fuzmeister: Recording Blog Vol. 5

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We're getting close to the finish line with the new record. A few more tracks need some vocals, but I think it's pretty much done otherwise.

I figured I'd celebrate the occasion by posting the tracklist here:

1. Old Franconia (Part 1)
   
2. Darius
   
3. I Know
   
4. Realization
   
5. NoVA
   
6. Traveling West Blues
   
7. Fear of Flying
   
8. Power Lines
   
9. Harsh Dose of Reality
   
10. Under A Kind Tree
    
11. Old Franconia (Part 2)
    

In other news, I've been trying to get into the new Arctic Monkeys record. I've listened to it a few times and it is growing on me despite being quite different than their previous work.

Mood: Mostly Well
Music: Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone


Tags (beta): nova, recording, steve thompson music

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fuzmeister: Recording Blog Vol. 4

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I have a checklist type sheet of things that need to be wrapped up before the new album can be mixed. The main thing that needs to be done for every song are the final vocals. I did scratch vocals and scratch guitar as a guide when we were first tracking Peck's drums, but I still need to lay down vocals.

A lot of people consider vocals to be the crucial part of songs and, yeah, I agree that they are important in terms of specifying thematic elements and the like. They aren't always the first thing I pay attention to when listening to music myself though and I think I will spend significantly less time recording vocals than I did with the music.

That doesn't mean the lyrics will be fluff; in fact, the lyrics are pretty much done for every song which only helps facilitate the process. They're not half bad either. I think I may have mentioned it before, but I started recording demos of these songs back in early 2007.

I think that my biggest regret during the production of this album has been that I wasn't able to work on these tracks earlier. I feel emotionally detached to them compared to when I first recorded home demos. Hopefully, these feelings I've had don't negatively affect the experience of the listener.

Mood: Dragging
Music: Coldplay - Yes


Tags (beta): nova, recording, steve thompson music

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fuzmeister: Recording Blog Vol. 3

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There's going to be mandolins and harmonicas and accordions. This album is going to be dripping folk.

There's still a lot to do before we get to that point though.

Mood: Tired
Music: Neil Young - A Man Needs a Maid


Tags (beta): nova, recording, steve thompson music

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fuzmeister: Recording Blog Vol. 2

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The new album is coming along quite nicely; things are going a bit slower than I was anticipating, but that's life sometimes. Today I played a viola bass on two tracks... three actually, but I'm undecided if we'll keep the one track. It felt appropriate since the Beatles remastered got released today.

At this rate, it seems like "Fear of Flying" and "Realization" will be the first two songs completed. I did some cool textured guitar bits during the solo part of the former using a big muff pi. Tomorrow night, we're hopefully knocking all of the sax parts out of the way. Friday I'm going to hopefully get all of the guitar parts done for "Traveling West Blues." It's a slow process, but I think the results will be worth it.

Mood: Fatigued
Music: The Rolling Stones - Heaven


Tags (beta): nova, recording, steve thompson music

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fuzmeister: Recording Blog Vol. 1

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I figured I would start a series of posts regarding my recent studio adventures. Yesterday was day 1 of recording and we knocked out drums for 6 tracks in all. We're tracking in my friend Matt's home studio and the quality of the drum recordings impressed me a lot. Last fall I did Blanket Statement II with him and he has picked up a lovely assortment of microphones since then augmenting the quality tenfold. The AKG he set up for the kick drum definitely sounded great.

It's definitely been a long time coming (I think I started doing demos for this one almost immediately after Allusions came out), but I think this record will be worth the wait for everyone. I think this release will have the most grounded sound of any of the records I've done; While the mainstream consciousness would almost certainly disagree, I consider this to be an album of pop music - at least by pop music standards of forty years ago. I continue to explain my intentions to people as wanting to create a modern day "Harvest."

Mood: Tired
Music: Carbon Leaf - Seed


Tags (beta): nova, recording, steve thompson music

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