As I mentioned previously, when we are on the road, we like to use all parts of the bull, so to speak. While hanging out on the beach would have been nice, with Castaway 7 Studios being so close to where we were booked for gigs, why not get in some recording time? So, Tuesday morning we grabbed some coffee, “wellness shots”, and breakfast at our favorite local spot, Juice Swell, and then hit the studio. Feels like coming home, especially since we spent so much time in 2024 in this space. With a highly-requested single that we want to be able to release for Christmas (or thereabouts), our focus was really only the one tune. The cool thing about that is the remaining time could be used for our drummer, Walker to get some stuff recorded and have a little more to show from his time on tour with Champagne Sunday than the experience of some delicious Mexican food, several killer shows, and maybe a rash…depending on how many showers we could get.
JP, holding the secrets of recording, engineering, and the universe in his dread nest.
Walker, behind the kit!
Jared’s profile, rivaling that of “The Thinker”.
Jessi, hanging on for dear life on an extremely sensitive acoustic Guild guitar.
It’s difficult for a bunch of musicians to listen to a song a thousand times and NOT create a part in their head. This project has been so fluid and organic from day one, it’s like, “Why not add more parts and more people?” The more the merrier. So, as JP coached Jared on a guitar riff he wanted to have in the tune, we all just collectively said, “What don’t YOU just play it yourself?” Since JP played on “Naked” from our last release, it all just flowed really naturally!
At break time, Jared decided to stay behind and work on a bass line. Walker and I took advantage of the sunset and a local brewery, Topa Topa, and grabbed a pint and a couple silly pics.
An epic shot of JP in his element…and poncho. (Which is also his element)
So, Jared came up with a pretty solid bass line, but was struggling to capture the bassiness the bass needed to sound like a bass…you know, since he’s not really a bassist. And, although Jared could eventually have worked it out and executed it great, we got a surprise visit from an old friend of JP’s, Sean Ingoldsby. Sean also happened to have mastered our fourth record, “Heaven Knows”, and splits his time currently between Ojai and Vermont. What started as a quick drop-in to say hi to JP, resulted in a sweet reunion and some time saving help on the bass…since Sean is indeed an actual bassist.
Long studio days always play out the same. It’s a LOT of high energy and “GO TEAM, GO!” enthusiasm, that is quickly smashed down with the harsh reality of what’s ACTUALLY happening; take after take of drums, guitars, bass, parts rehearsed, parts written, parts vetoed, parts missing, etc. And, what begins as a skippy-walk down the gumdrop lane of music and happiness, soon morphs into a slow trudge through the thick mud of a vast soundscape that tries to pull your creativity and vigor down like Artax. Am I being dramatic? AM I?!?! Ok, perhaps a bit. But a day of imbalance between action and sitting and listening is tough, and by the time we got to the end of it, we were all exhausted. Only one more night of truck sleeping til our dear friends, Bonnie and Phil join us in Ventura and a sweet little VRBO, and we get a bed again!
Tomorrow, we track vocals for “Hope” and Walker gets to unload a bunch of pent up energy on his own music!!
