Tuesday
Apr182006
lying on the floor like a time machine
Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 03:51AM
It's 2:15 am and I just listened through the re-mastered version of my first record "Photographs" twice through, lying on the floor of the living room with the lights off and the headphones cranked.
Matt Odmark, who did the mastering this time (for the first time, I might add) did an incredible job. He made it sound like we knew what we were doing, which we most certainly didn't. The tracks really came to life under his skilled hands and I just regret that there are all those copies out there that don't sound like this.
Some things I learned, relearned, was surprised by, embarassed by and in awe of in the last two hours I just spent reliving a few years gone by...
Charley is, and has always been, my favorite sounding acoustic guitar in the entire world.
Cason is far more responsible for anything great I've ever done than he's gotten credit for.
Not knowing how to work your gear and knowing what is good and bad isn't a bad thing. There are things that happened on this record I don't understand. Part of me longs for the reckless abandon of having no clue what did what besides the sounds in my head and the melodies in my heart. Through some pretty cheap and crappy gear the ideas came to life in a beautiful way.
I used to sing way better than I do now.
Falling in love with my wife was a beautiful thing. Ours was not the smoothest of courtships, but I am so glad we were drawn to love each other and worked through the hardships.
Audio-Technica 4047s and 4033s are better mics than I give them credit for. All my favorite vocals on here were done through one or the other, and all of them were intended as scratch tracks that we decided to keep.
The best drum sounds on here were recorded in Cason, Weigel and my old apartment. Again, we had no clue. I can't believe they sound so good. A square, plaster room with, might I add, the world's most disgusting carpet.
I kept telling Josh Davis, who mixed it, to turn up my vocals louder. He kept telling me they were already too loud. I won the fight, but only because it was my record. He was right. The vocals are stupid loud. (But I still kind of like it)
The only good pre-amp we had on this record didn't work most of the time so we used cheap PreSonus BlueTubes for about the whole thing. Dang, they sound good.
I love my organ and my big, blue piano.
I still hate that spring reverb I turned up way too high on the lead guitar track of "When Will I Run"
I think "We Were Sure We Would Change the World" is one of my favorite recordings of any of my songs.
I really, really, really love making music. It is a Jacob's Ladder. A supernatural thing I can't touch or feel that brings me as close to God as I may ever get in this life.
I miss the Normals. Bad.
One of the greatest aches is a few moments after snapping out of a reverie. Maybe heaven is like snapping out of real life and into the reverie forever.
I've got to fix my Gibson Falcon amp.
I don't feel like I became even a very decent guitar player until about a year after I made this record, but there's some pretty great stuff on here. I have no idea how that happened.
Daniel Lanois (or maybe Brian Eno) once said "genius is knowing when to keep your mistakes." Call me Albert Einstein. (i.e. there are a lot of mistakes, but most of them are pretty cool...)
I loved that I kept being surprised by my friends' voices dropping in to sing a bit here and there. Jeremy, Matthew Jones, Derek, Alison...
The song "Photograph" almost made it onto the last Normals album. It was supposed to tie into the first track on there "I'll be Home Soon". The main melody of that song (once you're where you wanted.... da da da dum dum dum...) was used as a guitar and piano melody in this one. Ben Shive caught it. I wonder if anybody else did.
I hope my new one is as good as this one.
I miss those days, but if they came back, I would miss these so much more...
Matt Odmark, who did the mastering this time (for the first time, I might add) did an incredible job. He made it sound like we knew what we were doing, which we most certainly didn't. The tracks really came to life under his skilled hands and I just regret that there are all those copies out there that don't sound like this.
Some things I learned, relearned, was surprised by, embarassed by and in awe of in the last two hours I just spent reliving a few years gone by...
Charley is, and has always been, my favorite sounding acoustic guitar in the entire world.
Cason is far more responsible for anything great I've ever done than he's gotten credit for.
Not knowing how to work your gear and knowing what is good and bad isn't a bad thing. There are things that happened on this record I don't understand. Part of me longs for the reckless abandon of having no clue what did what besides the sounds in my head and the melodies in my heart. Through some pretty cheap and crappy gear the ideas came to life in a beautiful way.
I used to sing way better than I do now.
Falling in love with my wife was a beautiful thing. Ours was not the smoothest of courtships, but I am so glad we were drawn to love each other and worked through the hardships.
Audio-Technica 4047s and 4033s are better mics than I give them credit for. All my favorite vocals on here were done through one or the other, and all of them were intended as scratch tracks that we decided to keep.
The best drum sounds on here were recorded in Cason, Weigel and my old apartment. Again, we had no clue. I can't believe they sound so good. A square, plaster room with, might I add, the world's most disgusting carpet.
I kept telling Josh Davis, who mixed it, to turn up my vocals louder. He kept telling me they were already too loud. I won the fight, but only because it was my record. He was right. The vocals are stupid loud. (But I still kind of like it)
The only good pre-amp we had on this record didn't work most of the time so we used cheap PreSonus BlueTubes for about the whole thing. Dang, they sound good.
I love my organ and my big, blue piano.
I still hate that spring reverb I turned up way too high on the lead guitar track of "When Will I Run"
I think "We Were Sure We Would Change the World" is one of my favorite recordings of any of my songs.
I really, really, really love making music. It is a Jacob's Ladder. A supernatural thing I can't touch or feel that brings me as close to God as I may ever get in this life.
I miss the Normals. Bad.
One of the greatest aches is a few moments after snapping out of a reverie. Maybe heaven is like snapping out of real life and into the reverie forever.
I've got to fix my Gibson Falcon amp.
I don't feel like I became even a very decent guitar player until about a year after I made this record, but there's some pretty great stuff on here. I have no idea how that happened.
Daniel Lanois (or maybe Brian Eno) once said "genius is knowing when to keep your mistakes." Call me Albert Einstein. (i.e. there are a lot of mistakes, but most of them are pretty cool...)
I loved that I kept being surprised by my friends' voices dropping in to sing a bit here and there. Jeremy, Matthew Jones, Derek, Alison...
The song "Photograph" almost made it onto the last Normals album. It was supposed to tie into the first track on there "I'll be Home Soon". The main melody of that song (once you're where you wanted.... da da da dum dum dum...) was used as a guitar and piano melody in this one. Ben Shive caught it. I wonder if anybody else did.
I hope my new one is as good as this one.
I miss those days, but if they came back, I would miss these so much more...
Reader Comments (14)
You're not the only one who misses The Normals. Bad.
I bet the new album is even better than Photographs. I just have to wait a couple of weeks to find out...
And “We Were Sure We Would Change the World� *is* full of awesomeness.
I love this kind of blog post, too.
*coughs* NORMALS REUNION!!!!
I caught the melody from I'll be home soon in the piano on photograph... and so did my brother Zac... just so you know that you weren't the only one, there are some people out there who listen to you way too often! (I also caught "I will make the best I can" in photograph... that was always cool)
of course Ben Shive caught it. why wouldn't he?
What might a "Charley" be?
I know exactly what you mean about looking back on old recordings. Sometimes the stuff that you do when you have no idea what you're doing sounds better than what you do when you think you know exactly what you're doing. It's kind of humbling. A couple months ago I had the same experience listening to stuff I recorded for my band and some friends' bands about 4 years ago. I kept on asking myself, "how did I do that???"
I don't have your original CD, but now I want to get ahold of both copies so I can hear the difference. I love that kind of thing.
...And I miss The Normals, too :(
Andrew, this is a great read. Photographs is by favorite my favorite CD of all time. So painfully truthful and honest. I somehow get draw into "Kara" as if I was that boy. I never really had a Kara experience. Powerful song-writing. I did like your vocals a lot on this CD. Really a lot.
i messed up that sentimental comment with a bunch of typos. I am an idiot. sorry all.
i am listening to "new mexico", i want to cry.
I cant wait to hear both the new record and the remastered Photographs... amazing record, still remember buying it, talking to Andy at a Caedmons/Jars show and having him offer to refund me the money in the mail if I didnt like it... I liked it
I miss those days, but if they came back, I would miss these so much more… (great quote that I will use again somewhere)
"You’re not the only one who misses The Normals. Bad."
Preach it, brother Ron. :)
Here, here to a Normals reunion! Maybe even a reunion tour...and one that comes close to Columbus, OH. But I'm not biased or anything!