MOAR!

No sooner had I posted my last blog than I realized how busy the past week had been, and something I forgot. And now that I've done my studio time, I'll tell a bit of that story too. 

The bit I missed in the last post was another little gig I did that was a friend group gathering.  A friend of a friend who had seen me play during my test runs before Christmas last year wanted to get everyone together for a few drinks and socializing at The District Brewery and invited me to come out along with another guitarist she knew. The other guitarist, Ian, was purely a guitarist and played some amazing blues and prog style stuff. He even sat in on my last couple of songs and gave me some leads. Such a fun night. 
Right now, this is my favourite kind of gig. Where there's just a handful of people, and I can interact directly with them. I'm actually thinking that I'm going to convert my approach for the next few months to backyard parties and stuff. Small group things. I actually caught an ad for Side Door, a service that hooks musicians up with just this kind of gig. One of the founders, singer Dan Mangan, talked about how he could make more money playing to 30 people at a house party than 30 people at a bar - and make way more connections and impact doing it. And that REALLY clicked with me. Like he gets it! So, I've signed up for Side Door, and once I've finished my work on the demo, I'm going to start promoting myself for small party shows. 

But what of that demo/recording? Shouldn't I be working on that instead of blogging?

Well, yes, maybe. But I wanted to put a little bit of space between my recording and mixing time. Give myself a chance to hear it with some fresh ears. But how did it go?

Well, it went ok. But just ok. 

Studio work has never been my forte, and even this studio visit should be simple. Go in, record a vocal/kazoo on one track and guitar on the other. I spent some time watching videos by Recording Revolution on YouTube on how to do this. It still felt unnatural and challenging. But I suppose doing something you don't do much is supposed to be challenging. Certainly, if I went back in today, I'd make fewer mistakes than I did yesterday!

I think the hardest part is the space and constriction of how I was set up. Now this isn't a criticism of the studio I was using. I was given free use of a recording studio by the Regina Public Library, and what I was given access to far outshone the price paid! But once I have on an acoustic guitar, harmonica harness with kazoo, headphones and two big mics in close proximity on stands - it gets very tight.  I felt a bit like Darth Vader in his suit, I still had the force but I was so restricted by this little cage I needed to get things done. 

One lesson I did learn was to ask for help or the things I needed. As I got set up and dialed in my sound and setup it was clear I needed a better mic stand, a pop filter and a stool. I struggled mightily until I just asked for the equipment. 

I managed to get the four songs I planned on recorded. I'll be digging into mixing them over the next week and hopefully I can release them into the world in the next couple of weeks.