First we had to figure out which of the two versions of "Catch" we intended to use - we saved two takes from the session at Rick's. They were both good takes but we were unanimous that the 2nd one just felt clearly better. Hard to explain but it's one of those things you know when you hear it. Dave sounds great on this song, very rocking and in control of the whole kit à la Keith Moon. I've always thought the main guitar riff is kinda Who-like so that's appropriate. Rod did a really good job with the bass on this one too, so the whole rhythm foundation is totally solid. This song is gonna rock like hell if I may say so.
Lexi brought it just the right amount of attitude and sass. She sang it once through to warm up, then we "rolled tape" and once again she hit it right away. There was clipping (peak levels in the red where the signal distorts) on her track on the louder second half of the song, so Jason made the necessary adjustments and we went back and did the 2nd half again. Then we went back and listened to the whole thing, Lexi found a couple lines she wanted to re-do, we did those again, and we were done. (We might have had her sing the line "You can have me tonight" a few extra times...just for kicks.) Lexi is extremely focused and disciplined about recording. When she steps up to the mic she's all business. It reminds me of something I read recently in the New York Times, where Bono is talking about Frank Sinatra and being "in the moment":
"Fully inhabiting the moment during that tiny dot of time after you’ve pressed “record” is what makes it eternal. If, like Frank, you sing it like you’ll never sing it again. If, like Frank, you sing it like you never have before."Lexi fully inhabits the moment when she records, seems to be living the song in real time. Kind of like an actor who has not just memorized their dialog, but fully internalized it, so when the cameras roll it's like those words are being spoken for the first time, and the character is not a character, it's a person. So there's no reason to do take after take - it was perfect the first time.
I need to learn to record that way.
Once "Catch" was finished we moved on to "Edge of Forever." This one is tricky because there are a lot of dynamics, and overdubbing is difficult because the song was arranged by the whole band and we tend to look at each other and cue off each other when we play it. So, for instance, at the beginning of the song there's a chorus sung almost entirely a capella. When we recorded the backing tracks, Lexi sang a "scratch" vocal line for us to follow, and we cued off that. But to re-record the vocal for real, she can't listen to the scratch vocal because it would throw her off, but without it, there's very little else to cue off to make sure she lands in the right spot at the end of each line, if you see what I mean. So we decided to move on and record the main part of the song first, then come back and do the intro when the rest of it was done.
The verses came quickly and Lexi sounds angelic on them. Then we got to the chorus and hit a little speed bump. When I wrote the chorus of this song, I was aware even then it would be a beast to sing. Not because of the melody but because there's nowhere to take a breath...the lyrics just keep coming at you and you have to get the entire first two lines out in one breath, then take a deep breath and sing the last two all the way to the end. After watching our lead singer make several valiant attempts to sing the chorus all the way through without stopping, we decided to break it up and have her sing the two parts in separate passes. People do this all the time when making records, so if it's "cheating," it's a very common, standardized form of cheating. Hell, even Johnny Rotten sang the verses and choruses in separate takes on Never Mind the Bollocks, so if it's good enough for Johnny, it's good enough for us! Anyway, it worked like a charm and we got a couple of choruses finished before our time ran out.
Another good session! We're humming along nicely.
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