Recording Diary # 012a

Things are going well today. I disappeared from the studio for just over 24 hours, and returned to find that the boys had been busy -- industriously so.

There were some drum tracks waiting for me, so I've spent the evening laying down bass tracks, and it's all been fine. In fact it's all been bloody good. "Across the Park", "Sittin on a Rock" and "Yesterday's Growing" are all in the can, although there is a slight retake of the drumming going on as I type this for "Sittin on a Rock". Actually, the goal is to get the keys down, but some drum stuff is going on as well. Christian's laying down a simple beat while the keys are being recorded, and I believe his drum stuff is going into ProTools as well.

As for the bass... It's all been pretty plain sailing. The guys have been really happy with my stuff, with only one comment being made by Jono, which was to do a bit less with the bass on "Sittin on a Rock". So what will make the album (assuming that we stick with this take) sort of has bass moments, as opposed to being one long bass solo. When it comes to the live situation ... well, I suppose it will depend on the day, the mood I'm in, etc, however I reckon I'll be doing considerably more. At any rate, it was the right decision to hold back on the recording, and the take in question is totally fine -- it just gives the other instruments the room they require to move about and flex their muscles.

But the real big one was "Yesterday's Growing", which has been transformed into a total dance track. Not a bad thing -- in fact I've always wanted it to be a dance number, but I've always wanted it to be more rock. But Juicy Mountain isn't a rock band, we're ... we-ell, I'm not sure what we are, but people should want to dance rather more than they should want to rock. But that's not to say that there won't be a rock version of the song. And besides, when the guitars get in there, who knows?

But for now, it's a total dance beat. And as soon as I heard the drum take, I realised that I would have to do something different with it. Thankfully, all it took was a bit of simplification for about 6 bars. Not bad for a three-minute song. The result is more dance-y, and that's fine. We want people to dance, we want this to be played in nightclubs and raves. I want to rock out, but that's not saying anything beyond the ordinary. And besides, as far as I'm concerned, the bass is pure metal. You could change every instrument except the bass and have more or less the same song but metal.

So: it's going well. The boys are doing well, and Bones has just walked in. There's no music happening now, but it's 11:52pm now and I imagine it's gonna be a late night.

No witticisms to leave you on today. Would love to, but this is more a sort of diary rant, not a philosophy rant. Maybe, in the future, I'll mark my rants accordingly so you know which ones to go to (that would be the rant rants).

Until next time....

keeponrockin
Tom Hauville
Juicy Mountain Bass Monster