Weeks Seventeen, Eighteen and Nineteen
Cricket
Weeks Seventeen and Eighteen
The first half of the week saw us making great progress with Northern Belle and Queen. In fact Northern Belle is done! And she is so pretty to. Queen is also becoming a gem. Although I have always been fond of this tune, I had no idea how beautiful it could be. Dave asked me to imagine that I am on a dark stage…the band is behind me (in matching white suits) with a very weak spotlight on them…I am wearing long black sequened gloves singing to my man into one of those big old microphones on a stand. This changed my approach to singing this song completely. So before I left on Wednesday I sang a scratch vocal lying down on the red couch (lying down and singing is really hard, but if you can control your air well enough you get this really soft, whispered texture to your voice).
After that session I was a complete write off. I do not think it was the swine flu, but what I was battling was definitely not your common cold – maybe it was the mini-swine cold. In bed for about five days. For eight days I did not leave the house, except of course for flu meds, kleenex and throat lozenges. After the mini-swine cold left my face, he ran right straight into my chest. Nina Simone look out. Needless to say, I was afraid to pass anything on to Dave so I steered clear of the studio for almost two weeks. Dave worked incredibly hard almost everyday while I was sleeping and feasting on soup and water. After a session there is so much tedium involved in going through all the takes and deciding which ones to consider for the first mix. Hours and hours of work actually. So although I was not at the studio, lots was getting done in my absence. Dave King is rock and roll.
While I was still taking it easy at home two guest musicians came in this week. First, the great Steve Strongman lent his hands and his guitar to Crack My Eyes. Dave said it was a ton of fun. They tried a bunch of different approaches, all turning out really cool. I do not know if you remember me mentioning that Dave likes to take people out of their element. I think he believes that when you make a great musician uncomfortable at what they do best, you get incredible results. When he tried this on me a month into this project I freaked out. I honestly thought he was crazy. But when I gave into the discomfort I realized that my hands could work without my mind being involved so much. Because I had no idea what I was doing what I played was so free and unlike anything I thought I could come up with – yet it WAS me coming up with this nutty music. Since then I have trusted Dave and his craziness and this has been nothing short of inspiring. In fact, when I am ready to take a break from writing, I want to be in a band where I am just playing guitar – no singing whatsoever. Anyhow, Dave put his method to work on Steve and the results were worth his discomfort, I hope he though so too. Next to come in was another friend of Dave’s, whom I know as Ralph Malph. Dave had another zanny idea for Nowhere Near My Heart. Since I have decided that his madness is worth entertaining, I let him run with it. So claiming there was only one person for the job, Dave worked hard to get Mr. Ralph Malph into lay down some humongous guitar sounds. If the takes make the record you will know who inspired Dave’s idea. When I heard the tracks back with Ralph Malph’s guitars, I absolutely loved it.
Week Nineteen
When I walked into the Barn on Monday evening, I was pumped to get back to work. If I can manage to make this career sustain, I am the luckiest person on the planet by the way. Dave and I had a lot to catch up on so we had tea and chatted for a while. After our teatalk Dave showed me all the edits he had done while I was down for the count. So much colour to work with! The next day the amazing Paul Intson came down to play bass on Flow n Flow, Queen and Nowhere Near My Heart. He was perfect, and I really mean that. Every note he played was so thoughtful and tempered. I really am fortunate to have him on my record. For the rest of the week Dave and I tackled Beach Ballad (who is not liking the approaches we are taking with her), added organ and more tapping to Nowhere Near My Heart, as well as spending awhile with the Malph guitars on Nowhere Near My Heart. I will finally be able to start singing next week. Not being able to sing for awhile makes me realize how much I love the human voice and all its musical possibilities.