Monday, June 6, 2011

Octopus EP update

We've been recording an EP over the past couple of weeks, and it has been going GREAT. I don't want to jinx it or anything, but...
We have had the privilege of working with Driveway, aka David Moore, and his two ADATs, for the rhythm tracks and the rest of the instruments.
Driveway brought his gear out to the country to our basement. He and Jerrod set up the couches on end and created a space where we could record drums, bass, keyboards, and guitar at the same time.
After a breakfast of eggs, garlic Gruyere sausage, and sour dough bread, we got to it.
Mike O'Malley on keys, Jerrod Smith on drums, Jon Bohlen on bass, and myself on guitar.
The keyboards were run direct, with the guitar and bass going through our respective amplifiers.
The sound is big and warm, thanks to those ADATs and Driveway's expert microphone placement.
We got eight songs done that day, but decided to go with these seven songs for our first EP:

Octopus
Slow Driver
Walking on Shark (with new Little Fish outro)
Swimming Pool
Al's Diner
Shitty Day
and Three Big Squids.

We were very happy with the rhythm tracks.
Up next was Little P, putting melodica on Octopus and accordion on the rest.
We were very happy with everything she did. Great work.
Then, Erin Hayes on flute. This was yesterday, and we had a blast.
We were very happy with everything she did. Great work.
Our next step will be to get our resident banjo player, Emily Stewart, on all the tracks (she has already put the dixie honkalulu on Walking on Shark).
I imagine this last phase will go swimmingly, as Emily is a gosh darn professional.

Then we will be off to see the amazing Ben Singer, who will dump the tracks from the ADAT machines to ProTools. He is a technical genius.
Once the tracks have been dumped, we're off to Reidsville. We'll be at On Pop of the World Studios to record vocals, make really small edits, and mix.
Everything that Tommy Flake, aka Randy Seals, has been doing out there lately (Crystal Bright, Mike O'Malley, DC Carter, new Tommy Flake stuff, etc.) sounds wicked cool- especially vocals- so I'm really excited to be working with him again.

That's the update for now. I really can't wait for you all to hear this stuff.
-matty sheets