Feeling Horny? #146

It's horns, today. We have a trombone player in the studio, an accomplished fellow that we call Bardy, although his name is Simon. He's the consummate professional -- the sort of dude who can show up on gig day, have a brief jam, and then play a hell of a show. I know this because Bardy has done so with us before, a few times. (It probably helps things that Juicy Mountain's songs aren't all the complex.)

So Bardy was in the studio today, going through the songs, working out his strategy. He had a bit of a brainwave, which was to save the recording for tonight, because then there would be himself and also a saxophonist -- Justin -- to lay down the horn section. By doing it all at once, we'll get that group dynamic that a horn section deserves.

Presently, we're waiting for Justin to arrive so that this can all take place. During the meanwhilst*, we'll get some food and take it easy and all of that.

It'll be cool having Justin in on this, too. I've met him once, and he's another professional. He has just graduated High School (more accurately, he's just done his exams -- the graduation part is yet to come, although it's almost assured and academic at this point anyway), which is saying a lot, considering both his talent and professionalism as a muso. He came and jammed with the band at the studio -- ironically, the same night I was invited to join the band. I got to watch him closely, and there I saw a dude who'll patiently wait for his time, bust out a few licks, then patiently wait for his next cue. He also added his talents to the original recording of the "Government Song" -- good stuff.

Another issue today, recorded now for prosperity more than anything else, was that the mixing desk had a bit of a tantrum this morning. In short, it wasn't getting any signal through it at all. Scary stuff, especially since Jono 'cleaned' the board yesterday. Cleaned is an accurate term, although it's not wiping the thing with some Windex. What he did was to run some pink noise** through the desk which sort of 'pushes' the crap out. It was great and everything was working afterward, but this morning it wasn't working. Jono did everything to get it sorted, and in fact was going to have someone come over and service/repair the thing, but it seemed to work itself out after a few hours. Mechanical things are so weird.

And now it's starting to rain. A nice big storm is sweeping over, but that's nothing unusual as there have been lots of storms during the whole recording process. I see it as a good sign, much like that superstition that if it rains on your wedding day, your wedding will be blessed and long-lived. Besides, rain represents lots of good things, such as cleansing.

As for horns -- it'll have to wait until roughly 9pm, which is when Justin arrives. Working with Bardy has been cool, he seems very switched-on about the songs, and it helps that he really likes the music, too. So he's probably going to coach Justin a little bit so that we have a nice, tight, well-arranged horn section.

So it's a date for 9pm tonight ... and I'm feeling horny!

keeponrockin
Tom Hauville
Juicy Mountain Bass Monster

* Monty Python humour.

** As Jono explains it, basically white noise but different -- it sort of covers the whole spectrum, whereas white noise stays almsot a monotone