Algren
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1/24/2009 10:50:00 AM
Studio Blog - Day 1
Well...I'm sitting here in the studio while Ben lays all of his drum tracks down in one take and I thought I'd tell you all about the first half of our first day recording.
The day started interestingly enough. We don't do anything without some adventure involved and traveling to Gremlen Studios this morning was no exception. We met at our rehearsal space around 8 am to load all of our necessary equipment into Jason's car. Mother Nature lent a helping hand by providing blizzard-like conditions. After several failed attempts at squeezing everything into the trunk and backseat (which also had to hold two bodies), we pulled everything out and started over. We gathered our wits and channeled our many years of childhood Nintendo Tetris experience. Finally, we made efficient use of the trunk. I called shotgun (which at the time seemed like a coup over Ice and Ben - it wasn't. I'll explain in a moment). Ben and Ice jumped in the backseat and Jason and I filled all of the available space around them (and on top of them) with the remaining gear. Any sudden swerves or large potholes would definitely result in severe bodily harm to the pair.
I should mention now that Jason placed my breakfast, a warm toasty Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Pop-Tart, in the back window of the car to avoid smashing it during load-in. I realized this only after we were on the road. There was no way I was missing out on that Pop-Tart. Period. Thanks to a 5 minute effort from Ben and Ice (who couldn't freely move their arms) I was able to enjoy my breakfast. Thanks Guys.
Finally we started on our hour drive to Aurora. Once we the hit the snowy roads, Jason informed us that his car started overheating this morning AND he has no heat. The heat thing? No big deal for us...we're burly men and we had coats. However, no heat = no defroster. This meant that as the big winner of the shotgun call, I inherited the job of wiping down the inside of the windshield every 23 seconds so that Jason could see at least some of the highway. For this task, Jason provided me with a knit winter hat. As you can imagine, after the first swipe across the windshield...the hat was soaked and useless - leaving only icy streaks. Fortunately,the paper towel that housed my now eaten Pop-Tarts was ready and willing to help. The paper towel did an okay job (it was a Bounty so it lasted a good while - cheers to you quicker, picker-upper).
We made it to Aurora in one piece and with only a few close-calls. Let the recording commence.
Ben has been handling his parts with dexterity and grace. We expect nothing less from him. It is really refreshing to be back in the studio. We've all been very anxious to get here. We've been pushing so hard over the last couple months, and specifically the last two weeks, that there is almost a sense of relief to be here finally. We've been practicing late every night for a week and a half. But last night, for sanity's sake, we kept rehearsal to an hour. It felt so nice to relax for the rest of the evening with the knowledge that the next morning brought the studio with it.
We've been here for about 9 hours now and Ben is almost done with his primary work. He'll still get to experiment with some percussion instruments but I have a feeling he is going to crash hard within the next 30 minutes.
So that's the first day thus far - only 5 hours left to go today. I'll keep you posted if anything crazy happens.
Check back regularly. Each of us is going to be writing something along the way. We'll keep you all posted each day. Thanks for reading!
Aaron
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