Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 260

Year Two – Day 91 – June 7th 2010

Third Day In The Studio

Guitars, Guitars, and more Guitars

I was able to get myself and my gear a ride from pop dukes this morning. Today would be the day where the record would become a more solitary thing. The thrill of working with the band rarely lasts long in this process one maybe two days tops, we get their parts and they serve as the foundation of what will become a Boy Wonder album. We were super focused on making sure their parts sounded good so that I could come in today and add my guitar parts.

Oh have I mentioned that I'm trying to fast track this album to be released by my Downstairs Show at World Cafe Live on July 2nd ? Which means I will be dealing with other stuff today as well as it pertains to making the record. I met a young up and coming artist who is going to be doing some artwork for my new album cover, which means I need a title for the record soon. It's weird to be working on a bunch of aspects of this process at the same time, usually everything is more linear. But if I want to do this fast I don't have that option.

I get to the studio before Joe does and after a quick conversation with Marc Joe arrives and I'm ready to work. When it comes to being in the studio you have to drag me there kicking and screaming but once I'm there I love getting in there and working, especially on my stuff. You can get in there and just roll.

Joe's got a plethora of Guitars, Amps, and effects. You add those plus the things in the studio and the gear I brought you've got a lot of tools to play with which was good because it gave each song an opportunity to have it's own voice. I don't want them to sound too far apart, one of the knocks I've always gotten is that I hop around too much from genre to genre and this time around I'd like something at least a little more cohesive.

We started out by going through all the tunes that were gonna rock primarily on acoustic guitar since we weren't doing acoustic guitars today we were going to skip those and rock with the ones that were going to be half or all electric. We threw the amp heads on a table in the control room with the cab in the recording room and basically sat all day and searched to the right guitar sounds. We were going for wet and sparse mostly, like Andy Summers approach to the Police Songs. As usual I grumble to myself as I'm generally not open to new things when it comes to making records especially if I think a song sounds fine the way it is. But again I brought Joe in because I wanted his vision. I felt extremely apprehensive at first...but only at first. Once I saw past my nose I started to listen to what he was actually going for and as I nodded my head to the grooves I began to run his ideas through my filter and find my own voice.

After five hours of banging through most of these songs Joe decided that he needed a slice of his Ellios Pizza, I looked up and decided I also needed a slice of Joe's Ellios Pizza. We got one of the interns to preheat the oven for us (I f'n love Range) and we took a short break. I'm not really a fan of breaks when I'm paying by the hour but I did need to rest for a minute.

I'd also got word that Alex from Bang Camaro and Township had agreed to play on a song on the album. I was extremely excited about it, the second I heard the Camaro double guitar thing I often wondered how that would sound over one of my songs, not to mention Alex is just a beat on the axe and a helluva guy. I felt like I had a tune that fit the vibe perfectly.
The sun has set and the songs are really beginning to take shape. I'm extremely happy with everything that's happening so far even if I have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the finish line. As the day ends I get a first glimpse of the artwork for the album cover.