Studio

Monday December 17
hey there...sorry about some of the journal entries getting deleted...i dont know why that happened, but i'll see if we can fix it...we took yesterday off, but it feels like i never left the studio! right now we're going over all the drum tracks and making sure they are all solid...although we have "officially" finished basics, we are going to record a song called "Dirty Poet" as a possible b-side...we will be taking a break from Dec 21-Jan 9, so there wont be any more updates after this week until January 10...i am actually flying home tomorrow night, but the rest of the guys are staying until friday...so, i'd like to take this time to wish you all a very Happy Holiday Season and a great New Year!!!! i am very much looking forward to 2002...the new album is going to be filled with great songs and i plan on spending a long time out on the road playing them! peace, love and strength...

john

DECEMBER 14TH - JEREMY
Hey all, Jeremy here.
Today I got up at 8AM. I went to the mall to do some Christmas shopping with John and Bri. We all got to the studio at about 12:30. Ron wasn't even there yet. We got lucky. When we got there, we listened to last nights take of 'I Feel Fine'. We kept the last version of the song that we had recorded. We edited the beginning of one version onto the end of another version to get the perfect take.

Let me take a little studio aside here:
When we say we take one part of one song and add it to another part of another song, it doesn't mean we're incompetent and can't play our instruments. It means that sometimes when you have two takes that sound pretty close, and one has a little more pizazz in a certian area than the other, you cut the two together. Little nuances are sometimes hard to repeat. Especially when it's so much easier to cut tape.

John overdubbed an acoustic guitar track as well as a scratch vocal take. (not the real vocal, just a reference.)
After that, we started 'I'm Still Here'. This one took a while because we wanted to change the vibe of the song. It's really a great song, and we wanted to make sure that we presented it in the most flattering light. After a couple of hours of trying different things, we finally arrived on a cool, layed back, moody version. We cut the main drums to the song, and then went back and overdubbed Vin playing the toms with mallets. It really sounds awesome. Nick overdubbed the bass with a sub-harmonic booster on it. (it plays really low frequencies as well as his main note) He used a hollow-body bass that has a very distinct sound. Really round and growly. Almost like a stand-up bass. I think you'll all get a kick out of the song when you hear it. Actually, if I do say so myself, I think you'll get a kick out of the whole album. It's going to be awesome. I'm really psyched. John threw down a scratch vocal as well as an acoustic guitar track. We cut out at around 11:42PM. I'm out of here...have a great day...Jeremy

DEC 13 DAY 10...
john here...LONG day for me...i got up at 7:30 after getting only 4 hours of sleep...its now 11:50 PM and we're about to go home...i am going to crash hard...it WAS a good day, however...i ran into John from SPLENDER (turns out we've been staying in the same Apt. complex) and got to hear some rough mixes of their upcoming album...Very good stuff...i hope we get to do some shows together next year...we worked on a song called "Dont Look Back" all afternoon and got a great drum take...Nick finished his bass tracks and i actually got some vocals done on it also...when the voice feels good, you have to go for it! then, in keeping with the SPLENDER theme, we worked on a song i co-wrote with Waymon, called "I Feel Fine"...Eric and Vince got a great drum sound and i think we have a great take...we'll come back tomorrow morning and make sure it still sounds as good as it does now...its really hard to be objective after hours of listening...we're heading into the home stretch of basics and we're ahead of schedule...i'm sure we'll find a way to fill the last few days...after the holidays, me, brian and jeremy will fly back and spend another few weeks doing whatever overdubs are necessary...hope you are all enjoying the holiday season and our stupid pictures! take care....john

and on the NINTH day
hey everyone, Nick here...... today started with us listening back to Marvelous. We decided we needed another go at it. After the drum track was solid we moved on to the bass track. I got to really solidify some cool bass ideas which Ron referred to as the "money licks". after that, we had a visit from Dweezil Zappa, who came by with "peavey Steve", to show us how his "wiggy" amp works. One heck of a nice guy he is and boy what a cool amp. After a quick listen to some of the new stuff we've been working on, he let us listen to some tracks he had done on the new Lisa Loeb record. Sounds great! Then we moved on to Don't Look Back. We ran a few takes of that and then John laid down a scratch vocal. We'll listen back tomorrow to see what we think. Oh.....it was also my b-day, so we had some cake and brownies.....AWESOME!....... peace to all and i'll speak to you soon........NICK

JEREMY � DECEMBER 11
Hey everyone...Jeremy here! Today I got up at 7:55AM. Don't ask me why, I just did. Nick, Vin and I arrived at the studio at noon. We all took a listen to last nights cut of the song 'Everything' to see how it sounded. We decided that the last take we did was great and started to lay some tracks over it. We overdubbed a brush sound on the drums which sounds awesome. (Brian's idea according to him) We also put jingle bells in one or two of the choruses. (I know, it sounds a little wierd, but the end result is really quite great) After that, we had Nick punch in a couple of minor things on his bass track. He's really a solid player, so there was really hardly anything to change. Ron overdubbed a couple of keyboard tracks he had been working on throughout the recording of the song. (Don't worry, I'm not losing my job, I still have to cut the piano track as well as play, and/or arrange the string parts. Ron's a great player and I love having some cool help here.) John cut the acoustic guitar, and Brian cut the tremelo guitar. I believe he used a LINE 6 pedal for that. (Musicians will know what that is). After that, we moved on to 'Marvelous' . We spent a lot of time tweaking guitar sounds. (I of course sounded magnificent in every take of every song...kidding). We took a few takes of it. It's a great song, so we wanted to make sure we got a really great take. After a few shots, we decided to keep the last take we did. Nick again punched a couple of little spots on the bass. John overdubbed a guitar track, and after that we decided to call it a night. Done at 12:30AM. Hope you all have an awesome day. I will, I'm doing what I love as a job...see you...Jeremy