| bonehead: | Anything new with the Ziff Davis brew ha ha? | |||||
| Robin: | ... That's still on. Nothing new though. BUT... one more song is in the can. | |||||
| bonehead: | Ooh .. do we have a title? How about a 'working title'? | |||||
| Robin: | We never have titles until the last minute. | |||||
| bonehead: |
Hell, give me the first line. Probably "mwah mmmw oooo ooanh haaa whooa!" |
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| Robin: | (laughs) Actually that's pretty close. We always refer to songs by what they sound like until we absolutely have to come up with a title for it. We've been calling it 'The Dark Song'. I think the title will probably end up being "On Without You" or something similar. | |||||
| bonehead: | Now c'mon, you have to demand a lyric sheet this time! | |||||
| Robin: | (laughs) This is true. | |||||
| bonehead: | So how will the lack of a producer affect things? | |||||
| Robin: |
So far it hasn't been as much of an issue as I thought, but we've
only finished up one song ... and there's some funky stuff on it
too.. not just straight guitars and bass. And all the parts were pretty much set in stone, so Scott wouldn't have given a lot of input anyway. Scott is going to try to be there for the recording "as much as he can" but he's busy recording the new Weezer album. He will definitely mix it though. |
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| bonehead: | I always thought a producer funded the thing .. or is that in the movie business? | |||||
| Robin: |
Well Tony owns the studio, so all the time is free eh :-)
Only thing we have to pay for is the tape... and Scott. But that [the previous album] was all done on ADAT, and the price of the original tapes was negligible. |
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| bonehead: | ADAT? that's a new one by me. | |||||
| Robin: | It's an 8-track digital tape format. You record onto super VHS video tapes; the coolest thing about them is that the machines are stackable, like daisy-chaining SCSI devices.. if you want more tracks you just add another machine. | |||||
| bonehead: | Hey, that is pretty cool. | |||||
| Robin: | This one is on 2-inch analog tape which is way more expensive. | |||||
| bonehead: | So is the analog actually better than the digital? | |||||
| Robin: | That depends on who you ask.. but generally people prefer the analog because it sounds 'warmer'. | |||||
| bonehead: | I read that as 'fuzzier'. Isn't that usually only better in the final stages? Don't you want it crisp as long as possible? | |||||
| Robin: | I'm not really up on all this, but I think the idea is to get a good 'warm' sound on the master tape, and then mix it straight to a normal DAT. | |||||
| bonehead: | So how involved have you been with the songwriting? Do you guys just jam until you hit something you like or is there more structure to it? | |||||
| Robin: | That's pretty much it, but sometimes it's more methodical. I'll play like two chords, just for no particular reason, and Cherie will want to make a song out of it :-) | |||||
| bonehead: | Does Cherie write all the lyrics? | |||||
| Robin: |
Yeah but that might change, I might write some for this one.
Scott left me this weird stompbox to play with. An Electro-Harmonix Micro Synthesizer. I ended up using it on the song because it sounds SO freakin' cool :-) |
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| bonehead: | And now I have to ask what a stompbox is ... | |||||
| Robin: | Hmmm... you ever seen a guitarist with a bunch of little boxes on the floor in front of him? And he steps on them and his sound changes? Those are stompboxes ... effects pedals. | |||||
| bonehead: | Okay ... got it now. So let's see .. 2/12 songs .. in 3 months .. so we can expect the album in mid 1998, right? (evil grin) | |||||
| Robin: | (sticks out tongue) | |||||
| Robin: | Just got back from rehearsal. | |||||
| bonehead: | You guys almost done with that album or what? | |||||
| Robin: | (laugh) Hell no. | |||||
| bonehead: | How many tracks you have now? | |||||
| Robin: | Only one song is totally complete. Basics for four others are done but might be redone, and one of those has some overdubs on it. | |||||
| bonehead: | Overdubs? | |||||
| Robin: | That just means the song is partly done. | |||||
| bonehead: | Oh, so there's parts missing that will be added later .. okay. How many songs you planning on having total? About 7 like on the other? | |||||
| Robin: | Naw, at least 12. The one that's done is called 'Life Story'. | |||||
| bonehead: | Any concepts for the album cover yet? | |||||
| Robin: | Yeah, Madrigal gave me a great idea :-) Didn't I tell you about that? I don't know if the rest of the band will go for it or not though. | |||||
| bonehead: | Hmmm .. you told me about a few, which one was that? | |||||
| Robin: | A hand holding a spoon full of noxious-looking baby food. | |||||
| bonehead: | Title "Spoon Fed" or something? | |||||
| Robin: | I want to call it "Delecto" :-) | |||||
| bonehead: | So SJ is cutting a new album? | |||||
| Robin: | Yup, but hell, we've barely even started yet. | |||||
| bonehead: | So that means six months? | |||||
| Robin: |
I dunno.. all that's really certain at this point is: Scott Riebling
from
Letters To Cleo is producing it, one song is in the can
already, and we'll be going back in in January. |
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| bonehead: | You playing any gigs this weekend? | |||||
| Robin: | Nope, just writing ... There are maybe three or four songs that are ready to be considered for recording, two or three more that aren't done yet but we want to wait until we have, like 25-30 songs and then pick 12 or so. | |||||