pow-wow

Last weekend K and I went to a pow-wow. What a cool thing, I can't believe that I have never searched this out before. I think we stood there for 4 hours with our mouths wide open. The costumes, and the dancing and the singing, and the drums OH the drums. I still have the beat in my head, and it's been a week. Here is a little video I made of some of the dancing and with a recording Kyle caught on my iphone.





I was a little camera shy... but I did manage to get a couple good ones.



Ok, see the little boy on the left side? This image was taken during the singing/drum competition, and this little guy was competing along side these men. He watched the caller like a hawk to be sure he was singing the right thing, I have never seen anyone put as much heart and soul into singing. When they finished the song he did a little fist bump with all the men.

VOX

Mr K. (local recording master) and I were recently asked, by our good friend Andy Martinez, to add some vocals tracks to his new album. Of course we said yes. So, we spent Wed night laying down the last little bit of what we wanted recorded. How cool that Andy, who lives in Austin, can send us his digital files, we record tracks, and send em back. nice.

Although long and sometimes boring, I really enjoy recording, especially vocals. It is always such a challenge to get it perfect; phrasing, tone, texture, control... not to mention that I have a strong accent that I usually have to try to harness to a degree. I still like it, it makes me feel like an athlete, mentally preparing for the next round, and when K pushes the record button, I step into the ring.

the start of a long process

The original idea was to devote the ENTIRE weekend before Thanksgiving to the cause of recording but, it turned into Friday after work until about 5 in the morning (there was a little nap in there, and some lolly gaggin', ill explain later) and then Sat morning-ish till around 6pm, then... we took Sunday off! This whole process seems to take SO SO SO longgggggg. We have a good amount of work done, most of Jana's drum tracks, and a couple of other little things here and there, but, we still have the guitars and vocals for ALL the other songs, except one. 

We captured the vocals for the song we call Ohio, and it is a kinda of sparse and whispery, but dramatic song, that still rocks in places, respectively. So on Friday night K and I went to the record store and messed around, then had dinner, then went to the coffee shop... so by the time we got home we were "all jacked up" on conversation, sweet tea, and lattes. We managed to get the guitar tracks and then had to take a little breather to let the caffine seep out of our bodies, needless to say we fell asleep, and woke up around 2am... and it was at this point we decieded that this would be the preeminent time to capture the vocals, all gruff and crackly like we want them. We haven't listened back yet, i guess we will have to let our ears be the judge. Our diligence could end up being pure brilliance or a load of crap, could go either way really. 

We are returning to the "studio," a.k.a. our spare bedroom, this weekend to try and get some more work accomplished. We officially have 3 weekends to get this done. Our goal is to have it completed by the time we leave for christmas. Fingers are crossed!

Saturday night we took a break from recording and took our friend Kate out for sushi for her birthday, and had an awesome time. We were the only patrons in our favorite Lubbock place that's usually packed (probably had something to do with the Tech/OU game). Our sushi chef must have known it was a special night b/c she crafted a dog, penguin thing out of wasabi for us!