Abubilla Music

This Week in the Studio: 10.09.11

Written by Jimmy

New artists, the long awaited sax, the return of Ed, a recovered gem from Spain, and the song that welcomes sped up brass, cello and accordians….

So, it was mostly a workmanlike day at a very warm and sticky studio, from 9AM to 7PM, as we continue to work on the songs from the Summer Spanish Jam.   Briefly:

The Music

• • Lara continues to work on Depth Perception and Tuesday in May: After a quick studio clean up, Andy and Jimmy welcomed Lara at 0930 who continued to try vox for Depth Perception and Tuesday in May.   The rest of the band arrived during a final take on Tuesday in May and we had a 2 hour discussion of the last note.  High or low, harmonised, double track or single track.   There were technically 23 options available for the last note – and Ed and Martyn had Lara explore each.    The good news is we finally settled on the preferred note.   The bad news is Jimmy lost it during a mixing session.
  • Andy writes a brass section for 500 Letters from New York on the Train and Ed/Andrea Blow Til their Lips Burn:   In our quest to simplify, and ‘do less’ on our songs, Andy forced poor Andrea and Ed to play 37 tracks of brass for 500 Letters from New York.    Andrea is new to the band, arriving with a brand new sax.     Rob, Andy and Jimmy stayed late in the studio to reduce the tracks down to a couple really cool riffs for the Chorus.

• Things get very stupid for Pretty Bad Agents and Andy Crumbles after only 10 simple steps… It is difficult to get Andy grumpy, but we found a winning method.   Step 1.  Write a simple 2 minute song called Pretty Bad Agents.   Step 2, teach Jimmy how to record a song at half speed [shift-record for Pro Tools fans].  Step 3, have a house filled with an accordian, cello, sax and trumpet.  Step 4, tell Ed we’re going to make a track inspired by the Beatles.  Step 5, tell Ed we’re going to create a ‘feel’ like the Benefit for Mr. Kite, and he’s in charge, and it might involve Water.   Step 6, bring in Hannah and ask her to go nuts on the accordian, playing over song at half speed.   Step 7, then bring have Ed work with Andrea on a nice little ‘circus riff.’  Interestingly, Andrea had never heard of it and Ed had to write it out – tells you that the circus them never made it to Italy.  Step 8, bring in Sophie and have her deliver a crazed cello performance.  Step 9, play it all back and tell Andy that it will sound great if he just ‘mixes it well.’  Step 10, watch Andy crawl over to the piano chair and begin to quietly play games on his i Phone, while gradually moving into  the fetal position.

• • After hours banned to the front room, Martyn and Gus recover Blue Eyes Looked Up.  After fighting with Ed over the final note of Tuesday in May, Martyn was banned to the front room with Gus, while Andy hid behind the piano and Ed whipped folks into a frenzy for Pretty Bad Agents.  When the boys were finally released, however, to all of our surprise they emerged with Blue Eyes Looked Up, a song from Spain.     We messed around so much trying to figure out what Gus and Martyn had actually done, that Mike had to leave.  So Rob went to drums, Andy to bass with Martyn on guitar, Andrea on sax and Gus on vocals (different take each time as no one had actually setttled on lyrics).  Ed conducted.  And we got a pretty nice take by end of day.

Everything Else

• Gus really did fall out of bed: Sadly, there is no other story.  When Gus showed up last week with a broken face, we assumed his ‘bed story’ was a lie and he had been in a fight.  But no, Jimmy met his Mom on Friday night and she verified the sky diving in bed story.  Really awful for Gus’s street credibility, but he really did break his face falling out of bed.

• Andy was banned from Gus’s Gig: Gus had a last minute gig this week, supposedly to play an acoustic set of covers (he sang his own stuff).  Andy was in town and tried to go but was banned for wearing his red shoes.

• • The birdie masks continue to keep us entertained. For the album If I Were A Little Birdie, we all need to wear birdie masks for the cover.   So Morgan bought a lot of masks on e Bay and the band continues to wear them during most recording sessions.  Very easy to amuse these guys.
  • Papa John’s forgets 4 orders of Potatoe Wedges.  Band gets into food fight.

That’s it. Studio open next Saturday for last time in September.

Jimmy