Working In The Sierras.

Below are my scribbled thoughts on last week’s trip up to the Sierras. Lots of work done. Pictures and video to follow very soon…

DAY ONE
The drive up to the Sierras takes about 4 1/2 hours from the Bay Area leaving out the traffic and construction (there always seem to be generous amounts of both). We’re staying in a tiny community called Graeagle which sits 30 - 50 miles away from better-known places like Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Truckee.

Since we’ve got so many songs that still have little bits and pieces to be completed before we begin recording ‘for real’, we decided to take a small recording setup with us up to the cabin and see if we can’t finish up everything.

After settling into the cabin early in the evening and enjoying Rebecca’s great dinner, I set up the ’studio’ and was completely stunned that I hadn’t forgotten a vital cable or some other component necessary to make everything work.

Day one listening: The National | Boxer
Day one drinking: John Anthony Sauvignon Blanc (Napa Valley) 2006

DAY TWO
Vacation means sleeping in and I took advantage. Rebecca’s more of an early riser and she’s a kind soul to let me enjoy the extra rest I always need for my ’strenuous lifestyle’.

This area has an abundance of open space which leaves a mild agoraphobic like myself constantly teetering on the edge of anxiety’s blade. It’s all undeniably beautiful, but cities have corrupted my senses to such a degree that I am unreasonable and shaky when it comes to things like swimming in giant glassy lakes or taking walks in silent forested areas. My patient wife has been tolerant and I have employed my usual internal weaponry to convince myself that I can overcome nature’s menacing expansive silence. No, really…

We did manage to head up to Gold Lake for what turned out to be a rather intense hike. The area we trod through was made up of stunningly dynamic angles and equally brilliant juxtapositions of nature’s best elements: craggy rock; fire-scented grasses and flora; vast, undisturbed waters. The beauty of the surroundings was only amplified by how empty the trail was.

Back at the cabin in the early afternoon, we turned our attention to music and I flipped the dozen or so power switches to find the G5 whirring at the ready (and heating up the room to a degree that would make a furnace blush). My main priority was to write a new verse for ‘Stop, Thief’. The one we originally wrote was just too simple and straightforward and (though I denied it to myself for a while) it really dumbed-down the rest of the song. After trying some totally new chords and working with Rebecca to see what pitches she wanted to start and end on, I decided to copy the chord changes from the middle-eight bit to the verse and change the rhythm. After some extensive bassline embellishment, we had our part. While Rebecca hummed along, I grabbed the guitar and recorded some ideas to make the verses a lot stronger than the original. Done.

‘Breath Makes Smoke’ we’ve long considered to be finished. Finished meaning that the arrangement was basically right and the chord changes and vocals were in place. A couple of weeks ago, Count upped the tempo a good 15BPM which, we all agree, has given the track a nice bit of energy that it was lacking before.

Sometimes, when I write, I use a sort of shorthand - an approximation of the final ’song’. In this case, all the bass parts were simple whole notes that played the tonic of the chords I’d imagined over the top. This allows for fast working, but in the past has often resulted in a final track in which the demo bass is never replaced and the song ends up relying solely on drums for rhythmic interest. We have very decidedly addressed this problem for this new set of songs. ‘Breath Makes Smoke’ - as I opened it up - had nothing but eighth notes plucking the simplest early-Depeche-Mode style bassline and we really needed something to elevate the somewhat minimal rhythm and provide a focus for the track beyond the vocals. Since, due to our trying to keep things simple, we didn’t bring the bass, I used the guitar to come up with a melodic bassline and pretty quickly gave the song exactly what I think it needed.

Since ‘Stop, Thief’ and ‘Breath Makes Smoke’ went so quick and easy, we started on ‘Critic’ which had a chorus that was just not working. Rebecca HATED it. I, again, was trying to convince myself that it would work. After going back and forth, back and forth, I conceded and came up with a completely new 16 bar chorus and offered it to Rebecca. The second we finished listening to it, I knew it was total garbage. Sometimes, I just overthink it and make these things way more complicated than they need to be (must be all those shite Steely Dan records crammed down my throat in song composition classes in college). Contrary to what I had just done, I created a new chorus part by taking the verse A part (this is one of those arrangements that has a ‘verse A’ and ‘verse B’ part) and making subtle changes. What we ended up with is a chorus that starts on exactly the same chord as the ‘verse B’ part that leads into it ends with. This is something that I rarely do in my songs as it usually lacks the drama I like in the transition from verse to chorus.

As soon as we agreed that this new chorus was working, we decided to stop and come back to it tomorrow. Rebecca cooked another amazing dinner with local ingredients of stunning quality and we retreated to our oppressively hot room to watch the next installment of BIG LOVE.

Day Two Listening: Robin Guthrie | Continental
Day Two Drinking: Calafia Cabernet/Malbec/Merlot Blend (Napa Valley) 2004

DAY THREE
Didn’t rise until 11am today. Total lack of an agenda today but lots to do and plenty to look forward to. Everyone was in agreement that water MUST be involved. The temperatures, though slightly cooler today, are just uncomfortable. The ‘pond’ down at the bottom of the hill is quite picturesque and before long, we were in kayaks paddling from end to end. The views from the pond were breathtaking. Anyone who has assembled a jigsaw puzzle of a stereotypically cheesy ‘Americana’ water scene knows just what I’m talking about. The only thing missing was the mom-and-pop logging operation next door and burly guys in cut off flannel. I should note here with a big WTF how all the small country stores here carry everything you would ever need to throw down a serious sushi dinner. Everything from prepared wasabi to tempura batter and lovingly-carved fish. Oh America, ye ain’t what ye used to be. Here’s to that.

After a dayfull of outdoor activity, we again returned to the cabin for a little rest. Here’s where I’ll tell you more about our little setup: Unlike our setup at home, here we’ve decided to just put things together right in our bedroom to make work as comfortable as possible. The Pro Tools system, the mic, and the guitar all sit right up against each other (pretty much right next to my side of the bed, in fact) so it’s easy to just go from one thing to the next and workflow is seamless and quite enjoyable.

So, first thing for today’s session was ‘Critic’. Turns out that the new chorus bit that we laid down the night before just works. Amazingly well, I think. Today, Rebecca works on a vocal for the chorus and while she’s going over that, I’m playing along on guitar trying to find the arrangement. As I explained earlier, right now ‘Critic’ has the simple organ playing the low part with simple fifths filling out that range. In this case, though, the organ will probably stay in with a bass guitar anchoring everything to the drums. Rebecca and I found our parts pretty much at the same time and we quickly laid down demo recordings of each. I continued on for a bit and found a couple other guitar things that may make their way into the final recording…

More BIG LOVE and an attempt at sleep that is often thwarted by the dry heat in the cabin often making it hard to breathe comfortably enough to fall asleep…

Day Three Listening: Water | Trees | Laughter
Day Three Drinking: Mollydooker ‘The Boxer’ Shiraz (Australia) 2006

DAY FOUR
Up today relatively early and enjoyed one of the finest omelettes I’ve ever eaten. The cabin, though not a Robb Report property, is more than adequately appointed and the nonstick cookery and spacious kitchen are simple flourishes that keep Rebecca inspired enough to serve dish after dish of amazing food each time our stomachs feel empty.

Today, I head into the day deciding to try not to work on any music, with the tacit understanding that the computer/tube mic/hard drives are driving up the temperature in our room and preventing an easy drift into sleep once the time comes. Rebecca announces early on that she’s booked a full-on horseback outing which fills me the nervous anticipation I always feel when confronted with a new activity. After a short exploratory trip north, we wind back down the highway and over to the Gold Lake area to a small body of water creatively named ‘Sand Pond’. Any casual observer of lowbrow American entertainment in the last quarter of the 20th century would come to the same conclusion I did upon first sight of the pond: This is the same pond I’ve seen in every teenage summer camp movie - comedy or horror - over the last 20 or so years.

Just before we wind down for the evening, we pull up ‘Sneaky Creatures’ and attempt to conjure a new part. Rebecca works quickly and comes up with something very nice. My plan is to replace the music underneath her part to contrast with the rest of the arrangement. This is something that I can do easily once I’ve got the bass guitar back in my hands at home.

Day Four Listening: Horse mumbles and gurgles; Waterside ambience
Day Four Drinking: Demuth Chardonnay (Anderson Valley, CA) 2002

DAY FIVE
Our last full day up here in the cabin and we planned to break from nature a bit and drive about an hour over into Reno, NV. When I was a very small child, I lived in Reno with both my parents and it is in this city that their delicate marriage quickly fell apart. Not a Shakespearian tragedy considering their obvious incompatibility, but still it is a mark upon the memory and it’s stayed with me in the background somewhere for as long as I’ve known about it.

Upon arriving in Reno, one notices decisively that they have not found Venice or Paris. Reno is a stark western outpost monotheistic in its dedication to the gluttonous hunger for cash and every structure is ancillary to the large casinos and ‘resorts’ that litter the skyline. Just like anywhere, Reno is surely full of charming locals and unique points of cultural interest. I wish we had stumbled upon either. Boarded up casinos with names that reek of outdated wit stand like old dusty saloons in some deranged ghost town and it makes you melancholy - like you arrived too late and the party had long since moved to some other location.

Arriving back in our canopied Sierra retreat, I think of our short urban trek as one thinks of a strange dream and our conversation turns toward dinner and the other small pleasures available to us here in our wilderness hideaway. Though I’m initially shocked by any new habitat, I have adapted quickly and this cabin has become a comfortable home away from home. Shortly after settling back in, we fire up the G5 and we’re working on ‘Headlong’.

‘Headlong’ is a track that dates back a ways and was one of the earliest hints and some of my stylistic ideas for our next record. I think we all heard the melodic potential but, in typically frank terms, Count deemed it ‘too straightforward’ and he was right. Instead of just offering that little nugget of criticism, Count has done extensive work laying down some rough drums and a few other ideas and now it sounds like something that we can turn around and make quite good. A couple of weeks ago, I recorded some guitar parts over the chorus and today I busied myself arranging it all into something that makes sense. Right as I finished lining things up, Rebecca jumped in and began refining her ideas for lyrics. By the end of the night we had something that sounded like a complete demo, vocals and all.

Day Five Listening: Good Books | Control
Day Five Drinking: Luna Sangiovese (Napa Valley) 2005

RYAN