all this is said and done, but we’ll all be friends for good at this point, so myself and the rest of Death will have time in the future to pen down ‘ol Lane and his obsurdaties, but all in all, he’s a killer dude! Also, we all talked kind of backwards today, I can’t remember any specific examples, but several senternces just came out in reverse order, strange. Knox is pretty much done on organ, so he’s gonna try to do the same with his taxes tomorrow! Jay dropped in to have a listen to the progress tonight. I think he’s down with everything we’ve done so far since his drums and bass parts were layed down. David hasn’t been around for a couple of days, but he got bitten by a Brown Recluse, so he’s recovering in Griffin and I’m sure we’ll see him soon, he texts wanting to hear mixes every day, but Mr. Malpass only mixes down for final mixes, and good for him, I’m not sure how he keeps up with all the tracks, its a hellacious task, and I cannot wait for the day he actually does bounce these to disk for us to hear. Apologies if these blogs are taxing or unenjoyable to read, they are somewhat of a personal time capsule for myself to read back on one day, and partly for anyone else who cares to hear my perspective of recording the first Death On Two Wheels album. If you do enjoy them, well then by all means, read on peoples! I’m trying my best to make it a daily venture so few details get lost by the way side. Tomorrow we’ll finish Calling Us All Back Home, this version rocks a bit harder than the original, I like that, but still has the old vibe, and we’ll lay down Better Way as well, good evening…
- Trae / Death
Day 13: (Vocals + Organ)
Vocals
- Shaking Like A Leaf
- Two Dollar Bills
- Calling Us All Back Home
- Two Dollar Bills
- Sadie
