Studio Life

Friday August 7, 1998

Today is the big day! Get out of work, race to our rehersal space and load up my gear. From the looks of things, Robb has already transported his gear to the studio (the previous night he went in to do some solo recording) while I see Bill's full kit (still set-up) and Tex's amp. I begin to worry everyone will be late and we'll waste time. Load up my gear and cruise over to Phase. The other men of xenos arrow arrive in succession: Tex, Robb, and Bill. The studio looks great, every time we return Bruce has better equiptment, more tricks, and a nicer layout. We begin to set up our gear: in the big room we set up Bill's drumkit, and house Robb's amp in a small quasi-soundproof box, and Tex's and my amplifiers go in the small room. For these initial tracks, only the drum and bass parts are important, as both guitar and vocal tracks will be overdubbed later. It takes us a long time to get a good drum sound - about 3 hours- but in the end it is worth it, as Bruce has Bill's kit sounding awesome. Luckily, Tex's bass sounds so good it doesn't need a lot of tweaking, and we start going for "takes" around 1:00am. I guess the weird thing about recording is that you sit around for hours tweaking sounds and experimenting with mic positions, tones, etc., and then all of the sudden you hear "Okay guys, we're rolling." Sometimes it can be tough, and you end up playing songs you know inside and out over and over and over. We end up getting the basic tracks for TEAR and Breathe, and wrap things up at around 3:30am. Exhausted, we head home.

Saturday, August 8th, 1998

Well, today started out a little easier because we were basically ready to go, with everything set up, drums miked, and a better idea of the pace of things. Unfortunately, nobody seems to be playing especially well, and many hours are spent tracking. We get really stuck on Fade. Finally, Bruce kicks us out to get some food and clear our heads. We return to battle Bruce in a "xenos arrow vs. Phase Studio Whiffle Ball Classic." Of course, with the advantage of home field, and his wife being present, Bruce smokes us. Then it's back to work. We record until about 2:00am, then call it a night.

Sunday, August 9th, 1998

Today we spent most of the session trying to make little improvements: punch-ins, a few overdubs, and new takes. Bill brought in two tympani drums, and tracking those was fun. We set up for guitar overdubs, and recorded the acoustic guitars for Anthony, which was a lot of fun. We recorded it with me and Robb and Tex set up playing in the same room, and we started cracking jokes and ended up laughing so hard I couldn't stop for 5 minutes, and everyone else was waiting to go. I guess you had to be there. The only thing that's left is electric guitar and vocals.

Monday, August 10, 1998

Well, it's Monday afternoon, and the weekend was a fantastic, hectic experience. As things stand now, we've completed basic drum and bass tracks, and we're about half way through guitar stuff. Vocals come next, followed by any extra things we can think of, if time permits. Bruce has Phase Studio sounding awesome, and this recording should stand head and shoulders above our last effort. Check back soon, and I'll upload some pics from our time at Phase, as well as a more detailed account of what's up.