Abubilla Music

This Week in the Studio: 10.10.16-17

Written by Jimmy

A cover?   What is this world coming to?  The Music: A Cover and Percussion.  A ‘short morning’ studio day turns into an all day affair as Ed and Jimmy battle to merge God Only Knows and Dry the Rain with I’ve Just Seen a Face, while Charlotte delivers beautiful vocals, Rob cranks the magic bass and Mike plays with eggs.

1. I’ve Just Seen A Face: First, we don’t do covers.  Well, we did in the very early days of Abubilla Music when ‘teaching Jimmy Pro Tools’ but vowed to never, ever, under any circumstance, as long as we live, hope to die, fingers crossed and all that – we vowed never to do a cover.   But,  Ed and Jimmy started a very long e mail exchange (see below) about Brian Wilson and the Beatles that led us to talk about I’ve Just Seen A Face, which led us to talk about re-examining the lyrics and turning it into a darker song, which led us to think about how Charlotte’s voice would sound on song, which led us to … a Cover.  Goodness gracious, God on high, a cover.   And we love it.   Started very chilled with a lot of Ed Minor Chords on a chilled acoustic at 78 bpm (took a long time to figure that out and then abandoned the click anyway).   Charlotte sings a couple verses and choruses, with Rob’s magic bass.  And then, well Jimmy and Ed went nuts.  By the end, when Rob and Ed bridge into major chords and Charlotte begins to sing roughly the original tune, we had 11 tracks of vocals, including Hannah and finally everyone that was on the ground floor of the house at the time, three tracks of claps and one of a tambourine.     It went from Cranberries, to Beatles to Beta Band, Dry Rain in about 30 seconds.   Now we have to go talk to Sony and figure out what we are allowed to do with the song.
2. Percussion Fiesta on Tuesday in May and Strange Clock: Mike joined half way into the I’ve Just Seen a Face session and then we focused on him for awhile as he added the ‘third voice’ to Tuesday in May – a ton of percussion (including a bongos-congas war) that tried to ‘find a beat that I can’t even keep.’  He also ticked and tocked some percussion on Strange Clock.
3. Sunday/Whisper and Lovers:    On Sunday, Greg/Gus and Sophie came over to finish off the ‘lovers-videos’ for Whisper.  Don’t ask, but involved lots of holding hands in the sunshine, wearing multiple shirts.
4. Don’t Leave: Hunter had his 18th Birthday party on Saturday night.  And on Sunday morning we recorded Zoe singing Don’t Leave  – her song.  Lovely voice.  Maybe she’ll join us again.

Everything Else

1. Hannah was Back and World Order Restored: Our very reliable and talented, but woefully absent, Assistant, Hannah returned to the studio and tea and coffee was again reliably served, pizza correctly ordered and blogs finished.  And she sang on I’ve Just Seen A Face (she’s the high vocals in ‘I Want All the World To See!’.
2. The Dry the Rain moment:  We have always tried to create a Dry the Rain moment.  we tried on Occasional Touch, the first Abubilla Music original song, but that has not reached the light of day yet.   But we think we nailed it for I’ve Just Seen A Face.   Two things about Dry the Rain.  First, the song is great. Second, there’s the use of it in High Fidelity which is a classic moment.   Here are both:
3. The Jimmy/Ed Discussions on Brian Wilson and the Beatles:    So Jimmy and Ed are both obsessed with the Beatles and Brian Wilson.  But more specifically, we’re obsessed with the period of the sixties from Rubber Soul thru to Brian Wilson’s breakdown during Smile.  And we really feel for Brian, because he had to take on John, Paul and both Georges (Harrison and Martin), and we think this led to his break down.  But we digress.  Let’s tell the story.

• • It Started with Rubber Soul:    Dashed off in four weeks to meet the December 1965 Christmas Market, Rubber soul is viewed as one of the best albums of all time.  The Beatles started experimenting with broader sounds, ‘deeper lyrics’ and studio innovations.    Two examples here:  the sitar on Norwegian Wood and the speed up piano (sounds like harpsichord) from In My Life:

• • Which Led to Pet Sounds:   Brian Wilson listened to Rubber Soul and was inspired to go in new directions with the Beach Boys.   He went into the studio to produce Pet Sounds, with extraordinarily complex orchestration in songs like Wouldn’t It Be Nice, God Only Knows and Sloop:

Wouldn’t It Be Nice

God Only Knows:

Sloop John B:

• • And Then Came Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane, And Sgt Pepper:    John and Paul both talk about listening to Pet Sounds and being blown away, realising they would need to do something to match (there’s a story of a party at Keith Moon’s, with Paul and John all tripping to Pet Sounds).   The released the double A side of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane and the Revolver and Then Sgt. Pepper — all inspired by Brian Wilson.    Listen to Wouldn’t It Be Nice, followed by She’s Leaving Home – could be on same album…

She’s Leaving Home

Lovely Rita…

• • And then Brian Broke:    Way too simplistic….but essentially poor Brian was competing against Paul, John, and the two Georges and kinds of  went a bit off trying to make Smile.     He finished it 40 years later… Good Vibrations which emerged at the time gives you a sense of how amazing this album might have been:

And as Ed and I talked about it, we decided that if Brian hadn’t broke… and had been able to release Smile at the time, maybe that is what Paul and John would have needed as inspiration to stay together a few more years.

Anyway, this whole discussion happened all Friday, leading us to try a Cover.

3.  And If you’re interested.   If you are interested in this period, there are a set of amazing videos on line to watch – our favourites are the two part series of Beatles and Beachboys, and the ‘Behind the Sounds Series’ about Pet Sounds.