Sunday, February 28 2011 12:02am

Okay, so it's just after midnight and now officially Sunday. As I wrote down the date I realized that it was my sister's birthday Friday and I missed it. That's okay, I always miss it and send her a funny belated birthday card. So... I guess this won't be any different. But for the record, "Happy Birthday, Tammy!"

It might be the wee hours of the morning but I just had a great time with a dear friend and now I'm ready to do some blogging.

So Saturday morning I arrived at the studio knowing exactly what I was going to be working on. Being that it's really getting down to the last things to do on this CD that has taken so long to record that my "friends" have asked me if I'm going to call it "American Democracy". Yeah... very funny "friends!"

The only instrumental recording I have left to do is one acoustic guitar part on a song that I realized after recording it perfectly... that it was slightly out of tune. It MUST be re-recorded. But apart from that... all I have is vocals to do on like.... 4 more songs. But lyrics are written and Jeff and I seem to be on a roll and I'm getting in the studio enough to make a dent on it.

But today... or rather... Saturday morning... I arrived at the studio just before 9am. Jeff was gone. I opened up the studio, sat down and called Jeff. He was at an early appointment and on his way back. Not a problem, I just played my guitar until he got back. Jeff walked in and quickly fired everything up. I told him to pull up the song "Over and Over". This is a song that I stumbled across the music to one day when I came home from work and had just one of those days when I wanted to go straight to the bar after work. But... I came home instead. Fortunately my oldest daughter Megan was there watching the kids. I walked in and told her I needed just 20 minutes with my guitar. She has grown up with me and knows that my guitar is my release for so much. She just smiled and said, "No problem, dad". I went downstairs, fired up the gear and just started playing this chord progression that I never played before, just letting the release of all the stress go as I played. My first chord was a G, to a D-with the F#on the low E, and then an E to a C. And again... G, D, E then D to C. This song just literally came from nowhere. I grabbed a pen and started writing it down as some of the best songs I've ever came up with I've forgotten and are lost as I didn't write them down. Now I try to write everything down.

Anyway... the result was the music for "Over and Over". The lyrics came later as I re-hashed so many relationships that just seem to have went wrong for one reason or another. The 2nd verse pretty much sums it up:
"A change would be so welcomed and I.... wish it could be with you.
But when you hear a lie for so long... you start to think it's true.
But I feel that I'm alright and... and I guess it's just sad.
For this to be so familiar I find... that it's really not all that bad."

Yeah, that's the jist of the song. "Coming soon to iTunes and available to purchase on this website.:

So musically... the song was done. There was nothing left to record. And throughout the recording of the song I did a lot of thinking, double thinking, recording, changing my mind, re-recoding, then changing my mind again and re-recording still. The intro is simply the chord progression I just wrote about. And for the longest time I left it like that... just as is. Kind of along the lines of Rainbow's "Since You've Been Gone". Just a nice chord progression. But then... I thought.. no, it needs a little lead riff intro over it. So I put one down. And kept it, mind you. Then it was done. Well... almost. Then I kept hearing these harmonic notes at the end of the intro as the D chord hummed and the drums took it into the 1st verse. So I went back in and put these 4 harmonic notes down after the little lead riff intro. Ah! Now it's done! Well... wait, no. Not quite. Because for the next several weeks I kept hearing these SEVEN harmonic notes in my head during that part of the song. Finally I had to just give in and put them down. But.. I didn't really want to do them all at once and just hit 7 different harmonic notes one at a time in a 1,2,3... 4, 5.. 6, 7 pattern. Heaven's no. That would be less complicated and make things easy on Jeff. (God bless Jeff for being so patient). So on the first track I hit a harmonic note on the B string, let it ring until Dave struck the high hat for the 4th time which takes us into the 1st verse. At that time I hit the wammy bar and took the note out on a dive. Then on the next track I wait until the first note plays then hit the next note on the G string, wait for Dave to hit the high hat for the 4th time and then hit the wammy bar. I do this 7 times on 7 different tracks. When it was done we had to do some minor editing to make sure all 7 wammy bar dives all went down at the same time. I was happy with it. Then to make things easier on Ron (Gallagher who is mixing the project at his studio in California. "Go Team West Coast!") we mixed them all together, got the right volumes and then mixed all 7 down to one track. Seriously... Ron will love us for this. Then I fixed a couple of minor harmony leads at the end of the first verse that were driving me crazy. Then... I called it good and took my electric guitar off for what.... I really believe... is the final tracking to be done on electric. I've learned to never say never but... I think the electrics might officially be over.

Actually, I didn't realize that until I wrote this. Hmm... I'm not sure how I feel about that. After literally years of working on this... I'm done with the electrics. I remember when the drum tracking was done and Dave's job was done. Or when the basses were done and Bill and Jimi's parts were done. But electric guitar? This is me! Wow... interesting to think about. Wonder how I'll feel when I track that last acoustic guitar fix?

Moving on! The vocals were already done on this song and... well... I don't hate them. Singing lead vocals is still very new to me. And while I've grown quite comfortable singing with just me and Jeff in the studio and me in the iso booth by myself singing lyrics that I wrote to songs that I wrote.. I still continually question if the vocals will be up to the quality that I've put on myself to meet. I can say I'm very happy with the music. It's taken a LONG time to do but now that it's done.. I'm happy with it. Vocals, I'm not saying I'm not happy with it... I'm just saying I'm not sure. There are a couple that I'm okay with. As I've said, I have a softer David Gilmour of Pink Floyd type of voice and it works for the more laid back songs. But there are a couple that have some punch to them and I'm having a hard time finding that punch. In fact, I've went as far as to ask a singer friend of mine for some help on some background vocals. Just to give it the kick it needs.

So with all of the music and vocals done on "Over and Over"... Jeff and I started editing. This consists of going through each track: Each drum track, which there's usually about 5 of, the bass track, the abundance of guitar tracks... and taking out any noise on the track before or after the playing, finding spikes and running that track through some recording software that eliminates pops and spikes. Putting fades on the ends of tracks and what not. And actually.... we got through a lot of it. The only thing left to edit is the lead guitars and the vocals, which we'll do Tuesday night.

Once that's done... I'll be shipping off yet one more song to Ron in California to do his mixing magic on. At that time song #4 will be in California. The next song thing we'll be doing in the studio will be editing the title track "The Traceman Cometh" which is completely done and ready for editing. Once editing is down on that one it will be shipped to Ron as well. And that will of course be song #5. At that point half of the songs on the CD will be in the capable hands of Mr. Ron Gallagher who has been doing nothing short of magic.

As I've said so many times before.... one step closer.

Studio Blog, January 25, 2011

Ahoy, everyone!
So it's 11:18 pm on this fine Tuesday night. After a busy day at work where I got home just in time to drop my daughter Sam off at LCC and get to the studio by 6.

Historically, it's pretty much been a coin toss as to if I know going in what exactly I'm going to do once I get there or if I just figure it out on the way. But now things really are kinda coming to a close and there's less and less to do all the time.

I have to laugh at myself when I read the Rush biography and learned how they recorded their first album in 3 days and pretty much kept that pace through the first four albums. Even 2112, their breakthrough album took just under a week to record. I guess the HUGE difference is (besides the fact that they are Rush) is that they go into the studio, music rehearsed and fine tuned, lyrics written and melodies created and then live at the studio for the next several days and spend the entire time recording. Weeellllll, that's just great. Here a couple weeks ago, I was finishing up the lyrics to a song I had to start recording vocals for on the very day that I had to start laying down vocal tracks on. It's not uncommon for me to change a verse or a line and then go back in again and change it later. (Story of my life throughout this whole CD) In fact, I've done the same thing with the music as well. In the song "Anyway"... we recorded the drums and bass (along with a dummy guitar track) when I came up with a bridge I wanted to put in just between the intro and the 1st verse. I could have started over. Or.... I could do what I did. We split the tracks right where I wanted to put the bridge in, recorded it, and then pulled the pieced together and making sure that we were still on time and on beat. It went off flawless.

So clearly... this has indeed been a work in progress. While I am pretty much completely done with the music (minus one acoustic guitar part I have to re-record because I'm very noticeably out of tune) the music is completely done. I very recently finished up the last of the lead guitar tracks which was the last thing to do. Pretty much all I'm doing now is adding the vocals.

So tonight... I got there at 6pm. I had Jeff pull up the last song we were working on, a tribute to pretty much every relationship I've ever been in called "Over and Over". The music is done and I am very happy with it. We finished editing the vocals and I was able to call it done! It's one of those songs where I just feel very good about being able to call it good.

After that, I had Jeff pull up "Nemesis" which is a song I have a clip for on my website. Again, the music is done and I am very happy with it. The vocals are close to being done. There were some lines that I had put down that I wasn't happy with so Jeff locked me in the iso booth in front of a mic and I recorded fixes and patches for the parts I wasnt' happy with. Jeff has worked with me for a LONG time and is such a good sport about my constant changes. It took some time but... I got the changes I wanted and left feeling good about it. "Nemesis" however, is one of the songs that I feel just needs a "little" bit more vocally. Several of the songs I don't have backup vocals on, just the lead vocals and that's it. But still there are several that do need some backing vocals and I've been trying to do both lead and backup. That's great if you're Brad Delp of Boston who could sing all the parts and have them all sound so full. Not so great for me who has a very soft David Gilmour of Pink Floyd kind of voice. I came to the conclusion that while I want to make this as much of a truly solo CD as I possibly can, I'm going to need to bring in another singer to add some backing vocals and help got that full sound. I have a person in mind. I'm not dropping the person's name yet as I havent' approached him yet but, we go way back, are very good friend, and I'm certain I'll get a good response.

But overall, it was a very good session tonight. While lead vocals is still not completely comfortable for me, I'm feeling better about it as I do it more and I'm not completely hating my own voice as much as I thought I would or did at first.

Ron Gallagher, Team West Coast, is in sunny California mixing the songs as I send them out to him. There are two that are completely finished meaning that the recording is done, they've been sent to Ron and he has completed the mixing process. Ron is truly an artist and what he does with the tracks is magic. I am so happy with the work he is doing. Hearing my songs just come to life is such a thrill and I cannot thank him enough for the outstanding work he is doing. Song 3 is currently having the finishing touches done and Jeff and I are finishing up another 3 that will be sent off to him soon. (Along with the next shipment of cookies which I admittedly am behind on. Ron always works better with cookies.)

At the end of the session I had Jeff pull up all ten songs and I did a quick tally of what was needed to be done. There are three more songs that still need work and that's pretty much it. So my friends... it really is getting close.

Thanks for staying tuned and even moreso for staying interested.

I'll talk to you all soon!

Traceman

Studio Blog, August 8, 2009

Missed this one back in August of 09. Sorry!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

At last, and finally… I got back into the studio. The summer of ’09 has indeed been a busy one. My daughter Samantha graduated from high school just after finding out she had been awarded a scholarship to study in Germany for a year. If you’ve ever had to prepare for an open house you know just how much work it is. The father’s role: We have no say in what happens nor are we involved in any of the planning. We do however do all the physical labor to get the house and the yard up to open house standard. Now if the child graduating is a daughter, I daresay it is ten times worse as things like “Themes” come into play. I had to do a lot of landscaping and cosmetic work in the backyard but it really did turn out nice and it’s so enjoyable now to just kick back in a chair under the umbrella with a beverage and a cigar and admire the upgrades.

Two weeks after the open house was my daughter Megan’s baby shower. Yes, another domestic title will soon fall upon me: Grandpa. Hmm… I’m still trying to get use to that. But as Megan has just entered her 3^rd trimester and as I sat just yesterday and could not help notice that the bump on her belly has grown so much larger since I last saw her just a week and a half ago, it is a constant reminder that this reality will be coming to pass very soon and Grandpa Traceman will be holding baby Ziggy for the first time.

And being that Samantha, now in Germany, will obviously not be able to attend her sister’s baby shower, Patty (Mrs. Traceman) planned one so that while Sam would miss the birth of her first niece, she could at least take part in a baby shower before she left. And of course a baby shower means… another theme party. The good news is that while I did some more manual work and last second leg work, males at a baby shower is strictly taboo. My son, Jackson, and I went to lunch and then to the Michigan Museum for the day.

But then of course there was the going away party which Patty planned as Sam’s “Year In A Day” Party where ALL of the holidays that Sam would miss would be celebrated in one evening. This means we would need provisions for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Sam’s birthday, Christmas, New Years, Valentine’s Day, Easter, and St Patrick’s Day. So… while the actual party went over famously, it was a lot of work scurrying about taking down the past holiday and setting up the new holiday décor, as well as putting out refreshments for each. A lot of work but… a huge success and just an absolute blast!

Then the hard part came as we took Sam to the airport and tearfully hugged her goodbye and unconvincingly told each other that the 11 months would go by fast. Patty and I are planning a trip to Germany to visit her late ’09 or early ’10. Can’t wait.

But… with all of the summer activities and necessities out of the way, I can once again return to the place that, before the big absence this summer, I spend so much time at. To be honest, it had been so long since I had been there that I didn’t even know what to work on. As I made the drive down 4-96 to 127 North, I ran a couple different scenarios through my head. I have 6 songs that are either completely done or musically done, which means I have 4 more to work on, and all of this work would be laying down lead guitar tracks. 3 of the 4 shouldn’t be a huge undertaking. But in the back of my mind I’ve had this 1 song that every time I thought about I cringed and I knew needed a lot of work. Whenever we pulled it up to play it, I liked it less and less. Not that I don’t like the song, I just don’t like what I’d done with it. I had about 8 rhythm guitar tracks laid down trying to get a nice big full sound. For the past year or so, I’ve been pushing that off to the side or placing it on the back burner. For the past several months I’ve even been considering just dumping it all together and had nearly convinced myself to do so.

So as I arrived at the studio, I sat in my usual chair and looked around at my former home away from home and caught up with Jeff for a while. When Jeff finally said, “So what are we doing?” I asked him to pull up the difficult song and let’s take a listen to it. Initially I had thought to just scrap the rhythm guitar tracks altogether and just re-do them all. Before I did that I asked Jeff to play the tracks one at a time. Some were just ghastly. It was like when you’re digging up in your backyard and you dig up a grub. It’s so ugly you just have to kill it. Yeah, same thing with these tracks, I couldn’t say “Delete it!” fast enough. The funny thing was that with about 6 of the tracks removed the remaining two sounded pretty nice. I had an accent track that I just played an apreggiated A into an A suspended that I replaced. I had to listen to it several times to make sure but… lo and behold, that did it. So I tracked the intro lead at the beginning of the song and the outro lead at the end. It’s a heavy but laid back kind of feel, almost lazy at times. I was happy for the most part with it. And unfortunately, I was out of time as Jeff and I both had things to do at noon so I had to leave. I did have Jeff burn in to a CD so I could take it home and listen to it a million times and decide if I like it or if I need to re-record or tweak a part. After listening to it repeatedly I’ve found a part I do need to tweak, which I hope to do this weekend. Apart from that though, it appears this Lazarus-like song has indeed come back from the dead and is going to work after all.

I never cease to be amazed at what can happen in the studio. So often things will just happen, something will just spill out; Something unplanned and spontaneous. And when the record light is on when it does and it’s all captured on tape (so to speak), it can be magic. I am again excited about my project and cannot wait to get back in

Studio Blog, July 22, 2010

Studio Blog 19

Date: July 22^nd, 2010

Looking back, the first part of 2010 went very smoothly. I crossed paths with an old friend who is working out in California doing all kinds of engineering type of work along with performing, writing, and so many other music related things. Somehow he has been able to add mixing my CD along with the many things he is juggling at present. Two songs are now completely finished and he is working on the 3^rd.

Meanwhile, I was back in the studio this past Sunday to review the last vocals I did on the next song that is soon to be mixed. The hard part is that I’m really not a singer and I’m just not certain what else to do on this particular song. I did the main vocal and added a second one on the chorus. While Tracy the producer is saying, “There’s one more vocal track that needs to be added.” Tracy the musician and novice singer just doesn’t know what it is. Maybe I’ll come up with it before it’s ready for mixing but Jeff and I went ahead and started editing it. I hate the thought of sending it off when there’s still even one more thing that needs to be there but… I just don’t want to hold this thing up anymore.

So.. what’s the delay now? Why are we half way through 2010 and still no CD? Well, it’s been quite the year let me tell you. At the end of 2009, the always health conscious but never actually trying to be healthy me… was really making the effort to get that exercise that middle aged Traceman needs so badly. I was in the pool and clocking in 3 to 4 miles per week. The weight was coming off and I was feeling good. At the end of the year I got pneumonia. If you’ve ever had that it lasts forever…. literally. I kept going back to the doctor and he kept putting me on antibiotics and it just never seemed to fully clear up. Then in April… yeah, April… my cardiologist had my lungs x-rayed again and put me on some butt kicking antibiotics and I was back in the pool that month. Then… an unfortunate accident at work (even if you ask I won’t tell) messed my left leg up pretty bad. I played the tough guy and acted like nothing was wrong. Five days later I was in the emergency room with a disgustingly infected leg getting antibiotic IV’s. I also had to start frequenting a place called “The Wound Center”. I referred to it as “The House of Pain”. I learned many things at this place. I learned that (according to them) mother was wrong when she said not to pick your scabs. Apparently… there is less chance of infection if you let it heal from the inside out instead of the outside in. I also learned that people can smile and be so friendly as they are inflicting the worst kind of pain on you. Gosh they were nice. And CRIPES did that hurt. I also learned about an “instrument” they used to inflict such pain on me. Picture a coke (cocaine) spoon with a long handle. Then imagine taking the spoon end of it and scraping a scab off. They said the first time is always the worst… and they werent’ kidding. Childbirth couldn’t have been much worse than that. This became a weekly ritual. While the swelling went down there was a “knot” in the middle of my shin that just wouldn’t go away. The nice doctor determined there was something in there and nicely injected my shin with novocaine and then lanced it. I’ll spare you any further details. Eventually it did finally clear up but I didn’t get the nod to finally start being able to swim again until early June. Half the year gone and between pneumonia and the leg injury, I’d only had a handful of times in the pool. And obviously trying to lay down vocal tracks when I can’t inhale deeply without coughing was impossible. However, with my friend Ron on the west coast mixing… progress has been made on the CD and again, two songs are completely finished with one more currently being worked on.

The good news during this time is that my daughter, Samantha, came home from Germany at the end of May. It’s been wonderful having her back and I enjoy every minute that we spend together.

The bad news is that in early May we learned that Mrs. Traceman, my wife Patty, had a baseball sized tumor in her chest that had partially collapsed her right lung and was pressing against her heart. The biopsy showed that it is Lymphoma. If you MUST have cancer, Lymphoma is the type you want to have as it is very treatable. They began her on chemotherapy almost immediately and as of today… she is in her 4^th session of chemo. At the end of July, they will do another cat scan of her chest to see how much the tumor has shrunk but at this point… all looks as well as can be expected. We have had no real “bad” news since the initial bad news. She will have to have a total of 6 treatments of chemo. There is a chance she will have to have 8 but they are thinking it will just be 6. She also may need some follow up radiation. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

And during all of this… my oldest daughter Megan got married. On July 10^th, Megan and her beau since 9^th grade, Taylor Hannon, were married. The ceremony was wonderful and Megan somehow was able to present herself even more beautiful on that day than what she already is. Walking her down the aisle was such a proud and unforgettable moment. All five Stiles children and the one grandchild were all in the wedding. It was adorable. Both the ceremony and the reception went off flawlessly. A week later, (and currently) Hugh Jackman was in Leslie filming a movie on location there. Leslie is very small and everything is a mere stone throw from everything else. Two blocks from where they were filming is the reception hall Megan and Taylor got married. The film company currently has rented it out and is the spot where the cast and crew has their meals catered. If either of my older two daughters tell me one more time that Hugh Jackman is a hottie with a body…. I’m just going to snap.

So… while things have came up this year that have just been outside of my control that has slowed down the momentum, and while I have quit giving myself deadlines, know that I really am pushing to finish this just as soon as I can.

I was recently asked if there will be any new clips from the CD. Well… probably not. At this point I just want to surprise everyone with the finished product. The 4 that are on there now give a good idea of how the music has evolved and the only real difference is that vocals have been added. Although… hearing the two finished products after Mr. Ron Gallagher has done his magic is….. well.. magical. I can’t wait for everyone to finally get to hear it and I hope everyone finds it worth the wait.

Studio Blog March 15, 2010

Monday- March 15, 2010

So I’m officially at the point where I am now recording vocals. And wow… what a whole new kettle of fish this is. I’ve worked with so many singers in the studio in the past but it’s just so different now that it’s me and I’m finding out I’m just so difficult to work with. Ha! I also completely understand why producers are needed. Sometimes the creative aspect just isn’t there and you need someone else’s expertise to pull from.

I chose one of the songs that was done, minus the vocals, and that I thought would be an easy one to do. I had a couple ideas and tried them and a few more that I come up with on the fly. I have such a new respect for singers who can come up with such wonderful melody lines. The likes of Brad Delp of Boston, Steve Walsh of Kansas, Ronnie James Dio and so many other great singers just blow my mind with the incredible melodies that they come up with to sing their songs to. Even Geddy Lee, who has a… unique and different voice, is a very good singer, comes up with some great melody lines.

While I have always appreciated good singers, I have a renewed respect for them now that I am trying to do what they do. You might think that putting lyrics to music would be easy but… not necessarily so. And in my case…. Yike!

So when I got to the studio Saturday morning, Jeff was already there and had the mic all set up in the iso booth. We got some levels and I tried my best to warm up during this time but what seemed like way too soon, I was laying tracks down. Now… I have always compared my voice to that of David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. That doesn’t mean I have a great singing voice like David does. That just means that I liken my singing style to his. That subtle, softer kind of voice… which will also make for a challenge as there a couple on this CD that I am going to have to BELT out!

So, being that the first one was relatively easy… two verses and two chorus’ and that’s it… it went pretty quickly. Like… about an hour and 45 minutes. Seems REALLY fast, huh? Yeah… I’ve already e-mailed Jeff this morning and said I wanted to do the chorus over. I left the studio knowing that there was a better line for it. I’ve got a couple more ideas I’ll be trying.

Overall, it was….fun! It was interesting. It was new. It was doing something I’ve always wanted to do but never have. It was just Jeff and I in the studio so I really wasn’t nervous and when I made a mistake, Jeff didn’t fall out of his chair laughing (Thanks for that, Jeff!)

I had hoped to do a 2^nd song and clearly I had time to at least start it. But once I put the lyric sheet up I realized that I didn’t have enough lyrics and I’ll have to go in and add to it. Shouldn’t be too hard to do as it’s a very dear subject to me and finding more to say on it shouldn’t be too difficult.

But it is my hope to complete the vocals on two songs on each session. I have 7 songs to do vocals on, so hopefully I’ll be knocking them out soon.

It’s been a very busy winter but now that March is here and spring is on its way things have started to settle a bit and I’m getting into the studio pretty much every Saturday.

Two songs have been sent out to the West Coast Connection and are being mixed and mastered out there. I’m very excited to have the friends out there that have showed excitement and enthusiasm to work with me on this. Indeed my gratitude has no bounds.

It’s getting close, people. It really is.

Studio Blog - March 08, 2010

03/08/10

Yeah, it’s been a while since the last studio blog and a lot has happened since then. And I do mean a lot. On the last entry, my daughter Megan was 3 days overdue and has since, early Thanksgiving morning, given birth to an incredibly beautiful little girl. So a very warm “Welcome to the world” must go out to my new granddaughter, Grace Mackenzie Hannon. The new family is doing VERY well.

Since my last entry I also made the journey to Germany to see my daughter, Samantha, who is there on scholarship until the end of May. I hadn’t seen her since July and the heart strings had been pulled to the point of snapping. Along with Patty and I, Megan and Grace also flew over so it was indeed a family affair. Grace flew incredibly well and didn’t make a peep during the long flights. Germany is full of many sights and so much history. While we stayed pretty much in the northern most part, we did squeeze a lot in the 8 days we were there and the Theiele family, Samantha’s host parents that insisted we stay there with them, were the epitome of gracious. We visited the North Sea, Denmark, a complete tour of Hamburg, and two days in Berlin. The town of Schleswig, which was where Wolfgang, host parent, was from was also loaded with tons of history and has its own castle which we also had a tour of. Perhaps the most enjoyable times was at night when everyone had retired, the Americans all met in Sam’s HUGE room, where we’d sit up and talk and laugh until the wee hours of the morning. So much fun, so many sites, and so wonderful getting to spend time with my daughter that I am so incredibly proud of.

In my last entry, I mentioned the 8^th and 9^th songs. The 8^th song is the one that I wrote for my dad and played at his funeral. I played it dreadfully. So it was very important to do it well on the CD. I had simply a 20 second fix that I needed to do. I also had started Megan’s song. I’m happy to report that I have completed the music to both of them. While my dad’s song is an instrumental, Megan’s song has lyrics. And for whatever reason, I’ve struggled trying to pen the words to her song. Either it didn’t come or it wasn’t right. Apparently I needed Grace to be born in order to finish it as there is a referral to her in it. I’m very pleased with the results of these two songs and can say, they are finished. So while I do still have vocals to do, the music is done on all the songs except for the title track. I’ve began tracking the lead guitar on this song but… I’m just not happy with any results thus far. This one is going to be a bitch. It’s pretty much flying, shredding, wammying, ripping, wailing from start to finish. I’m going to need to be in tip top playing shape for this and it’s probably going to take a few sessions. In the meantime, I am ready to do vocals on the majority of the songs that require them. The lyric writing is done for the most part. There is still one I need to do and one I need to finish up. But as there are 7 songs with vocals and I have more than enough to begin. And this will keep the West Coast Connection busy. Who is the West Coast Connection?

Going back to my Eaton Rapids High School days and the several years that followed… I spent a lot of time following a band called Boy Wonder. I met these guys my senior year, loved the band, and caught them as often as I could. As I got to know them, I hung out with them more. They were a great group to hang out with, talk music, and smoke dope with. The bass player, Ron Gallagher, and I got along especially well. He was n ex-jock like me and we played a lot of basketball together. Mens Rec, pick up games, church parking lot… wherever. Ron has been recording music since back in the 70’s and is now living out in California and doing what he loves. When I ran into him on Facebook we started talking and I sent him some songs from the CD. Before long, we had decided that he and some associates he works with would mix and master my project, with Ron overseeing everthing. The first song has been sent. The second one will be sent this week. And once I do the vocals on several of them I can send those to him as well. I’m very happy to have Ron doing this and look forward to many more projects with him.

With that… this brings us to date. I, yet again, blew another deadline I had made for myself, but I feel good about the progress overall. My life is busy, my family is big, the schedules I juggle with those I work with are many. I can only go as fast as my life will let me. I’m personally very excited that the music to 9 of the 10 songs is done, one song has been mixed and mastered, and more will be heading to California soon.

Studio Blog November 23, 2009

11/23/09

This past Saturday morning I was in the studio: I’m now working on song #9. (Pardon the Beatles pun) While I do have a little fix I have to do on song #8. I’ll catch that before all the lead guitar tracks are wrapped and the music is officially done. It’s only about a 45 second patch I have to do anyway.

#9 is a special one that has to be just right. It’s about my eldest daughter, Megan. Megan is officially 3 days past her due date of delivering her first child. She called me today to give me an update and told me that if she has not had it by this next Saturday, they will induce labor at 8 am on Saturday. So… if not sooner, I will officially become a grandpa then. (Too wild to try to comprehend, man) I’d been toying with some ideas very infrequently over the past couple weeks. Maybe just 2 or 3 times and I had a couple ideas but nothing concrete, and Saturday came up on me WAY too quickly.

Friday: The night before: Anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge Gary Hoey fan. Gary was playing in Detroit Friday night and I had to go see him. Yes... “Had to”. I tried to rally some troops to go but no one wanted to make the trek. My brother in law, Steve, lives in Plymouth and he wanted to go check him out since his brother had turned him onto Hoey after I had turned him (his brother) onto Hoey. So I drove the hour drive to Wixom solo where I met up with Steve and then drove the ½ hour to Blondie’s in Detroit. That’s in… DOWNTOWN Detroit. Right down the road from Joe Louis.

My session was at 9 the next morning and all night long that was burning in my head that I had to be at the studio by 9. As it turns out there were two opening bands (Surprise!) and Hoey didn’t come on until 10. He played (quite spectacularly) for 2 hours. Once he finished I made my way over to the SWAG table to get yet another picture autographed (I’ve seen him 4 times now). As it turned out he remember me from the 3 times I’d seen him up close and person in Lansing and even made reference to one time in particular (fan or stalker? I never know where to draw the line) so I knew he really remembered and wasn’t just being nice. He shook my hand again and said how nice it was of me to drive all the way to Detroit to see him. He’s such a great guy. Got a couple pictures snapped with him then drove to Plymouth to drop my brother in law home. At this time it was about 1:30 am. My wife had called and said for me to stay there and just drive home in the morning and Steve was offering for me to stay. I knew if I stayed there I wouldn’t sleep well and would be crap in the morning. So I drove back to Lansing that night. Got home just after 3 am and hit the sheets ASAP knowing that I had an early session.

I actually woke up in the morning with the song I was to work on in the studio playing in my head. I don’t’ know if I fell asleep thinking about it or if it just came to me or what. Five hours of sleep is pretty good for me and I didn’t feel too bad. I grabbed my guitar and processor and headed to the studio. As luck would have it… my studio partner Jeff had to do some errands first thing in the morning wouldn’t be back until 9:30. I unlocked the studio, went in, and started playing. I normally don’t’ get a lot of warm up time so the first few takes are always crap. But I had a good ½ hour to just sit and play and run through some things. By the time Jeff got there I was pretty loosened up. He pulled up Megan’s song and I hit the intro in about three takes. I did a harmony over it at one point and while looking for one passage, found another and ran with that one. Intro done. After the first verse there is a break between the 1^st and 2^nd verse that I played some leads over to break it up. Nailed that relatively quickly as well. Again, a harmony lead here and there just for flavor and that was done as well. Now the hard part. There is about a full minute of soloing I do during the chorus. This was the hardest part. I had some ideas I had been working with but still had a lot of uncertainty as to what I was going to do. For the most part I like to just not plan and see what happens. Then once I get a line down that I like I can go over it and refine it or change it until it’s right. Finally I had a long run that I was able to remember. Not note for note but when to change and move up and what not. I’d do a track and then say, “Quick! Give me another track!” and then before the thought and inspiration left, I’d do it again. I did this like 5 or 6 times until I was comfortable that we had something to work with. We replayed them and I picked the one I liked the most. There were two “little” parts that I didn’t like and we were able to pull from a different track to patch it. It was a seamless patch. Again, I went over and did a couple harmonies here and there. As much as I keep using the words “harmonies here and there” it wasn’t to the point of overkill. It’s really just here and there (there it is again!) for flavor.

It was about that time that my cell phone started going off and “the rest of my day” was beginning. I had to call it a day at that point. But I did so knowing that I had gotten a LOT accomplished. I took a copy home and have listened to it over and over and over and haven’t heard anything jump out at me that I don’t like. All I have remaining on this song is the outro leads. Granted this consists of playing the chorus again but I also have a key change about 30 seconds into it. It’s probably another 90 seconds or so of playing. Maybe not quite that long. But… it was one of those sessions where I left the studio SO STOKED! It really went well. A lot better than I thought it would. It was one of those times where I walk out of the studio going, “Self high five! Got no friends!”

Once this song is finished then I just have the last one remaining and that is it!!!

I can’t believe it’s actually getting this close, man!