First mix of Thank You

I have four songs in the process of being recorded now. Make that five, if I count the Holy Spirit Rain Down/Let It Rain medley as two separate songs. At tonight's session I went back to the first song of the bunch, Thank You. The last time I worked on this song was when we added the vocals and guitar solo (see Recording vocals).

There are still some guitar parts I've thought of adding, but I've got a lot of tracks down already so I decided to do a "premix" using what was already there. I've come back to this song after letting it rest since July and I have to say that I really like how it sounds. I am proud of the work that the musicians have put into it. A few times I've heard them tell me Remember we're not professionals, and I just have to ask them to stop saying that. They are all experienced, skilled and talented people.

We made three different versions of the mix tonight. The differences between the three are minor though, and lie in how we handled the lead guitar on the ending. In the first version we kept it the way David originally performed it. In the second version we edited his performance so it sounds like he sustained the final note rather than repeatedly picking it. In the third version we edited his original performance so that it sounded like he repeatedly picked the final note longer than he actually did.

I considered making a couple of alternate mixes, one with more emphasis on the piano performance and one with more emphasis on the rhythm guitar - there are so many different things that I can do with this song that if I try out all my ideas I will never finish this project.

Started Let It Rain medley

I had a recording session tonight. I wasn't sure what I was going to record because some of the musicians I wanted to work with where not available (see Opening the floodgates).

A few weeks ago I had a session and started a new project - the remake of Magician's Plea that I'd been thinking of starting for some time now.

So it all came down to Steve O. If he was available tonight and confident enough to track on Let It Rain then I would focus on that, otherwise I would continue building Magician's Plea.

It turned out that Steve O was available and willing to come to the studio. I had envisioned him playing acoustic guitar but he said he was rusty on the acoustic and preferred to play bass tonight.

So it all came together. Three of us at the studio - the two Steves and myself.

I brought a lo-fi recording of the arrangement we played yesterday at church, a medley of Holy Spirit Rain Down and Let It Rain. We used that to chart the arrangement, which we tweaked a tiny little bit.

Steve O played bass and Steve S contributed acoustic guitar. So I now have four songs in progress, four songs being recorded. I've got a lot of balls up in the air now, which is fine with me. It suits my INTJ personality. Plus I have lots of options and flexibility for moving forward even when musicians are not available for a session.

Steve Teller called me a bastard

I think it's cool that Steve Teller called me a bastard.

Who is Steve Teller? you might be wondering.

He is one of the characters in the book I am working on. (See Feet back on home ground). I am developing a scene in which four characters are doing an exercise called This is what I want you to know about me. This is an exercise in which the participants open up and reveal themselves to each other.

In order to write this scene, I have to know what each character is going to reveal about himself - since they're all fictitious characters I have to invent or discover who they are.

A tool I use to do this is the Interview. I ask the character questions and I write down their responses. And sometimes their responses are surprising and colorful.

During his interview, Steve Teller answered one of my questions using a euphemism. So I paraphrased him using direct, blunt language. To which he replied, "You bastard". I must have struck a chord!

Why I think it's cool that he called me a bastard, is that his character is coming to life. He's starting to interact with me, the writer. I like the exchange so much that I'm going to keep that dialog in the story.

You'll have to read the book to find out what I said to him that prompted him to call me a bastard.