We had a good time on Sunday recording a whole slew of backup vocals for “The Edge of Forever” – me, Daryl, and a cast of thousands. OK, well, six, but it sounds like thousands. In addition to Lexi and Jen’s existing tracks, we added Daryl’s part and mine to complete the core band vocals, then added guest performances by John Young, Mike Moran, Seth Andrew, Tim Pollock, Steve Seel, and Marc Turina. So that’s ten voices on the song so far, with as many as nine more we still might add (though more likely just a few – more on that below). It’s already starting to sound like the cast of a musical…it just has that slightly theatrical “large number of men and women singing!” kind of vibe. Which is want I wanted – I don’t mean that as a negative. It sounds great.
I got there before everybody else so I could spend a little time and get my part right. Apparently I was having a good singing day (which is kind of like a good hair day, only with less hair and more, um…singing…) because I did my whole part in one pass and then added a little extra thing I wanted to retain from the demo, plus a harmony of it on top. So I did three tracks all within about 30 minutes, which is fast for me.
John and Mike arrived and were both commendably well prepared. We had two mics set up so everyone could have the option of recording in pairs—helpful for making people feel less pressure and getting twice the work done in the same amount of time. There was enough separation between the two mics that bleed was minimal, though there is some, of course; but for the most part each voice will have its own track. Not that it matters all that much – these tracks are all part of a big chorus sound so it’s not crucial that any one part be perfect on its own…we’re going for a net effect. It does make a difference when everyone sings well, though, and everyone did. Anyway, John and Mike chose to sing simultaneously and they had both obviously thought about and rehearsed their parts. They both went low – Mike singing the bass, sticking close to the low B, the root; and John starting a third above that. So they created a nice, low, manly harmony to complement the higher, warmer female harmony of Lexi and Jen. Immediately the end choruses took on a much fuller, more satisfying sound.
Daryl and Seth arrived just as John and Mike were finishing up, and Tim walked in a few minutes later. We decided to do Daryl’s part first. Even though he’d never sung on this song before, he knows it well enough that his part came easily. His role in the band’s vocal arrangements is often to double Lexi down an octave, and in this case his voice just went there instinctively. Someone remembered that he needed to be on the middle chorus too (unlike all the guest vocals, which are only on the end choruses), so we got that done and now the middle chorus sounds just right. Daryl got his part done fast, too, so we were establishing a good pace. I had been wondering how quickly we’d be able to work with all these guest singers, but everything ran smoothly and everybody knocked out their parts like pros.
By now most of the obvious harmony slots were spoken for, so we weren’t sure if there were any unique notes left for anyone to sing. I suggested (and Seth, listening closely, confirmed) that the only place left to go was the fifth, with the middle F# as the starting note. We sat with an acoustic guitar and mapped it out. In the end Tim and Seth decided to start on the same note but diverge on the 3rd chord, then come back together at the end. It sounded a little odd as they sang because when they diverged (warning: geeky music theory ahead) they were briefly singing a major 7th interval (Tim on low A, Seth on middle G#), which totally works when it’s blended in with all the other voices, but by itself sounds kind of strange. Seth was wondering if he was hitting the note wrong, and I assured him that he was hitting it perfectly – it was just that that interval, when sung correctly, should sound strange in exactly that way. In addition, what Tim was doing was kind of impressive: he had to let go of the main harmony note and drop an octave very suddenly to hit the bass note, then pop back up just as suddenly to hit the last few notes with Seth. That low A was the only thing missing harmonically and eagle-ear Tim spotted it and filled it. Like audio spackling! Tim is pretty amazing. Seth is no slouch either – they’re two very musically smart people who can sing, and they both did a great job.
So with Tim and Seth’s parts recorded, the group vocals were now really sounding nice and full. From this point forward, since there were no more unique harmony notes to sing, it would be a question of the rest of the singers either mirroring an existing part or “thinking outside the box” and coming up with something unique. Marc and Steve both went the more creative route, making up their own parts that will help sort of glue everything together and make all the voices sound more unified. It’s hard to explain what I mean by that without sitting with you with a guitar and listening to the song and actually showing you – but the crux of it is that to create a satisfying group vocal sound, you don’t want everybody singing the exact same parts in exactly the same way. You want some variety. You don’t want them all taking a breath in exactly the same spot. And so on. You want different, but complementary, patterns and rhythms. All hopefully on key, of course, but with lots of natural, human variations that taken together create a satisfying whole.
So what Steve did was start on the middle harmony (my part) but keep climbing at the halfway point instead of dropping as I had, and then in the second half double the lead vocal (Lexi’s part). So in other words he began by singing along with me but ended singing along with Lexi. It worked really nicely. Steve was in good voice and sang quite sweetly, and when we listened to the playback his voice nestled in among the others in a very organic way.
Next up was Marc. Marc is a bass player and came up with a cool sort of up-and-down melody, bouncing contrapuntally between two notes much as a bass guitar would. As with Steve’s part, they’re all notes that were already being sung by others, but not in that specific rhythm, so it added a new textural layer that gives the harmonies more “movement,” as Joe approvingly put it. So it’s a part that stands out, yet blends. Perfect!
Speaking of Joe Stile—a/k/a The Man To Whom We Are Increasingly In Debt, or if you prefer, the unpronounceable acronym “TMTWWAIID”—Joe did a great job at the helm and offered lots of good advice that helped us make smart choices about the vocal arrangement. Not to mention giving up his whole Sunday afternoon to hang out with a bunch of nerdy guys and a notable absence of hot women, which Joe is ordinarily surrounded by. So thank you, TMTWWAIID!
There were a number of people we invited who weren’t able to make it on Sunday and at least a couple of them will be recording with us this Wednesday. Scott Bedillion, the distinctive voice of Seven Color Sky, will be further sweetening the mix, which we’re very excited about. We’re also excited that the one and only Ronda Zegarelli will be bringing her magic to the song as well. Ronda sings like no one else and I can’t overstate how happy I am that she’s going to contribute to our CD. Our producer/engineers Jason Fisher and Joe Stile, too, of The Borderless Puzzle fame, have been invited to sing on this song and hopefully will be adding their tracks any time now. Hint. :P
There are a few others who have been invited to sing on “Edge of Forever” as well, who we’re still holding out hopes for, but who I won’t pressure by naming here. You know who you are! There is still time to make arrangments, but not much. We are shutting this operation down very soon and relocating for the mixdown to Fisher House, the Swissvale estate of Jen, Jason, and Lucy Fisher. It is there, in an underground cave, that strange alchemical phenomena takes place that results in psychedelic audio bliss so intense that the military has approached the Fishers with lucrative DoD contracts – Radio Halliburton, if you will.
And if I’m writing sentences like that, it means I’m delirious from hunger and need to go eat.
Till next time.
xo,
-Steve
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