Writing bridges and ‘What’s that buzzing noise?’

Posted on | January 3, 2010 | 1 Comment

We’ve got a fair bit done today and all is well.  J is in the studio listening back to my vocal takes even as I’m sitting in the living room typing this (I laid ‘em down while he went out for a stroll to catch some daylight…)

AHA!  He’s just come in to say he likes the outtro harmonies – WOOP!

All celebrations aside for a minute and let’s get down to business.  What did we do today?  Here’s a tidy list:

1. Wrote the bridge (C-section, break-down, middle 8, or whatever you want to call it).  After working on it for awhile, it turned into the outro (magic!).  We decided it should be a little weird compared to the rest of the song.  We were discussing adding a loud creaking noise, or the sound a tin-building makes in a storm, or jerky-guitar parts – but we settled on making it 5/4 instead of 4/4 as a start…
2. Hunted for a heinous digital buzz for a couple of minutes (it was because we were recording with a large-diaphragm condenser mic and I hadn’t turned on phantom power – SCHOOLGIRL ERROR!)
3. Recorded 3 different acoustic guitar parts
4. Recorded 3 different electric guitar bits, one of which we scrapped
5. Snapped one of the tuning pegs on J’s Les Paul (see below…sadness)
6. Changed the lyrics of the chorus – it used to be ‘You make it seem easy’ four times in a row, but it seemed like a lyric cop-out, so (after struggling with this simplest of tasks) I managed to mix it up a little.
7. Re-recorded all of the vocals with harmonies and whisper-y whisper tracks
8. J’s working on a new drum part for the verses right now…

Also included were drinking coffee, drinking tea, eating biscuits and eating lunch – CRUCIAL in any session.  Especially the coffee… and tea… and food…

I’m in a freakin’ good mood because this song is about my brother is his lady-wife and working on this tune reminds me of how awesome they are…

Here’s some session evidence…

I’m luuuurving the bridge… I’ve got a big crush on it.  I’m gonna pass it a note in study hall.

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