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Sunday,
May 13, 2001 3:49pm
Dearest Diary…. damn, it’s been
a while, huh. I
know I always say that, and I know that I always say
that I say that, but it’s been like 4 months since I
wrote!!! Well
it’s not really that I’ve been lazy or whatever,
it’s just that we thought we’d give it a break till
the album comes out and there’s more to talk about
than just what I had for breakfast. J
Man, my windows are open now and the nicest
breeze is coming in.
Summer is finally pretty much here!
My neighbors are doing something really loud
right now. I’m
not sure what, but it sounds like the world’s loudest
vacuum or something.
ANYWAY, let’s get down to
business! So
we’re in the studio now… FINALLY!!!
I can’t believe it, cuz this is what we’ve
been working so hard for and looking forward to finally
doing and all that, and here it is.
Well to be honest, I was actually dreading going
to the studio cuz I get so nervous and stressed and all
that, but I knew we had to do it.
But I’m really liking the studio experience
now. It’s
a lot of fun! Love
Juice is seriously the best studio around.
Everyone is so cool over there, and they have
good equipment and really know how to use it.
Thursday was our first day in the studio.
We are going Thursday and Friday till the 25th
of May. We have to be there by 8:45 in the morning, and the place is
in downtown Riverside, which is like 1 hour 15 minutes
from my house, so I have to wake up at like 5:30AM just
to make sure I’m not late!
But as weird as it sounds, I actually miss waking
up so early. It
reminds me of when I was in high school and I had zero
period and had to be at school at the crack of dawn.
Senior year, I had speech with Mr. Grimm, and he
was the coolest teacher!
So anyway, we record from 9AM to
6PM with a one hour break in between.
Thursday we were supposed to record drums, bass,
and guitar for our first five songs…. “Prom
Night,” “I’ll Miss You,” “Wish This Were A
Love Song,” “Sixteen, a Bombshell, and My Friend,”
and “A Wonderful Life.”
On drums, all the songs except for “Prom
Night” were first takes.
“Prom Night” was a second take cuz when I was
recording drums, Mario was playing guitar along with me
just so I could keep my place in the song.
When you’re recording in a studio, you record
every instrument separately.
The way it’s usually done is you lay all the
drum tracks down first, then you lay the guitar tracks,
then the bass, and then the vocals.
So when you hear a song on the radio, the drums
could have been recorded a couple weeks before the
guitar, and a month before the vocals.
I tell you this in an attempt to impress and
encourage my female readers to turn around
and say, “Marc, you are always so full of fun and
interesting little stories!”
And to that I will then respond, “Damn straight babe.
I’m not just all looks ya know!”
;)~ I'm good... damn good. J
Anyway, what was I saying….. oh yah.
So we got through all the drums and guitars for
our first five songs, and bass for “Prom Night” on
Thursday. Drums
took about an hour and a half, so we finished waaaaayyy
faster than I thought we would. OH! I forgot to
tell you about why we did “Prom Night” over.
Mario was playing along with me so I could keep
my place while I was recording the drums.
They call that a scratch guitar.
It’s only temporary, and they record over it
when you’re really ready to record the guitar.
Anyway, during the bass solo part of the song,
Mario somehow lost track and went extra long on one
part, and I tried to sing the song in my head so I
wouldn’t lose my place, but it was too hard cuz Mario
was still playing and trying to find his place.
He thought he finally found his place, but when
we finished the song, we listened to it and realized we
messed up. I
was bumbed cuz I was nervous at first to record and was
happy we finished one song.
But actually, right after that, I got more
confident and started to relax.
So that was that.
Friday, we came in to record the
last four songs on bass, and do vocals on all five.
I think I got all the bass down on first takes
too, so that was done in like an hour 15 minutes.
There were only minor things I punched in and
out….. which means that you play along to a part where
you messed up, and they push record when the bad part
come up, and stop recording when you’re done fixing
that part. So
you don’t have to do the entire song again.
I know I had to do that for at least one song….
I can’t remember for what, but probably muted strings.
Anyway, we finished bass and were about to move
to vocals, but then we realized we had to record
keyboards on one song—“I’ll Miss You.”
It was such an easy little part, that I didn’t
really practice too much at home.
So when I recorded it, I messed up a little bit,
and it took like half an hour to do the little keyboard
part. I got
the beginning of the song alright, but the keyboards at
the end got confusing cuz I got a little lost.
Anyway, we finally got it down good and then
moved on to vocals.
I am singing one song on the CD
(“Sixteen, a Bombshell, and My Friend”), so since
I’ve never really sung a song before (except one which
I sang at Richard’s studio a couple months back… but
that wasn’t a serious recording), we kept that for
last. Anyway,
Mario was pretty good at getting the vocals down and
stuff. He’d
do lead vocals, and then I’d come in and do the
backgrounds. Believe
it or not, background vocals are pretty hard to do if
you don’t practice.
They’re really minor small parts, but when
you’re going “ahhhhhhhhhhhh” and moving up a note
and down two notes and all that, it’s easy to get off
key. Anyway,
so finally it came time for me to sing my song. Let me tell you something.
I’ve practiced this song a little to myself
like the way people sing in the shower or in the car or
whatever, and that’s way way different than when
you’re in a studio and you can actually hear yourself
sing. Damn,
I was like, “That’s me?!!!”
I sounded like I was auditioning for “Bye Bye
Birdie” or something!
That’s a musical where there’s a lot of
squeaky high voiced kids singing about love over a
telephone. I
saw that play in high school cuz I was doing the drama
section for yearbook and had to hang out at rehearsals
and all that. It
was pretty fun, and there were a lot of hottie girls, so
I was all over that assignment!
LOL Anyway,
I told the guy to trash the vocals I just did cuz I
wanted to record them over.
I was scared that I would end up ruining the
song, so I was thinking of just having Mario sing it.
But I thought I’d try it again.
Anyway, I tried to do a better job the 2nd
time. Mario said it sounded a lot better, but I didn’t get to
hear it cuz we barely finished that song right at 6PM.
I still have one more background part to do on
that song too actually.
So we’re pretty much done with all five songs
except for that. Anyway,
I have to practice all day these next four days so we
can be really tight in the studio. I want to be able to
record things without having to do them over and over
again, cuz that gets stressful, and 2 days for 5 songs
is really not as long as it sounds.
Well, I think this is long enough. I was practicing bass before I started writing this.
We went to Macaroni Grill today in Aliso Viejo
for Mother’s Day.
Damn, there were so many hot chicks there!!!
I was thinking of picking up a job application on
the way out!J
Oh… hold on… I gotta sign my mom’s mother’s day
card….Okay, I’m back…. like 16 minutes later!
I like signing cards all funny and stuff.
Some people get all sentimental, but I don’t
like feeling all mushy and stuff.
Anyway, I gotta get going.
From now on, I’m going to try to write these
diaries pretty regularly.
The next time I write will probably be about a
week from now so you guys know what happens this week.
Wish us luck!!!! Anyway, for those of you going to prom, don’t forget your
corsages in the refrigerator (I did that last year!),
cuz it’s pretty embarrassing when your girl is the
only one without one.
For the rest of you…. ummm, I guess I’ll talk
to y’all later! Bye!!!!
Marc
5:22pm
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