Summer So Far

It's been quite a while since my last post. I've moved back home out of my dorm now that school's out, and I've been enjoying the summer break. I've had a lot going, but it's been good, and I've gotten in some good relaxation and fun too.

The first and biggest thing that I started work on was recording a band called This Is Luke. They're great guys that I met through my friends in The Following, especially DJ Lipscomb. DJ and I have started working together in my home studio (myspace in the works at myspace.com/beechcreekstudios) and we're able to produce some really good-sounding music.

Anyway, T.I.L. came for a few days right after school was out and did the first recording session, and then this past week they came for 3 more days to finish off the tracking. DJ and I are really excited about this album- it'll be the first full record either of us has produced, and the level at which we're working is the highest it's ever been. Besides that, the guys in T.I.L. (Kory, Luke, and Jay) have written some intelligent, fun, inspirational, and powerful songs that we can't wait to showcase.

During recording, we tracked drums, bass, guitars, and finally vocals in a whirlwind blaze of planning, set-up, tracking, re-tracking, and fine-tuning. We found ourselves returning to Moe's Southwest Grill for dinner (so amazingly good...) and making ridiculous jokes to pass the time and alleviate the stress that sometimes rears its head during the recording process. Everything went smoothly, though, and we had a great time together. The most amazing story from recording was earlier this week when we went to Bread & Company for lunch and Jay was cut in line by a guy who we learned was none other than power balladeer/Beavis & Butthead punchline Kip Winger! We spoke to him at one point, but he vigorously denied his identity. We looked up Kip's picture on google, though, and it was definitely him... Jerk.

We're now in the mixing stage of things, so it's not as much of a hard-line in terms of scheduling. I've started by working on vocal compositing (or "comping"). This is a process in which I sort through the multiple vocal takes we recorded on each song and find the best performances, assembling them into one great vocal track. Next we'll work on getting the overall levels of each instrument sorted out, and I'll pan sound elements to the side to add interest and space to the sound. Finally, DJ and I will make sure the songs sound the way they should. Tools like compression, EQ, and effects (reverb, delay, etc) will be used to polish the instrument tracks, and then we'l move on to mastering. When you master a record, you make sure that all the songs rest around the same volume level (so that you don't have one song a lot louder than another and burst your eardrums when you unexpectedly hear an unusually loud song all of a sudden) and make sure that the overall sound of each song fits with the album as a whole. This process develops the collection of songs into an artful, polished, unified work.

...And that's how you make an album.

Anyway, I've also enjoyed hanging out with my good friends from CPA, who are some of the closest I think I'll ever know. We've watched ridiculously bad movies and jaw-dropping season finales, engaged in ludicrous and philosophical conversations, hung out at each others houses and far too many parking lots, and generally had a fantastic summer so far. I'm excited what the rest will bring.

I know that I'll be spending the next few days working on some of my own music as well as mixing This Is Luke's record, and I'm pretty sure some more summer memories will be made. So far, the summer of 2007 has been a great success. I'm glad it's only begun!

-Robert

A brief post before bed:

I put together the flyer for Friday's show tonight. It came out well and I'll post it tomorrow. I started writing a new song with a sort of Latin/Muse-influenced feel. It's pretty cool so far, but I don't have any lyrics yet. We'll see how it comes out.

I'm still in shock at the shooting at Virginia Tech that took place this past morning, April 16, 2007. At least 31 people died, including the shooter. It's a great tragedy, the likes of which I hadn't expected and hope not to see again.

I hope and pray that we can support each other : the families, the students, the outsiders, and even the gunmen themselves. We are far from peace, but we need it above all else. May God grant it to us, and may we be responsible to love others.

-Rob.

P.S.
Stephen Colbert is the Greatest Living American.

What do you live for?

So it's 2:34 and I can't sleep.

Maybe it's the chocolate I had before bed.
Maybe it's the fact that I've been on a really weird sleep schedule lately.
Maybe it's that I can't shut my brain off, because The Nova Ray is playing our first show tomorrow.

Whatever the reason, it's kind of annoying. Also, it's kind of hot here in my bedroom at my house, and the thermostat is in my parents' bedroom, so I can't change it. (and yes, on the weekends I drive the whopping 20 minutes from my dorm to stay at home for most of the weekend. I have my family with brother and grandparents, a studio, and a lot more room than my dorm.)

It's been an interesting couple of days. I'm realizing that I made some scholastic mistakes and didn't take my classes seriously enough, so i'm gonna have to buckle down lke mad to pull out of this semester with the GPA I want. Jack and I covered "Whole" by Pedro the Lion this week and I'm definitely excited about how it turned out.I started recording an acoustic EP of some songs, but I'm gonna have to postpone that for now.

I wrote most of a new song yesterday and today. Let's see if I can finish up the lyrics here...

************************

A simple question --
But one with so much meaning underneath.
A cold confession
To stumble out from quiet, clenching teeth.
An intervention
To cast away the selfishness and fear.
A strange ascension
From everything that's low and dirty here.

What do you live for?
What makes you come alive?
What do you live for?
Is there anything that matters in your life?

Your ears are ringing
With every clash of confidence and doubt.
Devoid of meaning,
you wonder if this life's worth living out;
And pain is clinging --
The grip of iron and the weight of lead.
The sound of singing
can't even bring your heart to love your head.

What do you live for?
What makes you come alive?
What do you live for?
Is there anything that matters in your life?

Respect, attention, devotion, or love
The thrill, the power, what do you dream of?
New hope, lost peace, a broken-down wall
Pleasure or purpose or nothing at all?

What do you live for?
What makes you come alive?
What do you live for?
Have you found what really matters in this life?

**********************

-Rob

Let's see, since I last posted...
-I was on Easter Break
-I hung out with CPA friends who were back in town
-I ate some great sushi
-Will and I tracked some pretty cool drums for Indie Anna and Darkness Falls
-I saw Grindhouse with GJ (really fun movie!)
-Easter Break ended
-School happened

It was a good break, and one that I definitely needed. Very refreshing, and it was great to see the gang again. Summer is so close and yet so far away.

I'm really itching to finish my album, but there's so many other things I still have to do. We'll see how it comes together.

In other news, The Nova Ray is playing our first show this Sunday in the Kennedy courtyard! We're very excited about our debut, and hopefully a good number of people will show up.

Anyway, that's good for now. I'm out.

-Rob.

Easter Break: Day 1

It's been a busy time since I last blogged. I've had school to deal with (the end is near and it's starting to be crunch-time), projects to finish, and basically just a lot of little things I've had to do (from room-cleaning to getting my hair cut).

Anyway, I'm enjoying Easter Break now. I've done some more demo work in prep of the recording I'll be doing for Fender Bender this week. Tomorrow DJ's coming over to help me mix Austin's songs and some other stuff, record some things for my album, and get drums ready for recording. Will's coming in on Saturday to lay down the beats and I think we'll try some different mics and setups for the heck of it.

Meanwhile, I've been doing some re-writes and changing some instrumentations, and trying to catch up on some regular old fun times as well. I got to watch 24 (great stuff going on), listen to some great music on my newly replaced iPod, and hang out with my dog and family. It's good, and I'm glad I took today to relax, since I'm about to launch into studio work mode.

A fun idea I had that i may try tomorrow morning is to take my macbook, m-audio box, guitars, and a mic with stand out somewhere and record. (Thanks, Garageband!) I won't need any plug sockets and my batter ought to last for 2-3 hours if it's fully charged, so that'd be fun. Maybe out in some parking lot, a park, or in my backyard. who knows? I'm excited to give it a try.

Anyway, I have a couple things to finish up for the demo CD i'm gonna be giving Will later tonight, so I'm out for now.

-Rob.

Hey there,
Last night I put together a little video documenting the band's studio session. We had a great time being in RCA B, and much thanks goes to our friend Brian Staverovsky for asking us to record there for his Audio I class project.

Here's the vid:

Well I'm starting the day right -- cocoa puffs with milk and a bit of coffee while jamming the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Soundtrack. I'll only write short bit right now because I have class at 10 that I need to get showered and ready for.

The Relient K concert on Sunday night was really a great time. Preston, Tanner, Luke, and I enjoyed a great set by Mae, followed by another excellent show by the K boys. The "campfire" acoustic segment was really creative, and they played a good selection of songs, though I would have enjoyed an even longer set with more songs off of their 2nd and 3rd CD's. Preston and I helped to start a surprisingly intense and fun pit, too, so that was great. I haven't gotten to pit-dance/mosh in quite a while. Gotta go home injured.

Yesterday was the recording session at RCA B. It was a great experience, but i'll write about it later. i have some video/pictures to add too. For now, though, I need to get ready to start my longest day of the week -- 6 classes going from 10 to 6. Ugh.

Happy Tuesday!
-Rob.

First Post

Last night I was checking out (musical artist) Imogen Heap's blog, which documents the development of her upcoming 3rd album. She updates it daily with information on how the songs are coming along as well as anything else of interest that's currently going on.

I decided that I'd do the same. I'm in the process of recording my album Fender Bender at my home studio in Brentwood, and I'd like to document the continuing process, starting now. It's been a long time coming -- several of these songs were first drafted towards the end of my junior year of high school, and I'm now approaching the end of my freshman year at Belmont.

Thankfully, the time it's taken be to be ready for this album has allowed me to develop each song, write new ones, painfully deliberate over the tracklisting, and (hopefully) have the outline for this project.

I'll be blogging about how, when, where, with whom, and why I'm creating this album, and as a part of that process I'll probably include some seemeingly unrelated personal tidbits. Just weed out what you can.

Today I should have a bit of time to do some mixing and a bit of tracking before having to get my things together and head off to the Relient K show and then my dorm. I'll let you know about it tomorrow. Right now, it's time to go.

-Rob.