Ellery Stimulus

The planned final day of our studio work was Wednesday, July 15th.  Today is Monday July 12th, and we’ve woken in the charming town of Bellefonte, PA, headed west toward Cincinnati.  We barely thought it possible to finish 11 songs in 18 days.  We’ve finished in 13.  (-ish.)

Here’s what happened since we last wrote:
We left for last weekend with a set of rough mixes in-hand for all 11 songs.  Malcolm’s recording process is rather unique (more on that later), and the songs came together quickly.  Not only did they come together quickly, but Malcolm is a great mixing engineer.  The actual mixes of each song sounded pretty fantastic almost from the beginning.
So we took these 11 mixes with us and spent most of July 5th listening and taking notes on what we wanted to add, change, etc.

On Monday, we listened to some parts that had been sent to us from a musician in Norway.  (So lovely; I think you’ll like them!)  Then we spent the first half of the day working on vocals.  I had re-written the bridge to one song, so I had to re-sing it of course…  And I wanted to give another try with a couple others.  We spent the latter half of that day finishing background vocal parts, etc…

On Tuesday, we did the last of our instrumental work: Malcolm and I both played some keys, Justin played some guitar…  And then we spent a few hours on two songs that just weren’t quite feeling right yet.  We left the studio fried but reasonably convinced we had ironed out the arrangements.

Pedal steel greatness.

Justin drove to Manhattan on Wednesday morning to retrieve Jon Graboff, who played some beautiful pedal steel and guitar parts.  What he added gave those songs the feel of complete-ness….  There was really nothing more to do on any of them but let Malcolm work his magic.

By the time Justin returned from NYC on Thursday, Malcolm had finished three mixes.  And they were beautiful.  We knew he was great but we were floored.

[As a quick aside, this is why the Fan Love Song didn't happen this week.  With Jon in the studio on Wednesday there were no opportunities to shoot a video, and on Thursday we discovered we were, as Malcolm said, "off the hook" -- No more to do on our end (!!) but leave Malcolm to work on the final mixes.
Which was amazing.  But we needed to leave the studio to give him quiet, so we were instrument-less.]

We came back at regular intervals on Thursday and Friday to listen to what Malcolm had worked on.

(In case you’re interested: It’s generally best to leave the mixing engineer (if he’s a good one) to do his work on his own.  As the artist if you stay and listen you can be counter-productive, and/or a nuisance…  :)  After working so hard on the songs, your ears no longer respond to them rationally, and you can start asking for “more of this” or “less of that” when it doesn’t work as well for the song.  So in our experience, it’s been much better to leave the engineer to it (which they also prefer) and then come back to hear his finished product, and then give our impressions.)

Everything sounded great immediately.  We only had a few tweaks, and a couple overarching suggestions.  But he had nailed it.
We left Friday night to drive to Boston, and we had final mixes in-hand.  We listened in the van and in our room, and sent some final questions/suggestions.  We began to realize that not only would we not need to stay in Kingston until July 15th; we could reasonably leave on Monday.  Nay, Sunday.  Unbelievable.

(What was the hurry?  We could have stayed in town another night but we’re exhausted.  More to the point, we’re lonely.  Emotionally drained insomniacs who need to see our loved ones.  Once we got a hint that maybe we could head home on Sunday, there was no way you could have kept us in town.)

Yay I did it!

On Sunday we drove from Boston to Malcolm’s studio and listened to his final work on the few songs he had changed since Friday.  We loved them.
And that was it.
Justin packed up all our instruments, Malcolm readied our hard drive, we loaded the van, and we spent a moment in the driveway just feeling floored and deeply thankful.  It had happened too quickly to see it coming and feel ready for it.  But we were finished.

We got the last of our things, said our goodbyes, and pulled down the drive.  We made our last jaunt down Broadway St in Kingston, packed up our apartment (you should have seen us excitedly scurrying!) and took off (”Goodbye Kingston!!”) westward.

Record in-hand.

Dear friends,

The new record is finished!

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

The picks make me think of sugary cereal.

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. 

Keyboard playing excitement!

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!

Which ones?

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

Self explanatory.

We drove in a steady rain this morning from Nyack to Kingston NY, where we were meeting with Malcolm Burn, who will be producing the album we’re recording this summer.
It’s curious to drive into a town for the first time, knowing it will be home for a month or so later on.  So we were wide-eyed, trying to catch what all the town might hold for us.

We drove up to the studio, just up the hill from the river, where we greeted Malcolm and got the quick tour.  His studio is a warm and inviting space… And since by now you all know we’re suckers for vibe, it’s worth pointing out that there was plenty of it.  The gear & instrument selection was as great as we expected, but I was justly reeled in by the old Steinway upright in the control room.  I love uprights: that wash of sound and all its warmth and lack-of-polish.
(But I should clarify; I’m not one to play any piano, even a beautiful Steinway upright, just because it’s there.  I’m happy to look and imagine that it would be nice on the occasions when I felt like playing it.  It’s only fair for me to tell you, since this characteristic of mine makes Justin crazy.  He plays them in my place.  Which can be… interesting.  But sometimes it’s absolutely lovely.  One never knows with that guy.)

I did play a couple verses of a new tune on the piano, and it sang under the voice in that way you always hope, gentle and warm.

But blah blah blah, gear & instruments, the nicest part about the visit was the chance to talk about music-making and songs.  Malcolm has a love for songs and songwriting, which is what drew us to him in the first place.  He loves (and listens for) the arc of a song’s story, the nuances of how the voice is telling it, how to use a song and its recording to effectively communicate that original live, stripped down idea.  It was affirming and delicious to talk these sorts of things out, get an idea for how the recording process will go for us, etc.  Left us both so glad to have made this decision.

Malcolm sent us off with a lunch recommendation for Lucy’s Taco, downtown, an eccentric little place with amazing food.  (Our only complaint was that it disappeared too soon.)

We wandered around Kingston for a bit afterwards, cataloguing sites for future reference– So good to visit before we land back here in June.