To be honest, I was pretty much against it even being on this record. I was wary, because we’ve changed the arrangement of it, which means that weve changed aspects of the song in relation to the order of verses and choruses as well as the instrumentation. The intro to the song is different, one small half-verse is gone, and we now go straight from the ‘wrapped myself around mama’s feet’ lyric into another chorus. So some things are missing. It’s true. And I was worried that this newer version wouldn’t sound or feel as good as the version weve already put out, on Forward. How pointless would that be? Ugggg.
But Ross has been very much behind this song, and he’s believed in it, so I’ve had to exercise faith in his vision for this song. And I think its paying off. Other parts of the song are a lot more beefed up, such as the fact that we’ve made a musical feast out of the guitar part that happens in the version you know, right after ‘warrior, yeah yeah yeah’ (amazing lyrics, I know). And it kicks butt. But more than that, the feel of the song . . . the groove . . . just FEELS really good. So I’m now very much in favor of it being on the record. I am also in favor of taking my foot out of my mouth at this time. Thank you.
This studio is fabulous. See pictures here.
Each time I enter my little isolation booth, I scoot in behind the microphones, take a swig of water, slip on my headphones and get going. All four of us musicians have our own little mixing consoles. This might not mean very much to you. But if you’ve ever been to a show early and seen the band soundchecking, and they’re all saying, ‘Uh, Ted, could I get some more of my guitar in my monitor [the live equivalent of headphones] . . . uh, actually that’s too loud . . . could I get a little less?’ – – – then you understand how nice it is to for all four of us to have personal control over how loud each instrument is in our own headphones. Very nice, friends, very nice.
I’ve got the click track, which sounds like a metronome playing a simple beat, in one ear and the actual drums in the other ear. Being the rhythm guitar player, it’s my job to listen to both the click and the drums and not rush too fast or slow down to the point where it steers the drummer off course. I do this while singing and trying to emote in such a way that the band feels the urgency or relaxation of a given verse or chorus and plays accordingly. Very often, I get excited and rush the section, which makes the drummer speed up a little to keep up with me. However he’s also got to stay right in time with the incessant clicking in his ear. This is hard for him. He feels like he’s being pulled in two directions . . . like Stretch Armstrong. So Ross tells me to settle down a little. So I do. I’m very talented at settling down a little.
I’ll leave it for Ryan to tell you about the studio experience from his perspective. We see the world with two completely different sets of eyes, so the things he notices will probably be very different from the things I see. Our visions are very often complementary. And that’s good. It’s like teamwork. . .like Mulder and Scully . . . or how in The Sixth Sense, Haley Joel Osment was good at seeing dead people, and Bruce Willis was really good at solving crimes or something. Very complementary. So if anyone ever asks you how solving crimes through the use of paranormal sight relates to Ryanhood and folk rock, you’ll know what to say.
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More to come.
Love,
Cameronhood