Back in the Studio Again

This week was the un-official start of The Next Record (as of yet unnamed). Monday is the official start date as the other players show up. Drums have been set and sounds got. But really, we've been at it for months, so we're already a quarter way in. So it feels funny announcing the Start Date, like there'd be a cannon going off, or party streamers. We snuck into this one, having started demo'ing songs a few months back, only asked to demo two, but we kept going. We were having too much fun. Then we started writing together. Neilson (Hubbard, the producer) would show up at my house in the morning with bagels. I'd have coffee on. We'd talk about life and bitch about whatever there was to bitch about for about an hour, and then we'd write a song. Pretty much everytime. It was a kind of magic that had nothing to do with "hit songs" and "music row" but was about reaching for something real. That sounds a bit highbrow, writing that down, but that's what we were doing. And then, it snuck up on us, that we were inside a record being formed and there was no going back and we started demo'ing those songs. And then the Approval came to go forward and finish the record. And so here we are on the edge of the weekend before we begin.

Yesterday we were laying down a duet vocal to a song called "Real Love Song". Neilson decided the only possible way to record this was to, as he said, "'A Star Is Born' this motherf..." --Streisand and Kristofferson at the same mic. So we stood on either side of the mic and sang it at the same time, no separation. This morning I listened back after Neilson had put it with the guitar track. Yeah. This is real. Last record too. Warts and all. "Killer" was recorded with a band I'd been playing with for 6 years. We were well-rehearsed and we went in and just played together, all at the same time, most of us in the same room. Bled into each other's tracks and just didn't give a shit. This record is different as we're building from the ground up. Different producer, different players, different studio, different town. But then again, I'm a different me now. Same philosophy though. To make something real.

Wish us luck.