Posted on Jul 20 2015 05:14 AM
That was one heavy weekend... (and it's not over yet.)
After setting the sound on Thursday we met again on Friday evening and first did some more tweaking on the bass and guitar sound. I liked the sound we had dialed in the day before, but this time we managed to achieve an even better sound through a little different position of the microphones. Then we started recording and acutally managed to catch very good takes of three songs and a fourth one, which we agreed to better try again the next day. This was definitely more than I expected and even besides that I was suprised how smooth everything went. Even though we had of course to do multiple takes before one was good enough to keep, from my previous experiences with recording (though quite limited) I had anticipated more tension and frustration. But everybody was in a good mood and we managed to laugh off our mistakes quite easily. Around 10pm we decided to quit for the day and to meet again at 11am on Saturday.
Saturday was going to be the first of two full days for recording and we knew we had a lot to do. While the first three songs again went without much trouble, the fourth one proved to be a lot more difficult, since there is a quite tricky change in the middle of the song, which each of us took his turn to miss... After the sixth take or so we thought about splitting the song for recording, but after we did that we also succeeded in playing a continuous take!
After some rather easy songs another problem arose, when we tried a song that involves a lot of double picking: I have no problem to play this song two or three times in a row, but after that my hands began to fail me, and we had to postpone the song. A similar issue came with one of the newer tracks, that has a double picking part, which I actually never felt quite comfortable with. Sometimes I hit it off, sometimes I don't, which is not a good state of playing, when it comes to recording something. One take was okay-ish, but I knew the sloppiness of my playing would bug me, when I listen to the song later, so we had another song for the re-do list... So things started to get a bit frustrating, however we ended the Saturday on a positive vibe, since we managed to do a decent take of the afore mentioned double picking song (for which I will never the less have to do a new guitar solo later) and another rather tricky tune. We closed the doors sometime after 7pm and agreed to start yet again at 11am.
Sunday promised to be a more relaxed day: We only had two more songs on the schedule plus the re-take of the uncomfortable leftover from Saturday. The first song again went over pretty easily, the second however proved to be difficult for our bass player; and when we finally had a satisfying take I had yet again screwed up during my solo... (another second one for the overdub list). Then we went back to the Saturday left-over and it really didn't get better. We finally agreed that I would overdub the problematic double picking part over the best take we had so far. And I did a perfect take at the first try! However someone forgot to hit the record button...
Afterwards one mistake followed the other and after 20 minutes my frustation got the better of me. My bandmates suggested to further split the part for the recording, but from my perspective that only would have pushed aside the real problem: I can't play this stuff consistently! In a live situation I manage to mingle my way through it, and once the song is over, nobody but me has noticed the mistakes. The question is: Is this really the way I want to play this song? (The answer is no.)
After a short break, we came up with a new version of the song, which moves the tune in a quite different direction and (I think) will also add something new to the record. And we managed to record it in a single take after practicing it two times! 
There was one song left on the list, and this time it was our drummer's turn to be challenged. However the song is so easy to play for us other guys that it was no problem to do the necessary number of takes. What was left to do were the overdubs of two guitar solos and after listening again to what we had recorded over the last days it became apparent, that we also had to re-do one more song. Luckly we anticipated that we would probably need some extra time and made sure we could use the room for an additional evening today.
Two overdubs and one song should be manageable, and as you have probably guessed from this report, I will be very glad, when we are finally finished. Playing in the studio has been somewhat a humbling experience for me and my respect for the people, who have recorded my favorite albums, has grown yet to another level. And as much as I love playing in a band, working in the studio I honestly don't, even though my bandmates (who have considerable more experience in this than me) assured me, that the sessions have gone extremely well and productive: 13 songs in under three days!
Once I have some distance from the experience of the sessions, everything will probably be fine. The plan wasn't to make a "perfect" album anyway, but rather something that transports different moods, has a little edge to it and (most importantly) conveys the "sound" and approach we developed as a band over the last two years. And I think the album will do just that and will turn out pretty well. Then we will have to see, if other people like it, too. 
Wish me luck for the final hours! 
—
Los Apollos - cinematic surf music trio (Berlin)
"Postcards from the Scrapyard" Vol. 1, 2 & 3 NOW available on various platforms!
"Chaos at the Lobster Lounge" available as LP and download on Surf Cookie Records!
Last edited: Jul 20, 2015 05:52:11
January Birthdays 
or 
?
