Recording an album

Mastering

2012-02-10T13:54:00.000-05:00

I have a mastering session booked for February 14th with Andy VanDette down at Masterdisk in NYC. Andy just got done remastering the entire Rush catalog so I think I'm in good hands. I hope the mixes hold up under extreme scrutiny! Good stuff!

Seriously

2012-01-24T15:17:00.001-05:00

Well, haven't posted in a while. I was starting to sound like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", announcing the record being done and all.. it's actually done. There will be 12 tunes and it runs about 45 minutes. Too much? I don't know.. The songs work well together. There are a few surprises on there, stuff I didn't expect to include. Also, I had to do some last minute recording like Dave adding acoustic drums to "Accounting" and Muddy Roues adding some excellent harp on "Sorrow to Sound". Jeff Harrow has some great pics for the packaging and this afternoon Dave is coming over to help finalize the song order.... and then mastering is next week. Early February is a likely release date.

Keep it Real

2011-09-30T18:49:00.006-04:00

"Fashion to Ashes" came to me pretty quickly. Once I found the chords, the words kind of wrote themselves. My wife had some fashion mags lying around our apt. in West Nyack, NY. While thumbing through a few it dawned on me that these mags were presenting nothing but a false reality. In my mind, all of these unblemished models with their perfect figures and their air brushed complexions seemed to be making women feel terrible about their real, unglamorous selves. On a personal level it was just a simple love song to my wife to let her know that I thought she was way more beautiful than those mucked up phonies. But it was also aimed at the countless women who let this stuff make them feel inferior and ugly. In the song the words "ugly people" are intended as a metaphor for real people......

You should see the lovely things that I see through these eyes

And hear the angel voices swimming in my ears when only you are talking to me

You won't break through your fears by hiding under stones

you carry in your bag of hopeless hesitation

Open up your eyes, you are so inviting

Take a look inside, see the grace you're hiding

It always seems to me there's no ugly people in those magazines

It's obscene, let's throw them on the fire

Watch them burn and we'll turn

The fashion into ashes

Open up your eyes, you are so inviting

Take a look inside, see the grace you're hiding

You are a blessing and a mirage

Here is my reel to reel demo of 'Fashion To Ashes".......

If you know the song you can hear the chorus vocals are not recorded but I have all of the melodies worked out. John Smith helped me with a couple of lines: "see the grace you're hiding" and "You are a blessing and a mirage".... He always had a knack of summing up the sentiment in an interesting way. I may record this again as I like Unspun's version but don't think it does the song justice.

The Finisher

2011-09-20T17:05:00.011-04:00

I love this time of year. Year after year the fall season always conjures up the same feelings of longing, yearning, excitement, nostalgia.... I guess it comes from when I was a kid and the new school year was beginning, bringing the excitement of new faces and experiences. The weather is changing here in the northeast and it's beautiful during the months of September and October, a welcome antidote to the sweaty, sticky summer. As a friend recently said, fall also feels kind of ominous with winter and all of it's hardships right around the corner. With this in mind, have a listen to the album closer "September" in it's current state. Good friend and colleague Chris Thomas and I worked on creating an "oceanic" vibe using a full orchestra to contrast the lonely vocal and guitar. Chris' amazing orchestrating and compositional skills have taken this simple song to new heights. We were striving for a Sixties, Abbey Road studio one/Moody Blues feeling and I think we hit the mark. I still need to record bass guitar and drums and then the record is finito.(phew!) Dave and I are planning on laying down his drums soon. Here's "September".....

Meet me half way

2011-03-11T00:33:00.003-05:00

This was written by Ben Voss for his band Naked Statue, which also included Seth Delia and Jeff Spindel. I always loved this song so asked Ben if I could record it and take a few liberties. He agreed, so I wrote the bridge and solo section and here it is. Ben was a fan of The Meat Puppets and The Minutemen so I thought he would think it was too shiny and poppy, but he liked it and we spoke briefly of writing more together. This was recorded by Steve Regina at Nyack College and the vocals were recorded by Dave Schwartz in his home studio. The song was totally done on ADAT machines. We mixed it in Steve's living room on some JBL speakers and a crappy board. As always, Dave Ramie played drums. It was recorded to be on my Ballyhoo record but never made it on there....

Pics

2011-02-17T22:01:00.005-05:00

I've got a photo album up on facebook with some great stuff from years past.Just follow this link to view........ I'm beginning to feel like this is more of a "music was" than "music is" site! This will change soon.

Unspun's Souvenir

2011-01-23T01:37:00.004-05:00

I just re-mastered my old band Unspun's 2nd record Souvenir and it is available for download from CD baby here I love everything Unspun did but this one is probably my favorite. It's a dense record with a lot of interesting musical choices on it and it is guitar heavy too. Have a look! Peace.

Another Unspun oldie

2011-01-03T11:05:00.008-05:00

I was listening to my ipod on shuffle last night when the Unspun song "Halflife" came on. It was always one of my favorite Unspun songs and that period of recording seemed to be very fruitful and productive. Around 2000, after John and I had recorded the Unspun "One" record by ourselves with drummer Mike Greenfield, we needed a band and recruited Christian Celaya and Tomer Danan from SUNY Purchase. Christian had asked me to come in and help his band with some recordings they were doing and we hit it off pretty well. Unspun gigged around NYC for a while and then Tomer moved on to play with the guys who became Robbers on High Street (who did really well for themselves). We then picked up drummer Ryan Cavan who considered himself more of a Jazz drummer than a rock guy at the time.

The band did a lot of gigging and really got to know each other pretty well musically. At different points we recorded the "Souvenir" record at Doug Oberkircher's Little Bear Studios right next to BearTracks in Suffern, NY. Everything was done to 2 inch tape through a Trident board as well as Doug's Neve channels. Doug and good friend Steve Regina engineered the record. Steve always made great guitar sounds his priority and he ended up mixing most of Souvenir at BearTracks where he was still the main engineer.

To me, "Halflife" seems to have all of right elements in place. It's certainly not a very commercial song but I can say it does sound pretty unique and heavy. I remember listening to a lot of Radiohead when I wrote it so I'm sure it's influenced by that band. We took Ryan's drums and ran them through Pro Tools to really process them and mess with the sound during certain parts of the song. At the time, Pro Tools could only be found in pro studios so we were like kids in a candy store! We also put them through the Fairchild limiters to squeeze them and make them pump. Being somewhat of a purist, Ryan hated the sound and thought we were crazy. His drumming on this is really nice and relaxed tho. What he seemed to lack in the rock department he made up for on the subtle, creative side. Everyone on this really connected and we created this weird collage of sound. John's heavily effected guitar tones, as well as his voice, suit the mood of the song perfectly and Christian could always be counted on for his spot on musical knowledge. His bass lines were always outstanding. There is a nice sheen of harmonic distortion on this that can only be acquired through recording to analog tape and compressing the mix through the Fairchilds. It seems to be teetering on the edge of collapse.

Halflife by rickdobbelaer

Dear Santa

2010-12-08T20:43:00.010-05:00

Dear Santa. For Christmas I would like a proper studio space for my house. As you can see from the video, setting up a session, even a simple vocal session like this one involves A LOT of prep and clean up time. And because of my noisy old buzzing house, I need to turn off the furnace (brrr), refrigerator and water cooler, put the clocks in a closet and wait for barking dogs, passing trains and Fed Ex trucks so they don't become part of my recording.......And I thought I lived in the sticks! If possible, could you throw in an engineer to help out my old ears and to run the computer so I don't have to race up and down the stairs in between takes. At least I'm getting my exercise, right? While we're on the subject, my computer is over 10 years old. I could really use a new one of these! It would go really well with this and this. I think protools 9 would make an excellent stocking stuffer as well! I promise I'll be a good boy and continue to make music on all of my ratty equipment until you make my XMAS dreams come true. I Love You! RD

Actually, I'm recording through some pretty good stuff like my Focusrite's and the Soundelux and Neumann mics. I'm utilizing the high ceilings of my foyer to try and get a some natural reverb sound. In the top photo you can see the Neumann facing the ceiling, capturing some of the "echo" the room is throwing. The whole idea is to try and make my backing vocals sound like a choir. So far I like what I have. For this track I also set up in my downstairs family room for the 1st verse and the bathroom for the 2nd verse. Whatever it takes!!

In the clouds

2010-11-16T14:16:00.003-05:00

Headspace by rickdobbelaer

I'm checking out soundcloud.com, a new (to me) hosting site and figured I'd post some different stuff on there. This song, "Headspace" was done on a rainy night a while ago with only a 4 track, a guitar and a Digitech DSP128. The DSP 128 was my first delay/reverb rack unit and I really explored that thing extensively. Unfortunately it now sits on a shelf next to my broken Saldano pre-amp and an old Alesis compressor I don't use. Sadly, when I recorded this I wasn't too worried about hiss and distortion so there is plenty of it on the recording! It was done all live except for one edit that I did just now to clean up some really bad distortion. I'm going to post a few others and I would like to do more stuff like this.

Civil War

2010-11-05T23:57:00.009-04:00

So, I saw Roger Waters doing "The Wall" this week and was blown away and inspired. That record (and movie AND band!) left it's mark on me as a young musician coming up. Thankfully, I was reminded this week that it's important to pay attention to the world around you and look at everything through unclouded eyes. When you are caught up in the race to stay alive, raise your kids, have a decent place to live etc., it's easy to become lazy, jaded and complacent. I am definitely guilty of this and my life has become more mundane as a result. I have also become musically lazy and this saddens me. My creativity has been put on the back burner because of the enormous responsibility that is on my shoulders and as I get older it's hard to summon up the energy that is required to be creative. Somehow it seems less important and insignificant. Shit, Waters is 67 and there he is onstage running this gigantic machine that is practically flawless. That is impressive enough but what really gets me thinking and inspired is the amount of commitment he and Pink Floyd put into each of their records, especially The Wall. It is so thoughtful and complete, and the level of intensity and patience is mind numbingly fantastic. People just don't make records like that anymore.

I've been writing a lot of new music as of late. I just decided to let things flow and usually if I sit down with the guitar or a keyboard something decent will squeak it's way out. The trick is to turn those snippets into something cohesive and meaningful. I'm just glad I'm allowing myself the time to experiment and free associate again. Time is a MAJOR factor in all of this. I usually end up in the studio after midnight, dragging ass 'til about 2 or 3. Tough to do when your 3 year old is up everyday around 6! But I will continue and winter is coming to save my soul again. What I will do with all of this stuff is the question. I've been at this "Recording An Album" thing for quite a while with nothing to show for it. Patience, right? "Is there anybody out there???"

"Civil War" is heavily inspired by Mr. Waters... I did it a few years ago....

I buried you just yesterday, but you've been dead to me a long time
It didn't have to be this way...
You let your head get a hold on you, you let your ego shine your shoes,
And then you walked all over me, good bye, good bye

Unspun Evolution

2010-10-07T01:03:00.008-04:00

Here's a condensed version of the recording of Unspun's 'Gospel Fiction' done way back in 2001 at Eric Helmuth's loft/studio in Portchester, NY. We pretty much tracked the song in a day and went back and did another session for vocals. We were fortunate enough to rent some serious gear such as the Neve Melbourne sidecar and an old Neve compressor that certainly helped improve our sound. This session also produced the songs 'Start' 'Stop me turning Gray' 'Souvenir' 'Resume' 'Universe' and 'Photograph'. The latter three are on a hard drive somewhere, unfinished.

Gospel Fiction started out on my 8 track reel to reel like this:

From there the band shaped it into it's current state. Smith added some new lyrics to my melody. John Joyce's drumming on this was excellent and I remember being really excited with the pattern he developed. Christian Celaya's bass part was influenced heavily by Zeppelin's "The Song Remains the Same" and when he and John locked up it was really powerful. This song was a lot heavier than most of Unspun's tunes and it elevated our live shows.

As you can see we had a lot of fun with this group of guys and I kind of miss that camaraderie that comes along with playing in a band. Studio hours are long and take their toll on everyone involved though. Nonetheless, Unspun achieved a lot in the 3 years we were together, culminating with the release of 'When it all comes down' on Universal Records.

(DISCLAIMER!!) During the process of condensing the video file size a TON of distortion was added to the mix so listen cautiously!

New Recordings

2010-08-22T22:15:00.004-04:00

Dave and I are planning on a few new recordings, maybe next week. I'm going to try and keep it simple this time around with Dave not even bringing his whole kit, just kick, snare, high hat and maybe a floor tom. The tunes are called (tentatively) "When you loved me" and "September"... It's been a slow month as far as music production goes but I've written a few good ones. I was working on an advertising thing (it's just not for me, I hated it) and out of crunching for that a few songs appeared, one of them in a dream (again!) Also, I've been having trouble with my Facebook music page because it won't let me add anymore songs so I may put a few "b-sides" on here. These are finished tunes I just can't seem to find a place for. Dave says "put 'em all on a CD" but i don't know....

Can this
sit well next to mostly organic pop songs?? I guess it comes down to how good the songs are, right??

Incredible!

2010-07-22T13:43:00.002-04:00

This was a huge song in my childhood and continues to haunt me today. Way ahead of it's time I might add. The vocals I did on Unspun's "Flashflood or Fire" and "Clean" were totally inspired by this. I hadn't seen this video prior to doing those songs but I gave it my best effort to achieve similar results. Instead of looping, I sang individual notes per track and would go until my breath gave out, then we would blend the tracks together to create one long note. We did this numerous times because of the harmonies involved.....

Here is Unspun's "Clean"

Away

2010-06-11T21:39:00.006-04:00

This is pretty close.... Dave Ramie on drums (fantastic), myself on bass, guitars, Rhodes and vocals.

Love

2010-05-14T23:57:00.009-04:00

Been a while.... Dave, politely and in his own stealthy way started pestering me about finishing the record and he succeeded in getting me to at least finish a mix! "The Way We Are" (working title) started out as an odd little echoed Rhodes part played in 7/8 meter. From there I added very straight and basic drum patterns to help me with lyrics and phrasing. Dave came in and created a whole other vibe with a jungle rhythm at the top and an aggressive beat throughout. Erik Lawrence provided an amazing solo, bringing the song to new heights. During the session I asked him to channel his inner Wayne Shorter and I kind of hear it a little in the Steely Dan type bridge. (I don't think Steely Dan ever had a song in 7/8 tho....) I tried to get a few bassists to add their own 2 cents but to no avail, it just didn't work out. I find that it's very hard to motivate people of my generation to do anything, let alone practice and/or create something on their own time and then lug all their gear here for a recording session. Everyone leads such busy lives!! At times I kind of get tired of playing, recording, writing, mixing and engineering most things on this record. It's a (musically) lonely experience but it can be very challenging and rewarding as well. Not complaining, just telling it like it is. I hope the 7/8 thing isn't too quirky for most listeners....

This song was inspired by my beautiful family and it is a love song to them. My life is like a dream: reborn from set of serious circumstances into a domestic world of love and abundant life. I know it's a recurrent theme in my music but this is really my life on a daily basis. I'm a lucky man.

THE WAY WE ARE

Here's the way we are right now:
She lays down upon my heart and then she says "You sound just like the storm outside our house tonight."
Listen to her laughing, look into her eyes
Listen to her laughing look into her smile
Let that light shine on you

And all he wants is my hand on his hand
so he knows deep inside he's my man, my little man
Listen to him laughing, look into his eyes
Listen to him laughing look into his smile
Let that light shine on you

And then there's you, you saved my life
and then there's you my lovely wife
and there's this love in our small house
and there's so much to shout about

And then there's me and all my faults
and all I want is you to love
All I want is you to love
Listen to us laughing, look into our eyes

Facial

2010-04-06T22:36:00.006-04:00

I put up a facebook page for my music past and present. I figured it would be nice to have a place to share the old with the new as this blog is mainly for the new music..... go here to see...... lot's of music is posted.

Reveille

2010-03-20T19:53:00.008-04:00

rev·eil·le [rev-uh-lee; Brit. ri-val-ee] Show IPA
–noun
1.
a signal, as of a drum or bugle, sounded early in the morning to awaken military personnel and to alert them for assembly.
2.
a signal to arise.

It seems that slow, acoustic waltz's are abundant these days... I wrote this when I was sick as can be and on the way out of this world. My little girl was crying in her sleep every night (as a lot of kids do) and worrying me. Early in the morning she would walk into our room chipper as can be, announcing she was ready to start her day regardless of how we felt about it. She would carry me through the day, not really caring about my melancholia... she just needed to be with me and to love me. Having that kind of energy around you during uncertain times can be an amazing motivator. Incidentally, after my heart transplant I received a letter from my donor's father. I could only imagine the pain that he was feeling and I responded to him as delicately as possible. I tried to let him know that the loss of his little girl and the gift that her family had given me had enabled me to love my little girl. I sent along a copy of this song to him with my letter......

Top of the morning, she comes and blows Reveille..
Tossed up and yawning, she always comes right to me
In her eyes there is something that only a child can posses,
It gives me a reason to get myself out of this mess, into the daylight

Caught in a moment, somewhere between space and time
Winter is growing all over this heart of mine
And she's so oblivious coming to give me a kiss
Alive and awake I am now in a moment of bliss

Everyone needs this in their life somehow, someway you need this..... Hallelujah

Chimes in the window ringing the sweet tones of life
Train whistle blowing, carrying hope through the night
And she's lying next to me crying her way through her dreams
She trembles and shakes but I know it's not as bad as it seems
And I will watch over you, I will protect what is ours
As long as you're next to me, always connecting me
All the power of daylight in my heart

Euthanasia

2010-02-24T01:26:00.007-05:00

I've had this around for a while... I always liked the droning, slow feel of it. Euthanasia started out as another click-less acoustic demo and was nicely grooved by Dave Ramie and his syncopated beat. He's an amazing drummer. You can hear a lot of influences on this one.... Instrumentation is Rhodes, Reason Synths, Strat through a Fender Twin, Fender Precision Bass, Les Paul custom through a vintage Ross flanger into a tiny Crate amp, and my Taylor acoustic.

Accounting

2010-02-09T02:07:00.002-05:00

Not the tax refund kind of accounting.... these are things I think and sing about late at night....

Does anybody really care?
Does anybody really know what's fair?
Does anybody really know what's down the line?

Tomorrow maybe never come.....
and everything you know is all undone...
will anybody come around to pick you off the ground?

How lost we are without love....

Have you ever seen a smile that can send you to the moon for a while
and have you ever really known the love of a child?
Do you give it everything?
Do you open up your heart, let it sing?
Or do you always shut it down and live like a clown?

How poor you are without love....

It's all here, it's all here... you can do as you like.

If I fell...

2010-01-29T23:01:00.017-05:00

Regina Spektor. I remember the day I discovered her music: I was feeling really crappy about life and I happened to hear a tune of hers on net radio. Although I can't recall the song, I was instantly hooked and proceeded to download everything I could get my hands on like demos, solo shows at little NYC clubs and of course album tracks. I think Soviet Kitsch was out and Begin to Hope was on the way at the time. The music lifted my spirits greatly and my blues were gone.

It's a great feeling discovering a new artist and my wife and I fell head over heels for this girl. We went to see her at Town Hall in NYC with some friends and we were all so impressed not only with her voice but her apparent shyness and humility. So, it was in this time period that I literally woke from a deep sleep one morning, reached over for the guitar and some paper and proceeded to write down the exact dream I had just had about Regina and I. Annie was like "what are you doing?" as it was about 7AM and I told her "I just fell in love with Regina Spektor."

"I Fell In Love With Regina Spektor" features Dave Ramie on drums, Erik Lawrence on sax, Steven Bernstein on trumpet (both of Levon Helm's Grammy winning band) and myself on bass, guitar, Rhodes and vox. During the tracking of the horns Steven said to me "Great tune. I share management with her so I'll make sure she hears this!" "Uh oh" I thought.

It's a small world.... my buddy Eric Helmuth an engineer and former music professor at SUNY Purchase did some work on her 11:11 album. Also, Richie Castellano who was the sound man for my old band Unspun produced and recorded that very same album. When Unspun was at Purchase rehearsing a few times per week I probably walked right past her on numerous occasions but never met her. Damn! I'm really not as obsessed as it would seem but I thought the story behind the song might be interesting.... really!

Anyways, I'm still plugging away on this record. I have about 75% of it done. Chip Larison came over the other day and brought me his Variax. Insane! I could have used this when I was doing a lot of gigging back in the day. I'm sure I'll find a use for it on this record. Chip is working on some slide rhythm stuff for "Hearts are Breaking" and we'll probably lay something down next week. Dave might be coming in to track drums for one more song called "No rest for the weary." It's a good rocker and I may need it for the record but I definitely don't want to prolong the release of this thing. I'm also hoping to pick up some Adam Audio A7's soon. I don't have the extra cash to do it but I think I need these speakers RIGHT NOW!!!!

Tape and Glue

2009-12-09T00:40:00.008-05:00

A good shower goes a long way........

The Kids Are Alright

2009-11-20T22:05:00.008-05:00

Saffire! My friend Jeff asked me if I would be interested in recording his daughter's band a while back and I said 'Sure, I'll help you out..." etc. I had no idea I would fall in love with these girls and their music. Saffire is all about the songs. I'm talking three and a half minute pop gems with gleaming vocal harmonies and sunshine abound. Throw in some attitude, classic pop structure, innocence and simplicity, put it in the hands of two 12 year olds and two 14 year olds and there you have it.

The band consists of main songwriter Anika Scilipote (12) who doubles on lead vocals and guitar, her sister Soreya (14) on drums, Charlotte Harrow (14) on vocals, bass and guitar and sister Sonja (12) on vocals and keyboards. BTW - Charlotte is now studying voice at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. I think back to what I was doing (or not doing) at this age and I say "DAMN! Shoulda, coulda, woulda!!" No, I was probably trying to learn the guitar solo on "Detroit Rock City" and dreaming of becoming a rock star. Well people, these kids are actually out there DOING it :)

When we record the songs I always ask the girls to run through the vocals so I can figure out the logistics of the arrangement, etc..... So Ani, Sonja and Charlotte sit there in front of me and proceed to belt out these incredible, natural harmonies that literally send chills through me. You really can't "teach" people to sing like that, either you have it or you don't. Let me tell you, these girls certainly have it.

Here's "Give Me a Break" as it sits now, un-mastered and on it's way to being a finished mix. Make sure you get to the bridge and a cappella sections!!

If you want to see these guys in action go here or here

Heavy Weather

2009-10-23T21:54:00.009-04:00

Was under the weather for about three weeks, finally feeling better. During that time I wasn't able to work on my project too much but I did some guitar tracks on my friend Chris Thomas' album. It started with one tune and I think I'm playing on at least 6 or 7 now. I also worked on Saffire stuff, mainly a mix of "Give Me A Break" that I need to finish up for them.

Jo Pelletier came in to lay down some bass last week and it was good to see the man after so many years. Jo plays in numerous bands and has a busy musical life. Here is his myspace page. He and I also go way back to high school and did a lot of jamming back in the day. He laid down some fretless bass on a tune currently called "The Way we are" and I need to suss it out and mix it in to the track.

I also did a lot of work on a tune called "What You're Giving Me" which was an acoustic demo I did last winter. Here's where it stands now...

Obviously this still needs work on the bridge and solo sections......... I've been listening to this on my ipod for a while and said to myself, "this is good and worth looking at again" so I laid into it a little putting down some bass and Wurlitzer. The problem I have is that I get a bunch of songs on the way to being finished and then I start writing again, or messing with something not on 'the list' and then I'm left with more unfinished stuff. It's the paradox of saving mixes and sessions in the computer like they are simple documents. Believe me, I'm not complaining about the luxuries that technology has afforded musicians like me but it's a lot easier to dilly dally in this digital world! Case and point: I was sifting through some old video from my Unspun days when we were in various studios working on the "Souvenir" record. We had to finish because we were on the clock in these big, expensive studios. That kind of pressure can make a project move along and put a good kind of weight on everyone involved. Here's some video from Bear Tracks where Steve Regina and I finished up a mix of 'Flash Flood'.

BTW, the gear in that place was unreal, enough to make any musician/producer/engineer piss their pants. U47, U67's, Fairchild limiters x 2!!! (worth around $60,000 today *_*) and let's not forget that beautiful mothership Focusrite 72 input board made by Rupert Neve himself!!! Good God!

Finally, here's a mix of "I got myself In trouble"....
I wrote this song around 15 years ago and swore I would do it right some day. It was meant for Last Tribe to do but we never got around to it. Dave did these groovy drum tracks about 6 years ago and I've been tweeking ever since. I always thought the vocal on this had 'something' and that it was worth keeping. Also, I really like the guitar solo on this. Great tone from my friend Jeff's Gibson SG through my Mesa Boogie amp. And those are not cheesy strings you hear on there... that would be some ebo guitar inspired by the Pumpkins 'Adore' record! For you Brez!! I'll try to keep up on the posts now that I'm feeling better and work should pick up a little.

Busy Boy

2009-09-26T19:55:00.021-04:00

Been busy making music..... 1st off, I did a lot of work on "I fell in love with Regina Spektor" mixing the full blown horn version, tearing it all down again, re-singing the vocal, scrapping that, going back to the original sparse demo... My head was spinning and my wife was ready to leave me so I had to leave it for a while. I started messing with "Beautiful" and I think I have something good going on, FINALLY. I haven't heard it anywhere where it sounds bad so I think I'm on to something. You be the judge. With some mastering it should sound sweet. The line up on this is Dave Ramie on drums, Carl Brooks on BG vocals, Erik Lawrence on sax, Steve Bernstein on trumpet, Chip Larison on slide guitar and myself on bass, acoustic, and vocals. I am in fine company! BTW I went down and saw Erik play @ The Old Fashion in Nyack for his usual Tuesday night trio gig and I was blown away. He had Shawn Pelton on 'magic' drums and Rene Hart on stand up bass. Shawn is the drummer for the SNL band and has played with many great artists, including Johnny Cash, Sheryl Crow and one of my favs Regina Spektor, doing all of the drums on her "Begin to Hope" record. It was an incredible night of raw, funky, thoughtful music and if you are in Nyack on a Tuesday night you'd be a fool to miss this gig....

I also had the Saffire girls in here this week. They laid down all of the basic tracks for their new smash hit "Give me a Break" and managed to eat all of my double stuffed Halloween Oreos and a bag of marshmallows in the process. I'm telling you, you better keep an eye on these chickees......

I'm also laying down guitar tracks for my friend Chris Thomas' album. He's out on the West Coast and we send everything back and forth through the internet, a true digital collaboration. I'd rather be in Cali but this will have to do. Chris and I go way back to Marion St. and 4th Ave. in Nyack where we learned how to compose and record together. His mom Judy Thomas, long time music teacher in Upper Nyack school, bought him a 4 track reel to reel and we recorded hundreds of songs and comedy skits together. We got lost in that basement for hours and it kind of laid the ground work for my musical life.

Infusion Blues

2009-09-09T15:09:00.014-04:00

Ah, Infusion Blues...... It brings me back to the days of pre-transplant when I was getting all kinds of chemicals pumped into my failing body by way of infusion. They had to kill off all of these antibodies that had developed as a result of this enormous pump (see XRAY above) in my gut that was doing the job of my heart at the time. I was getting chemo (cytoxin) and it made me feel like total crap. You just had to sit there and take the punishment and hope for a better day, hence the lyric "so pathetic but always hopeful, how long days are, out my window the sun keeps shining on......"

This was essentially a solo track except for Christian Celaya sharing the bass guitar duties with me. He laid down a track and after he left I re-did the 2nd verse and following chorus to make it a little more lyrical... The song is very dense musically, filled with a ton of effected textures like Mellotron Strings through a wah wah and verb, a backwards Casio keyboard playing Bach, electronic drum fills through panned echo etc. At the heart of the song though is a nice acoustic guitar part done in some strange open G tuning. Listening to the guitar tracks soloed you can actually here my heart pump chugging along, something I couldn't suppress if I wanted to! I also did a lot of harmony vocals on this and snagged a bit of "Over the Rainbow" from the Wizard of Oz, hope I don't get sued!! Influences on this? Beatles, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, Oz (not the doctor) Columbia Presbyterian Hospital NYC!

Now to decide: do I have room on this record for this??

Saffire

2009-09-04T21:58:00.004-04:00

I mentioned Saffire a few posts ago... the all girl band who I recorded here at the house. Here is their last performance at Lincoln Center (no less!) I think we're gonna record this one in a few weeks. These kids are going places! Oh, did I mention that their ages are 11, 11, 14 and 14. Here's a link to their website...

My Biggest Fan

2009-08-21T00:59:00.003-04:00

Definitely influenced by the Smiths!! I remember writing this one after a long night of drinking and seeing a show in NYC with my buddy Jeff. I had this in demo form for a while, complete with cheesy drum machine drums. Dave did a fantastic job (again) with his uncharacteristic little shuffle here. The guy should be known as 'Father Time".......... I really like the way the guitars all blend together with the Rhodes forming nice harmonies and clashes, and the bass line just walks along. I just added the bridge Piano last night and that helps break the monotony up a bit. The plucked guitar is coming through my old Roland JC120, a classic 80's alternative sound. I'm really psyched about this tune but as usual, no vox yet..... the lyrics are about 75% done. I have A LOT of singing to get done in the coming weeks. Here's the music rough of "My Biggest Fan"....... hope you like it.

This record is shaping up to be somewhat mellow...... I like mellow but could use a few more rockers. I know there are a few in my computer somewhere. Off to the beach for a week!!

Bass and Baritone

2009-08-08T09:36:00.007-04:00

It's been a busy week with a wedding in the family and people arriving in town etc. but I managed to test out Drew's Precision and it's great. I put bass on "Hearts are Breaking" and it's happening I think. I did the bass in the style of baritone guitar which I've heard on records by The The as performed by Johnny Marr. Here's a rough of the tune... no vocals yet but check out those horns and Dave's great drumming! Volume is a little low so crank it up. I'm a lucky dude....

BTW, The Journal News has linked me to their music blog The Listening Room which is a great site that has local and national features, as well as schedules for all things music in the Lower Hudson Valley. Have a look..........

Horns, McCartney, Guitars!

2009-07-26T15:56:00.022-04:00

So, I had the session with Erik and Steve and it went well. Erik did a great job on the charts and the horns add a lot of depth and give me a bunch more choices with the music. To sit and listen to these guys get the tone and feeling they do from their instruments was a treat for me. They did 5 songs as a section and Erik soloed on a 6th. I just have to sort through all of this stuff now.... lucky me!! (note the kiddie toys around them!)

Here is a first practice run for "I fell in Love with Regina Spektor." This take was not a keeper but it is the only vid I have.... Steve was seeing the chart for the first time and needless to say they nailed it on the very next take. I used Neumann TLM 103's on both horns through my Focusrite pre amps.

If you want to see these guys in action at the Ryman Auditorium with the likes of Sheryl Crow and John Hiatt click here. Erik gets a nice solo on this!

I went to see Paul McCartney at Citi Field last week and what a show! Great seats, great music. The man is responsible for a lot of my musical study and it was bizarre to see him so close up in person. AND he can still sing, play and put on a great show. I think I got a little misty during a few songs. The woman in front of me was BAWLING at times! Oh, and I ran into Pat DiNizio from the Smithereens no less. He was very gracious and we actually chatted for about 5 minutes. I was a big fan of theirs back in the day and saw them not too long ago and they still kill live. Good stuff! I'm having a great musical week...........

Lastly, I'll be baby sitting these 2 beauties for a while:
They belong to my friend Drew Stiles who is over in Europe trying to get his career happening over there. The guitar is pretty old G&L F100 and the bass is a 76 Fender Precision. Drew used that bass during his days with Yummy (drummer Dave Ramie was a member.) We spoke of a possible recording session this winter when he is back from Europe, we'll see.

Midnight Oil

2009-07-18T00:47:00.005-04:00

Annie and the kids are asleep upstairs and I'm down in the studio doing acoustic tracks for the song "Longing." I figured I'd better get that new Taylor worked out and on the record. It has a nice thin sheen to it, great for recording without too much boomy low end to muck things up. The Soundelux mic is a beauty and really does a great job on acoustics. Here's a vid of a take:

I'm going to see McCartney at Citi Field tomorrow and I'm sitting in the 3RD FUCKING ROW! Don't know how that happened but I'll take it. Being the Beatle freak I am, I had to see the old Limey before he croaks. He's got a great band and it will be a great show.

Monday is horn day here at the house as Erik Lawrence and Steven Bernstein are coming in to do a bunch of charts that Erik wrote for my tunes. Needless to say I am pumped. These guys are fantastic and I can't wait to bring the tunes to another level. Erik played Letterman with Levon last week (click here for Tennessee Jed performance) and they have recently been on tour with the Black Crowes. Steven is also a member of Levon's band and has numerous projects going that you can read all about here. Should be cool working with these guys! Music is filling up my life right now.

Quiet but not idle

2009-07-02T22:49:00.004-04:00

Haven't put up anything in a while....... been working slowly, as usual. Today I put some guitar tracks on the song "Tape and Glue" and I'm happy with the results. I wanted to take advantage of the API 512 B's that were sitting in my studio and try some guitar through them. Those things are magical! I don't know what it is but everything sounds great through those pre's. I put my buddy's Les Paul Supreme through my crappy little amp and out came a sound worthy of a Marshall stack. Here's a shot of the Paul, a beauty!

Here's Tape and Glue as it sounds now....

This song is a little different for me as it was composed on piano. I am not a piano player at all and don't know what notes are on what keys but I can make something listen-able come out of the thing. It's nice to go down a different path sometimes when writing songs. Most of mine start on an acoustic guitar (out of convenience) and that pretty much dictates the mood of the group of songs I'm working on. So, needless to say this record will be kind of mellow. Speaking of acoustic guitars.... an old friend of mine stopped by this past weekend and dropped a bomb on me. He was working down in Texas for Taylor guitars and got a brand new 414ce acoustic/electric from "Lord Taylor" himself and decided that I should have it.... so we walked over to his trunk and there she was.............. I'm sure many new songs will come out of this guitar. I am blessed to have such amazing friends.

BTW, I had those API's and the Focusrite Red 1 on hand to record the new teen sensation "Saffire!" They are a group of 2 sets of sisters ages 11 and 14 each, who write and perform their own two and a half minute pop gems. We had a blast recording 3 songs over the last few days. They are adorable and super talented!! I'll post some photos and music when we have something happening. Bye, I'm off to play that new Taylor!

Players

2009-06-16T13:25:00.005-04:00

Have been extremely busy outside of music (making $) and haven't been working on the tracks a whole lot...... hence the posts regarding past endeavors. I am meeting with Pete Jameson tomorrow about some bass parts and I have been conversing with Steven "Muddy" Roues about some contributions to the record. He is a fantastic harp and bass player and hopefully he will be doing both some time soon. Muddy is a member of Finn and the Sharks as well as The Roues Brothers.... I put up a mixpod player with some of my favorite tunes from the Unspun days as well as some other "limbo" tracks that have no home yet and a few from my favorite artists as of late. Have a listen. I will post something new soon. BTW I'm also working on some tracks for my friend Christopher James Thomas who is doing a pop record. Chris is a composer who has some serious chops and credits. You can see some stuff here or one of his film credits here.

Last Tribe Wetlands Tapes

2009-05-28T20:38:00.007-04:00

Back in the day, my old band Last Tribe used to do pretty well at a noteworthy club in NYC called Wetlands. During Last Tribe's run at Wetlands, a typical weekend headlining schedule would be something like this: the band 311 on Thursday, a band like Dave Matthews on a Friday and Last Tribe on Sat. There were so many good groups going through that place and many went on to huge success. We decided to record one of those hot, steamy nights and release a live record. We ended up putting out an EP of 4 songs through our record label Energy Records and discarded the rest of the set. The night was captured on a couple of ADAT machines by our friend Dave Schwartz who was stationed in our ratty band van outside the backstage area in the sweltering heat! I can still picture him sweating, with the dimmest of lights and a little fan in the cramped, dirty van trying desperately to get a good sound out of the minimal recording set up we had. Despite the circumstances, Dave did a great job and really managed to capture the evening's raw energy. Here is a vid from that night:

Recently when talking to a musician friend of mine he mentioned that Wetland's owner Larry Bloch had invited him up to Vermont to see the premiere of "Wetlands Preserved." I hadn't heard of this but apparently it is a great documentary of the club and the new era of improvisation that was born there in the early 90's. A clip of the movie can be seen here.

A few years after Last Tribe broke up I went over to SUNY Purchase to visit my friend and SUNY professor Eric Helmuth to "borrow" one of their recording studios so I could dump all of the tracks from ADAT to my computer for further investigation. The tracks sat idle until this past winter when I opened up the session and started messing about with the tunes. After a while I started to get a decent sound and thought "Hey, these aren't too bad." So, I'm about half way through the set and have about 6 tunes roughed out. The performance from that night was pretty on from a music stand point but vocally it was all over the map, especially when examined under a microscope. The energy was really what mattered at those shows and as I stated before there was plenty of that!! I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with these mixes, probably just give them away to a few LT diehards or maybe I'll get the whole thing done up and put it out on CDBaby.com

Here is a rough mix of one of the unreleased tunes Final Offering:

On the recording an album front, things have been a little slow because of time issues as of late but I hope to finish up bass tracks some time next week. My friend Pete wants his Fodera back!! RD

The Carl Brooks Show!

2009-05-11T22:58:00.007-04:00

Well, my old friend Carl Brooks came and did some stellar vocals on Beautiful. I was lucky enough to become part of the choir for the bridge section but other than that it's all Carl. He's supposed to come in for a few more sessions in the upcoming weeks. Carl brings a lot of natural musicality and is filled with great ideas. I told him I want to produce his record!! Here is a rough of the backing vox on Beautiful:

Also, I'm meeting with Erik Lawrence this week to go over some horn arrangements and sax solos for some of the tunes. Erik is a killer sax player and is currently playing with Levon Helm's band (yes, The Band's own) and his own band Hipmotism. I'm very lucky to have him on my record and I'm excited to take my music into totally uncharted waters. Erik's a super nice guy and I'm sure he will have a positive influence on this project in many ways.

I've also revisited my song " I Got Myself in trouble" which is an old one from the Last Tribe days. Dave and I had recorded it a few years back and I had a listen the other day and started working on it. I did a new mix and added some bass and now it's in the running for being on the record. So much more to do but at the moment I'm satisfied with the way the songs are lining up.

Evolution

2009-04-23T20:40:00.006-04:00

On monday April 20th my friend Chip Larison came in to lay down a lead on "Beautiful." I grew up listening to Chip tear up the old music clubs in Nyack like The Office and Eastwicks. He was always a killer blues player and I thought he would be a good match for this tune, and I was right. We started out just laying down a fingered guitar solo but during a break he started playing around with a slide. From upstairs I was like, "I Like That!!!" So we scratched the other solos he had done and focused on the slide.After a while we had a killer solo which was unique and also fit the tune. Chip's slide playing is a cross between George Harrison's style and David Gilmore's style IMHO. Chip played his custom built strat through a Line 6 modeling amp. Great combination. I close miced him with a Beyer m160 and the Soundeluxe.

Here's a version of Beautiful with Chip's solo, Dave on drums and yours truly on bass.

I just contacted Carl Brooks and he will be coming in to lay down some gospel style background vox on this soon. The Brooks family was a well known singing group in Nyack for a long time. They used to sing at a lot of public functions and holiday galas but Mom Brooks passed away and some of the siblings moved away after that, putting a halt to their shows. Carl, Stacey and Vicky were all school friends of mine so I sent Carl a facebook message and we're gonna talk this week. I look forward to singing with him!!

Mixing malaise

2009-04-11T00:56:00.011-04:00

I have the studio glaze on me right now. I've been working all day on and off mixing "Come away" trying to improve the mix. I sent Dave a few copies of the tunes and he got back to me with some constructive criticism saying that especially Come Away sounded a little compressed and/or boxy. Upon further scrutiny I agree. I'm having a hard time with this one as it was recorded (not so well) 6 years ago. It's a good song and worth the effort with some standout elements to it, I think anyway.

"Beautiful" has set the new bottom end standard for all of my tunes as it has a rich Kick/bass combination. I'm having a second or 52nd look at all of the tunes I thought were close, trying to up the ante on the bottom end. Maddening. Here is the latest mix of Come Away.....

BTW, our rooster friend stopped by for a listen. He's quite a friendly guy! My family and I have adopted him and vice versa. He just appeared out of the woods one day and made his home under a big pricker bush on our property. Aside from the 5 am wake up calls it's kind of nice having him around.

Beautiful

2009-04-03T12:45:00.003-04:00

Here is a vid of the original live vocal and guitar recording for the song "Beautiful." It was intended as a demo and I was experimenting with imovie at the time so I just set up the camera and did a few takes, this being the best one. I liked the take so much that it went from demo status to "keeper" and it will be used on the CD. Dave came in and laid a great drum track to this but it was difficult as there was no set tempo or metronome. My timing is pretty good but not perfect and Dave did a fantastic job. I think the only thing I'm going to add to this is some electric bass guitar and possibly some Hammond b3 organ. I'm trying to keep this thing simple but my musical Libido starts to take over. I'm gonna keep this simple, I'm gonna keep this simple, I'm gonna keep this simple!!!!! BTW that's a Neumann TLM 103 through a Focusrite pre on my Taylor acoustic.

3/10/09

2009-03-10T18:09:00.001-04:00

Pleased at the moment... "Regina" sounds good. I'm working on the finishing touches of the mix and i'm pleased with my work. The coup was Anthony's old Epiphone 335 through that little, crappy Crate amp mic'd front and back. What a Giant sound!! Who needs 4x12 cabinets??? By chance I came across some EQing techniques on gearslutz.com and while reading "Recording the Beatles" which I ordered online for $100. Worth every penny for a nut like me.

3/7/09

2009-03-07T22:04:00.000-05:00

Recording/mixing is going well. I've got something going on with "Regina Spektor," a nice balance of bass, guitar and drums with vox and keys. I need to lay in an electric guitar and that will do it for that tune. I was beginning to doubt my mixing, playing, recording skills. I'm seeing the light!

3/1/09

2009-03-01T00:09:00.001-05:00

Tough day yesterday. I had no patience for the kids and was stressed and uptight all day. I just have to step back, take a breath and let it all go.........

Mixing is driving me insane too. I'm making the mistake of comparing my stuff to other stuff when again, I just have to step back, get it sounding good to the best of my ability

and let it be. I'm doing pretty well and everything sounds great but I'm striving to make it sound sonically perfect as possible and i just don't have the time or equipment to make it a reality. I wish I could take the music to a BearTracks-like room so I could hear a true sound representation of what is on tape. But, I'll make do and it will pass the audition. People are anticipating what Dave and I are doing in the studio. Facebook is an excellent networking site for music and it's getting more artist friendly.

Focusrite mixing desk at Beartracks studios

2/26/09

2009-02-26T22:00:00.001-05:00

Coming out of the fog of winter, seeing greener pastures ahead. I've been working on a few mixes, mostly "Euthanasia" which is sounding nice and warm to me right now. I go through this every time, up and down, in and out. I just have to get the songs sounding good and move on. I love doing this though, adjusting EQ and level like an anal retentive idiot. All of the madness is in my head! Time and digital recording has changed the whole ball game for me. The method used to be that my band and I would decide on the songs and/or write them and get arrangements together, rehearse and then spend a few weeks just putting ideas down on tape. We would sort everything out later when we would mix for an intense week or so. Now I spend a lot of confusing days mixing, tracking or both. All the while I'm working, surfing the web, going to the bank, picking up the kids etc. It's no wonder these projects take years!

2/22/09

2009-02-22T20:07:00.002-05:00

I've been messing with the drum mix on "A worried night"a little bit. I put a really dirty compressor across the stereo drum bus and decided to use only the kick, snare, Soundeluxe and overhead mics. Wow, a nice tight drum kit sound modeled after John Bonham. We'll see how I feel about it tomorrow.... BTW... this ain't the drum mix you're hearing!!! Just the shitty camera compressed sound!!!

2/21/09

2009-02-21T21:18:00.000-05:00

Just done doing a drum session with Dave. Phew! The session went really well as Dave banged out 10 songs in 3 days. The songs are (working titles) Euthanasia, Hearts are breaking, Another quiet moment, Too late to lie, A worried night, The way we are, Tape and Glue, I fell in love with Regina Spektor, My biggest fan, and Beautiful. He did a great job and can do pretty much what I ask of him on drums. He also brings a lot of positive energy to the project. Eric has been a big help on this project as well, lending me mics and snakes etc., as well as advice in those moments of confusion.

Mics used were: EV on snare top, Shure SM7 on the kick beater head, Soundeluxe about 3 feet in font of the kick, Sennheiser 421 on left floor tom, Shure SM57 on left rack, 421 on right rack, D112 on right floor tom, and a couple of Rode condenser mics as overheads. I used my Neumann TLM 103's as room mics. Too bad "my room" sounds like pooh pooh. We'll see how it works out!

A drive up the Hudson

2009-02-18T23:41:00.000-05:00

I had to drive up to see my good friend and engineer Eric H in Beacon, NY to grab some cables and mics, On the way back I decided to stop and take in some of the scenery along the Hudson River....

Downtown Beacon. Beacon reminds me of many upstate NY towns that have lost their vitality. Most of the buildings in this picture are for sale.

Looking west from Cold Spring towards Cornwall, NY

Waterfront in Cold Spring, NY

Boatyard in Garrison, NY. The US Military academy is across the river on the right..

Some houses along the Hudson in Garrison, NY.

West Point military academy as seen from Garrison.

Old train station (now a theater) in Garrison.

More houses along the Hudson...

Looking south on the Hudson River

2/15/09

2009-02-15T22:00:00.000-05:00

2/15/2009

Home on a Sunday morning. I just took Ian for a haircut, Casey tagged along as well. I'm afraid the music bug has sucked me in again, look out!! Dave is coming in to do a session this week and I have some gear coming from Dreamhire tomorrow. I'm renting the Focusrite Red 1 four channel mic pre as well as four channels of API 512c's in a lunch box. Both pre-amps are renown for their signal warming abilities. We'll see. I'm dying to buy some new gear like a DAV four channel mic pre but I don't have the bread. I'm trying to be smart about purchasing anything, letting common sense take over. I'm gonna make it a goal to get some primo gear this year like a DAV, Neve Portico, API or a Chandler TG. I wonder how much of a true sound difference this stuff will make in my hands? It's not like I'm going to become Geoff Emerick or George Martin because of the gear I have....