Day five - bass tracking and such

Hey everyone reading this(and if you're reading this just after I posted it... what are you doing at your pc? It's a beautiful day, go out and enjoy the sun, maybe have a G 'n T at sunset. I know I'm gonna enjoy one on my roof after this)

Anyways, I digress. We had an off day from the studio which was much needed for me as I had some time to allow my ear to recover. Luckily I got to see my GP for the first time and he really worked wonders for me - I've got this weird solidified gel in my right ear at the moment and luckily for me I'm used to wearing ear plugs so it's not that uncomfortable, and has taken the swelling away. So I honestly feel like I've been reborn. I digress again... spent the off day at Waller's bday braai (happy bday Wallertjie!) and then Sash and Jem took Gordotronic to see the Dirty Skirts at Merc.

So to the studio, woke up super early and finished prep for my bassline I had to record for Jukebox. Juki wrote this really simple, rad bouncy bassline which I tabbed out from the midi version he wrote. Homework done I headed through a little earlier than the others to meet Fuzzy (head of Sound and Motion) at the studio. Rad recording with him again! I fixed up half a verse where I think I must have zoned out in "Morgan Freeman." It was kinda weird recording through headphones seeing as though I'm temporarily "deaf" in my right ear so was just hearing everything mono through my left ear. That was pretty simple so got that down by the time the dudes arrived. Then launched straight into my bassline for "Caroline." It's one of my favourite basslines on the album, very melodic but simple as well. The song itself is sounding super super awesome and mellow!

Next Juki and Scal added some extra guitar melodies on "Caroline" to give it an epic ending. Gordon moved a mic into the hallway just outside the live room just to give them a nice natural reverb. Then it was on to "Jukebox." The rest of the guys tracked all the basics (barring bass obviously). They approached tracking in a cool interesting way - we used Juki's midi version as a scratch track to get tempo and Gordo played the piano part, then Sash laid down the live drums, then Juki and Scal's guit. "Jukebox" has kinda turned into Gordon's baby and he had loads of ideas for filling it out so him and Scal worked on some rad textures and a cool leady solo vibe at the end. Which brings me to my Gordotron soundbite of the day: Scal was messing around with this bendy note thing and Gordo said "That's rock 'n roll. I'll give you R50 if you incorporate that into your part. Well maybe we can take it out of the management fund." Haha! Add some tasteful guitar feedback to the mix and the song is sounding rad!

To end the day off we tried to track the bass for "Jukebox." However I found out when working on it that Juki had written one note that's lower than the lowest note on my bass so had to detune my bottom string. That didn't really work so I tried Juki's 5 string. That also didn't keep it's tuning and we ended up tuning the 5th string up a note and putting foam under the 4th string to mute it. That was one weird experience - first time I had played a 5 string and in a weird tuning too! Fuzzy's gonna have a look at it and try sort it out for tomorrow. He's the bass player for Lark so he's got some experience dealing with bass issues.

A productive day! Slowly but surely the rest of the album's starting to take form. Loads planned for tomorrow but all will be reveiled this time 2moz.

Till then, get your hands on the new Julian Casablancas (Strokes singer) solo album called "Phrazes for the young." It's really awesome and doesn't sound like The Strokes at all.

Peace 'n all that,
K-man