The last month has been very difficult for me…mostly because my relationship with a beautiful, wonderful woman who I care for deeply came to an end, which has left me feeling devastated and lonely as I try to pick up the pieces. The drain of that experience has taken its toll on my voice, as well as my psyche; last week I started to come down with a cold, which left my voice weak and scratchy. Then, to add insult to injury, yesterday I learned that my father - who has been battling a very aggressive form of prostate cancer since 2007, and had recently completed a successful round of chemotherapy – was informed that his PSA (the marker for the cancer) has started to rise again. Without going into more detail, I’m feeling tremendously emotional, fragile, vulnerable, and raw right now, and my voice is nowhere near 100%.
So, it's fair to say that I was feeling spent long before I began working with Ben this morning. We’re recording at Ben’s home in Ridgewood, NJ, where he’s set up his living room and dining room as a home studio. It’s a cute little house, very quiet, and I get to stay here for this entire first trip…it’s really very nice, for lots of reasons…no commute, of course; no need to pay the unbelievable hotel prices in NYC; and, because Ben is staying with his girlfriend who lives a couple of miles away, I’ve got the whole place to myself when we’re not recording. It makes the recording process feel much more relaxed, as opposed to the more rushed, intimidating feeling that’s common when recording at a studio. Plus, Ben has a cute little Koi pond in his backyard, which is very relaxing.
A bit of background on Ben Wisch. 
For those of you who don’t know him, he’s a fantastic producer and engineer who has worked with some of my favorite singer/songwriters over the years, including Marc Cohn (Ben produced Marc’s grammy-winning, self-titled album which contained the hit song Walking in Memphis), David Wilcox, Patti Larkin, Christine Kane, Catie Curtis, and others. Ben mastered my first album, Very Fine Line, and I was thrilled when he expressed an interest in producing this entire second album.
So. This morning, I got up, had a piece of toast, went to the gym, and then went shopping at the local Whole Foods to load up on all the stuff a recording singer/songwriter needs…tea, aloe juice (a new addition, thanks to Leah S.), a bunch of fruit, and some food to nosh on for lunch. I headed back over to Ben’s place, made a sandwich, and sat out by the koi pond on the crisp spring morning and waited for Ben to arrive. He came over at around 11:30, and we spent an hour talking about the project, and how my current emotional state might affect things (both positively and negatively).
We decided to take things slowly today, and try to get one song done. For each song, Ben and I first sit down in his dining room – he’s got his piano set up there – and after I play the song for him, we talk about the song’s arrangement. For those of you non-musicians, an “arrangement” in this context means the form and structure of the song. Should there be an instrumental intro or outro? Should there be an instrumental part in the middle of the song (usually after the bridge), and if so, how long should it be? Are there any elements of the current song structure that don’t make sense, or that could be improved upon? He also takes the opportunity to play along on the piano, and brainstorms ideas for possible approaches for including other instruments. It’s really cool how he works, actually, coming up with all sorts of ideas and possibilities…it’s very much a “black box” to me, but I’m finally getting to the point in my musical career where I’m able to understand most of his suggestions, and sometimes even make a few of my own.
So, as I said, we started with one song. I had expected that song to be Sleep of the Dead, which not only mirrors my mood but also has a vocal range suitable for the Tom Waits-ish voice I’ve got today. When I sat down to play and sing a bit, though, I was pleasantly surprised by the apparent strength of my voice. So, I pulled out a different song - Gone on You - and played it for him. It was clear that we were in a nice groove with the tune – I was really feeling it, and Ben really liked my arrangement of the song – so we decided to give it a go.
Once we finish the “arrangement” discussion for the song, Ben goes over to his computer setup, and I go over to my chair, which is surrounded by microphones – one for my voice, and one for the guitar. I feel kind of like a cyborg, attached to all those wires and stuff, and unable to move for fear of nudging anything out of place. We then spend some time figuring out the “tempo” for the song – the number of beats per minute - and Ben sets up a “click-track” on his computer to help keep time. It’s essentially a fancy metronome that I can hear through my headphones, and that I am supposed to keep time with when I play the song. The reason that’s important is because we’re ultimately going to have lots of other instruments playing on each song, including drums and bass, and they need to have a clean, clear, tight line to play to. The more my tempo meanders, the more difficult it is to work in the drums in such a way that the finished song sounds good. Playing a song to a “click-track” can be challenging, though; especially when, like me, you’re used to performing songs live and without a drummer backing you up. So that part took some time to get right, but is was very gratifying once I finally got it. Then I play the song the whole way through, and all the data gets stored into Ben’s computer setup in digital form…each in a different “sound-wave” file format that Ben can review and modify. It’s really cool.
Then, we go back and re-record the vocal and the guitar parts again – this time separately, several times over – so that Ben has lots of different options of digital files to choose from. The process of digital song creation is much more a “cobbling together” of the best parts of a variety of takes than it is trying to capture a coherent, perfect whole in one take. I’m guessing it’s a lot like modern moviemaking. In that way, the computer actually takes a lot of pressure out of the recording process. I don’t have to perfect all the way through (although that’s something I always strive for); instead, Ben can pick and choose the best bits of different tracks, and paste them together to create a seamless whole that sounds like it was all done in one take. I won’t tell anyone if you won’t. ;)
So, that’s what we did with Gone on You, until my voice started to give out. It’s a very challenging song, vocally – there’s a lot of range, and full-voice singing involved – and my voice isn’t strong enough to handle multiple takes yet. So we took what we could, and hopefully later in the week my voice will be strong enough to give the vocal another try.
The good news is that, even if I’m not in great voice on this trip, we’re getting the guitar parts and arrangements down. I can always come back out again and re-record the vocals to my satisfaction.
We took a short break, after which I felt strong enough to give Sleep of the Dead a try. What a good, good decision. :) That song is at the low end of my range anyway, with a very raw, emotional feel at its core…and it was just right for my throaty, scratchy voice today. We got the whole thing done, with a bunch of cool takes for both vocal and guitar.
By the time we finished up on Sleep of the Dead, it was 6pm – time to call it a day. I’m exhausted, physically and emotionally, but satisfied that I gave it my best today, and that I was able to come up with some really strong performances. Hopefully my voice will be stronger tomorrow, and I’ll be able to venture into some songs with a greater dynamic range.
I am videotaping the entire recording experience, by the way, and intend to create a “making of” video… I’ll be working on enlisting Steven Spielberg to direct.
I’ll try to post new blog entries every couple of days. Feel free to post comments, or questions, or things you’d just like to know more about. Thanks for being there, and – as always – thanks for listening!
Steve
1 comment:
Very interesting description of the process. Must be very rewarding!
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