1.5 - Commentary

Below are three journal entries, one from each year of my process, including working on someone else's music, my own recording process, and with Paul during the mixing sessions.

November 12th, 2014

Working on Shamankha (Hannah's Project)

Recording the first four or so songs went pretty smoothly with Hannah. We began by focusing on the songs which primarily feature her voice and guitar, adding a 2nd guitar track and harmonies where they bring benefit. We recently started the transition to working on her 'medicine songs', which are songs that were not written with anything but her voice, occasionally played with a drum or shaker to provide rhythm and keep time. For these songs we've decided to take more of a fusion approach, blending natural instruments, mostly including Hannah's voice and live percussion, with virtual instruments and synthesizers which are generated through the Logic X software. I am having a lot of fun creating beats, finding synth pads, and utilizing virtual instruments (mostly from the 'world music' category) to create diverse soundscapes which support Hannah's vocals. These songs are definitely becoming more rhythmically oriented and have much more of a dance quality than the more folky acoustic songs. Iv'e never really composed full songs using primarily digital software, instruments, and synthesizers so its quite the shift for me. I am really enjoying it and feel as though I am evolving through it. Excited to incorporate more of these elements into my own recording process.

August 1st, 2015

Tres Dias De Sonido - 3 Songs in 3 Days

The past three days have been a non-stop full-court push of recording in the womb. Iv'e tracked 3 songs in 3 days and feel like I could just keep going though I had to leave the island because Blake and I are playing a payed two man gig in Sausalito for my friend Edith's 'Pranic Living Festival' this coming weekend. Iv'e never had such an explosive experience of recording my own music like this before. I finished the song 'Illuminator' the day before I began recording and the next morning hit the studio, by 9:00pm the whole song was basically done, adding vocals and keys late into the night. I listened to the song over and over until at least 2 or 3am, awakening by 8am to start recording 'Tall Grass'. I didn't have my princeton reverb amp on Pimu as it was sent to the mainland for our upcoming gig, so I instead played all electric instruments through the Gibson Hawk amp, which has a very high end, more punk sounding feel to it. I went through basically the same process with Tall Grass as I did with Illuminator, possibly taking a break to cruise down the street to jump in the ocean or make a smoothie, again listening to it late into the evening after vocals and keys were complete falling asleep by 2 or 3am. The next morning, again around 8am, I woke from a dream with a specific melody/riff/drum beat ecstatically throbbing through my brain. I grabbed my acoustic guitar and began to translate what I was hearing inside of me onto the fret board. I spent the next two or so hours constructing musically and vocally what would become the track, 'Muse of Color.' Again, I spent the day and night, probably until around 11:00pm tracking all the parts of Muse, which is the most punk rock vibe song on the album. I had a total blast recording it. Especially the drums. The next day I left for the mainland to meet with Blake excited to share the fruits of my recent sonic explosion. It was one of the most electromagnetic experiences of my life, incredibly rewarding, and very satisfying. I feel very accomplished and inspired to set aside more times like this in the future to fully commit to the recording process in this way.

March 21st, 2016

Mixing with Paul

Paul and I are moving very well through the mixes and definitely close to finishing. Its such a joyful and empowering experience to feel the songs really come to life through the mixing process. The other day we mixed 'In the Middle of the Night' and it has now become one of my favorite songs on the record. The subtle work in dynamics in the song have brought it to a whole new level. For example in the second chorus which repeats twice (16 bars) (as opposed to the first which only goes around once, 8 bars) has only one guitar riff playing as the main riff and during the turn around, the double guitar riff comes in, carrying on throughout the rest of the song. This transition is subtle but has a more subconscious effect on the listener, even if nothing is perceived as distinctly different, the body can sense an increase in power, energy, and light volume amplification which creates a feeling of excitement, anticipation, and build up, leading to the release of the breakdown, separate moving guitar solos, and overlapping vocal takes near the end of the song. Our use of a light phaser plug-in on the electric guitars added a super sweet flavor of tone and color to the sections before choruses at the end of the solo and the last bars of the song.