Screaming Mimes Blog

Last night we set back up in the rehearsal space for the first time since our last show and jammed on some new songs. Well, first it was "Sweet Home Chicago" which is about the only I IV V blues song I know. I was on my acoustic so I had some fun bonking out an awkward solo on it. Choice!

Next we worked on a "newer" song that we started arranging several months ago. It has a very cool Dave Matthews-esque vibe and we locked into a pretty happening groove right away. I love singing and playing this song... that's a sure sign that we're onto something good. Jim started off saying "I don't remember a thing about this" and played almost perfectly through it the first time. I guess he remembered more than he thought.

After a few run throughs of that we hit a new song that I had just roughed together... the chorus bubbled up while I was working in the yard the previous Saturday. Wednesday afternoon I typed a bunch of lyrics for a non-existent verse, then early Thursday morning I laid down a quick "gotta-record-this-quickly-before-I-forget-everything" demo. That evening we were banging it out. I played the acoustic on it again which a lot of fun and really opened the song up. Randy did some sparse little melody bits on the verse and then came up with this great crunchy part for the chorus. Preston and Jim locked in a great groove and within about an hour the song was taking shape and we were working on little arrangement tweaks. This song is a lot of fun and the lyrics are about the "fantasy" of being in a rock band and touring. You'll know it when you hear it.

At the end of the night I passed around some more "test versions" of the new album for everyone to review. They had the latest mixes that Randy has been working on. About 1/4 of the album is done mixing, another 1/2 is 90% done, and there's another 1/4 that is 50% there... not a totally undoable mix. I think in a few weeks we'll have the 90% done done and then hit the last couple songs that still need a LOT of work. Hopefully they will go quickly, although our goal is to make the big album closer something really really special... and we won't settle for anything less than spectacular for the mix. I know you're getting impatient, but remember... it's all for you.

Last night Randy & I wrangled a track that we hadn't touched in several months... "Superdave". The previous mix of this, while good, had fallen from grace a little bit in the sonic light of the other songs. I felt some of the tracks where fighting for attention too much and a lot of the musical joy was being cancelled out. So we rolled up our sleeves and started making some painful decisions - "unmixing" some of the guitars & keyboards. This is akin to going into a pot of soup on the stove and removing some of the spices & vegetables you plopped in a few minutes earlier. Difficult, exacting, but ultimately, or hopefully, you have a better dish.
First we did some tricks to supplement the snare sound. Jim's drums sound best when they are at their "livest" - meaning that you let all the idiosyncracies shine. Often drums are deadened in the studios with loose heads, blankets, tape and super close micing, then brought back to life using compressors, gates, eq & reverb in the mixing stage. For Jim this approach is rarely needed. This doesn't mean that Randy doesn't work some serious alchemy to achieve a kick-ass drum sound... but it does mean that you can't always tame the bull to behave in the china shop. Such is the case with Superdave... with the wide myriad of guitar sounds in the verses, Jim's "loose hi-hat" approach meant that some of the snare impact was lost. So Randy & I spent a chunk of time sprucing up each individual snare hit so that it really punches through the hi hat and guitar sounds.
I learned long ago that most listeners only "hear" the beat & vocals of a song. While I spend countless hours laboring over carefully crafted guitar parts the average listener will never hear them. They may hear the guitar as part of the overall sound... but primarly the song is made up of beat and lyrics - to the typical fan. Of course, a Screaming Mimes fan is special, so we pay extra special attention to all the little musical spices we put in the mix - all for your advanced pallate.
After the snare stuff was done (and by that I mean my role was finished but Randy still had hours of syncing to do to the track) we moved on to the guitar intro. My vision for this has always been the classic 70's guitar hero intro... the kind of riff & sound that 13 year-old me would love to air guitar along with. We stripped away a lot of the room "effect" that we'd worked so hard on (sniffle) and cranked up the volume on it to the point of ludicrious. So wonderful! I hope you strum along when you hear it.
Next we went through the song and did the "rob Peter to pay Paul" approach to mixing... we had a balance, and every new instrument that was introduced into the song came at the sacrafice of another instrument or part... for the first pre-chorus, we took out the 12-string melody and brought up the keyboard. Second one, we reversed this. For the second verse, we took out my guitar completely and brought up the chimey 12-string part. For the bridge, we cranked up the keyboards and took out the 12-string. The guitar solo was cranked up at the expense of the rhythm guitars. And so and and so forth. All in all, we listened to the song for what seemed like a hundred times, tweaking and tweaking all the individual levels.
For the keyboard solo we wanted to bring the sound to life a little more. Randy found a spectacular effect that modulated the pitch ever so slightly... but then for the F# minor build before the final chorus we cranked up the frequency of the effect until the keyboard "warbled" wildly, like some silver laser gun out of a sci-fi movie... it struck me as the perfect reflection of the lyrics of the song... the bridge is all about Superdave versus a super villian... the solo section is guitar verses keyboard... in the climax the keyboard sounds like it's zapping the walls and bringing about the end of the world. Awesome!
The contrast between the solo section and the final chorus is incredible. These are the moments in the recording studio where the engineer really gets to show off. Randy has all the elements building and building until suddenly the scene changes to something completely different. Very dynamic and cinematic.
For the very very long ride out we wanted to add a "flying off into the sky" effect to the "up, up and away" lines. Randy's solution was to increase a large spacial reverb over the chorus of the ride out while bringing down the vocal... Superdave keeps singing, farther and farther into the clouds... is he running? Is he off to save someone else? We'll never know!
With all the guitar parts that begin popping up over the ride out, we began stepping down the volume on other instruments and vocals to clear up some sonic room. There were some real treasures buried there that are now rising to the surface, like a lingering spice. In the end an interesting effect was achieved... like the "song" was stepping away from centerstage and a heavy guitar band was taking over. I guess when you dub nine guitar parts these things happen.
We left the night drained but excited over the changes in our good friend Superdave. I can't wait to hear the latest mix...

Up up and away!

Dave

SuperDave was the second song we tracked that chilly October '05 evening. We took 8 stabs at it within an hour and I believe we settled for take 5 or 6 ... I shouldn't say "settled for" because I think what we have has a great feel to it. Again, Austin was there to make sure we were happy. The guys were pretty much set with someone else tracking us because they felt it was too much pressure for me to perform & do the tracking duties at the same time. I had done that on the first album and I'd have to agree with them that it's just too much for one person to do and expect everything to be in it's place after all is said and done. Austin would throw out his suggestions when he had them and we all took heed of his comments. As you look back on it, you always wonder if it could have been better ... after all, it was the first night of recording. But we had played Twister & Superdave SO much before, we felt comfortable after the night was over and never looked back. Jim was rock solid as well as Preston's part was pretty much the same take with very little editing done to it.

Dave & I of course have to "re-do" our parts & stack more on top of more on top of more. More is never enough :-). But I do like what we did to start out with Dave's opening guitar work. At Sonic Arts, we have a recording booth that is at the end of a 30 to 40 foot hallway/walkway into our studio space. We put Dave's little Vox amp in the booth and miked it close with a Shure SM57. And then at the other end of the hallway, we put an Audio Technica 4033 mic facing the booth. We double tracked his guitar throughout the song like this. At first, I had his close miked tracks center and then his hallway mics panned hard left and right. But after I threw my tracks into the mix ... it was just too much guitar. I fought for a while with that mix 'til Dave or Austin suggested panning Dave's work left and mine right ... and that's where it is today. Except at the beginning of the song, I have Dave's 1st guitar takes' track close mic panned left and his 2nd takes' hallway track panned right. Can you picture that ? I'm very happy with the sound of that opening ... very roomy !

For me, this was the first time Dave had asked me to take a "lead guitar" part ... so to speak, on this song. I'm REALLY not the soloing type guitar player, but Dave worked something out that fits my style and I'm comfortable playing it. Dave also tracked a lead synth keyboard matched to it that really makes the melody thick & stand out. Plus ... if you really listen hard ... probably best with headphones ... you can hear nice little keyboard parts floating around throughout the song. Dave did some tasty keyboard riffing with hints of "Super Hero" themes.

In traditional Mimes fashion, we built a pretty big vocal track ... especially the ending ... about 1:30 minutes long ... :38 seconds of it being the fade out. Lots of layered vocals, but not as much as Queen this time. Dave usually tracks his lead vocals twice ... once we have a good take settled in ... just as a backup. But while we did the second vocal track, I monitored the first take as well and Dave matched that take SO well, it just sounded right to keep them both up in the mix. Really gave the lead vocals a punch for this song.

Dave's ending vocal of "Up Up & Away" has always been a struggle for him. It just all depends on how his voice is at any given time. This night he NAILED it ..... a few times that is ... LOL ! AAaahh .... the magic of computers. I dare anyone to try and maintain that ending as long as Dave did ! What a trooper.

Dave ... you're OUR Super Hero ... even if you say you "WON'T Come to Save Us" ... you always seem to anyway :-)

Peace & Enjoy
Randy