one more day

We've got one day left over at House of David. After this we move into the overdub stage, which means individual parts one at a time. This will mainly take place here at my house, though Cliff and Danielle will do some vocals at Josh's in Houston and we'll probably do some percussion over at Garett's place. Ah, the joys of ProTools...

I'm so wiped out after a day of working. It's a big band and I'm trying to do more than four things at once, it seems like, so I get home and realize I honestly haven't stopped for a minute the whole time I was at the studio. It's just go-go-go. But that's great. I love it. It's the good kind of worn out. Some songs have really surprised us. I can't wait for you guys to hear this stuff. I know I keep saying that and I'll try to stop. I'm not able to give you any yet, so it's just mean. What I can do is show you some photos...

This is me and Vance, who helped us get sounds the first couple of days...


Garett, me, Andy Hunt (our engineer) and Jeff at the console. It's a glorious 32-channel API board. I want it in my basement. Or my living room. Really, I just want it in my life.


Garett, looking very excited between takes.


Todd and his monstrous kick drum (and a few others...)


The obligatory "I Love Guitars" shot.


Yes, this happened.
And yes, that is my dad.
And yes, we're doing what it looks like we're doing.
And yes, we're also running a mic of this through my guitar rig.
With wah pedal.
And yes, it sounds more amazing than you can imagine.


(many thanks to Todd Bragg for some of these photos)

tired day

It's probably all the sugar cookies and birthday cake, and the fact that we played Guitar Hero for like five hours last night, but today is a "tired day". You know what I'm talking about. The kind of day where everybody's yawning pretty much all the time. You still get stuff done, but it pretty much just feels like the day is just some time between sleeping.

House of David

We started work today on the second of two weeks of major tracking for the new Caedmon's Call record. The first day is always spent, for a band our size anyway, just setting up gear, choosing the mics and mic placement and what equipment you run it through, all that stuff. It's fun, but in a sort of geeky way.

We're working at a place called House of David. It's got some connections to Elvis, though I'm not sure what they are. Except for the trap-door. I'm very sure about that one. Apparently Elvis used to record right down the street and that studio would often get mobbed with fans, so this place built Elvis a basement-entrance garage with a trap-door that opens up in one of the tracking rooms. This way Elvis could escape from the crowds to come in and work. That's the story anyway. I've seen the trap-door, though. It rules.

Our friend Vance is helping us set up and get stuff rolling sound-wise. He's great. He has a shaved head, a giant beard and a salt-water pool. Andy Hunt is the main engineer for this week. He just recorded and mixed the last Glen Phillips album, as well as Matthew Perryman Jones' Throwing Punches.... and a slew of other great stuff. He's hilarious and has a great ear. It's going to be a very fun week.

The biggest news, though, is that tomorrow (Friday, the 16th) Ella turns two. Years old. Birthday. Yes. I don't think she totally understands it yet, but she knows that she's cupcakes are involved. And the Happy Birthday song. And that all her grandparents will be in town. It's going to be awesome.

Here's a picture of her from yesterday. She's coloring on the left-over lyric sheets from the first Caedmon's session a couple weeks ago.

I Don't Know

Ok, so I know it's been WAY too long since I've updated the Drawing Board page. And I know I said I'd try to get you a clip or demo or something from the new Caedmon's record.

Well, today I'm doing something about it.

This song is one that I wrote for the new record, but I don't think it'll make it. You never know, though, so we'll see. Anyway, I wrote this after a conversation Cliff and I had about war, pacifism, Southern Baptists and the fact that we continually feel how we know less and less.

And yes, the first verse is a true story. The "Mark" refers to Mark Lockett from the Normals and the "we" refers to Derek Webb and me.

HERE IS THE SONG. It's called I Don't Know

And here are the lyrics...

it was the haunted-most house
in the great state of California
we were peering through the windows
not believing but a little creeped out

and we never heard him coming
Mark can be so quiet when he wants to
he screamed and we ran
and he laughed and we were turning red

cause it can be anything
that shows me

I don’t know
so many things I don’t know
I don’t know
so many things I don’t know

and we’re not the only nation
who thinks that we are always the good guy
who prays
and believes that God is on their side

you know it’s hard to sleep
when you’re living in a frightened country
to kiss my girls good night
amid the rumors of war

it doesn’t take very much to show me

cause safety is an idol
the easiest to worship
and we can hide our secrets
beneath a banner or a flag
cause to love my enemy
means an awful lot of questions
and I know You’re the answer
but I don’t know what that means

think I'm going to turn my ticket in...

Random bits about the past few days from a sleep-deprived songwriter waiting to board a flight home at Midway in Chicago…

- Omaha and Lincoln both share a wonderful street-naming structure. North and South roads are numbers, East and Wests are letters. This is wonderful for a guy with no sense of direction and a rental car. As I’ve said before, I’m fascinated with cities and how they become what they are. I couldn’t stop wondering how you go about starting this. Do you start at A and 1? Cities grow out in all directions unless there’s a natural border like a river or a mountain. Do you make the initial center of your city the intersection of M and 25th? I think I would. But what do I know?

- I got a great deal on a Priceline rental car. It was a little Chevy Malibu. I don’t think I could ever drive that car for longer than a few days. It’s so tiny that I had a hard time seeing around the rearview mirror. Weird, I know.

- I still really love The Cardigans. The second half of Super Extra Gravity is just wonderful.

- You know the girl who was famous for the Dorito’s commercial where she did flips or something?

I sort of do. But she was right behind me in line at the Nashville airport a few days ago. I googled her to find out why she was famous (which probably means she really isn’t…) and discovered that she married the guy who played Slater on Saved by the Bell for like three weeks. I always hoped he’d end up with Lisa Turtle, so maybe it was all for the best...

- I just sat on a plane next to a fellow from Ohio named David. He reads this here blog and is currently on tour with Jars running the Blood:Water booth. I’d never met him before, though we had recently traded e-mails about some pretty cool t-shirts. We had a little ipod switch, I heard a couple of his songs and he got a sneak listen to some of the in-progress Caedmon’s tunes. It was nice to have a good conversation on a 6 am flight.

All right, we’re about to board. Tootle-oo!