January Birthdays 
Hey everyone, just thought I'd share our recording experiences with everyone in case there's any interest in how the process works - for us at least. We were flattered that Pete Curry (of The Halibuts and Los Straitjackets and many other bands) would accept our request to record in his personal recording studio - The Pow Wow Fun Room. Recently mentioned as the studio Joao Erbetta recorded his excellent CD.
We were already in SoCal as Meshugga had to play Tiki Oasis and Steve the bassist is in both bands, Tony just tagged along. Instead of staying Saturday night in the den of iniquity we drove up to LA right after the Phantom Surfers so as to get a decent night's sleep.
Around 8:30 we stop at Panns restaurant for breakfast, I love the architecture and the décor but the food definitely leaves something to be desired.
I found that restaurants we went to diners and burrito shops - are actually a little pricier in SoCal than in NorCal, which is not what I expected. I had a particularly sad pastrami sandwich at an all night deli that was $12 and maybe ¾ of meat on it. If you know jewish delis you know pastrami can be easily 2. But I digress
After our lackluster meal we head on to Pete's around 10 in the morning. Initially the plan was to go in and record mostly live but our 2nd guitarist Dr. Kilometers is no longer in the band and I'm forced to do all the guitar parts myself. As we start to get situated, Tony adjusting the drums while Im tuning up and trying amps, when in walks Dave Wronski. Now I had asked him if he would come along since I knew that he and Pete are best friends, but I didnt realize he lived quite a distance away. At the SG101 convention we had spoken and he expressed a lot of anxiety about the upcoming European tour and doubt that hed be able to come to the studio as he had to prepare, which was entirely reasonable. So it was a big surprise that he walked in to Pete's and Im really flattered that he made the effort to do so.
Pete seems to love brown face Fenders (and who doesn't?) and we had our choice of a Super, Bandmaster in a 1x15 combo, Princeton and (Daves new) Vibroverb. Decisions, decisions.
What I found was the Super had a little more hair on the tone without being broken up and worked nicely for us, though I went to the Bandmaster when I wanted more clarity. I stuck mostly to the Jaguar for rhythm guitar as I figured Id be doing more lead on the JM, though that ended up not being the case. On a couple songs where we were going a little more crunchy, Pete pulled out a Dipinto Belvedere which happens to match Steves bass and we put that through the Princeton I thought it sounded great.
Unfortunately it had some real tuning problems, but Dave took the matter in hand and kept tuning it for us until we were done, as it was rather tricky.
We decided on the fly to eliminate one song so that left us with 12 which we finished recording the basic tracks all live in about 7 hours, which we were pretty happy about. At that point Dave had to leave but it was a big help having him there helping us make decisions and just enjoying his company too. I wish we would have been able to get him on the record, maybe when I return to finish.
Then it was my turn to sit at the organ for 3 songs. Apparently what ever I was doing on the organ seemed pretty funny as Tony Steve and Pete were all cracking up the entire time.
I dont know what was so funny but I was really happy playing that Hammond organ. What a piece of engineering, how a machine can produce such a soulful sound. You can see the Farfisa mini-compact behind me, I used that on a song too. I gotta get one of those little guys, like Matti from Laika used.
After the organ parts we called it a night, ate and then trudged back to Motel 6, tired but feeling good about our day's work. Had a decent nights sleep and headed out to Dinahs coffee shop, where I went with Pollo last time. Pete also recommended it as far better than Panns, he was right.
We promptly showed up at Petes again at 10 and I was anxious to get to work, but we had some technical problems with the recording equipment so we had to work that out for a little while. Eventually it was showtime and I wish I could say I just nailed each song but in fact I had some trouble. When youre under the self imposed magnifying glass every little odd noise or stray note seems amplified and glaringly obvious.
I quickly dropped my threshold for perfection just to keep moving forward. Pete wouldnt let me keep a bad take Im sure so theyre probably fine, but being as neurotic as I am Ill probably always wince at the little clams that I know are hidden there. I can see why he was so keen on recording the whole band live, I think the adrenalin of playing as a unit kicks up your concentration a notch while counteracting the anxiety of playing all by yourself. Nothing I can do about that though.
We did decide to make the most of different guitars and I pulled out some vintage Jaguars, Jazzmasters, Strat, 12string, Baritone, Acoustic, Dipinto, and even a lap steel. I have to say that I tried to play a song on the Strat and Pete thought it sounded all wrong and insisted I switch back to Jaguar sorry Ivan ;)
Maybe Ill try again in session 2. We also fooled around with running direct to the board for a kind of Ventures 64 sound. I thought wed spend a lot of time on reverb but Pete says when we mix we can run the signal through the amps and reverbs again and dial it in, so we just kept it at a reasonable level for the raw tracks. Same with echo, he prefers a reel to reel he has dedicated as an echo to the echoplex, we fooled around with it just to see how itll sound. I liked it.
I also got to fool around with the recording process a little. On one song we wanted some spacey effect, live we usually use a bottle neck and run up and down octaves on the high E string. Here I used a lap steel, and ran it through the echo chamber, accenting all kinds of squiggly notes, then we added castanets through the echo chamber too a touch of Joe Meek you might say. I could tell Pete was really getting off on it and I predict well be doing a lot of this sort of thing once the leads are recorded. Added judiciously of course.
After 8 hours or so I was getting burned out, and Tony and Steve were bored so I thought it best to quit while were ahead and give ourselves time to drive home at a still decent hour. We're scheduled to return at the end of September to finish recording and start mixing.
The experience already inspired me to go back over my remaining guitar leads and work the kinks out. That way the sooner I finish recording them then we can get to mixing. I dont think this record will be what anyone calls a masterpiece, but I hope it to be at least entertaining and to push just a bit on the boundaries of the typical surf CD.
—Danny Snyder
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo
Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta
Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party
Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF
I know this isn't a sandwich thread bit I couldn't resist the urge. My apologies please.. 
