The Setbacks' Studio Adventures - SATURDAY MAY 1st

May 2nd, 2004

For the past few days, we've been in the recording studio, laying down some meaty and delicious tracks for consumption by you, our voracious fans. The first installment is below, so it makes more sense to read that one first, then this one.

SATURDAY MAY 1:

We had agreed to meet at the studio at 11am, and I was determined not to be late this time. As I walked through the doors to the studio, my watch chimed eleven and I knew it was going to be a good day. Steve was already there, reading a well-worn copy of the Rolling Stone with Britney Spears on the cover. Chris and Paul arrived shortly thereafter and we were ready to go.

Our goal for the day was to lay down the “beds” for all six songs. Beds is studio talk for music. For our first record, we did each instrument separately, recording the beds one at a time. This time, with the resources of the studio, we had enough microphones and tracks to do it all at once – assuming we could all play the song together without anyone making a mistake. Sounds easy enough.

Unfortunately, I don’t think any of us are used to playing music during daylight hours. We decided to start with “Born on the River”, a song we figured might be the easiest. The first few takes were awful. We could get through the song, but our timing was all off. Chris began his love affair with the words ‘tempo’ and ‘intensity’ after take #2. As we listened to it, these were the qualities he decided were lacking, and we’d need more of. He must have said each word over 700 times through the course of the day. After every take, he’d ask the following questions: “How’s the tempo?” “Is there enough intensity?”

We soon got a take we liked, so we moved onto the next song. “The Sleuth” is a song Steve wrote when we were still in another band, but it had survived this long and had become our big closing song at most shows. With this much experience playing the song, it was bound to be easier. Thankfully it was, with this song we were able to turn the corner, and get into a better groove. We were relieved.

So we took a quick break, Chris needed a cigarette, and a cool down. Because it was such a beautiful day, the outdoors didn’t offer him much cooling down. But he smoked his Peter Jackson cigarettes. Who buys those? We figured he bought them because he thought they had something to do with the Lord of the Rings.

We got back at it, and put down another song before hunger set in. Fortunately a place called Luciano’s is just around the corner, it’s an Italian grocery store with a deli that makes amazing fresh sandwiches. I made a point of mispronouncing prosciutto (I probably just misspelled it as well, unintentionally) because it bothered Chris. Sadly he didn’t hear me, and the man behind the counter corrected me and shook his head. I assume he then spit in my sandwich for being so white.

After finishing the sixth song, we went back and attempted to best our version of "Born on the River", which none of us were really happy with. In one take we nailed the song, proving 11am is too early to rock.

We ended up finising the beds for all six songs early. So we moved onto overdubs. Our intention was to have very little guitar overdubs, so we did the beds to pretty much be the song. We did two face melting guitar solos and then moved onto the vocals.

Steve sang like an angel descended from heaven. Only the angel was angry, and sang like it was possessed by the devil. It’s hard to describe, but it was miraculous.

He finished the vocals for three songs, and we packed it in for the day. Paul went to a fashion show and got his picture taken with Richard Robinson, Chris went to his father’s birthday dinner and gave him a Fila track suit, Steve and I went to my house to have some pizza and watched Twister on television (not intentionally, it just happened to be on). Later Steve and Chris hooked up at the Kelp Records anniversary party, where Jarrett also happened to be. Apparently a good time was had by all. But would it affect tomorrow’s recording? Only time will tell.