I once watched a doc about Cirque Du Soleil. In it, they talked to the chap responsible for setting up the tents. As with any proper engineering, he mentioned that, if the measurements were a few inches off when he put the first stake in, the whole kit would be off by a number of feet when they got round to lining up the final stake when the circle was complete. Enter Tattoo, the fourth song off of Stereophile, my new record and accompanying book.

Tracks and book are well in hand. I’m in the final stages of mixing the eight tracks on the record, after which I’ll send them off for mastering. I’m in the final stages, or so I thought. You see, when I started recording Tattoo, I didn’t heed the placement of the first stake. Originally, I ‘d tracked the main acoustic guitar part, then set about arranging strings. “This needs some percussion” I then thought, so I laid some down. “This needs some bass” I then thought, so I laid some down. These were originally intended to be sketches of ideas, but they sounded good, so I started working with the performances as finals.

At some point, weeks ago, I realized that not everything was locked together as it needed to be. There were a few Fuck Mes thrown about. I think I threw in a few For Fuck’s Sakes, too. Because the parts sounded good sonically, I started to edit the wobbly bits, to try and make it all cohesive. No good ever comes of this, as any recording artist/engineer/producer can attest. Then, Hallelujah! I thought I nailed it. I laid down keeper vocals, gave it a week to breathe and went and had a listen. Not only did the vocals not pass muster, especially compared to the Quality and Love in all the others on the record, but the final stake was a few feet off regarding the arrangement. There were more Fuck Mes.

So, back to the lab. While the rest of the project is in the final stages of mixing, Tattoo needs to be restructured. I’m over the Fuck Mes now and resigned to getting down to it and doing the song, a ballad in three movements, the justice it deserves.

Record and book release date TBD. I’ll keep ya posted.

Thanks for reading.

Love,

K. xo