What’s he building in there?

– Tom Waits

Hi Friends,

I’ve been carrying on with a foot in two worlds: Summertime is nigh. With its arrival each year, it’s always hard to stay in studio rat mode. While I’ve yet to take the live rig to the park, there’s been no shortage of barefoot hangs in the local grass. It feels so good to sit under the trees again. That said, I am still in studio rat mode. The new recordings are going so amazingly well. I’m finding time to be parkside and in the studio. There’s a rhythm to it all. Finish work, get outside for a blast of sunshine and earth, grab dins, walk, sit on a bench and yell at the clouds and/or hold court with the locals, head home, fire up the gear as soon as I walk in the door, and get down to it.

There are nine new songs in the works. This week saw me writing a strings intro and a piano part for Hideaway, the last of the acoustic guitar-based numbers (there’s one full piano composition on deck that’ll be the subject of its own blog, very excited about it!). The strings bits came smoothly and mostly fully formed. The piano part is another story. I banged it out piece by piece. It’s interesting, being the guy writing and performing everything. I’ve always had band envy, the practice of rehearsing a song together til everyone gets their parts really tight before recording. I occurred to me this week that I’ve been lovingly getting the different parts together as though I was a member of a band playing his instrument. The depth of energy it takes to be the one writing and playing everything means taking time. I let the parts simmer. Listen to the dailies. Keep nurturing the notes and delivery.

In this recent case, with the piano on Hideaway, I’ve gone deep. The better part of the arrangement licks came freely. When it came to the break, I knew how I wanted it to feel. I banged it out. It was full of clams (bad notes and obviously mistakes), but the feeling was there. I knew where I wanted it to go, but the technique it required was beyond me. Today’s technology would allow me to piece together the parts with mouse clicks. I’ve done this sparingly in the past, it’s handy. I made a conscious choice to not do that here. I decided that I wanted to sit with it, to rehearse and develop the part til I could lay it down with groove and conviction.

It happened. And it was worth all the effort. As a result I’m a better player. A better arranger. More tools in the toolbox. More art in the art house. So good.

Here’s a bit of the outro from last night’s session. Hope ya dig…