14February2007
Posted by nate under: Uncategorized.
Many great things have been happening as of late. I’ve recorded a bunch, recieved great CDs, am now Nora Abenth’s godfather, played music with the official Nora’s Baptism Band, featuring Martin Marty, Bill Singsaas, and the Abenth brothers. Yes, life’s been good. And on top of all this merriment I had a bit of a revalation while washing my hands at Caribou coffee in Alexandria, MN. As I was reaching for the paper towels I noticed the sign “Employees must wash hands.” Oh crap. What if they caught me washing my own hands? Would they take my latte away? Why did I take the initiative? If only I’d seen the sign earlier I could’ve walked up to the counter and had one of the nice baristas wash my hands, but now here I had gone and taken the job on myself! I don’t know if I was infracting union code at this point or what, but needless to say I was a nervous wreck. I ran through the options. Make a run for it and hope they didn’t catch me, Admit that I had done their work for them, or Pee again and pretend I had never washed…
I remorsefully approached the barista and admitted my fault. She looked disgusted and turned away. I meekly recieved my latte and vowed that henceforth only employees would wash my hands. Forgive me Caribou. Forgive me.
7February2007
Posted by nate under: Uncategorized.
the recording is going well. It’s been a little frantic trying to squeeze any free time into the studio and as a result it’s a bit of a mess, so as my daughter falls asleep (theoretically) next door, I’m wrapping cords and cleaning house. I sadly won’t have a second in here till Monday – but happily for very good reasons. I’m gonna be a godfather!
Here’s the floor halfway through the clean up
my ultra technical mic’ing technique – it’s really a zen approach – if you toss the mic near the source it will find it’s place over time.
I need to work on the camera angle, but Micah pointed out to me that my drum set up is curiously similar to those on Pedro’s It’s hard to find a friend album cover.
and finally, a gift from Jason Moran – he gave me two and I thought I gave the working one to Micah, but a couple weeks ago Micah told me he tried it on some drums and he couldn’t get a signal, so I pulled this one out and whatdayaknow? It sounds pretty much how it looks – but maybe looks can be decieving… as is the DEVIL, suckers!!! That’s right brothers and sisters the devil is coming to git you, so gird up befar his deception befalls you!!! Oh, and look, this microphone feels it’s source to be the notebook. Lion and lamb, mic and notes, we are all one peoples, we are all one.
5February2007
Posted by nate under: fact.
So, as mentioned in previous blogs, I’m participating in the rpm challenge. The goal is to make a 10 song album during the month of February. If you check out the sight you can actually listen to songs that folks have posted so far. I’ve been listening a bit, and i’ve got to admit I’m impressed. I’m noticing a lot of loop oriented stuff, which initially was what I was going to do, but have sinced changed my mind – and I’m kind of glad since the song I’m listening too now is using a bunch of the loops that come with Live, which is my main source for loops too so I’m realizing in this forum it wouldn’t be all that creative.
I was able to record some stuff this morning, and hopefully will finish a song this afternoon. One of my favorite approaches to songwriting is to give yourself limits. I had the honor of talking to one of my songwriting heroes, Pierce Pettis, and he started talking about how so many folks see thinking ‘out of the box’ as a creative attribute, to which his rebuttle was, it doesn’t take much to write out of the box, but if you can write a hit song within’ the box, that’s creativity. Then he started talking about Buddhism vs. Protestantism. I think he’s an Episcopal. Anyways.
So here’s my box: I’m doing a concept album. And that alone has already provided me with more creative energy than any out there experimental junk I could’ve attempted. The instrumentation will be whatever I want, I’m predicting guitar based, because that’s who I am, and that’s how I write. So far the routine for the recording has been to set up a click track, record one mic guitar and vocals on top of it, redo the guitar, play drums (if necessary) add bass (if necessary), add any additional stuff, and redo the vocals. This seems to be working pretty good – it’s got an assembly line feel to it that suits this project and my timeline and writing process well.
And when you’re on the rpm site, check out micah taylor. It’s nice to run with the fast pack. Even if I can’t keep up!