So I went over to Jay’s last night to record vocals, assisted by my aforementioned partner in musical crime and the lovely and talented Sarah Blake who is recording the current single for us.
It’s been somewhere in the neighborhood of six years since I have been recording and man, did it show last night. Here’s what we learned:
1) My first take is usually pretty much a resounding turd.
2) The turd becomes the scratch vocal track
3) I sing along to the scratch track, putting it a proper vocal performance
4) I sing along to the proper performance, thus doubling my vocals appropriately
5) Once properly “lubed up*” I am pretty consistent.
I am seriously rusty with this stuff. Wow. There was a time (probably 5 years ago or so) where 4 songs would have taken, at the most, two hours. I mean, I’m not the dude from The Darkness or anything, so this really shouldn’t have taken as long as it did, but again, I’m not where I used to be. You do have to walk before you can run, so by the time we record the album (where money is spent) things should be great!
Also, I had Chinese food last night (bad idea!)and, at one point, let out a fart that was so long and sonorous, we probably should have recorded it to use as a loop or something. Sarah went from shocked to hysterically laughing to, I think, a little impressed.
I went from embarrassed to “well, ain’t no stoppin’ it now.” She puts up with a lot.
So, what did we actually get done?
Vocals for “Luxury Sedan” and “I Don’t Care About You” are ostensibly done, pending my nitpicky approval. Vocals for “I Love You, Christina Hendricks” are mostly done, but I have some timing issues I am working through. Nothing done on “Conspiracy Theory” at all yet…
* Nooooooooooot what you think.
