Faces of Throttle Body - Dan Ruiter

Dan Ruiter is the club's newest member, being a fantastic drummer and having previously worked with Jerry in both the Joe Arrants Band and Dry Bones, Dan brings the groove (as well as a little dose of joy every time he plays).

Let there be drums

Dan Ruiter officially joined the Club last night as he tracked drums, bongos, tambourine and cowbell on "Girl" and "Safe" for the new Throttle Body session. The Seattle studio was brimming with groove as Dan suffered through take after take while your friendly producer worked hard to tear down every natural, instinctive groove he had. Here's a sample of the comments:

"Ok, add a snare hit with that..."

"Hmmm, now that I hear it, maybe two hits right there..."

"Do you think you could give me a little roll of the cymbals there the first time, but the second time, just play through?"

"I liked that, but lets do it again." (repeat 17 times)

Ahhhh the joys of club membership!

Scotch 45 update - all vocal tracks completed

Wow - I guess I should check how long it's been, but actually, I'm really happy - the vocals are all in the can! Tonight I recorded "Safe", "Mother's Eyes" and "Reminders of You" in a marathon five hour session. My throat is dead. Still and all, I'm diggin the results and of course with the vocals, the sessions are almost completed.

Now onto the drum tracks, which I'll be playing along with Dan Ruiter. Haven't decided quite who will play what yet, but it's bound to be rockin!

We're on track for an end of Summer release to iTunes, Amazon and the like worldwide!

Guess it's time to start revising the website for the new release!

Cheers!

"Love Is A Heavy Load" vocals completed

Just like the title says, making good progress now that I'm back from Arizona and back focused again. This song took a lot of takes to complete. It's a single, intimate vocal and since it is so out front in the song, I tried to pay attention to every nuance of the notes I was singing.

I don't talk about it a lot, but it's difficult to produce, engineer and record yourself. The thought processes for each skill are not exactly similar. Producers want something interesting and powerful happening in each song - making the most of the moment. Engineers just want it to technically sound right and to technically capture the intent of the producer. The performer just wants to play the best they can. Sometimes the producer is an ass and and I just want to go home - or the take is perfect, but the engineer screwed it up...

Well, at least I wont have to work with these clowns on this session for too much longer!

"Hole In My Heart" vocals in the can

While not the epic progress that I made the other day on the vocals for the session, "Hole in My Heart" was in the can yesterday after about three hours of singing. The vocals ended up comprising seven parts in all, and I have begun to take my approach to them from my days working with Michael Lord.

Here's the deal: sing the song - the whole song. Sing it like you mean it. Sing the whole song like you mean it until you think you like it. Then listen to every bit of it in isolation, line by line. Don't like a line? Then fix it. Once the lead vocals are done, I'll go through for any doubling of the lead I want to hear or primary harmony, then add backing vocals and harmonies and kaboom - seven vocals tracks are suddenly there to manage, and I'm a step closer.

How did I ever think I would finish this in April? Crazy.