Screaming Mimes Blog

Someone asked what a dribble castle is. I can only say that if you haven't made a dribble sand castle on the beach, then you truly, truly, are missing out on one of life's great joys.
Behold!



Okay, enough languishing in my glorious memories of the beach.

Last night a little work hiccup (which is about as politely as I can translate Preston's voice mail) caused us to cancel our scheduled rehearsal, so Randy & I met and worked on "Everything To Me". As I read the latest issue of Rolling Stone with The Police on the cover (which is strange because I haven't read Rolling Stone in 3 years and this summer I've read the last three - Amy Winehouse is a gifted singer but a total trainwreck, by the way... which reminds me of a total trainwreck I dated in highschool, but that's another blog post... or a song... or-) Randy mixed away on the drums trying to breathe a little "roominess" into the sound. We had made a very big decision to use the piccolo snare on this song (a very thin, bright snare drum) and now we were regretting it a bit. Everything had a "cardboard box wrapped in rubber bands) sound to it (as I helpfully described - Randy loves it when I give helpful descriptions). We made a copy of the snare drum track and used a bunch of tricks to thicken it up - pitching it down, EQ the crap out of it, throwing in a ton of gated reverb... finally we got it down to a livelier sound.

Next I went into the booth and added a little tambourine and shaker to the song. This was fun because I'd spent a lot of vacation time thinking about this part (seriously, that's fun to me, so you shut up!). Each section was to have a different treatment - double time accents on the chorus/intro, single hits on the 4 beat of the verse, and 2 & 4 accents on the "in-between-the-chorus-&-guitar-solo" sections. Got it? Took a couple of takes, and afterwards my wrist was sore (let the jokes begin!). In the end it really loosened up the rhythm and added a little bounce to the overall mix.

At this point we brought my guitar down in the mix a bit (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) and this lightened up the overall mid range. I played a little supplemental tom sound on the octapad. Preston's bass is just DIGGING IN on this song - sounds like one of those massive earthworm monsters from the movie Dune. Not the book Dune, the movie. *cough* Anyhoo, we played with some of the vocal balances and a few hours later we were both ready to NOT listen to the song again for a while.

I think we got it much closer to where it needs to be, which is good... a bit of deconstruction and reconstruction. I think we made progress which is good.

A few more songs, some artwork and then it's off to the presses!

Dave

Finally made it on the old family vacation. We're down at Hilton Head Island, a place I haven't visited in 20 years. This used to be a regular summer stop for the Storm family. Strangely, not much has changed. There's a Walmart and some new development along the way, but once you cross the bridge and hit the island it's still the time capsule it was when I arrived here as a young boy.

The clouds are dissolving away now and the salty air is mixing with fresh rain. Nice smell, good for the sinuses. Yesterday we swam with a small pod of dolphins (they sneak by within an arm's length - you can watch the patch of bubbles they leave, and then rise up out of the water to catch a breath), made a huge sand castle (dribble-method, it's the only way) for a bunch of hermit crabs, marveled at the awkward grace of the cranes and penguins... the island is teaming with life that you only see in the sullen environment of the zoo. And it's just milling around you. Alligators stew in the lakes by the houses, lizards crawl up the screen doors, tree frogs crank up the jams as you navigate the pine tree forests at night. For a kid, it's fantasy land. For an adult clinging to his childhood, it's therapy.

I can hear the lolling waters as I type this. Which is pretty rare, the water is stunningly calm and warm and perfect for my 4-year old who is on her second year of swimming. The few times a wave is large enough to knock her down she laughs and takes it square in the face... which pleases me to no end. Most of the waves tickle your feet and lap lovingly at the base of your sand castle. After yesterday's fortress I've promised that we'd build a grand palace this morning. I can't tell which I enjoy more - building the castle of the horrid destruction of it by the tide. I'm so giddy down here it's all mixed up in some joyful stew.

Last night we went to see Greg Russell, the singer songwriter who has been doing his show under the big oak tree in Harbour Town for 31 years. Heck, I probably saw one of his first shows. Eek, that dates me. Anyway, he looked and sounded pretty damn good. He had his 12 string guitar and I pondered how much he inspired me at the time to pick up a guitar in a few years. The way he worked the crowd, told corny jokes, handled hecklers... I never would've acknowledged it but he might have been a big influence. I've written a bagful of children's songs that haven't seen the light of day but I bet he would think they were alright. He pitched his tapes and DVDs and CDs quite a bit more than he used to (when I first saw him he didn't have anything to sell) but it was still a good show and very sweet to see my daughter laughing at all his jokes that I used to be mesmerized with.

It got me thinking about how this place used to inspire me as a child and young adult. As a kid I kept to my own imagination quite a bit but this was one of the few places that could draw me out and get me engaged 100%. I didn't need to slather on any layers of fantasy down here - it was (is) a magical experience on it's own. Eyes wide open I'd dig in the sand, dive in the waters, and chase lizards until I would collapse, exhausted, behind a curtain/lounge chair fort I'd made in the living room. There my Star Wars figures and drawing pads awaited and I'd work out all the scenarios my hyper imagination had built up.

When I got a small Casio keyboard one year and began trying to make music on it, a beautiful young woman of Asian descent showed me "Heart And Soul". I still remember her bright red nail polish on the tiny plastic keys. I practiced those chords a lot. Then I started moving my fingers apart... C became F which became G. I wrote a song from it - "On The Beach". It was an ode to Hilton Head Island.

A couple years later, on what was to be my last trip for a couple of decades, I was officially a musician and brought my bass guitar with me. I ended up writing several great riffs and recording them on the living room stereo. Many of them became songs for the Rush/Yes/Van Halen-esque band I was in at the time. I can still play a couple of them... but they haven't aged well.

Entering college was difficult. My insecurities swept me up and it felt like 7th grade all over again - starting at the very bottom of the social barrel. Hadn't I just escaped all this crap? Luckily I had a very kind, strange English professor. I wrote a story called "Turtle Beach" about the childhood joys of Hilton Head Island... and he loved it. He said I was a good writer. I shared it with my family and they loved it too. I was the first thing I had written that anyone really seemed to take notice of (besides the jokey comics I wrote in high school skewering various teachers & students). The island was once again fertile ground for my creative exploitation.


I've brought my sketchbook down but haven't had time to do much in it (afternoon naps are taking care of that - it's been years since the afternoon nap). Hopefully today will be the day. I'm hoping for more inspiration. I've managed to clear my head quite well these first couple days. The pace of this life has taken some getting used to but I'm there. I suspect I'll be thrusting a bunch of beach songs in the key of C on you soon.

The dolphins are calling. Time to trot down to the beach and start the latest sand fortress for the hermit crabs.

Dave

It's getting hottt around here. Two squirrels having relations in a sock hot. Conversely, my little above ground pool is freakin' freezing. But it does offer some relief. Heat stroke to hypothermia in 40 minutes - that will clean your pores!

Wednesday the band worked up another new song... "Somebody New" - this is one that had actually bonked around a couple years ago but never really stuck. I wrote the majority of it in the same period as Completely I think... which is funny because lyrically it's the exact opposite of that song. Sometimes that happens. You follow the musical idea or theme down a rabbit hole long enough that you want to do something completely (pun intended) different next time. So that song was written in a batch with some other tunes but I was never satisfied with the chorus. Nevertheless, we banged on it a few times with a very fast shuffle beat but eventually it got shelved.
The lyrics are from the perspective of the man talking to his ex about how absolutely fabulous his new girlfriend is - all the while it's completely obvious he is still obsessed with her. We've all been there, yes? Denial, the songwriter's catnip.
A few months ago I came up with a quick little chorus without a home and realized that it was the missing stone in the path. Before the rest of the band arrived I was setting up the recording equipment and banged the elements together. I think what brought it all back is for some inexplicable reason the lyrics for the song (originally titled "The Point") where laying defiantly on the music stand. Why, I have no idea... but I quickly cobbled together the two ideas written a couple years apart and thus a song was born anew. Huzzah!
Randy & Preston and Jim walked in and we kicked back up with "Strawberries & Beer". It sounded even livelier and more confident than last time. Encouraging. The grove had a little more bounce and although I forgot most of the lyrics I was having more fun playing with the talking/rapping verses. This will be a fun song to explore as the months go on - trying different phrases and whatnot. Maybe we'll debut it tomorrow at the little acoustic show.
Next we worked on "Everybody Knows", punching up the bridge & intro. I wanted it to start off a little harder... and I think we came up with some cool stuff for the bridge.
After a couple hours of work I threw back out for consideration "Somebody New". Within a few minutes we had a good working version of it... it's a fairly simple song. Jim came up with some excellent Police-esque beat shifts for the song and I was able to bring back my old "wah" guitar sound. It feels like finding a perfectly fitting, in-style shirt in the back of your closet. Or something more manly than that. Whatever!
Jim rolled out at this point and Randy, Preston & I worked on some acoustic arrangements for Saturday's show. We may have some surprises for you - it's always interesting hearing songs that you've played a thousand times stripped down to bare acoustic arrangements.
Oh yeah... we played "Never Be Enough" for the first time in a LONG time and I had this complete out-of-body experience during the guitar solo... it was very strange. This solo has always been a tremendous challenge (I curse myself for writing it - damn you Dave!) and as the third chorus ends I always get a flash of anxiety - I have to play it perfect! Well, my hands & brain & heart went somewhere very strange and I played it pretty much spot-on... I don't know how it happened and I doubt it could happen again but for a moment there I wasn't sitting in downtown Cincinnati in our rehearsal space... I was in whatever la la land is reserved for savant-esque moments of inspiration. A rare visit, to be sure. Remember that moment in the movie "Somewhere In Time" when Christopher Reeves gets sucked back into modern day after finding the penny? No? Hmmmm... well, then think of a manly movie then and pretend I never said that.
Well, that's the haps down here. Three new songs, some big gigs coming up, and a lot of album still to mix. What's new with you?

Dave