Tea and Adrenalin

Yesterday, was our first day of recording. I mentioned that I had a sore throat. It vanished completely with the aid of massive quantities of tea and adrenalin.

The recording process itself, went over fairly smoothly. We did an average of two takes for each song. (Some we did three takes for, some we got through with one go.) We managed to record seven songs total, though we may go back and redo one of them today.

We’re recording this album in a fairly unconventional way. These days, when a band goes into the recording studio, they lay down a scratch track and then each person goes into the booth to record their own part. It’s extremely time consuming both to record and then later for the sound engineer to mix, but ultimately there’s no denying the quality of the recording. However, with this album we wanted to create something intimate, something that sounds like we actually sound (rather than the cleaned up stepford version of our sound), where we’re sitting in the studio together feeding off each other’s energy. Also, we figure if Hot Rize can do it, why can’t we? (And if anyone has not listened to Hot Rize’s new album When I’m Free, you need to stop reading this blog and listen to it right now. It’s pure genius. Also, while you’re at it watch this video about the process of making the album.)

So we spent the day sitting in the recording studio (actually my bass teacher’s living room, with the walls covered in foam padding and the windows covered in blankets.) each voice and instrument with its own microphone and played. And it was fun and sometimes magical and oh so gratifying to know that we had set a goal at the beginning of the summer to get to a point where we could in November come into the recording studio, sit down and play and get things recorded without wasting too much time and money on mistakes and now we’ve achieved that goal. There’s nothing quite so pride-making as achieving a goal. And believe me I am proud. I’m proud at how far we’ve come. I’m proud of the sound we’ve managed to create. I’m proud that I’ve managed to keep up and that I haven’t given up as I’ve done with oh-so-many instruments before. But beyond being proud, I’m happy. Happy to be playing music with people I care deeply for. Happy to be sharing that music with others. And I’m hopeful that I can continue to do so for many long years to come.

For more information on Miners Creek Band visit our website here. You can also find us on Facebook and on Twitter @minerscreekband.

Thank you for reading.