New Sherwood Studio Blog
The latest studio blog from Sherwood can be read by clicking read more.Thursday, May 14, 2009
Only a few days left! We all gather in the tracking room for some gang vocals on Shelter, Free, and Around Your Finger. Free is particularly difficult, as the melody goes very high and some of us have to transition to falsetto to hit it. Since Dave is leaving tonight, we make sure all his parts are done. He sings some harmonies on Free, which is sounding REALLY cool at this point. Nate thinks he might re-sing the verses.
Mike drives Dave to the airport while Dan plays a guitar solo in Around Your Finger. Later Nate and I hear it and are not extremely thrilled with it, so Dan says he'll try something new tomorrow.
Our friend Liz has invited us to The Magic Castle which is, you guessed it, a mansion in Hollywood where people are performing magic tricks all night in various rooms. It's an invite-only attraction (Liz's friend is one of the hostesses) and there's a strict formal dress code, so some of us have to borrow suits from Brad to get into the mansion. Pretty amazing magic tricks. Those magicians are CRAZY.
Friday, May 15, 2009
The morning gets off to a slow start, as Brad's manager Mio comes over to check out the studio and listen to some of the work. He's a cool guy. Dan plays guitar on No Better, and redoes the guitar solo in Around Your Finger (opting for a catchier guitarmony sound that seems to be popping up in several songs on the album). Everyone's much happier with it.
While they're tracking guitar I start packing up my drums and loading unused gear into the trailer. It's so weird to be preparing for departure after having been here for 2 months! Before I finish the drums, Dan finishes guitar and Brad wants me to record some percussion. I play some shaker/tamborine stuff in Make It Through, cymbal swells in Worn, tamborine in Hit the Bottom and in Ground Beneath My Feet.
When that's all done Dan goes to the tracking room to record background vocals on Free, which is annoying because I'm trying to load gear out of there and can't make any noise while he's recording.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Dan wakes me up at 9:30, saying "Tom is here. He's in the studio." He's talking about Mr. Tom Anderson, president of MySpace (and our label MySpace Records). Tom has come over on the last day of tracking to listen to the songs in their near-finished forms. We've known him for almost 3 years -- he found us randomly and asked us to sign to his new record label. We liked him a lot (not to mention the idea of working with MySpace!). He remains a big fan of our band (as evidenced by the Sherwood hoodie he's wearing today). We all listen through the songs (except Mike who has driven to meet his dad for his birthday), and Tom offers his compliments and critiques (which, thankfully, are few). We chat for a while, and then Tom has to get back to the ol' MySpace headquarters in Beverly Hills. It's very nice of him to spend two hours in the studio with us; he's probably the busiest person I've ever met.
It's lunch time so we all walk down to the sushi place around the corner. Brad gets a call from his guitar setup guy telling him that Dan's acoustic guitar is ready for pickup, as well as a 12-string electric that we want to play on a few parts. I spend most of the afternoon packing up my stuff, putting the trailer on the truck, and shooting a quick shot for a Sherwood show (involving me and Mike standing on a busy street corner in short shorts and tank tops, holding car wash signs).
Dan comes back with the guitars, records some parts (I know he at least play it on Everything, and I think something else but I'm too busy packing up to remember).
Nate re-sings the verses to Free, and that's when I finish packing up and hit the road. Hugs all around. The album is done!!! Now it's time for Brad to make sense of it all and mix the songs. Good luck, Mr. Wood.
