Fires Which Burnt Brightly

It's A Wrap

The week I completed the mixes, the final tracks were sent off to be mastered. My brother Vince has done our last few records. I know he'll preserve our intent, and fix any problems. The idea is to not have any problems, but there is always something that you hear later. I only had one issue to report. The first pass showed up a couple of other areas where some work was needed. The results are what I was trying to achieve with this album. The running order and the flow are the last artistic element we can apply. If you've been following this, you'll know there were several changes in the running order before it come together. It was something that was constantly being examined right up to the very last minute. 

There are several competing forces involved when sequencing an album. The harsh reality is reviewers and radio programmers might only listen to a bit of the first song to decide if it is a keeper or if it goes into the trash. If they like the first song, they still may only listen to a few seconds of the next two. If you put the three best songs at the front, is the rest of the record going be less interesting? An album needs to tell a story, with a beginning and an end. The lp format allowed you to break up the story into two parts, or four if it was a double album. The Beatles "White Album" is a classic example of this. With that many varied songs, you know there was a lot of thought put into the sequence. I like to think of a CD the same way. Each "side" is a complete thought, and the two sides taken together should be a satisfying musical journey. The other consideration is the pacing of the tracks. For this album, I felt like it needed a "musical" space between songs. It wasn't going to sound right if he songs were right next to each other, with no gap. for some reason 2 seconds is the digital default. I decided to listen to each transition andwork it until if felt right. A mock up cd and notes were sent to Vince, who then fine tuned the spacing.

Meanwhile, Tom Azure was working on the delivery of the cover art. He's got a good eye, and understands the printing process. The duplication broker doesn't like Photoshop files as the final format. There are good reasons for this. I'm fine putting together the design, but I would never pretend to know how to work In Design and Quark. He worked to make sure the design would translate to print as intended. I he had the tools and software to make it all work.

The turn around from the time our duplication house had all the files to the delivery was quick, and everything was as promised. This is our first attempt at using an all cardboard package. Jewel cases are an unfortunate choice made by the music industry when the original specs for the CD were developed. There is now a trend away from that. I have never felt that the Digipack was the answer, still too much plastic. In the last few years, the "mini album" has become popular. I like this, as it gives some  of the feel of a vinyl lp and there is no plastic involved other than the disc. Unfortunately, doing a vinyl release is prohibitivly expensive. The added shipping costs we meant having to sell them for $30. I honestly don't feel modern pressing quality is anywhere near as good as it could be.

Now it's the task of getting copies to the ditributors and sending out press and radio promos. These days it's a lot easier to find people who might actually play these new releases and listen and consider writing a review. There are fewer print mags left, but there are plenty of webzines and blogs to fill some of the gap. I'm sending out fewer promos than we have in the past. It's reallyl a matter of getting them into the hands of people who care.

The weeks between the completion of the album and the delivery of the finished cds was not a quiet time. The Soul Movers had two shows booked for the middle of August, and I was assigned the keyboard duties. The task of learning 15 songs in a short time, when there was little time to spare was daunting. The songs all had some interesting twists as I found out. Once I sat down and spent some time with the music, it did start to make sense. When we looked at the schedule, it was obvious I was only going to get one or two rehersals with the band in Billings. I knew once I was in the room and got the feel of how the arrangements had been adapted, I would be ok. Nothing had strayed too far from the recorded versions. I just had to find what parts fit, and what I was going to play on each song, organ, piano or percussion.

By the second day, I was starting to loosen up and dig in to the songs a little more. Everyone seemed happy, and the rough spots were smoothed out with just a few serious discussions. It was a gas to be playing live again. The all keyboard position was something new to me. A few songs featured keys, so I had to get my parts right. Back in Bozeman, I spent a lot of time playing through the set, trying to get it embedded into the memory banks.

The Billings gig was at the Railyard, a nice size club with a large stage. After some confusion is was agreed that the Soul Movers would play the first set. Thinks got off to a shakey start, microphone failures and a few fluffed chords. As the set progressed, we started to all come together, making the appropriate sounds in the right places.

The Bozeman show at the Filler featured two out of town bands, New Faces from Seattle and The Racquet from Missoula. It proved to be a strong bill, and the Soul Movers held their own. Tonight was a much better show for us. By now I was comfortable with the songs and was able to play around the songs, and interact with Deniz and the rhythm section. The small crowd was appreciative and made the show an enjoyable event.

Making music is the fun part of the process. The headaches involved in the duplication and printing process are minor compared to the satisfaction knowing the problems have been solved and the album will be delivered as planned. All this is part of the responsibilities of running the label. Once the cases of cds have arrived, the next steps are a bit more mundane. Filling the orders for the distributors, creating the CD Baby pages, bundling up the promos will take up most of my time for at least three weeks.

In the back of my mind, there was some concern about the mailing list data base. The list was created when we started Career using Appleworks, a now obsolete program. It was also clear I would need to update our contacts. To complicated matters, Appleworks had lost some of it's essential functions when I did an OS upgrade and I wasn't sure if this OS9 software would work with my printer.

The first task was to cull our mailing list, and check to make sure all the remaining contacts were valid. Magazines and web sites seem to come and go at an alarming rate. In the end, I removed over 100 entries from the list. I also discovered that I could in fact print labels on the new office printer.

Appleworks Data Base was a very well designed program. You can easily convert a spreadsheet into a printed layout, by simply choosing a different view. While discussing my problem with Karen, she mentioned that Word also had Avery templates. I'd never run across this function and didn't want to have to interrupt the promo project to learn. In the end I managed to get mailing labels printed and the 200+ press kits mailed out. Before I put it away, I decided I had better move the data base to something a bit more robust. One of the problems with the crippled Appleworks was the inability to export the data. Attempts to cut and past from the spread sheet view would cause the program to crash. In a fit of desperation, I took a look at Excel and Word to see if I could make sense of Microsoft Office. Success. Unlike Appleworks, you need to merge data from a spreadsheet into a Word document. I spent an afternoon experimenting until I was satisfied this would work for me. This meant I might have to re-enter all the data by hand. In a last ditch effort, I tried cutting and pasting from the "browse view" in Appleworks. While this meant copying the entries line by line the program didn't crash. I did another round of updates as I moved the data to Excel. While researching radio contacts, I found a web listing of all the non-commercial radio stations in the US.This proved handy, and offered some insight into the state of college radio. I had to be sure a station had a show that played similar music and might be familiar with Donovan's Brain, Deniz Tek, Roy Loney or Bobby Sutliff. If they met this basic requirement, they were added to our list, and sent the new releases. I also poached a few contacts from indy promo man Ray Paul's emails.In true Microsoft fashion, the Data Merge function was not without it's own problems. At least the list is now updated, in an easy to use format. It'll be a while before I will need to do a complete mailing, so I can forget about it for now.

 

July - Finish Work

Only one song remaind to be mixed as we neared the end of June. The song now called After The Final Sequence began it's life around the end of the sessions for The Great Leap Forward. The original track is found on a reel with the demos Colter recorded for Great Leap. At this point it was a a much longer piece, with the title Home Again. All Fall Down and Following Orders did make the final cut for that album. Also on the reel are I Saw Your Light and the sketch which eventually became Carefully Considered Answers. Nothing goes to waste.

I really don't remember when I started work on Home Again (aka The Overture), but it must have been after Great Leap was completed. I can't imagine writing such a complicated piece while still trying to get the initial three Career Releases finished. Whatever the case, it was an attempt to write a songs with several sections. The front part was the only bit that was ever worked out to my satisfaction. It looks like Jeff added bass in October 2005. I never felt confident enough to ask Ron Craighead to play drums on it. As it happened, Seth came to town in 2006 and needed to borrow our drums for a recording project with Michael Wentz.  In return, he agreed to do some recording for me. When I explained to Seth that this was just an overture to a longer piece, he suggested just leave it as a stand alone piece. That seemed like a better idea, and after that point work was done only on the first three and a half minutes of the song. When it came time to present material for the new album, this one was on the list.

The guitar solo was a tortured process. Richard Treece had a go at this when he did overdubs for Echoes. There was some conflict in the studio, and he was never able to get more than two passes at it, and he still seems to be coming to grips with the complex changes. In a brave moment, I asked Tweke Lewis, yet another Manband refugee, and former lead guitarist for Wild Turkey. He did a test recording, but also seemed unsure of how to deal with the song. Soon after that he relocated to Dubai, and never made any further attempts. In the end it was Deniz who was asked to fill the gap, and as expected he agreed. His first suggestion was to not attempt to play over the first half of the song. Good idea. It's a long series of chord changes that never repeat. The second half just vamps on one chord. I was told to flesh out the first half with keyboards and strings. There was some talk of getting Pip Hoyle to play piano on this, but that was never pursued. The results were very good, and helped define the two parts of the songs much better. While searching through my files, I did turn up a first draft of lyrics for the middle section of the longer version of this song. I may have even attempted to sing them. Must investigate.

Note: There was in fact an attempt to add lyrics to the "song" part of this long piece. I don't seem to have spent too much time on this effort, but it does suggest a return to this would be in order.They lyrics are good enough to try again with a new bit of music. The demo seems a bit like a forced marriage.

When I was preparing the tracks form Mike Musburger, and decided we should put a fresh  drum track on this one. This wasn't the fault of the original performance. I figured it would be best if the drum sounds was a bit more consistent across the album. At the very last minute I came up with the idea for Mike to play the second half with mallets. This performance opened up the sound during the solo section changing the mood dramatically.

The mix didn't take too long, Much of the time was spent cleaning up the tracks, and fixing a few problems. Eight mixes were completed, but only two were ever considered satisfactory. The last one features a bit more delay on the guitar solo and small adjustments to the bass track.

With this one complete, it was the first time all the mixes were compiled and reviewed. The results were very close to our goal. Since our trip to Seattle, I was sure I wanted to return to Carefully Considered answers. After the first two or three tracks were mixed, Jason Lytle loaned us a reverb from his studio. We had used this to great success on Roy Loney's record, so I was glad to have it back in the studio for the duration. With Jason out on tour, I knew I would have it until the album was completed, and beyond. The classic "echo" sound was achieved by feeding a chamber with a tape delayed signal. That separates the reverb from the source, giving a bit more clarity. If the delay is timed to the song you can get a dramatic effect. The Wind Cries Mary is an example of this. At Abbey road this was referred to as STEED, Single Tape Echo Echo Delay. The tape itself also adds to the effect. Once we had this set up, I knew we'd use it on everything.

Carefully Considered Answers has Colter and myself singing in unison, with Lila added another note to the group. The original mix was fine, but the vocals didn't seem to blend like I intended. A second attempt would also allow me make sure I was happy with the guitar mix. Deniz and Bobby play a very complex riff, in harmony. The balance is critical, and I wasn't sure I nailed it ont he first pass. Today was occupied with several issues related to the cover art so work on this didn't start until later afternoon. Just then a summer thunder storm blew in, requiring a quick shut down of the studio. As I was about to run off a test mix, Tom Azure called with several important questions about the cover art, and timing of the delivery. The remix of Carefully Considered Answers should be completed tomorrow, the last day of June. Before I was done with this remix, I decided to deal with a nagging issue. When we put the track together, it seemed long enough, as the plan was to fade the song. When I did the first mix, the fade always felt abrupt to me. I had asked Ron to play out past where the guitars had stopped, which he did, but he added a fill which suggested and ending. As an experiment, I added 8 bars of the backing track, two cycles of the riff, before the final one. This proved to be fairly easy, and dramatically improved the fade out. The wonders of digital recording. This edit meant I would need to mix the song yet again, before I could start work on the final remix.

The other song I decided needed a remix was The Same Mistakes. It was the first of the Mike Musburger track mixed. When I reviewed the final mixes, this one which will be the opening track seemed to lack the punch of the rest of the album. I managed to put together a new mix in just a couple of hours on the morning of the 4th. When I played the album for Deniz, I realized I had buried a small but important guitar part at the end of the song. It was easy enough to remix the ending section and edit it on to the master, but after that I still had some doubts about the vocal balance. I've done some serious work on the five vocal tracks, and got a balance. I will run off the new mix in the morning, when the ears are fresh. A few other adjustments were made which should give the song the muscle it needs to kick off the album. As you may well guess, if you can't grab the listener's attention with the first song, you might as well go home. 

When I returned to Billings on Monday, I still wasn't satisfied with the progress on Same Mistakes. We listened to the mixes again, and it did sound fine, but there were some details I felt I could improve on. The interaction between the drums and bass on this song are very important. Mike is pounding out a very simple four on the floor beat, but the pattern has a nice swing to it. Bob Brown plays a busy part over this, so the balance is crucial. It wasn't until Thursday that I felt like all the problems were solved, and I could finally declare the album done.

There was still a full day of house keeping to prepare the materials for mastering. As mixes were completed I was compiling a master disc, which had the final running order, spacing and fades. I would need to collect all the raw mixes, with out fades, plus all the songs with fades matching the mock up I'd assembled. Late in the game I had made one final change in the track listing, moving Green 17 to the number two position. On Saturday the eleventh, I put the files and a mock up audio disc in the mail, so it was now finally out of my hands.

After eighteen months of non stop work, it was time to clean up the studio and put everything away. I would also need to back up the album files to permanent storage. During the course of this final project I finally found some demos and early takes I had been looking for. I've posted a couple and will add a few more once I sort them out... check back.

June: Towards Completion

June was meant to be the buffer in the schedule. As it's turn out, the extra month was needed. At the end of May, it had become apparent, an important piece of gear in the studio was failing. When I returned to work after our short holiday, the MOTU box died, stopping all work on the record until it could be replaced or repaired. In the end it was a case of both. A replacement was found on eBay, and the faulty unit was shipped back to MOTU. The used box arrived with in just a few days so I was able to get back to work.

The first task was to revisit The Same Mistakes, the last song mixed before leaving town. There were a couple of issues I wanted to correct. During the course of the remix, I noticed an annoying note on one of the tracks. It was the right note, but the was it was played made it stand out in an unflattering manner. It was easy enough to replace it with the same phrase for the second take. Once I was happy with the sounds, it was time to call it good, and move on, after a nearly three week break.

The next two songs came together fairly quickly. Broken Glass Corner is another one of mine. I'm still not sure when or how the music came about. The intro section has been around for a very long time. Every attempt to build a song around it had failed, but at some point I returned to it and had most of a new song completed in short order. So fast, I hadn't written out the chords. There were also two sections of the song that were left to be determined at a later date. My guess is the music was recorded early in 2007. This song was on the original list of potential material. The lyrics came later, I think from a dream I had in early 2008. The trick was to find the melody and phrasing that would fit the track. In the end, it was assembled in one session. If I remember correctly, I considered cutting out the bridge, as I didn't have a good idea to work with. The results weren't any better, so the bridge section was revised for the first time. The song remained in this form for about a year. I added a guitar solo too. Not too long before Mike Musburger was to arrive, I decided the bridge wasn't working as an instrumental section, and wrote a new part. This new arrangement would have drums playing through the 12 bars. At the last moment possible, I found the lyrics for the bridge and added a vocal. I also decided my guitar solo wasn't as good as I would have liked, and asked if anyone else wanted to have a go at it. Bobby thought he might want to try, so it was put on his task sheet. This is where it stood when the drums were added...You can listen to the original demo here:  

Bobby Sutliff contributed two songs to the new album. A third was discussed, but we never pursued this one. You Gotta Go Now was sent over, in the Spring of 2008. Bob's demo was complete and easily could have appeared on his last solo album, On a Ladder. The note accompanying the demo invited us to "do what ever we wanted with this one". This is the usual Brain process, so I set out to learn the song, and record a working demo. In an attempt to shake things up, I created a Ringo inspired drum loop to play over. As I played the song, I could hear a descending lick that could follow the intro riff. Deniz came around shortly after and I ran the song past him and asked if he had any ideas. He played through the changes a few times, and finally announced he wanted to change two chords. The pattern was repeated twice, and he felt the substitution would make it a little more interesting to play. We sent this new demo back to Bobby to continue working on. His first reaction was surprise, but he did like the lick I had added. He wasn't so sure about the new chords, but once he started work on the song, he agreed it was a good decision. With the initial guitar overdubs added, You Gotta Go Now was put on the back burner. Early this year when it became apparent Mike Musburger was coming over, I asked Bob to add a guide vocal and guitar solo. A proper bass part was added to help Bob sort out the vocal. The temp drum part was heavily syncopated, and gave Bob some problem.

I explained to Mike what I had in mind for the song. I had mentioned to Bobby, my drum loop was an attempt to capture the feel of Tomorrow Never Knows. He laughed and sent back the demo with Ringo's TNK pattern looped underneath our track. With the information, Mike came in with a part that captured the feel of my concept, took out some of the syncopation that was causing Bob some concern. Tambourine and claves were added by Mike to help glue the whole thing together. With the drums finally on the track, it was sent back to Ohio to be completed. On this end, I added some mellotron, and worked out a backwards guitar part. This is always a fun challenge. It requires learning the chord changed back to front, and then playing against the track while it runs backwards. It took several attempts to get the right sound. In the end, it was a Epiphone Casino,  a Beatles mid 60's favorite, that gave me the sound I was after. I recorded several passes, and then compiled the best lines on the master. Bob meanwhile began work on the final vocals. His first efforts were hampered by a bad case of the flu. Unhappy with the harmony part he had another go which expanded the idea to include some Beach Boy harmonies, and  a track treated with the ADT process, another authentic Beatles effect.

The complexity of the track made this one a challenge to mix. After several attempts we finally all signed off on a mix, only to have Bobby express doubts the next day. I had begun to change the board over for the next song, but was able to restore the settings with out much trouble. A new final mix came together quickly. Sometimes it's best just to start all over again, rather than making endless small changes. In this case the remix was far superior to the original. The main difference was the vocal balance and EQ. The end guitar solo also caused some concern. I discovered the bass was too loud on the final section, and was what was forcing me to push the guitar up too loud. Once with was sorted and and some elements in the track brought up to the proper level, the guitar was much easier to seat in the mix.

Bobby's other contribution was a track with no lyrics. Just a few days before I had written out a long story that would become the lyrics for a song I called High Street Hit Man. I entertained the idea of composing a mini-opera, like the Who's Quick One While He's Away. When Bobby's track arrived, I decided to edit my lyric idea to fit his arrangement. The only change I made was to rework the second chorus into a bridge.  If you listen closely, you will discover it is the same chord structure, just played with a different timing. I might have added a couple of chords to make it resolve. We continued to work on this right up to the very last minute. Deniz and Lila added background vocals to support the chorus. The verses still seemed a little naked, so I had Colter come in and double some of the lines of the verse. This gave it a nice texture.

When it came time to mix, I realized there were now 8 guitar parts and seven vocal parts to mix. Mike had taken my suggestion that the drums could hint at Keith Moon literally, and given us an explosive drum track. I was stunned when Bob Brown came in prepared to play a very aggressive bass line to match the drums. There is a lot of love for the Who in the Brain camp, so this was a joy to hear come together. Most of the work on this mix was trying to get the rhythm section to lock together. There was a lot of energy there that had to balance. The layers of guitars weren't all playing at the same time. Each part was pretty well thought out. Once everything was brought up in the mix, I did edit out some of the guitar, to make sure it didn't become a muddy mess. The vocal parts were also heavily arranged, so it was only a matter of finding a space for everything. The bridge was a different matter. I tried several ideas and effects before hitting on an idea that worked. Just a week before I had commented to Bobby about the heavy vocal treatment on one of Tim Lee's Windbreakers songs. By trial and error I had stumbled onto something very similar, and it worked. I liked it so much I used it for the rocking outtro. It only took four tries to get the final mix. Again it was the case of returning to it the next day to make the final adjustments. This is probably the only song on the album on which all four singers in the band appear together.

This song was inspired by classic Toy-Town psych songs like Except From A Teenage Opera, and bands like the Kaleidoscope and World Of Oz. The Who influence  comes from the period when Townshend was writing songs like Dogs and Now I'm A Farmer. The orignal idea was to have the story told by three different characters. When I editied the lyrics to fit the structure, some of the distinction was lost, and the point of view shifts abruptly. It still tells the story I wanted it to.

May For Mixing

At the end of 2008, I worked out the schedule we needed to follow, in order to meet our release date. I booked the whole of May for mixing, which is pretty generous, but in my past experience, it always takes longer than it should. When I did the Man's Call Down The Moon, there were only three days to mix a very long, and complicated record. It got done, but Another day or two would have make a couple of songs better.

Here we are, Wednesday May 6th, and two songs are in the can, and the third one nearly done. I've put it away for the night, and will return to it in the morning to give it a fresh listen, and have a closer look at a couple of licks that needed some attention. This seems to be the routine. This morning I ran off an alternate mix of Carefully considered Answers, with the snare pulled down a touch. Deniz had already given his approval, but I just wasn't sure if I'd got that bit right. Easy enough to run it again with the change. We can choose later.

At the moment, I'm working on the songs Ron Craighead drummed on. Four of the five were Colter's songs, which have all been completed. I Saw Your Light is boasts the highest track count, but I had it pretty well worked out. The challenge was finding the right effects. I had some ideas to add delays on some of the complimentary parts. Pianos and guitars answer each other on the verse. In the end there are four piano tracks. Jason Lytle added a little flourish that answers the main piano. There are also two electric piano parts.  As the day proceeded, I ran into a couple of annoying technical issues, that sidetracked me for two hours. Once that was solved, My 2 MXR Flangers decided to give me trouble. These haven't been fired up for a while, so dirty contacts cause a fault. The distraction did give me time to listen to the song over and over, which will either drive you crazy or inspire a new idea. It was a bit of both today.

Thursday 7 May
I Saw Your Light was completed in the morning, then an afternoon vocal sessions with Lila. This will complete her work on the record. Colter had to postpone his scheduled session due to unforeseen circumstances. That just leaves one more vocal overdub on Wooden Horse, while we await files from Bob Sutliff and Tony Miller. At least seven of the songs are complete and ready to mix. At the moment it seems like it's moving as fast as it's gonna go. Jason Lytle dropped by for a few minutes and had a chance to listen to I Saw Your Light. He fully approved. His small contributions added just the glue needed. He had come around to drop off his Demeter Spring Reverb, which had been a very helpful for the mix of Roy's album. He left with some bits of the GLEA house drum kit which he would need for the West Coast leg of his May - June tour.

While talking to Jason, Deniz called to say his planned trip to Michigan had been pushed back, and wondered if he could return on the weekend to help mix his two songs on the album.This is an unexpected turn of events, and most welcomed. So far he's been sent all the final mixes, and given his ok. In the case of his own songs, I'm sure he'd be much happier to have a hand in the effort. It makes it easier for me too. I don't have to wait for emails to get instructions.  Mixing is often a matter of details, not grand moves. Making decisions based on mp3s heard on computer speakers is not ideal.

Saturday 9 May
Deniz arrived late Friday, and we managed to stay up pretty late, talking and listening to music. By the time we dragged ourselves out of bed, it was late in the morning. Breakfast, coffee and a quick visit to the music shop preceded out start. The whole processes nearly came to a complete halt when an important piece of gear failed to turn on. When it became clear, I was concerned about the fate of the day, Deniz decided a run would be a good idea.  I'm not sure what the problem was, but a lot of swearing, and plugging the interface into a different power strip solved the problem.

First on the agenda was Thinking About Neutrons. This number is the odd one on the record. Several years ago, Deniz handed my a sheet of lyrics and asked if I could write some music. The song was inspired by a large Rick Griffin poster in the studio. The first attempt at a track was rejected, so I put it aside for a while. It looks like the second version was begun in May 2005, based on a series of drum loops extracted for the tracks recorded for the song Penny For Your Thoughts. The main theme was played on electric piano. Over time, bass, grand piano, and synths were added. Before Deniz returned to Australia at the end of last year, I suggested we put his vocals on the track. He also added electric and acoustic guitar and a load of percussion. As the album neared completion, I returned to this to see what else it might need. At one point I had tried to add a percussive synth track. The idea didn't pan out, but the midi information remained. I decided to see what that info would do with different patches applied. I ran through a dozen possibilities, and found something that worked. Next was a bit of mellotron strings, which would echo the main melody. When Deniz did the guitar overdubs, we decided the track could end about 2.30 into the 4 minute long song. I added one chord that resolved the ending a little more clearly.

What we did with the mix was mostly Deniz ideas. I just make it happen. It didn't take too much work to acquire the sound we were looking for. The results left us laughing. I think it's the perfect epilog for the the album.

Vanished is Deniz other contribution to the album. There were some technical considerations when mixing this. It's stands apart from the others for several reasons: it was recorded at Bob Brown's Dump, Tony Horton plays the drums, and its the hardest rocking song of the collection. I had done a rough mix of the track with all the overdubs, so I know it was going to work, and the sound wouldn't be radically different from the rest of the album. There was one issue we did have to deal with, but it was an easy fix, I had set up an amp to remic the snare if we would want. This is just sending the signal back out to an amp, and bringing back that signal into the mix. I put a noise gate on the returning signal, which gave us the necessary "crack" the original track was lacking. After this, it was a fairly simple matter of balancing the five guitar parts against the rest of the track. It took some delicate moves to get the power from the guitars, yet still make room for the three vocal tracks. After two hours of adjustments, we recorded a test mix and took it up to the sitting room for a listen. The results were surprisingly close to our goal. I suggested taking the guitars down a touch, and then add a little more bass as needed. Ten minutes later we had the final mix.

I'm sure we were both amazed that we had managed to complete what could have been two days work by 8pm. Six hours to mix two songs is very good by anyone's standards. This gave us the freedom to have a long late dinner, and then stay up late with a stack of singles spinning on turntable, and a nice bottle of vodka. I was relieved that we had even got started, with the near fatale equipment failure. The results were more than acceptable, and put us at the half way point in the mixing process.

Mixing is a mysterious process. Recording the parts is fun, and often a relaxed mood when it's going well. When it comes time to mix, there is a lot more attention paid to every detail. There is often serious debate over small changes that most people wouldn't even hear. Given the raw material you have to decide what to do with it. There is an arsenal of tools in the studio to enhance or radically alter the sounds. The processes is also subtractive. Some choices had already been made over the course of the sessions, but a lot is left to be decided at the mix session. The feel of this album has been dictated by the songs we chose to record. I tried to narrow down the song selection early on. There was only one spare song recorded, though a few others were on the original list. This made it easier to deal with the fact that there were four song writers, who all have very different styles. It also meant there would be some continuity and a unified sounds across the album. Through the recording, I assigned the players some very specific tasks, but left it up to them to solve the problem. As a result, there weren't a lot of extra note played. There are a lot of guitars, and plenty of solos, but words George Harrison were often spoken. The challenge was to create a collection of songs that represented what Donvan's Brain does best, and to not repeat ourselves.

May 11
The two days with Deniz left me pretty well wiped out. It was all I could do to sit down in front of the board and set up the the next songs. Last Acid Rider is the last of the six Ron Craighead played on. It seemed to make sense to mix all of them in order. This is also the first of my songs to be mixed. There is a lot happening on this song, so the first task was to see what might not be necessary for the final mix. Most of original guitar is now redundant, as Deniz and I have added some new parts that carry most of the weight. Bob Sutliff had recently completed the end solo, which changes the dynamics of the end section considerably.The new background vocals that Deniz and Lila added really help chorus section. Now it is a matter of finding the right treatment for the lead vocals. I messed with the intro riff that is suppose to suggest the sound of racing down a dark desert highway. I don't know if I succeeded, but it sounds good. I have some ideas for the ending, but I'll need to get the overall mix sorted out, before I can tackle the complex ending idea. Work will continue tomorrow.

May 31
Last Acid Rider proved to be as difficult as expected. Several days were spent trying to work out the proper sounds. Bobby's guitar solo proved to be rather spectacular. Deniz takes the first solo and Bob does the end one. I think you'll love this major blast of guitar. With this one in the can, it was now time to switch over to the Mike Musburger tracks. Mike used a smaller kit which required resetting the board. He also used three different snare drums on the six songs, and approached each song with a different style of playing. This will require some extra work to get the sounds for each song.

I chose to start with The Same Mistakes. Before I started mixing, I decided to add a tambourine. I thought doubling it might be clever, but in the end, I just used one track. The rest came together pretty quickly. The hardest part was blending my three vocal tracks with Cotler and Lila's  background parts. There is also a complex string part that answers the vocal line in the verse. It was a trick to make sure it was heard clearly, but didn't step on the vocal. With that one done, it was time to prepare for our trip to Seattle. This would be a good break from the studio, and give me a chance to hear the completed songs out side the studio.

I had hoped to return to work today, but an important piece of equipment had failed, leaving the process dead in the water until ti can be repared or replaced. This may upset the schedule, but we still have a few weeks before I have to change the plan.

June 6
A replacement for the crucial MOTU 24 i/o has been located, and should be installed later in the week. By coincidence, Bob Brown is preparing to reconfigure his studio and called asking about the gear necessary. This would mean we could easily move projects between his studio and GLEA.

Annual Board Meeting And Beyond April 24-26

This proved to be another productive meeting, and another major week for Donovan's Brain. I hadn't seen Deniz since last November, when we recorded in Billings. Deniz is now back in Montana until the end of the Summer. Den's visit coincided with my radio show. We met up for the traditional pre-show lunch at Casa Sanchez, and then up to campus. I was pleased to host the world premier of the Soul Movers new album, tentatively title Play Me. The second half of the show was an extended conversation spiced with a lot of our favorite records picked to keep the chat lively.The complete play list can be seen here.

One of the bits of news Deniz revealed was the recent discovery of "all" the Radio Birdman multi tracks in the Albert Records archives. This apparently includes the sessions for the Burn My Eye ep, both versions of Radio's Appear, some live material and video tape. Deniz said there were several songs that were tried out, but never released. Also in the mountain of 2' reels were the New Race tapes. At this point there are no plans other than to attempt to catalog the contents.

I had planned a family dinner for Saturday, so it was decided we'd take a walk down to the Emerson Grill for dinner after the radio. It seems like we had a great time, and as usual, we were given the special treatment by the always friendly staff, and Robin, the owner. The fun didn't stop there. Deniz shared his newly acquired The Rolling Stones Tour History Vol 5 DVD with us. Amazing footage of the band from their earliest days through 1968. The highlight was the Rock And Roll Circus footage, some not on the official release. A few of the clips featured unique backing tracks, most notably an early performance of Satisfaction from the Shindig TV show. With a busy day planned for Saturday, we wisely turned in before we polished off the bottle of vodka.

Before we would start the sessions, I thought a visit to Music Villa would be a good idea. An Ampeg Reverb Rocket caught our attention, so we hauled it down to the studio for a test drive. The sound of Den's Dan Armstrong and this amp should have been amazing, but a fault in the amp made it unusable for the session. No worries, there are plenty of amps in the studio for our needs.

There were three songs that needed some more guitar overdubs. Colter's ballad, I Saw The Light was the first one on the list. I wasn't sure if there was a need for a solo, but I figured it was worth the time to find out. As Deniz warmed up, he tried several different ideas. As is often the case, the original concept was discarded and was replaced by a much different approach. This will appear on the final mix. Next up was Bobby's You Gotta Go Now. Again, I had an idea I wanted Deniz to try. It didn't take long to realize it had to be something simple. Taking a cue from the previous nights Stones fest, Den decided a bit of Parachute Woman was the answer.

I had been asked to add some piano to the middle eight of Vanished. I tried some ideas, but it was decided this wasn't what the song needed. When I was doing the 12 string overdub, I got it in my head baritone guitar was what would work. I have a Subway NOS Danelectro bass I bought years ago. It never quite did the business, so when Paul Rose gave me a set of baritone strings, I knew exactly what to do with them. I played this guitar on Roy Loney's record, but it hasn't seen much use otherwise. Den claims he did know I owned this beautiful guitar. I handed it over to him to tune, and went and got a sound on the amp for the solo. By the time we started to run the track, Deniz had a good idea for the part. It only took a few takes to refine the idea. In a reckless move it was decided to double the track. A couple more takes and the guitaring was done.

Meanwhile, Tony Miiller's vocal overdubs for Broken Glass Corner arrived in the mail. It seemed like a good time to take a break, download the files and return the amp to the shop. We hung out while Paul Rose attempted to track down the problem, but no one was satisfied that we could fix it. Despite the low low price we were offered, we went home empty handed. The new vocal tracks were listened to, and we agreed that Tony had given us something special. It is a pleasure when someone knows what is required and does it so well.

I don't think Deniz has sung any backups for us in the past. He of course sang the lead on The Ballad Of Where's Jim, and Vanished on this album. I always think it's good to try to get everyone on all the songs, and background vocals is a great way to tie everything together. Lila had sung a few words on Last Acid Rider, but I could hear Deniz in the mix. He got into the spirit of the song, and spent a fair amount of time working out a part. High Street Hit Man took a little more work, and I was afraid Den's voice would give out before we got it nailed down. Again, his contribution was just what the songs needed. This early conclusion left us plenty of time for a cocktail before Max Tek was due to arrive for dinner. And dinner it was, a mountain of pork ribs, and some nice wine. the reward for a job well done.

The detail work will continue over the next two weeks. Tony Miller, Colter and Lila all have more work to do. Bob Sutliff should complete his tasks in this time. It's now time to make the final corrections on the liner notes, and start the duplication process.

While digging through files, I've just encountered a folder from almost a year ago to the day, April 26, 2008. There are 14 demos and basic tracks for the proposed album. It is surprising to me how close we were to the final concept even then. The only songs lacking are Den's Vanished, and Bobby's You Gotta Go Now. Three songs never made it to the final stage, though 4 Trials was recorded at the end of last year at the same session as Vanished. At that point it was no longer on the short list, but since we had the opportunity to cut the basic, it was recorded. Defeat Of Echoes and this one were both recorded with a pretty specific goal in mind. Fires Which Burnt Brightly feels like it has been a more focused affair. I suspect the only difference is that there were no limits imposed on the material accepted for Echoes. The songs were rehearsed and arranged by the four, or five of us in the studio.

The new album was written with the understanding it would be a more compact affair. This suited me just fine, as I missed the song oriented approach of Shambaholic/Carelessly Restored Art. I also missed the control I had over the proceedings. I've always been happy to give everyone free rein with their songs. This has produced some fantastic music. Defeat Of Echoes was the ultimate expression of that sort of music making. This time around, I wanted to return to my original method of making records, but so much had changed since 1993-4. There are now four committed song writers, who share the same ideals and must work under the same time and space limitations. This individual approach to recording could result in something less than desirable, but the main players in Donovan's Brain are all experienced in making their own music. I just use my own experience to glue it all together. Of course we'd all love it if we could all spend a year in the studio together at EMI's expense. With day jobs, kids, wives and lovers, this ain't gonna happen. Not to mention the demise of EMI I doubt anyone today can imagine a band making two, maybe even three albums a year. I can't. This is the record we make over this year and a bit. It's been a while since we made the last one, but in my mind, it's a non stop process.

Spring 2009: Fortune Smiles Upon Us A Second Time

Last summer, Deniz invited us over to Billings for a dinner party, prior to heading back to Austrailia. Besides drinking and eating, he wanted me to meet his friend Bob Brown. Bob is a Montana native, and a life long musician. He toured with Deniz on the Vertical Tour in 1992. They also had a local band in Billing for a short time. I don't know if Deniz had already decided that Bob might fit into the Brain format, but he had suggested we talk about our recording studios to see if we could easily exchange files.

In the meantime, Deniz had offered the Radio Birdman out take, Vanished, as his contribution to the Brain album. There are two demos, an instrumental version recorded with Ron Keeley and a Zeno Beach demo with Rusty on drums, and a vocal attempt by Rob Younger. I learned the song, and worked up my own demo, and suggested a Brain like approach to this tidy little song. Deniz agreed to try this, and suggested we record it in Billings with Bob, and Tony Horton. This would give me a chance to work with Bob and have a look at his studio. I'd known Tony for a long time, but I'd never seen him play drums. I figured we might be able to have go at my song, 4 Trials while we were set up. I had already decided that this wouldn't be on the album, but an extra song is always handy. A few days before the session Den said he thought an instrumental version would be what he wanted to do. I had other ideas, and asked that he prepair some new lyrics. Vanished would be a part of the song cycle on side two of the album, and would need to continue the theme. A week after the session for the basics, he returned to Bob's for vocal and guitar overdubs. After recording the vocals, Den decided he wasn't happy with the lyrics, and set out to write a new set.This was accomplished just before he left again, at the end of the year.

Bob and I now needed to work out a method to get the session tracks off of his hard disc recorder and over to GLEA to be completed. The first suggestion was for me to take the Fostex back to Bozeman. At this point, there was more work to be done in Billings, so a more practical plan was needed. It turned out there was a simple way to do this, but it had never been necessary for Bob to work this out. I had talken a quick look at the manual, but Bob didn't have the required software to connect his recorder to his PC. It took a some trial and error before the transfer was successful. By this point, it was clear Bob would be coming to Bozeman to take care of our bass needs. I had left him a collection of rough mixes, so he knew what he was getting in to. His busy schedule meant he wasn't able to commit to a session before the end of March. In the end, this proved to be a lucky break, as were were able to finish recording the drums before he would arrive.

Only one day would be available to complete the work on seven songs. This wan't an impossible task, but meant some serious preperation would be required. When he arrived on Saturday evening he expressed some concern about two of the songs, and asked I save these for last. In the end, there was little reason for worry. We worked for 10 in the morning to nearly 7 in the evening, with a couple of breaks. Bob had learned all the songs, and had great ideas right from the start. It was then just a matter of refining his parts, and adapting them to the new drums on the tracks. I had recorded scratch bass on all but one of the songs, but there was never any suggestion Bob had to learn these parrot fashion. He was expected to work out his own ideas. Right from the start it was clear he had done his homework well and would be making a considerable contribution to all the songs. While recording Vanished, he had come up with a clever arrangement idea, so I knew he could think under pressure.

By the end of the session, we were both exhusted, but excited by the results. Bob asked if this days work earned him a membership in the Brain, to which I quickly agreed. Little does he know we hand out memebership cards like Halloween candy. With the work done, we were able to enjoy our dinner and drinks knowing we wouldn't have to go back to work later in the evening.

Over the course of the drum and bass sessions, I was compiling ideas and noting where repairs would need to be made. The new rhythm section recordings "opened up" the tracks considerably. After living with the drum loops and temp bass for the better part of a year, it was now finally possible to hear the spaces in the songs, and to feel the give and take Bob, Ron and Mike had added to the songs. While working on rough mixes, I found myself removing some of the guitars we had recorded and they were no longer necessary to carry the songs. Our method of recording is a bit like sculpture, you start with a lump of clay, and removed all the excess material until you are left with a thing you can call art.

The month of April will be dedicated to the final overdubs. Bob Sutliff has been sent several tracks to work on and I've been busy with overdubs on several tracks. Vocal sessions are being arranged. Lead vocals have been recorded on all but one of the songs. Bobby wanted to hear the final drums on his tune, You Gotta Go Now, before he attempted the vocals. I will be returning to a couple of songs to try to bring my parts up to snuff. Colter should be in to add some background vocals to a few songs he's not played on yet. I have also talked to my friend Lila about doing some vocals. She seemed willing to try. She sings in the church choir and the local symphony. Plus she's a big Kinks and Beatles fan. There may be a few others involved with this detail work. Much will be decided next week after all the rough mixes have been completed.

The first weekend of April was spent running off quick rough mixes of all thirteen songs. At this point, I'd not heard Vanished with Liz's vocals. There were three tracks recorded, but no notes indicating what was the intent. Taking a cue from Deniz, I opened up all three vocal takes and listened to each one, a phrase at a time. In the end, a spectacular comp track was assembled. I had floated a few ideas about how this song should work, and this vocal line fulfilled the request. I don't want to give too much away, but I can say, the inspiration for this arrangement is a band both Deniz and myself share an appreciation for.

As soon as I listened to the ruff mixes, it was clear we needed to do a few repairs. I rang up Colter, who came around and did a bit more work on Carefully Considered Answers, and added his voice to The Same Mistakes. There are a couple more I'd like him to sing on. We will probably get to those in the coming week. I returned to a couple of songs and got the vocals into acceptable shape. This now meant we were ready to see what Lila could do. She's never sung on a rock record, and here only recordings have been as part of a group, so this was all new to her. It only took a few minutes for her to grasp the concept and methods. We worked on four numbers, and rehearsed another one to be tackled later. The welcome addition of Lila to the mix helps fill the gap left by the loss of Megan Pickerel, who has moved back to Seattle. Lila brings her on style and skills to the table, giving us much needed trained voice which serves to glue together the rest of us.

We are also excited about some unexpected assistance from Tony Miler. Tony is the lead singer for the fantastic band, Ideal Free Distribution, a band based in Kentucky. I was introduced to Tony by our mutual friend Valis. You can read reviews of the two IFD albums on the Career reviews page. While talking about making records, Tony generously offered to lend a hand if needed. I had considered asking him, but was reluctant to add another name to the work sheet. He's currently studying the five songs I sent to him to consider.  Meanwhile, Bobby Sutliff is digging into his list of finish work which included guitar solos on Last Acid Rider and Broken Glass Corner. Final vocals on his own You Gotta Go Now are currently being assembled. Deniz will be here this weekend to review tracks and add anything else we need from him. If all goes well, we will be into mix mode in May as planned.

The running order of the album has been set for a while now. There are several considerations, the primary goal is to create an experience that has some unexpected twists and turns. You always want the listener to wonder what could come next. We also have to take in consideration there are four songwriters and on this record, five lead voices. It has only been recently that we heard all the songs with final bass and drums in the order they will appear on the record. Now it would be possible to get a good feel for where the songs, as part of complete work, are at. - Update- As soon as I said "the running order is set", I had a major revelation, and decided to shuffle the tracks a litle.

While others have been adding additional vocals, I've been applying some sonic textures and colors where needed. You Gotta Go Now saw the addition of some strings, and backwards guitar. Thinking Of Neutrons also had some more keyboards added. The song only uses about half of the original track I recorded. There was a natural break where Deniz suggested we fade it. The addition of a final chord now gives the song a proper ending.A complex plan for the ending of Wooden Horse is being avoided at the moment, but will be sorted out in the next few days. There are probably a few percussion bits to be added, but this can be done when the studio is set up for mixing. It's not uncommon to keep adding material right up to the very last moment. Only one or two of the songs have maxed out the track count.

It is entirely possible we we be done at the end of next week. Colter and Lila are scheduled to come to add their final contributions. Bobby has nearly finished his work. Tony Miller has just sent over his first attempt, and been told to continue at full speed. Deniz may have some ideas when he visits the studio this weekend. He is prepared to do what ever is needed in the two days he'll be here.

Spring 2009: Fortune Smiles Upon Us

Every Donovan's Brain album has been a unique creation. We never start with any set ideas, just the desire to write and record some new music. Tiny Crustacean Light Show and The Great Leap Forward were the product of non stop recording that spanned a two and an half years. When we finished, everyone was ready to do yet another album. The one request was that it would be made by the core band, working together on the arrangements and playing out live. The results were sharp contrast to the previous two albums, which were recorded with an ever changing group of musicians passing through the studio. There never was much of a chance the new album would be created the same way as A Defeat Of Echoes. Jeff Arntsen had moved back to Seattle, and without Jeff it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.

When Colter and I first sat down to discuss the new album, we both agreed we would aim for a collection of compact tunes. We didn't want to attempt any of the long sort of compositions that were part of the Echoes package. Four lengthy pieces had been recorded though only two appeared on the final cd. The most successful of these, Dim Gem has only appeared on the Dream Magazine compilation and only half of the long version of Control is heard on the DVD.

Most of the first Donovan's Brain album Carelessly Restored Art was done by myself, with the occasional help from Colter and friends. It was evident the new album was going to at least begin in this fashion. I figured we could record the tracks using drum loops and add real drums later in the process. One advantage of this method is the final results would stay true to the original intent. It also meant we would avoid the scheduling conflicts which can make group sessions nearly impossible sometimes. Right from the start Deniz was on board and soon after, Bobby Sutliff suggested he'd like to be a participant. This now meant there were four song writers involved. This fact would further support the prime directive for this album.

Ron Craighead was committed to the new album, but never participated in any of the sessions before November 2008. I wanted all the songs for the album to be in presentable shape, music and vocals, when he came in to drum. I had sent him progress reports and solicited comments, which he freely offered. As time progressed, it became clear Ron's limited availability was going to make hitting our deadlines very difficult. Two and a half months after the first session, only five songs had drums. This left six songs still needing his time and only a few weeks to complete the work before our final deadline would pass. To make matters worse, Ron's was now fully occupied with the annual KGLT Fund Drive, which is followed by his annual trip to the Utah desert. Bob Brown had suggested I might talk to one of a number of drummers he knew in Billings. We had already brought in Tony Horton to cut two tracks with Deniz and Bob. Tony is a fantastic drummer, but the logistics of setting up two full days of recording would not be easy.

Just when our plans were looking shaky, we were once again blessed with the good fortune that seems to strike just when help is needed. Donovan's Brain have had a long time connection to the Posies. Joe Skyward was a member of an early Brain variant and Ken Stringfellow had mixed the Eclipse And Debris album. Mike Musburger had been the drummer for the Posies in the early 90's, appearing on their first two major label releases. Mike had also spent time with our friends the Fastbacks and more recently Sgt Major. He's also one of the first call drummers in Seattle with a long list of credits. On a whim, I dropped Mike a line and asked if you would want to drum on our record. I was surprised when he wrote back and said he could, if I could find a studio in Seattle to do the work. Then in the next breath, he mentioned he was going to be in Montana to play and asked if his gig was anywhere near Bozeman. As it happened, it was in "the neighborhood". After giving it some thought, I asked Mike to put us on his schedule, and we worked out the details.

He asked to hear the songs, and for me to send over production notes. I sent over the five songs I had for him. Feeling optimistic about the time we might have, I also sent him two of the Shambaholic tunes, thinking we might be able to get to these if time permitted. A couple of weeks out from his arrival, I decided time might be better spent putting a new drum track on the instrumental After The Final Sequence. This is a track that has been around in some form since the Great Leap era. Seth Lyon had added drums when he was last here, but due to a technical problem, his performance was not recorded as well as I would have liked. At the very last minute I hit on an idea for the new drums, and asked Mike to consider this approach.

On Friday Mike called from Livingston, where the large country band was staying, to say they were an hour ahead of schedule and he was just leaving for Bozeman. With a pretty serious work load, the extra hour was welcome. Before we started we took inventory of the house drum kit and Mike's traveling gear, and decided to visit Music Villa to see if the drum stool I ordered had arrived. Like every good musician, a trip to the local shop was approved. Most of his time was spent checking out the vintage "not for sale" collection of drums, and trying to talk the owner into selling some of the treasure.

Once we were in the studio it was a simple matter to tune the drums, get levels and have a look at the old snare drums in the studio's collection. Both the Ludwig and Slingerland were deemed serviceable and set aside for later use. Then it was right to work. I had done a major revision to Broken Glass Corner over the previous week, rewriting the bridge and addingnewly written lyrics to the same. While this work was being done, I decided the two extra bars between the intro and the first verse were unnecessary, and had removed them. This one was set up on the board, so this is where we would start. Mike seemed familiar with the arrangement and had his basic idea down in a few takes. From there he just refined his performance until we were both satisfied. He was pleased it hadn't taken long to get started and I was pleased our time budget seemed to be right on.

The Same Mistakes was the first song I wrote for this album, music and words were recorded in one quick session in 2006. Bobby Sutliff had added several guitars, and lent his arrangement skills on the "underwater" section. The requirement for Mike was to keep it moving. He had to adapt my four on the floor concept into something he could play and that fit the song. After a couple of takes it was decided to borrow from Slade, a band we both love. This one didn't take too long either. We were able to take a dinner break, and relax before returning to the studio.

After a late night in Livingston, and some serious work today, I decided After The Final Sequence would be what we would attempt in the last couple hours for the day. This track had carried the title "The Overture" and was originally intended to be the introduction for a longer piece. Every attempt to complete the song portion failed, and it was Seth who said, just leave it. When Deniz worked on it, he suggested his guitar solo would be best on the second half of the song. The first part was a long series of chord changes, with a complex string arrangement laid over the top. The second half was just a slow groove on a Gm#7 chord. The first half would be played with sticks and then change over to mallets for the solo section. The heroic first section was an easy task. The mallet section presented some challenges to Mike. To make it work, he needed to hit the same accents as Jeff's bass. Jeff had had done a fantastic job, stretching time to give the song an elastic feel. It took a few passes before Mike had the timing down, and the tricky section was accomplished as a punch in. The beauty of digital recording.

As soon as we had both signed off on the performance, Mike was ready for bed, and excused himself for the night. I figured a noon start time for Saturday would give us plenty of time to take care of the three remaining tracks, and still be able to knock off early so we could enjoy dinner with a few friends. I wasn't surprised I didn't see Mike until nearly 10am. After breakfast, we treated ourselves to coffee at our local, and took another walk downtown. Mike hadn't heard about the Bozeman explosion and wanted to take some photos of the leveled buildings.

We were back in the studio at noon, and right back to work. First up today would be Wooden Horse. Once again I had a clear idea for the intro and outro on this one. I was thinking of Jim Capaldi and some of his playing on the first Traffic album. Mike thought the deeper Slingerland snare would be the best drum for the jazzy feel I was looking for. He was taken aback when he discovered this drum still had the original vintage heads. Wooden Horse was written about my father a week after he passed away. I woke up with the song complete in my head. I wrote it out and figured out what the chords were. I had the demo done by the afternoon. I was forced to re-record the track when I discovered much later, I'd played it in a key that was too high for me to hit some of the notes. While listening to Mike play the song, I also realized there were five distinct parts to the song. If you listen close you will hear a bit of Toy Town whimsy, some very Sweet-like thumping, a Mitch Mitchell lick or two, a West Coast guitar solo, and the jazz groove. Mike's sharp ear was able to make each of these sections stand out, and still make the pieces of the puzzle fit together.

The last two songs on the list were written by Bobby Sutliff. You Gotta Go Now underwent one of the famous Brain treatments. It was a fine songs when we got it, but Deniz and I weren't content to leave well enough alone. I added a new lick at the top of each verse and a syncopated beat. Deniz thought substituting two new chords for one in the verse would be more fun to play! Bobby got his guitar and bass over dubs back to us just in time for the session. Good thing too, as his bass helped Mike work out his approach to this one. The loop I used for the track was intended push the song towards a Rubber Soul - Revolver feel. Bobby and I had tossed around some ideas, but it was always going to be left in the hands of who ever drummed on it. There is no mistaking it's a classic Bobby Sutliff tune, but now there is a bit of Brain matter splattered all over it.

I realize I had held back the most complex of the new songs thinking by the time Ron Craighead had got to these he would have a feel for the new material and be ready to tackle the tricky arrangements. Mike was forced to jump right in with only a few weeks to familiarize himself with a years work. High Street Hit Man is Bobby's music. I had been working on the story for a while when this track showed up in the mail. I knew straight away, that the two ideas would be a perfect match. The only change I made to Bobby's arrangement was to turn one of the choruses into a bridge section. My concept was to write a song like Keith West's Excerpt From A Teenage Opera, the song also known as Grocer Jack. There are few other great examples of this 60's style performed by Kaleidoscope and the Who. I knew if I said Keith Moon, Mike would eat it right up. It took a few passes to find the correct balance of wildness and control. A perfect take was marred by a missed cue, but we were able to fix that with a tight punch in.

With the the last song in the can, we set up to add some percussion to You Gotta Go Now. While reviewing the two days work, Mike asked if he could add a cymbal hit on After The Final Sequence. It was just 6pm when we declared the project complete. This left us plenty of time to regroup and prepare for our dinner guests.

 

January - March 2009

Work on a Donovan's Brain album never goes fast enough for me. Then, there is that moment after listening to a song for a year or more, a fresh idea arrives. Fires Which Burnt Brightly has only been under construction for just a year now. A few of the songs have been around a bit longer, but the serious work began in January 2008. It's now that the album is moving into the detail phase. Final vocals are now being completed.

Colter, the other major contributor to this album, is responsible for the vocals on his four songs. Early on, we assigned the vocal chores on Come For The Sun to Roy Loney. Colter added a second line a couple of weeks ago. An attempt to double Roy's vocals on the verse proved to be unnecessary, but the second voice on the chorus worked as planned. The song now called Carefully Considered Answers has been long in the making. The original idea dates back to Great Leap Forward. When we started working on this album, I come up with a concept for reviving this piece. After discussions with Bobby Sutliff and Deniz Tek, it was clear we could make it happen. The lyrics were the sticking point, but I found the idea while driving over to Billing in November to record. I cut a vocal track, which seemed to work, but I never intended to do the final vocals. When I sat with Colter to review the song and lyrics before the scheduled session, he finally got his head around the idea I'd been pitching for a year. When he returned to sing the track, it came out sounding natural, and not too far removed from any of the other songs he's brought to us this time. I'm always nervous when others sing my lyrics, but there wasn't anything that Colter felt the need to change.

The next vocal sessions scheduled will be dedicated to a new lead vocal track on I Saw Your Light. I figured this song deserved a fresh take to bring it up to contemporary standards, in the same way the new drum track gave the song a sonic lift. I have also approached Jason Lytle about doing some background vocals on this one. I don't want to give too much away, but this one screams for a treatment and Jason would be the man to do the job.

After a long delay, Ron Craighead has returned to work on two more songs, before he had to move his drums out of the studio. Come For The Sun and Last Acid Rider are now in the "drums done" column. Five songs are still in need of drums before we can begin the final work on those. A Defeat Of Echoes was written and recorded with the all four member of the band in the studio working on arrangements, rehearsing and recording the songs together. This made for a bit more organic feel. The album version of Control and The Boy Who Cried New Town were the only exceptions to this rule. In both cases Jeff and I were not satisfied with the band arrangements, and the resulting recordings. The remakes of both were done to blueprints dictated to the band. When Jeff moved away, it was clear this sort of group effort wasn't going to be possible for the new album. There was talk of regrouping for a long weekend of recording basic tracks, but nothing every came of this. Rather than record demos to present to the other band members, it was decided to record the tracks as masters and then add the drums at a later date.

Right from the first demo session onwards, it was our goal to create a compact set of up tempo songs. In the end, we successfully met the "compact" goal, but the addition of I Saw Your Light to the final song list, meant there would be at least one ballad on the record. I have been working on the running order for some time now. I figure it's a good idea to see how the songs fit together to create an ever changing mood from start to finish. The fact that that there are five lead singers on the record make this tricky task even more difficult.

Just as important is a good title for the album. I'm always open to suggestions, and a sheet is posted on the wall for everyone to write down any good ideas. The new album was just called Number 6 for the first several months of the project. It's hard to say where the title Fires Which Burnt Brightly came from. There was never any discussion, once I'd written it down and nothing else was ever considered. A few weeks later, as I was tinkering with the album running order, I realized that several of the songs had a loose, very loose thread tying them together. The album title seemed to be the element that linked these seven songs. There is no heavy concept, no dialog, no Stan Unwin linking bits; just a happy accident. Once you hear the record you may or may not see the point. At the least, it gives the album some structure. More recently I've swapped tracks 1 and 5 on "Side One", the song side of the record. A small changed, but it makes the album flow and build a little better. All this could change again before we are done, but I think it's fairly well set now.

There are still some major issues to be resolved before I will feel like we have rounded the final turn. So far everything is going well enough that we are now talking to the duplication broker, and making some choices about the packaging.

As we entered the cold days of March, four studios have been busy with work on Fires Which Burnt Brightly. Liz McKenzie added vocals to Vanished while she and Deniz were working on the Soul Movers record. The results have just arrived and exceeded my expectations. Anyone familiar with the Radio Birdman version of this song will be very surprised. Jason Lytle graciouly took time our from his own busy schedule to perform some overdubs on Colter's I Saw The Light. As usual he saw it as a challenge and performed beyond the call of duty. Bob Sutliff has been gathering up his work and preppig it to be added to the master reel. Here at GLEA, Colter was in to update the lead vocals on I Saw The Light and Broken Glass Corner underwent a major remodel. A new bridge was written and recorded. Lyrics will be added to this new section in the next few days.

The last major recording will take place over the last two weeks of March. There is still work to be done on backgroud vocals. April will see the last layers of the finish work added. We are still waiting to hear if Richard Treece will be able to do some guitars, but at the moment, the logistics are proving to be difficult.

December 2008

While updating this website, I ran across references to the sessions we did for Angie Pepper's second album. Deniz and I had each had a song recorded at that time. I could not remember what Den's tune sounded like, and wondered if it was something that could be adapted for the Brain album. It was actually tailor made for Angie, a girl group pop song that wouldn't suit us at all. My song, Love's Long Gone, on the other hand might well be something we can return to in the future. This was one of the songs I had put up for consideration when we began work on A Defeat Of Echoes. At the time, it was rehearsed, but never recorded. This and a song called Another Time were considered too rock and roll for the album. Both were offered to the Nomads, and the latter was considered for Roy Loney's album at one point.

At the beginning of the month, I had the house to myself for a week. I figured I had better take advantage of the time to attack the the problem of the song known as "Fleetwood Mac". I first added some acoustic guitars to smooth out the verse sections so I could add vocals. After treating myself to dinner, and a glass of wine, I sat down in front of a mic, with guitar and notes in hand. In less than an hour, I had completed both verses, words and melody to my satisfaction. I figured that someone else could work out the bridge, and called it a night. When I sent it over to Bobby, his first comment was the bass needed work and he would be glad to redo it. I needed a better bass line to add guitars, so I decided to do a temp part to get me through the overdubs. It was at this point that it became clear that the variation on the main riff that Deniz had devised, had changed the chord structure considerably. The scratch bass I had done didn't match the new chords, not to mention the generally poor playing. With that repaired, I added a slide guitar line that answers the vocals. I've always known this would be an element in the verse, no matter who was singing. Still with out the bridge, I decided to add a bit of guitar to see if it would inspire any new ideas. In the end, it became a solo section. The last guitar bit added was a recreation of Colter's original lick. Like the bass, it no longer fit in the key it was played. Colter's guitar on the chorus and bridge worked fine, and were retained.

Bobby had now suggested he might want to have a try at vocals, and would do a proper bass part. Before I sent him the files, I had a second go at the vocals, so he would have something solid to work with, whether he did the lead or a harmony. After a couple of attempts he seemed to have a handle on the bass part. It's moments like this, when a new idea is added to one of the songs, that I know our convoluted methods of working are valid. With Ron's drums and the new bass part, this song has moved well beyond the original modest intentions.

A new bass part has now been completed, and a passible scratch vocal has been added to the track. Vocals are now the priority. At the moment only three songs have final lead vocals. Additional vocal parts will be added as the process moves along.

Deniz has been busy wrapping up work at Bob Brown's. He's now done vocals, percussion and further guitar overdubs. Bob is preparing the tracks to ship over to GLEA, where more work will be done. The next step is to get Bob Brown over to Bozeman to add bass to several of the new tracks, and compare notes.

August - November 2008

Work on the new alums is now a full time effort. Bobby Sutliff has been one of the heavy lifters, supplying guitar, various keyboards and string, and offered up two songs. The first one was an untitled piece of music which with the addition of lyrics has become High Street Hit Man. His second, more recent contribution is called You Gotta Go Now. We were told to do with it what we want. A Brain demo was recorded, adding a new lick to the already snazzy tune. While adding guitar, Deniz suggested changing one chord. The original version only had two verses, with the first one repeated for the third. Ron took pen to hand and drafted a new set of lyrics for the the final verse. Bobby was happy with the new approach, and has added several guitars and organ. He's fine tuning the new lyrics and should have the final vocal track soon.Bob has also done major work on the song titled The Same Mistakes. This is song was probably the first written and demoed for the record. The final version is based on the original 2006 recording, but little if anything remains from the demo. Bobby has added some classic 12 string lines, giving the song a deceptive happy feel. The unexpected surprise was his arrangement ideas for the "under water" middle section.

Deniz' October visit found him working on four of the new songs over two days. Our first goal was to finalize our vision for Bob's song, You Gotta Go Now. Handing a song over to the Brain can be disorienting to say the least. Bob was initially taken back by the approach, but he seems to have accepted the brutal assault on his original idea. Once it was explained that everyone faces the same deconstructive song writing committee, he warmed to the idea. He's taken liberties with the songs sent over for him to work on. That was expected of him.

Once we had done all the damage we could on that one, it was time for guitar solos. Colter had only recently started work on the song called Green 17. The original demo didn't give us much to work with, but with a little encouragement, he came back around with a finished arrangement. Keyboards and another guitar were added to the guide track. This is what Deniz first heard. His first suggestion was to take the electric guitar out of the verses, and add a keyboard part which might work better. He then added a new electric rhythm and finally a hard fought solo.

Last Acid Rider was demoed at the same time as The Same Mistakes. Unlike the latter, if didn't have lyrics until recently.
This song also had two sections that were "to be determined". Deniz asked what would fill these gaps, and it was decided there would be a backwards guitar and a mellotron part for the proper effect. With that clarified, he had at it. This one was a bit more difficult to work out, as the solo has an odd key change. A lot of hard work was rewarded with a solid take.

Last on the list for the second day was the long rumored collaboration, Thinking Of Neutrons. Over the years Deniz had considered and contemplated the Neutrons poster hanging in the studio. You can see it there at the top left of the photo below.

The Neutrons were a short lived band formed by Phil and Will from Man. Richard Treece was a member of that band as well. One day, Deniz handed over a short poem called Thinking Of Neutrons and suggested we write some music for it. The first attempt was rejected, so a second track was composed. At some point along the way, the lyrics were misplaced, so the idea was put on hold. This summer the missing lyrics file was discovered stored in a very safe place, so Neutrons was added to the short list of songs for the album. Deniz hadn't heard the music for some time, and agreed he could add the voice. It's more of a recitation, that singing, but it works. We decided it would be best to take advantage of a break in the arrangement and create an early ending. Some guitars were added, and then we broke out the suitcase of rhythm instruments. Neutrons should be a treat.

A couple of weeks later, a session was booked at Bob Brown's studio in Billings. Bob had toured with Deniz on the Vertical Tour of Australia as the bass player. These days he has a compact by tidy studio at home. Due to the tight schedule, it was determined it would be best to set up in Billings to cut the final two tracks for the album. Tony Horton, another DTG alumni was drafted to play drums. He'd been to GLEA with his band Krunk several years back, so he is a familiar face. The two songs on the agenda were Deniz remake of Vanished, a song written fro Zeno Beach, but not recorded and one of mine, 4 Trials. The latter isn't on the final track list for the album, but needed to get tracked while we had the chance. Den needed a clue to the melody of the song, so I managed to finish off the lyrics before we got to the studio, and sang it for him.

Bob's studio was well equipped, so there was no problem getting good sounds for everyone. Since Bob was playing bass, I ran the board. It took a bit to get familiar with the signal flow, but there were no problems. Deniz ran the band through his song, and several takes were attempted. Once Tony got a handle on some of the dynamics, it came together. A fortunate change in Tony's schedule allowed him to stay on a bit longer than planned. This give us enough time to run though 4 Trials. There were a couple of specific arrangement features that had to be sorted out, but again, it was mastered in quick time. With that done, Deniz asked Bob to have one more try at his bass part for Vanished. Monday night in Billings doesn't offer many dining options, so as soon as he had completed the task,we dashed out the door to a down town eatery that neither Den or myself had ever visited.

While driving over to Billings, I also came up with some ideas for Colter's song, that has been stuck with the working title of "Fleetwood Mac". When I had last talked to Colter about it, he still didn't have words, so it's been on my mind. Unfortunately, I didn't have a pen or paper, and realized it probably wasn't a good idea to dig in my suitcase while tooling down I-90 at 80 mph. I had to keep the idea in my head until I got to Den's, where I could make a few notes for future work.

Back in Bozeman, we finally began the task of adding drums to the nine songs on the work list. Once we had the drums up and the mics set, it was a simple matter to get to work. First up was Colter's Green 17. It is one of the more straight forward songs, so it seemed like a good place to start. Ron Craighead had it worked out in less than an hour. He added a nice intro fill, which kicked the song off in an unexpected manner. Due to busy schedules, it was another two weeks before he was able to return for the next session. Again we began with a straight up rock tune, "Fleetwood Mac". This one required a well prescribed groove. Ron was a little unsure as there was no vocal to react to. This really wasn't an issue, as the idea I had just required a non-stop pattern. A quirk of the arrangement was the only stumbling block. Once we figured out what happened for the extra measure, it was down in two takes. With some time left, I had Ron redo the drums on I Saw Your Light. This track was originally recorded for The Great Leap Forward, but not used. It's always been one that I knew we would return to, and had done some extensive overdubs to bring it up to speed for this album. The drums always seemed to be the weak link. The performance was fine, but the recording didn't match the standard of the recent sounds. When I first pulled this back out to work on, I noticed that we never seemed to know to transition from the intro into the first verse. I removed what seemed to be an unnecessary measure, which tightened things up considerably. When Ron C sat down to play on, this small edit made the process go much smoother.

Back To Work

It seems much longer than 3 years since the last Donovan's Brain record. I had to look at the notes to see when Defeat Of Echoes was released. I'm still not sure about the time line. It seems like one long march. The week Echoes was release, I flew out to Seattle to begin work on Roy Loney's album, Shake It Or Leave It. That project took up most of the next three years. At some point, Colter and myself began recording demos for some new ideas we had. That could have been in 2005, but I'm can't really say. After that most work towards the next Brain album stopped. All of 2006 was dedicated to Roy's album. And as that began to wind up or down, I started work on the Where The DJ's Roam film score. Never a dull moment here at Career HQ.

Late last year, 2007, the table was cleared, and the first steps towards restarting work on the Donovan's Brain album No. 6 were taken. There had been some small activity when we worked on a song for the Dream Magazine compilation. In the end it was the Echoes out take, Dim Gem that was used. But as soon as we started, the Christmas holiday interrupted work, and at the beginning of 2008 my father died. The only thing I could think to do, was a bit of music therapy, which resulted in a new song, and work on some of the existing demos.

So, here we are at the first of May, 2008 and things are now up to full speed. The story so far...

In an unexpected burst of activity sixteen songs have been assigned to the A list. There are a couple of others that may move up as time progresses. One of my original ideas was to do a cover of the Bobby Sutliff song Oh, Lorelei. I had an idea for a much different arrangement from the version that appeared on his fab album On A Ladder. While working on that, Bob sent over a demo of an idea that he thought I could use. I quickly turned my attention to that one. There were some lyrics for a mini opera idea called High Street Hitman. The story had been written out, but I no music had been prepared. Bob's idea seemed perfect, though it required a new concept for the song. I rearranged it some, and added a chord or two to the middle eight section. Bingo.

Colter had recorded a load of demos for The Great Leap. One untitled song was never attempted, but it's one that I thought we should return to. Last year I hit on an idea for a new approach to this one. Colter and I cut a new demo based on the arrangement I'd worked up. It was close, but still not what I was hearing. When Deniz was over a couple of weeks ago, I explained what I was thinking. He gladly agreed to tackle this problem and two hours later he had nailed the concept. We left space for Bobby to play the harmony part. I know what I'm going to play. Now it's up to Colter to finalize the lyrics. The working title is "Fleetwood Mac" as it is based around a Mick Fleetwood drum loop.

While working on the Fleetwood Mac demo, I asked Colter to play one of the songs he's had for a while. It was something called Come For The Sun. We cut a demo, which required working up an arrangement, writing the bridge and working out an ending. It was another one I thought would be good to get Den to play on, as it has a short solo section. On first hearing he exclaimed "this isn't a Brain song, you should give it to Roy". I convinced him it was one we were gonna keep, but I did like his idea of getting Roy involved. This was made easier when Colter heard the results and wondered if he could actually sing it. I told him Den had suggested it might work for Roy's voice. A Session is planned for next week, when Roy is in Seattle to play.

19 May 2008

In a weekend of Brain activity, the real action was at Johnny Sangster's studio in Seattle. Roy completed his assigned tasks efficiently with great results. I would have been there for the shows, and to oversee the recording session but as it turned out the 2008 Sip And Dip Party fell on the same weekend. This also marked the first time we'd seen Jeff in Montana in nearly a year. Sadly, Ron Craighead was down in the Utah desert for his annual birthday trek. Still the chance to see four of the principal members of the band together enjoying some drinks was cause for celebration. Talk turned to the new album and demos were exchanged. Deniz has promised to forward his notes and suggestions for the new songs this week. Ron C took his copy of the new song demos and tracks with him on his road trip, so we await his first reactions. There is also talk of a recording session in June, to lay down some basic tracks for two or three of the songs that would benefit from the live in the studio treatment.

There is much more to tell, but you can see time has been spent making the record, rather than writing about it. A summary of the activities will follow soon...