Weekend update, with your host…Chance.
Friday night, I started pecking away at the bridge for Single 15. It’s getting close. I don’t know if it’s a length thing that’s making me re-consider the essence of it or what, but i think i’m getting close.
Saturday
Saturday, I woke up early. Walked the dogs, jumped rope and set up the studio to record vocals. Typically, I only single voice my backups (e.g. one track for each part). but with this song–and once you hear it I think you’ll understand–I wanted a more lush sound to the chorus harmonies. So, I doubled each harmony, and it sounds pretty rad. There’s a sort of energy that all 4 of these parts really adds that I think would have been missing had I had less. It’s just a very (well for me) 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, full harmonic sort of thing. Hopefully you’ll see that too.
A stumbling point
Damnit, how did I get that original vocal sound? I love many of the performances on the scratch lead vocal, but can’t use the whole thing (what with certain lyrics changed or before having not even been written). I set my mic up and –oh boy– “that sounds really different!” Pulled out my blueberry mic thinking maybe I used that instead of my normal mic……nope. Made many changes to mic pre, eq, level gain…nope.
Finally, I moved the mic to a different place in the room. An aside: Sometimes I sit when I sing, so I can watch the track on the computer. Especially when I’m just laying down something quickly, either as a scratch or as a quick idea to be later fleshed out. In this case, something about the tone I really liked . It’s not too crisp, even a little on the dark side. But I just love it. And, you’d be surprised how much the mic placement in the room makes on your tone. Especially when your room is not an acoustically tuned, nor a padded vocal booth. Ney, good friends; my vocal booth is a bedroom without the bed.
Sunday
So, now I’m not exactly enamored with the task of trying to duplicate it. Turns out, I kept singing the test line so much that I rasped my voice out a little too much to be able to get a good performance today. I didn’t lose my voice, it just got to a place where I could no longer control the rasp.
All this simply meant that I had to take a break a little earlier than I had planned. That also meant time to make home made roasted salsa (a notion I arrived upon awaking) and home made burgers for the superbowl. Wait, a notion I arrived upon waking?? lol. I love that…
First time making salsa like this, and it came out great (plus, I totally winged it!):
Took 12 roma tomatoes, a head of garlic, a jalapeno, an onion (cut in half). I put a little olive oil on all of it, and just set them on the grill (at a pretty high heat) til they charred (You can use your broiler too; just constantly watch it and turn frequently).
Roughly chopped the tomatoes up, chopped the jalepenos, minced the roasted garlic, chopped the onions. Put in a big bowl, and added salt, pepper, lime juice, and chopped fresh cilantro. Did that all to taste. Finished it with a slight drizzle of olive oil. And voila, damn good roasted tomato salsa! Note: never be afraid of salt when you’re using kosher salt. It’s not nearly as potent as table salt.
Making this turned out to be far more interesting than anything that happened on what was the most boring Super Bowl. EVER. Both teams turned in such mediocre performances I thought I was watching pre-season. Never seen such poor clock management [in an SB]. Refs did a terrible job and Seattle practically went out of its way to hand “the Bus” his first ring. And I was rooting for the Steelers! Well, actually, I was mostly rooting for a good game.
C’est la vie…
Choir Guitar player (1 of 2) and bassist also came over and watched the game. Introductions forthcoming.
Important show announcement:
Chance & the Choir will be playing in San Francisco at the Tongue & Groove on Wednesday, March 1st. Doors open at 6 PM, and we will be the 3rd of 4 bands.
Very, very excited about this show as it is an “Insomnia Radio Presents” concert. The other bands include The Thieves, Sodium Channel and Recliner.
Can’t wait!
Weekend update, with your host…Chance.
