One step at a time

Hello. Well, where were we? Something about recording a new CD?? AH yes! So, on May 3rd, Martin, Melissa and I paid a visit to an old church friend of ours, Robert, at his house. Robert is a former parishoner of our church, St. Augustine's in Culver City. He had participated in the Life Teen (high school) ministry and sometimes contributed to the music ministry on retreats. A musician himself, Robert has managed to build a successful music studio business in the converted garage at his house. He mainly produces music for everything from movies and video games to TV commercials and beyond. Anyway, Martin and Melissa have been in contact with him recently regarding possibly booking some studio time. So we show up, walk briefly through his finely-decorated house out the patio door and are greeted by a lovely, adequate pool complete with inflatable alligator (which apparently really does scare away ducks!). Alongside the pool is the converted garage. Through the side door, we step down to discover his swanky, well-appointed, cozy studio. Nice! As we sat on the cushioned bench in the corner, Robert proceeds to demo some music he's produced...very cool. He's doing something I'd love to be doing one of these days as a hobby (this is where I shamelessly solicit random donations so that I can have my own swanky home studio built :). Moving on, we discuss the new CD, what parts (instruments, vocals) we need to track and then talk about scheduling. So, it looks like, at the earliest, we may not be able to start recording again until July. That'll give us time to practice more so that, when we record, we should theoretically be able to get through them quicker...make sense?

So, Rock S.A.L.T. fans...if you're reading this, we're shooting for end of this year at the earliest to release our next CD. To reiterate, it'll be pretty much all original music (many songs will be the retreat themes that Melissa and Martin have written over the past several years) performed by our current bandmembers: Melissa (band director, piano, vocals), Diane (vocals), Eddie (vocals), Martin (rhythm guitar, vocals), Richie (drums), Desmond (lead guitar), Tom (trumpet), David (bass) and myself, Joey (congas/bongos, very occasional vocals). Laurie, our violinist is taking a much needed sabbatical but her strings will certainly be heard in spirit! We will most likely also have a few instrumental and vocal guests appearances.

Until next time, oh...after our visit to Robert's, the 3 of us met up at a nearby Indian restaurant and indulged ourselves in a late dinner. Until next time...who knows when?? Let go, let God!

Rock S.A.L.T. CD2 Recording Session 07.18.09

Welcome to the first of, hopefully, many installments of this blog. I literally just came up with the idea of blogging during these recording sessions. I was thinking about other things I could be doing while other people are laying down their vocal and/or instrument tracks. I brought my notes from school since I've got a final coming up in less than a month but, I'm not quite in the mood to study at the moment. I can only check my Facebook and Twitter so much. I just fed Kwyjibo the meat from the leftover half of Melissa's Jersey Mike's Italian sub she had for lunch. We are bad doggy-parents today and forgot to bring his food/snacks. Melissa and I are here at Martin's house for, I believe, our 4th recording session. Martin studied and taught recording engineering in Florida after graduating from college. He's currently a freelance recording engineer and has worked on many movies and TV shows. He has his own band named West Rd. and has his own makeshift home recording studio that he shares with his drummer, also our friend, Sonje in Sonje's garage. Anyway...

I'm sitting here on the couch listening to the wife and Martin lay down keyboard and bass tracks for the song "Fire & Ice". It's a funky/jazzy song Melissa wrote for a high school church retreat we had in Spring '08. I think they're currently on attempt #4 or 5, I lost count. I've only recorded bongos & chimes on one song so far. That was like a month ago. We just haven't gotten around to doing any more percussion. Need to lay down other instruments for me to play along with first. So typically, while they're trying to work out songs, I end up looking up songs that sound like what they're trying to emulate. For example, for the current song, "Fire & Ice", Melissa is using a Rhodes-sounding keyboard voice that is very similar to what you hear in songs like "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder, "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles and "Riders on the Storm" by The Doors. So I looked them up and played them for inspiration. One of our other band members, Diane, is not here today due to other commitments. She's the organized one of the group and has a beautiful soprano, classical/pop-sounding voice.

HEY! It sounds like they're finally getting it! They're playing to what's called a "click track" which is basically a metronome to help keep the tempo since we can't lay down drums until keyboard/guitar/vocals are done. Okay...we're listening to their latest take...Martin says he's all over the place on this with his bass...Melissa is singing along...Martin is playing air bass along with it...Kwyjibo is napping on the couch...something he seems to excel at. Just heard a bad bass note...we're all laughing about it...Melissa is playing some sort of pseudo-percussion on her lap to the music. Martin just switched on the click track so we could hear if they were playing to the tempo.

Just got a call from mom. She's checking in as she usually does...doctor, dentist, job...call dad...say "hi" to Melissa :)

In the meantime, Martin comes up with this creative idea...he grabs the drum intro from "Superstition" for he and Melissa to play along with. Sounds awesome...just waiting for Stevie himself to start singing along at any moment. Martin and I are imitating Stevie...nodding our heads back and forth...clapping...Melissa's grooving while sitting in the chair. I think she's trying to imagine that she's actually playing with Stevie's drummer. It really does sound a lot better with the drum track.

Martin's about to lay down some guitar. Wife is taking a few swigs of my liter of SmartWater before she does vocals.

It's 3:40. Wondering what we'll do tonight. Martin's got a karaoke gig around dinner time. I kinda wanna watch "Transformers". Also craving sushi for the past couple days.

Wife is trying to figure out what kind of keyboard ad-libbing she can play. Sounds pretty good what she's doing right now. She doesn't get to do a lot of soloing on keyboard/piano usually. I just suggested that she try quoting some riffs from the songs mentioned earlier. I'm playing clips of them to help inspire her.

Martin just got his 'lectric geetar hooked up in the studio and he's messing around on it.

Whew! Laptop froze and I had to restart. Thank goodness for Blogger's auto-saving feature!!!

It's 4:10pm and Martin's still not quite ready to lay down some guitar...

It's 4:15pm and Martin's still not quite ready to lay down some guitar...

4:17pm. Martin just started jammin' to "Fire & Ice".

Martin & the wife thought to add a guitar solo break in the middle of the song. Martin's editing the track now to accommodate it. I had to interject before Martin lays down a solo take by playing "Long Train Runnin'" by the Doobie Brothers. After a few minutes wife tells me to stop saying it's distracting. I proclaim that I'm giving him musical inspiration. Martin is jamming along to it...

Wife is now working out a lead keyboard track with Martin's help. I think we're headed to Chili's for dinner with the Berg family next door in a bit so, that's it for now. Gonna try and make it a point to keep blogging our recording sessions.

Signing off...