Ellery Stimulus

The Irving House = super peaceful. Ahhhhh...

Okay.  So by the time Friday July 10th arrived, we were exhausted, emotionally wrecked.  (Excited, but also crazy/sad/tired/irrational/happy/panicked/pleased/lonely/scared excited.)
Kingston is a fine town, but we didn’t get much interaction with people while there, and to be honest the town as a whole left us rather lonely and longing for home.

Listening to final mixes is exciting but it’s also nerve-wracking, because this is your last opportunity to make changes, to make sure the songs are what you want them to be.  So on top of our questionable emotional state on Friday, we had suddenly found ourselves doing this final-stage work that we hadn’t been expecting until the next week.  Two crazy Goldens.

Which is why we’re absolutely in love now with The Irving House in Cambridge MA.  (We’d heard about this inn through a kind Ellery listener who happens to manage it (thanks so much Rachel!).  They’re really supportive of touring musicians, which allowed us to have our stay there.  And we can’t thank them enough.)
We drove through Harvard Square Friday night and then along Irving Street.  The lights were on and welcoming, the outdoor air felt amazing, a couple was on the porch having a late-night chat… (People!)
We stepped inside and the front-desk clerk was so kind.  (We found this to be true of all their staff– Exceptional people.)  We got our key and headed to our room…
When we opened the door we felt our whole beings relax.  It was the epitome of Cozy, and it was perfect.
Basically, we felt more at home at The Irving House in our first few minutes than we’d felt during our entire stay in Kingston.  Which we credit both to the fact that The Irving House is absolutely lovely… And that it wasn’t where we were frenetically making a record.

We played Club Passim Saturday night with Lucy Kaplansky.  Between her genuine kindness and artistry, and the great great audience, we were beginning to feel like people again.  Lucy sounded beautiful as always, and Passim was great.  Thanks so much to our Boston friends & fans for such a lovely evening… We so needed that.

My only regret at The Irving House is that my recent inability to sleep kept me from enjoying that amazing bed.  :)  We fell asleep at 2am on Sunday and I was wide awake at 6, putting on my running shoes and heading for the river.  But I have no complaints.  (My body does, but I don’t.)  The Charles River at sunrise was a gift to the soul.

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!

Good times.

We were very lucky to be visited by good friends this past weekend!  (Shoutout to the Vances, who came to the studio on Fri and then spent their holiday weekend with us in NY.)
Kingston’s a great town, and we’re mostly too busy to feel terribly lonely… But there have definitely been several moments when we’ve just really wanted to see the people we love.  So this was a welcome gift, for sure.

So Saturday was of course the Fourth of July, and we had ourselves a little unintended adventure… I (Tasha) have some strange food allergies, which have sometimes brought me a little gift my allergist calls “exercise-induced anaphylaxis.”  (Not a good time; I don’t recommend it.)  So– we’re not sure what I ate on Saturday that set it all off, but my afternoon jog came to a pretty scary end.  Thankfully, since this has happened before, we knew how to avert a total crisis.  Mostly there was the seriously-crazed waiting for the hives, etc to die down, and then a good bit of time knocked out from Benadryl.  Happy Fourth! 

But actually, it wound up being a really great day.  I have a great husband who took amazing (and patient) care of me, and our friends were awesome.  Totally understanding and helpful.  We were all able later to get out for some serious MiniGolf. (Okay, it wasn’t at all serious.  And fireworks overhead.)  And we had a great meal around our little dining table; made the apartment feel so like a home.

"Near, far, wherEEeever you are..."

After sending off our visitors, we got in some rest on Sunday, and spent a lot of time listening back to rough mixes from our studio work.  This was the time to determine what we wanted to change, redo, or add to any of our songs.  We made our notes and headed in yesterday (Monday) –
We spent Monday finishing up all our vocal work, and seriously: It’s crazy to be finished.  (And by “crazy” I mean “awesome.”)  :)  After we finalized all the lead vocals, we added some more background vocals (thanks to Justin and Malcolm), and then spent the rest of the evening with instrumental parts.

Today (Tuesday) we’ll see what else needs work… We’ll fill in any musical gaps, make some corrections and decisions about parts… And then tomorrow we’ll have Jon Graboff in the studio with us, working on guitar and pedal steel.  We’ve been looking forward to seeing what he adds!

So: Off to a great start so far today.  Had some great conversation and we’re spending quality time with Xing the cat.
More pictures coming soon… And another Fan Love song!

Rain.

The two great things about the town of Hurley NY are that it’s just plain lovely, and it’s only seven minutes from our Kingston apartment.
So we’ve gone running a couple times on a beautiful, paved roadside trail in Hurley - where we get to take in the rolling fields and the deep green mountains to the West.

Today as we drove toward the trail, we spotted a place where the trail meandered back into the forest, and became an unpaved hiking trail.  Naturally, we couldn’t resist… (Remember our foiled attempts at hiking last weekend?)

This trail didn’t require a permit, and the map at its beginning said the loop was 3.1 miles.  Perfect!  We had just enough time to jog the trail, beat the coming rainstorm, and get some work in at the apartment before heading into the studio.

This wooded portion of The Rail Trail, as it’s called, was gorgeous: Its colors were deep and rich from last night’s rain, and it’s way off the road, quiet, and spotted with tiny orange lizards.

We were feeling good as we neared our 3.1 mile marker.  “Awesome!  Here we are!”
But um — the trail entrance that spilled out onto that state route looked nothing like where we had started.

We looked at this entrance’s map, and it was the same as the other one.  No “You Are Here” indicator, and that same nice, circular line that wound around from Rte 209 (where we’d started) and, seemingly, back again.
But here we were.  (We *knew* the trail didn’t seem to be curving enough to loop us back!)

A friendly man working near this (wrong) trail entrance informed us that the quickest way back to where we started was - yes - the same trail that had brought us here.

So, we turned around and set off again — our nice, comfy 3.1 miles turning into a more challenging 6.2.
More troublesome than the double distance was the rainstorm we were going to miss with our nice short jog…
It found us somewhere around mile 4 on the way back.  We kicked up the mud and water like champions (or maybe more like two city kids)… and two drenched Goldens eventually arrived back in Hurley.

A little late getting into the studio today.
Feeling in love with hot showers and dry clothes.  And coffee.

We wondered if the two days we’d planned with Josh would be enough to finish tracking drums.
We began a little after noon on Monday, and it ended up that we took two long breaks that day (yesterday) and left early. Why? Because in less than six hours, Josh completed drum tracks for all 11 songs.

We came back to the studio the next day to add some percussion and quirkiness, and while we knew that both Malcolm and Josh were (are) geniuses, we were still surprised by how efficiently their greatness poured onto our tracks. We took a long lunch and were still able to send Josh off around 3pm. The three of us looked around at each other after he left like, “Alright - What do we do with this extra time?”
Not that it took much time to decide… We’re adding keyboard, guitar, and etcetera parts to the first few songs. Mmm, this week began the fun fun fun part.

Let the goodness begin.

Rock the Guiro!

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… 

Ashokan Reservoir - beautiful

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?! 

Mrs Deer

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.)

Things to hit. And Josh's leg.

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:

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!

“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!