For the first half of last year, I spent a good part of my time recording my last “Silver Speakers” album, “Streetlights and Stars,” in my bedroom. Recording the album was a big step in my skill set, jumping from an old ZOOM digital 4-track that I’ve had since 2000 to an old 8-track Tascam digital hard drive unit. The unit had an intensely steep learning curve, but it’s massive storage space made it possible for endless “bouncing” possibilities, and on many of the album’s tracks I usually had about 32 unique tracks recorded. It was my last hurrah recording with my old Mexican Telecaster and I even employed a Roland R8 which came with some amazingly realistic drum sounds, yet proved to be more complicated than I could master.
Looking back on the experience now, I spent way too much time recording, and not enough time writing or perfecting my performances. I relied too heavily on vocal doubling, and would often write lyrics on the fly. That lead to endless retakes and retakes which would last many weeks worth of evenings just to get a part right. Or, I would layer and layer tracks to a point where I would never be able to recreate my vision live, unless I recruited 4 or 5 guitar players to handle every part. Basically, it’s exhausting, and whatever major recording project I take on next, I know I’m not going to do it that way again… next time I’m resolved to really workshop the song, and workshop my performances so they can be more detailed and confident, hopefully providing an interesting auditory experience.
And I have to get some help… I don’t think my back could take being hunched over for the long periods of time again anytime soon. If you’re willing to record and mix, I’m more than happy to play.
So until the “big project” time comes, I’m going to continue working on the 8 track, but I’m going to try and keep it simple, focusing instead on creating “good demos” instead of full-blown recordings… hopefully on this blog, I can get some feedback from you, and also give you a little more insight on how these songs are formed.
“Voice in the Wind,” a song I wrote last Friday and tracked Sunday night, is a simple finger-picked song on a Gibson SG running into my Fender Princeton ’65 Reissue. Technically, this song’s rhythm is a simple Habanera (probably the most depressing Habanera ever), provided by my favourite drum machine, a vintage analog Korg R55. I also used a new digital Stylophone (it has a line out, which removes the clacking sound) for some melody/soloing.
Lyrically, the song is based on themes found in the Psalms, mainly of God’s presence in nature and in our lives here and now. Here I was less intentional about the content, and let the words instead flow organically… after this summer’s sermon series based on the Psalms at Grace Toronto, I’m sure I have a lot of Psalm commentary swimming in my subconscious.
Download the new recording here:
(Copyright August 2009, Tyrone Warner)
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