Studio Pulse
This is my first time doing this so go easy on me!
It’s a hot summer night in Philly and we just arrived home from day 2 of tracking our fifth record which a title has yet to be determined. So what’s new with you? Everything well? Enchanting? Disruptive? Stressed? Summer-ery?
About this time of the year we are usually heading through the mid west and out to California, there and back again or so it has been for the past ten years….this summer we decided to “band” together to write and record, keeping our business around the Philadelphia area. It is certainly strange not rolling through cornfields with the window down or getting late night Taco Cabana (I was gonna say In-N-Out Burger, felt I needed to represent Texas as sorely missed spots in there) but this is the path we have chosen and more more each day I realize how grateful I am for being able to do what I do-set up a drum kit, slip into an alternate realm and play it for people in different parts of the country/world. If making records is a “cake” then touring and meeting people is the icing, sprankles, (yes, sprankles), hot fudge, whip cre3m, spanish nuts and oreo crumbles that rest on top and contained within. It has delivered the most wonderful experiences of my life, all due to the supporters that have shown up tried and true through thick and thin to share in a musical experience. All of this hit me while driving over the Walt Whitman Bridge and wondering what it would be like to be in a band rolling up from somewhere else, heading into Philly; it is always exciting when you have been traveling for hours to see a city on the horizon, coming here is homecoming and I usually know what to expect. The unexpected is what drives you to keep moving. Anyways, all that non sense to say thank you, if you are reading this and have been to a show, thank you, if you bought our music and passed it on to many friends, thank you, potluckers and food donators, thank you, weird alternate musicians that have come on stage and played with us, thank you, clappers, dancers, loud car stereo drivers, thank you too! Thank all of you! It is a bummer we won’t be seeing you this summer. My heart yearns for a slice of Vinnie Van Go Go”s. Take me to the Dwarf House and be done with it.
My mind got lost for a second, I needed to just get that out the way if I am gonna go any further in talking about making an album and the day to day process of that. My gratitude for every place and kind of person mentioned above is endless. I am fighting the urge to say thank you again….
So yeah, in the studio again making music, it has been pretty energizing for my soul. We are exploring a lot of avenues right now, trying different parts, taking new leaps, dredging up sunken ships. I read the internet, I see what you guys write, your hopes, likes, dislikes, don’t worry about any of that stuff, what we are doing is a healthy marriage of our music, there are several characters that live within the band and each is getting face time in this musical picture. So far it has proven to be cohesive and the work flow and output has been fruitful on many levels. We wrote and demoed for weeks in the basement of the house where Mike, Sarah, Harry, Pete and I reside and are transferring that material into the hands of Daniel Smith over at his studio in a farm town of NJ. Everything that we are doing, in my eyes, has gone better than planned. I was uncertain of the future of mwY, at times, worried, other times, satisfied with what was accomplished throughout this process, coming together this time around has been mutually accepted as a good idea by all the members of the band. Over the course of two days, we have been able to track five and half songs worth of bass and drum takes, the 1/2 song can be attributed to a lightning storm and the power needed to be shut down on the tape machine so it doesn’t get zapped. A click has been heavily implemented, all members of the band playing at the same time in a large room with many compartments, jamming out and fine tuning the work we have put together. The drum sound is pleasing. The room Daniel created is working well, fifteen mics, open ceiling, what more could you ask for, everything has been in a nice warm pocket. We are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy stoked to be making a record right now and it feels like that energy is translating rather well in the studio.
It’s late. I was confused before I even started writing this, chalk it up to heat exhaustion, just wanted to drop by to share some thoughts from the day. Tomorrow will bring us the half song and hopefully four or so more of his friends.
Real quickly, things that I am excited about-getting a few nintendo tapes in the mail(Mega Man 2, Bubble Bobble, Paperboy and Dr. Mario), taking a stab at “Happy Drums” and “Harry’s College Fund”, a block party this weekend, laying down percussion, hearing guitars being tracked for real, WaWa hoagies and the rest of the summer which will be spent laying it down and going on a short run tour. Thanks for reading. Be good to each other.
rickie