New Record in the Works!

I'm making a new record this summer! This will be my first full-length, professionally produced CD, with professional musicians. There will be ten songs-- some never recorded before, a couple of songs written by other people, and some previously recorded songs with new arrangements. The record is being produced and engineered by John McVey, at Coupe Studios in Boulder, Colorado.

Update August 21, 2010

Since the the last update, John brought in banjo player Kyle Hauser to add a track to "Little White Boy", and John added an electric guitar track to that and a few more songs. It's sounding great! Guitar work is almost done, and we're exploring ideas for bit parts from other musicians on a few songs. We start lead vocals next week.

Update August 7, 2010

Last Tuesday and Thursday night (August 3 and 5) I went to the studio to lay down some electric guitar tracks for the songs. As it turned out, I didn't record any; John ended up playing the tracks instead of me. I realized what a good guitar player he is, and what a creative guitar player he is. He has a really good sense of what type of guitar layers would help a song the most-- what kind of guitar tone, what style of playing, when to play and when not to play, and so forth. This is very rare. I also think that is also my strongest talent as a musician. But John is a better guitar player than me. So we kicked ideas around, then I handed my guitar to him and he laid it down. They sound great!

We've now got electric guitar finished on about half the songs. We resume next Tuesday August 10.

Update August 3, 2010

Last week, I finished the acoustic guitar tracks for all the songs. Then on Saturday, July 31, John brought in Eric Moon to lay down some keyboard parts. Eric is a very talented guy, technically great, creative, and learns a song very fast. He played everything from grand piano to accordian, to various synth sounds, including some great B3 organ parts. But damn, I just noticed I forgot to take a picture of him. Oh well you can see him on his website.

Tonight and Thursday I go back in and resume work on the electric guitar parts. We're getting there. It's fun building the songs up.

Update July 24, 2010

Over the weekend of July 17-18, John brought in drummer Christian Teele and bassist Chris Engleman to lay down their parts. Those guys were great. Chris laid down solid bass parts with perfect time. Christian had some very creative ideas for the drum parts, especially on "Me", "Misfit", and "Little White Boy".

Then this past Friday and Saturday, I began laying down the electric and acoustic guitar parts. We worked on "Falling into Heaven", "Misfit", "Little White Boy", and "You Could Have Had Me". Generally, I threw my guitar arrangement ideas for these songs at John, and then he came up with some great ideas for modifications, that improve the arrangements significantly. It's developing into a great working relationship. I love working with good musicians and creative people; I'm having a blast!

Update July 5, 2010

John and I have finished what are called the "pre-production" sessions. There were five of these in May and June. In these sessions, we worked out what songs should be on the record, the tempo for each song, the arrangements, and even modifications to the songwriting in some cases. We then record acoustic guitar and vocal demo or "scratch" tracks to a click track so they'll be at the right tempo. These will be the tracks that the drummer and bass player will play to. The scratch tracks will then be deleted as the final tracks are recorded.

John had a lot of good ideas for my songs. In terms of tempo, he speeded some up, and slowed others down. He changed the key on several. He suggested I write a bridge for "Bipolar". He had good suggestions in terms of arrangements-- how many lines for the introduction, the ending, solos, etc.

Here's the songs that will be on the record:

• Misfit
• Falling into Heaven
• Chair on the Moon (written by Bill Kahler)
• Little White Boy (written by Lori Cook)
• Invisible Prison
• Bipolar
• You Could Have Had Me
• Me
• Heart but no Brain
• The Screwup Song

The tentative title for the album is Misfit.

Next step: drums and bass on the July 17 weekend!

I need help!

No not that kind of help. Well, actually I may need that, too. What I mean here is, would you like to be a Patron of The Arts? Specifically, a Patron of this artist? Me, that is? Click on Patron of The Arts to see how you can help!