#band dynamics

My main band bish, Stonethrower, recorded a live EP last weekend …well, re-recorded. The first time, I’d moaned about it ‘not sounding tight enough’ and being ‘all over the place’. Ross (guitarist and pretty good at putting microphones in front of things) argued back that it was supposed to be an honest representation of the band. My mind, deeply entrenched in the idea that a recording should be the best possible representation of the band, fought the concept.

I don’t know why, because that’s clearly how they did it back in the day. People just stood in a room with their instruments and magic happened.

Then the machines came and made audio like clay …and if you could mold it so easily, why not make it perfect?  

All I really wanted was everything overdubbed, with a click etc. But noooo. We weren’t going to do it that way, and the neggy-ass vibes of our disagreement fouled the air.

The stank stayed in that practice space for about 5 hours as we churned out the meat and bones of this EP, take after take. We were all a little pissed (and a little pissed) and I guess it translated to tape, because I could hear it. Like ‘Damn, they must’ve been pretty pissed when they recorded that.’, and that was before we got the vocal overdubs in.

As Cal planted his feet into the floor and bellowed into the SM7B I’d brought up for ‘light use’, it dawned on me that we hadn’t really needed the metronome.

More to follow.