In the Studio

Me & Roger at the helm

So, yesterday was a return to Golden Gate Recordings to work on some vocals. I never sleep well before the studio because I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve! I woke up groggy yet excited and made myself an elixir of green tea and honey and cayenne, and boarded the train into the city. There were delays because of a fire in the Transbay tunnel ("Great..." We all muttered) and more and more people kept piling onto the car because they'd been re-routed from some other line. So the car was full and people were at their most ornery and on edge, and we sat at one station for fifteen minutes, while the doors kept opening and closing and the same announcement about the delay kept playing over and over, and finally we pulled into the tunnel only to jerk to a stop. We moved forward a little, then stopped again. As we sat there, my ears popped, and I heard a murmur going around, that other people's ears had popped too.

"I guess it's the wind?" One girl said.

And it was that moment that I started to get very panicky, indeed, in this train that had each of its ten or fifteen cars packed with people, in a tunnel under the water where there might be a fire somewhere on the tracks, stuck with our ears popping because of changes in pressure. I think other people were getting panicky, too, and I could feel that energy rising, and so I just put down my head and prayed that we would make it out of there safely and easily soon. And then lo and behold we did; the train started moving again and within minutes we were at Embarcadero station; we'd been closer to the city than I thought.

So it was with great relief flooding my body that I ascended the stairs out of the Civic Center BART station and made my way to the recording studio. Inside, Roger, the engineer, had pulled up a different track than I had advised, but I took that as a divine nudge and agreed to work on that one, The Bird in Norwegian Wood, instead of Sweet Tangerine. Roger's suggestions were to redo my guitar on acoustic instead of electric, and add in some backing percussion, like a tambourine. I wasn't particularly confident with the latter idea at first, but once I figured out the best way to hit it to get a good jingle I started to get into it, varying my style according to different parts of the song, clanging it against the drum kit for extra effect when needed, using both hands to shake it exuberantly during the grand finale.

I saw Roger sort of frown from the engineering booth, and he cut the song three quarters of the way in.

"What was wrong with that?!" I demanded into the mike.

"You're just getting warmed up.... aren't you?" He asked, rather hopefully.

I made a little growly noise, and he chuckled. I have a lot of fun working with Roger, and I think vice versa. He took special care to make sure an extra mike was rigged up in the vocal booth so that he could hear me in between takes, since apparently my reaction to mess ups is "the best part."

We went through the tambourine again with me getting even more exuberant and adding some extra flair. I was quite happy with the way the take turned out, and I thought Roger was too, until at some later point he made a reference to "his friend the professional percussionist" who could maybe come help us out.

"What are you saying, Roger?" I asked. "You want to axe my tambourine?!"

"Well..." he paused diplomatically. "Do you want the tambourine credit on the cd? Or do you want the song to sound good?"

But the latest decision is that it's staying, and so when you listen to the cd all of you who know me well can picture me perched barefoot and happy as a clam on a stool in the vocal booth, banging away with childlike zeal on the tambourine.

I then played my part on Roger's vintage Taylor guitar, a beautiful instrument and the kind I'd been dreaming about recording with.... on the night we received funding from kickstarter, I went to Guitar Center and into the room of old Martins and Taylors and played Adelaide and Break Me Down and wished to the Universe that I would somehow create that sound on the cd. And what do you know!

Anyway, I next did vocals and the song sounds great- all we need is for Luke to redo his part and it will be ready to mix! Then we did vocals on Sweet Tangerine- also ready to mix now, and The Train Song. I'm feeling good about everything and can't wait to release the songs into the world! But the process of creating them is also so much fun and I want to take my time with it, do it right, and learn as much as I can since I hope to be doing this again and again!

We reached a good stopping place after Train Song and I needed to go to the ATM to pay Roger for the session. He offered to give me a ride and as we pulled up the street, we saw Luke, who had just gotten out of work and was on his way to join us, striding across the intersection. We decided to harass him since we were, after all, in the heart of the notorious Tenderloin.

"Hayyyyy, SNOW BUNNY!!!!!" I hollered out the window as Roger leaned on the horn. Luke hopped in and we proceeded to go on a bit of an urban safari. The sun was out and so were all the crack addicts and people screaming to themselves and at each other and towing each other in wheelchairs and the like, and we took in the sights and talked about music until Roger pulled over at a curb.

"Where's the ATM?" I asked.

"Right over there, next to the person IN the garbage can," Roger said. "Maybe you should go with her, Luke."

So that marks the end of three full days of recording and I will certainly update you after the next session, hopefully next weekend!

LOVE,
Liz O

Overheard in My Head

So, I have informally diagnosed my inner voice with Tourette's Syndrome. It gets particularly belligerent, ornery, and verbally spasmodic when pre-menstrual, hyped up on caffeine, tired, or low blood sugar, and runs positively rampant when in a combination of two or more of the above. And let's face it; I am usually some combination of the above.

Except that last week, in coinciding with the break down of my computer, I decided to take some responsibility for my manic mood swings and try to cut out the sugar and caffeine, replacing them as much as I could with whole grains and chamomile tea. That lasted all of two and a half days, and on Saturday night I was returning from a long shift of work, and feeling the premenstruality set in, and so my shopping basket of Trader Joe's consisted of a bag of chocolate chips, a two dollar bottle of red wine, three clif kids granola bars (flavors: chocolate chip and chocolate brownie), and a personal frozen pizza.

By the next morning I was all hyped up and manic again, and flipping through The Joy of Cooking to see what I could create with my new chocolate chips now that I had already vanquished my Clif kids bars. I flipped through entrees, meats, vegetables, soups and stews, desserts, and confections as my inner voice became increasingly impatient. Finally, I flipped a page and my inner voice uttered a long, low, proclamation of triumph, hanging on and relishing every word.

"COOKIES. AND. BARS."

 Later, when I emerged from the Berkeley library at closing time, I was crashing from my bout of mania, chocolate, and caffeine. I had walked all over town and hadn't really eaten anything except chocolate chips all day, and now I was on the lookout for anything large and meaty. But I was in such an ornery mood that I kept rejecting every establishment I went into, because of high prices or hipsters or overly smiley waitstaff. (Seriously. Ornery.)

Then, I saw a bright yellow beacon of hope beckoning to me from across the street.

"SANDWICH ZONE?!?!?!?!!!!!" I said, aloud, and practically walked into oncoming traffic toward it. But the next thing I saw was "Closed" and I harrumphed (aloud, again) and did an about face and stalked off. It was about that time I decided I needed to eat something, anything, just to get a basic old on myself. And a moment later I found 5 dollar gyro sandwiches and it was prepared in minutes and was delicious, and I was still hungry and slightly ornery even after consuming it wild dog style next to someone's mailbox, but I made it the rest of the way home without any more major inner voice Tourette's episodes.

In fact, I cooked a delicious dinner and found a four leaf clover and made friends with my roommates, but that's a story for the next post! <3

Well, my trusty computer's back-light died and now the only way I can do things on it is by shining a spotlight at the screen. I was going to launch into a whole long story about the situation and all of the spiritual significance I see involved, but I'm too tired and plus I'm at the Berkeley library on a public computer and there seems to be this trend with people who use public computers which is that they typically have some form of cold and smell bad.

I was also going to add excerpts to "Domestic Goddess" and "Overheard in my Head" but those will also have to wait for later when I have my spotlight.

Blech! I'm outta here. It smells like old coffee and body odor and cigarettes.

Love, The Wanderess