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EXTRAS
NAT'S STUDIO DIARY
Saturday 25 October 2003
Location: Steve Bond's house
Recording: The Greatest Game, Folded In Half
Today is electric guitar day, so it's just Mr Bond and I working on getting this stuff done.
Using the Burns' 12-string on The Greatest Game we try a few different sounds (direct and amplified) until we decide to triple track the 12-string using a combination of the sounds we are getting. As I type this, I'm lacking some sensation in one of my fingertips as a result of playing the same parts over and over and over for 2 hours, getting sounds, recording takes, etc. I guess that's bound to happen when you're using what Steve calls a "medieval instrument". I question how Julian Panic is responding to repeated barrages of The Greatest Game guitar riff filtering down the hallway...
NC: How are you coping with that guitar?
J: I actually like that riff
NC: But in such heavy doses?
J: I've heard worse
Drawing to the end of this process, Steve calls me a perfectionist, which I don't believe is true. But the fact that he has implied that my parts are somehow perfect makes me blush and prompts us to move onto something different. I add some slide guitar to The Greatest Game, which may or may not make the final cut. Meanwhile, Steve begins to speak his love for the production techniques of Alan Mulder (Ride, Swervedriver), and describes a little studio trick he wants to use on the guitar in The Greatest Game. I don't think he thought I understood what he was talking about - disturbingly, I understood every word perfectly.
Shuffling along to the next track, we find a guitar sound for Folded In Half, and I commence the first take. Ten seconds in things come to a grind halt... "dude, that was one of the lamest intros I've ever heard attempted on a song". I nod in agreement. Fortunately, the next take goes very well, bouyed along by zany head bopping action from Messrs Bond and Carson. I overdub some big chords in certain sections of the song, using a windmill-style technique straight from Pete Townshend's patent exploding English guitarist handbook. The lead guitar happens quickly, and some sections of the lead break are doubled, with only minor hiccups in human error... "are we having a latency problem? [pause] No, it's just you". Maybe you had to be there to understand that one.
It's early days, but I'm impressed with how things are shaping up so far. Chatesy's drum fill of the century still sounds fantastic one day later, along with the rest with his and Jim's work. Also amazing is Steve's tendency to continually isolate tracks and play them backwards.
Shhhhhhoook.
NEXT >> Nat's studio diary - Friday, 31st Oct 2003
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