seeds & roots

my takeaways from NY

a take away is what you learn through a given experience that has taught you something about life or challenged you in some aspect of your personal development.  sometimes a “take away” is something that you have previously learned but forgotten!  these are my take aways from my time in NY recording an album.

• people are people no matter where you are.  we all have dreams, quirks, & have thoughts on how things really are.  we all love, we all ache, and we all are in need of something bigger than ourselves.

• recording an album, tracking as a band, when the band has never previously played together is gutsy move.  our experience has been nothing but positive, but I can’t help think that we are in the minority.

• i understand what it means to “play in the pocket” more that I ever have.

• as a follower of Christ, if you genuinely do your best to get to know folks and continually love them in their mess, Christ in you shines, and those people see that.

• many good musicians fall prey to the “click monster”.   while playing guitar I avoided the “click monster” but while tracking piano/keys he got me!  In the end I got it, but it took me some practice with a metronome at a variety of tempos before the overdubbing session to nail the piano/keys parts.

• the subways of NY are freakin’ awesome.  not only are the trains and their routes cool, but the people who hang out in subways are always interesting.  where else on earth could I have been condemned by a modern day conspiracy theorist doomsday prophet, count rats, and hear the worlds best 14 piece homeless Beatles cover band?

• overdubbing with a great engineer is tedious, but rewarding if you trust his ears.  a good engineer will be brutally honest and help you see the mistakes in your take.  a great engineer will go the extra mile to coach you so that you squeeze out your best take possible.  Michael Tudor is a great engineer!

• a great producer who gets your vision just might be worth his weight in gold.  Gerry has done a fantastic job as producer during our initial tracking.  he coached us towards better arrangements, better performances, and was very patient and kind with us when we were cranky and drained.

• i’ve gained some great new friends out of this experience.  Tres, Jason, Shaun (no, I don’t hate you), Mama, Gerry, Pam, & Faye.  i also got to reconnect with, an old friend and brother, Donnie.  i would consider each one of these beautiful people a great personal take away.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 17th, 2010 at 11:20 am and is filed under discoveries, instruments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.