Ellery Stimulus

The third in our weekly series of Love Songs to Fans:

Lyrics and more at YouTube…  Share these if you dig them!  And next week it might be you… 

So we have Saturdays and Sundays off from the studio.  But if you don’t mind, we’re not counting yesterday (Saturday) because we spent the day with the kind auto mechanics off of Ulster Ave.  (Our van had been overheating; turns out it was a seized fan, and it cost us over $500.  Ouch. *sigh*)

So today was our first free day in the Kingston area.  Justin made us breakfast (he gets so many points for this), and our plan all week has been to hike a trail somewhere in the abundance of beautiful forestry around these Hudson River Valley parts…

The Ashokan Reservoir had been recommended to us by a few folks, so we set out this morning with the promise of trails and shade and (bless our hearts) some lovable forest creatures.

As we drove on Reservoir Dr, the forest opened up to expose a bridge over the massive reservoir, and we were breathless.  It spilled out into an amazing scene: Mountains to the right, topped with cloud and mist, an expanse of water on either side of us, and forests ahead.  We took a few pictures–

Unfortunately, everywhere we looked there were chains along the roadside, blocking off the trees, and even blocking off the many trail entrances we’d spotted. (”No Trespassing Except for Fishing with a Permit.”)
Curious!  Where were all the hiking trails we’d been promised?! 

While temporarily confused, we did walk along a very cool pedestrian bridge, and we came across a sweet doe who had no problem with our close proximity.  (And - we confess - with our insistence on attempting to speak with her.)  We’re such city folk.

We soon had to *ahem* find a restroom, but I’m glad we forsook our original plan (drive around until we spot a trail?).  Because the kind man at the convenience store informed us that we could in fact hike on all those blocked-off trails, but, we needed a hiking permit to do so.  (Wow!  Our Ohio forests have spoiled us!)
To their credit, the permits are free.  Still, we’re permit-less.
No shady walks with forest creatures for us.

We were a bit disappointed, but it began to rain anyway.  So we headed back to Kingston, where the rain let up long enough for us to get a jog in around uptown.  (Uptown Kingston is historic, settled by the Dutch in 1652, and it’s quirky but nice.  Like a disheveled Marblehead MA.)  (Speaking of historic and Dutch, check out the nearby Hurley Stone House, where our NY guests are staying.  Seriously: The home itself (and its hosts) are amazing.)

We’d been invited to a Sun. evening barbecue in New Paltz, which we discovered today to be littered with musicians and former musicians.  Very fun.  Even more fun, we were able to finally meet (in person) my good friend Kate.  And let me just say, Kate Bradley is great at what she does.  And she’s a great person.  And she’s reeled me into this, which is so lovely.  If you’re a musician, look her up.

Now we’re huddled inside, a slow, dark evening under lamplight and the sound of the window unit.
Tomorrow we track drums.  I mean, tomorrow Josh tracks drums.
And I spend some time learning how to sing the new versions of these songs –

So it’s the last day of our first week, and here’s the update:

We had a crazy first three days.  There was a crazy amount of singing (for Tasha), lots of hot tea, tons of cough drops…
We tracked piano and guitar together, right off the bat, as well as several vocal takes for each song.  We may redo vocals later, but this process is pretty different than anything we’ve done before.  It’s a lot to dive into when you’re first beginning the record, but after the first week there’s just so much done already.  And a great foundation for each tune, for the other musicians over the next couple weeks.

We were joined this week by Max, a very kind high school student from England who assisted in the studio this week.  (And who makes a mean cup of coffee.)  We’re sending him off tomorrow, so safe travels Max!  We hope you got all the Reese’s you could handle.  And that all the screaming ladies you met will instant message you. 

We also did a fair amount of rewriting this week.  A few songs are in new keys, and the difference in sound/feel is fascinating.  There were new lyrics to be written, plenty of re-arranging, and general experimenting.
There’s one song in particular that I thought was going to be the death of me.  We wanted to include it on the record but it needed…something.  So there were many post-studio and early-morning hours I spent poring (obsessing) over the lyrics and staring blankly at the keyboard at the apartment, so worried that nothing good would come.
I think something good finally came, like five minutes before we began recording the song.  Seriously.  Although by the time this happened I felt like I didn’t know anymore which way was up when it came to that tune.  So I’m taking Justin’s and Malcolm’s word for it right now. 

But a lot of things in this process, especially in this first week, do start with a kind of blind faith in Malcolm’s ideas.  Given his history, we knew going into this that the faith would be well-placed.  It’s hilariously confusing at times, but you get a little bit into the tune and think, “Oh.  OOOOOooh.  I seeeee.”
What’s fun now is that we’re listening back a lot yesterday and today.  Malcolm’s playing bass these couple days, so we’re getting to listen a lot more, and we’re getting to see how good his ideas are.

So.  We have the weekend free to catch up on some sleep, think through musical ideas (things like extra instruments, background vocals, etc), and maybe hike a nearby trail.
On Monday, our drummer will join us… The very fine Josh Seurkamp.  (We have no small amount of excitement about this.)  Josh is so great at bringing songs to life, so we can’t wait to hear what happens when he and Malcolm get together…

We have some ideas for more fan love songs, and we need to get some video of the studio up… So there be more coming to you soon!
Thank you for being a part of this with us.  Please let us know if there’s anything in particular you want to see, hear, know… We’re so close to this project that it’s difficult for us to know what’s worth sharing; what’s curious, weird, interesting, unclear, etc… So fill us in.  We’ll see what we can do!

“Love Song For Three Fans”
Written and recorded Wednesday on breaks at the studio.

We feel the love - thanks for being a part of this with us!
Enjoy these songs? Know the people we’re singing about? Please share them!

So our work in the studio is from noon to 10pm each day, with a couple breaks for lunch and dinner. An unusual workday but it works well for musician types…

We came in today with 18-19 possible songs for a record that will hold only 11-12. So we spent our first few hours listening to the tunes and eliminating.
I had wondered if we’d feel sad about leaving some behind, but the cutting floor was actually a relief. It just felt good to make a plan.

While we did make a lot of decisions, the full list is still a bit uncertain. So we don’t have a full tracklist for you yet… But, perhaps we’ll get to share it later this week.
Or perhaps we’ll keep it (mostly) a secret. Hmm. Options.

The first week is always the hardest; it’s just mentally exhausting — But we’re happy — it’s all fascinating. Malcolm has great ideas. Great ideas.

And we’ve got homework to do. Rewriting a chorus or two this evening…
Wish us luck!

More soon –

–tasha

If any of you have made it to one of our shows recently, you might have heard Tasha tell the story behind the song “Lay Your Head Down“, that came from her exploiting my [not so] mild OCD tendencies…

If you have, this picture is for you (emailed to me yesterday from her phone):

(This is a repost from March 15th, 2009 - I didn’t want it to be lost in blog nothingness…)

I came down to the lobby of our Romulus MI hotel this morning to do some work and let Justin rest.
An older man, a hotel employee, was moving around the room, gently wiping down tables and countertops from the continental breakfast which had ended about an hour before.

I’m an introvert and particularly so in the mornings; I like being alone with my thoughts and I had already considered shutting off the enormous TV that was shouting ESPN at me.
The cleaning man seemed harmless enough until he came around by my table.  He clasped his hands behind his back and leaned over a bit, reading my computer screen over my shoulder.
This did not feel okay.

“What is this?” He asked, and I felt a bit annoyed. But I smiled. “Oh, just doing some work this morning.”
I noticed that this didn’t quite register.  “You- student?”
Then I noticed his accent.  Russian, lovely.
“No, just work.”
“What you do?”
My computer screen was on a Yoga site, so I answered, “Well, mainly I’m a musician, but I also teach Yoga.”
This is when I learned that he speaks very little English.

So we spent some time trying to talk about what I do.
I realized I’m not so good at charades.
After some work, I think we established that I perform music, but I don’t teach it… And what I do teach is “Yoga.”

He’s not sure what Yoga is:
“You teach — small children?”
“No, it’s more– people who want to lose weight (I hold my belly) or get strong (flex biceps).”  (I didn’t think I should launch into stress relief.)
“Ooooh.  So you teach– kind of therapy?”
“Kind of.  Kind of.”
It was a good start.

We talked about children.  “No, not yet” I say when he asks if we have any. “That’s okay, you young…”
“I have two children,” he says after a pause.
He described his daughter and son, 28 and 26, both in University.  “It’s hard.  Very expensive.  Very hard on wife and me.  We work– every day.  Every day.  But my wife, she’s um… optimistic?  They’re good, no smoking, no drinking, good brain.”

I noticed that he looked tired.
I thought about his son, in the very expensive dental school, and wondered if he was thinking about his dad, wiping down tables at the Quality Inn.  Mopping floors and cleaning bathrooms.  I noticed that if I were his son, I’d feel guilty.  And then I noticed that this man wouldn’t want that.
Appreciation doesn’t have to be followed by guilt.  This is new and interesting to me. 

“What about your parents?” He asked.
“My parents?  Like what do they do?”
“No, what is their– ethnicity?”
“Ooh.  Mostly British, German, Native American.”
“Ah,” he says. “I love the Europeans.  And I do like the people American.  But here, just so many.”

This was funny to me at the time, but funnier in retrospect.  He’s surrounded.  I feel for him.

We chatted for a while, a lovely, very real few minutes which he concluded by saying, “You a good girl. Maybe in 3 years, you birth baby.”

A little prophecy thrown out with love. 

He went back to his work, but after a while he came back over again.
“You eat breakfast?”
“No, just having coffee.”
“You want doughnut?  Cheerios?”
“No, it’s okay, I have food in the room.”  (The continental breakfast was long gone by now.)
“What you like? Cheerios? Apple?”
“Oh, thank you, but I’m alright.” [Just to clarify, I was planning on eating. There's some hott Kashi Oatmeal Action in the hotel room. But I digress.]
“No, I serious. I get you something.  You like my daughter: she skinny, but I like a bit more. (He gestures around his middle.) For strong brain, need strong body.”
“So - you are my daughter,” he continues. “Maybe you like that, maybe not? (shrugs) But I am your father. I take care of you. What you like?”

I think I conceded to dry Cheerios and an apple.  Off he went.

So. There’s now a plate of bananas, apples, an orange, and a large bowl of cheerios on my table, all covered with a carefully folded napkin.

I came down here bristling against social interaction.  In ten minutes this man went from nobody to one of the most deeply meaningful random connections I’ve experienced while touring.

Feels holy.

We spent the evening on Easter recording simple demos of the new songs for Malcolm - one mic with Tasha singing and playing.

We want to know!

Is there a song you’ve been waiting for us to record?
What would you like to know about the process of making a record?
What do you want to see along the way? (On the website or in emails)
What do you want us to blog about, photograph, video, etc?

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Thank you for joining in!

Hello, welcome to our new-record-making journey. We’ve been working toward this for some time now, but just recently, things began coming together in earnest. We’re excited. The time feels right.

We’ll be posting here all along the way, up to and through our time at the studio. Pictures, blogs, video, song posts, whatever we can think up. (What would you like to see/hear?)

We’re happy for you to be here.