A few weeks ago, we went into the studio to record a few tracks for our demo. This was long overdue. While some bands try to get themselves out there right away and just figure it out on the fly, we’ve taken the reverse approach. We’ve been woodshedding it in our little hole in Laffayette for almost a year now, crafting our sound, style, and songs. Just waiting for the right moment to unleash ourselves on the Boulder/Denver scene. We’ve come above water a few times this summer to let people know what we’re doing — most notably at the Lazy Dog on Suz’s birthday and at the summer mountain festivals we played. But for the most part, we’re still a very well-kept secret.
But I think we’ve finally turned that page to where we’re going to actively try and put ourselves out there for all to see. This recording was a big part of that.
It was a simple set-up: we went over to Chris Addison’s house to record in his home studio. I really wasn’t sure what to expect going into the whole process. My only other experience with a home studio recording left a lot to be desired. But I must say, everything about the weekend completely exceeded my expectations. I think I can confidently speak for everyone in the band when I say that we were all very satisfied with the entire process and the results we got.
Addison decided to record all of us direct, except for the drums. This would prevent bleed in the recording. We had the option to rerecord our parts with our amps after the drums were laid down, but the tones we had going direct were all good enough to keep, so we didn’t waste our time messing around with the amps. The only exception to this was my organ. The tone I got going direct didn’t even remotely come close to capturing what I get out of my leslie, so I redid all of the organ parts using my leslie when it was my turn to overdub.
We were surprisingly efficient during this whole process. We chose some of our most challenging tunes to record, and there was the potential for us to get bogged down for hours trying to get any of these right. But we all managed to rise to the occasion and play very well when we needed to most (after all, time is money in the studio).
I have to hand it to Todd, he was straight up the man that weekend. He nailed the drum parts for all three songs very quickly, and that was crucial to our success. We couldn’t move on until we had solid drum tracks. Once those were laid down, Will, Brad and I could overdub any mistakes we had. But until the drums were solid, we would have to redo the song over and over again, waiting for it to come out right. This gets very time consuming.
But Todd was a beast that weekend. He nailed “Sandwich” on the first take. We ended up playing it another 2 times just to be safe, but we ultimately decided that the first take was by far the best and that it was good enough to move on. We then laid down “Suburban Jihad,” which could have potentially taken us all day. I don’t know if we’ve ever played a completely clean take of that song — there are just too many places where the potential for mistakes is great. But he nailed that one on the first take as well. This time, we knew what we had and just moved on. “Grease Fire” took two takes, but once again, not too shabby.
It was then time to listen back and see what needed to get overdubbed by the rest of the band. To our pleasant surprise, we discovered that most of it was pretty spot-on and could be used as is. All three of us were able to complete our minimal overdubs in about an hour per person. This left us about 4-5 hours for mixing and mastering.
Everytime I’ve done a recording session, I’m always amazed at what can be done in the mixing and mastering process. It can be quite time consuming, but the results are always worth the effort. It is during this time where the songs come alive and reach their full potential. I have to say, Addison did a great job . He was very efficient and did an excellent job getting our levels in line and our tones to come alive. I think we were all really happy with the final product.
At this point, I think we’re all pretty fired up to get back there and record a few more tunes. We’ve got plenty of others that we’d love to lay down and document, and after our first foray into the studio, I think we’re all confident that we can be a pretty good studio band given the proper time, money, and resources.
You can listen to the fruits of our labor on our website. All three tracks have been posted here for your listening pleasure. Feel free to check them out and let us know what you think.
“The Jababa Chronicles”: All musings, anecdotes, philosophies, ramblings, rants, and tirades written exclusively by Andrew Martin unless otherwise specified.