In a way, meeting Stephen Barncard like this and having him produce our record in a relatively short amount of time is sort of like meeting someone for the first time completely naked.
It would be like... if you got a brand new recipe and taste-tested it by tasting each ingredient individually.
There were actually a few moments the first day that I worried that he would think we aren't very good or maybe even that he wouldn't like us as people or be able to work with us.
It turns out Stephen is a pretty wise and laid back guy and we've all been having a lot of fun together. Long days playing, long days sitting in the control room and playing back.. over and over and over again.
Stephen has compared the album making process to creating a cartoon of a performance. It's that ever-present predicament all different types of artists find themselves in... specifically for musicians, do you want your album to sound exactly like what you do live? Are you tailoring your album after your live show or vice versa? Or are you just going into the studio to make something that sounds neat?
For example:
Do we add drums on a song?
We never have drums at our show, but there are drums here and there are drummers. So if it sounds good on the track do we use it?
Most of all there's one main characteristic I wanted to focus on for our album and that is "honesty." And I think I want to spend the rest of our days here meditating on that.
In other news, we're doing fine over here! A good friend visited us yesterday and it was nice to have new energy in the room. Tomorrow we work again and then have a show in the evening. If you know anyone in the area, send them our way! We play at the Riptide at 730 PM- no cover.
I haven't had much contact with anyone from back home- I truly hope everyone is doing well. We had such a great time at Deb's for the send-off. We're doing our best out here and hope you all can get something out of it when it's all said and done. We're so thankful for all the support and encouragement that we've been shown so far.
I could write volumes about my thoughts regarding recording and San Francisco and music and album making, drawing cartoons, but honestly I'm tired from thinking about it all day every day.
Instead, I'm going to write a list of five of the best highlight-worthy moments of the last couple days:
Here we go:
1.)Tim making us pancakes this morning
2.) Kayla visiting us (and bringing us goodies!)
3.) I met a cute tiny little pup outside this morning named "Neenah"
4.) A person off the street followed me into a convenience store and stopped me to ask if I am Russian. I said, "No," and he immediately disappeared.
5.) We pranked Tim during one of his vocal takes... Jack turned on an effect that would switch Tim's voice to chipmunk mode on playback. Tim, of course, went along with it and played the part. He had the whole control room roaring with laughter.
Here we go:
1.)Tim making us pancakes this morning
2.) Kayla visiting us (and bringing us goodies!)
3.) I met a cute tiny little pup outside this morning named "Neenah"
4.) A person off the street followed me into a convenience store and stopped me to ask if I am Russian. I said, "No," and he immediately disappeared.
5.) We pranked Tim during one of his vocal takes... Jack turned on an effect that would switch Tim's voice to chipmunk mode on playback. Tim, of course, went along with it and played the part. He had the whole control room roaring with laughter.
Still rolling!
Good stuff, Sarah!
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