DAY 3 - Back in the studio

It’s late and I’m tired. I worked on the webpage again most of today, then spent the past 5 hours in the studio working on “One for Me.” That’s commitment baby. Take a quick break for bathroom and to get some food, then back to the grind. I’m lovin it.

Basically, before I start working on a new album, I’ve gotta give some love to an old project: The Two Miles Away album. Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely proud of the CD I made 3 years ago and did nothing with, but I’m a lot more grown up now and my musical tastes have changed too. It’s been long enough that I think I’m finally able to look at those old tunes objectively and breathe some new life into them by way of tweaking lyrics, tightening up arrangements, and making them more radio-friendly.

Seems like a good idea right?

It’s Pandora’s box — I’m telling you. And I opened it up — called up Steve at DRS Recording back in TX and asked for my old raw studio tracks.

Now keep in mind this guy’s busy. He records bands in his studio 6 days a week nonstop. Raw audio files can be several gigs for one song. That’s a whole helluva lot of music files to clog up your computer. But, true to form, Steve said he had everything archived on DVDs and would do some searching. Six weeks and a hundred bucks later, I have my old studio tracks…

Fast forward to the here and now. I passed them off to my new producer and engineer out here in L.A., Marc Jacobs. He’s the man. You’ve probably heard some of his stuff and not even known it. He composes all the music for Fox’s TV show “Bones.” I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I’ve seen enough to know the man has talent.

I think it was Ben Folds who spilled the beans when he said, “Some producer with computers fixes all my shitty tracks.” (And you thought he was a phenomenal piano player who never made any mistakes.) But boy, ain’t that the truth! Remember when I said ‘Pandora’s Box?’ … Well, that box is my old studio tracks. Going back and listening now, they’re OK. Decent. But sloppy.

Not radio quality. Not even close.

So far Marc and I have spent 8 hours in the last week picking One For Me apart, putting snare back on beat, tightening up the bass lines, and don’t even ask about my guitar track. We’ll just say I re-recorded it.

That was a pain. Nowhere near as fun as tracking a new song like “Out of my League,” for instance. But I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat and here’s why… (Get out the pen kids, this is important)

A good song deserves a fighting chance. In the world of ClearChannel Radio and over-saturated pop tarts, you gotta bring your A-game. Anything less and you’re thrown to the throngs of obscurity or (best case) “One-Hit-Wonder-dom.” OK that’s a long way of saying, if I want to salvage the old record, it needs a little work. Those are some of my best songs and I believe they deserve a fighting chance.

And so it goes… Still working on the old songs. To catch some of the new material, you gotta come to the live show. Just as soon as I book some…