This one is a long time coming. So glad it has finally on the shelves for everyone to check out. We went to Abbey Road Studios in November of 2015 for a show in London & to spend a day in Room 3 with a film crew and document some history about the band, roots, where they came from and where they were headed next. We also had a chance to do some recording as well, some fan favorites, and also at that point, new songs as well. Since I was a kid, I had listened to many records made there and it always seemed like a pipe dream to get to see the space, let alone to actually be in there working on some music! The staff engineers were very gracious and gave me a tour of all three studios, and show me some of the gear, instruments and memorabilia that adorns such an important place to all of us that do this for a living, but also love listening to the music that been made there over the years. The recording went well and the label had plans to release the songs for record store day in the Spring thereafter.
I got the recordings back to Nashville in the early part of December after we got home, and was finally able to pull up the tracks at Undertow. The drums sounded just like I was still in that room! This was a live recording with the guys all in the same space, no overdubs, so bleed was everywhere, but it felt great. My main concern was keeping the vocal present without having to change the mix drastically when Jaren wasn’t singing. I was already familiar with the songs, so it was mostly about keeping that element balanced. For those of you who have seen them live, then you know how dynamic they are, so the mix was mostly about trying to keep that in tact, and preserving the actual recording. I could have added drum samples and make it sound more “radio”, but I felt that this would be more true to what that moment in time was, and hopefully it would compare to recordings I had heard in the past that had also been made there in similar fashion.
The label ultimately decided to hang on to the record until the songs we tracked had been released on “Bury Me In My Boots” later in the Summer of ’16. So today, they have put it on the shelves for all of us to enjoy. I’m really looking forward to listening to it on my own record player, the same way when I was a kid used to sit in front of it, stare at the artwork and read the liner notes and wonder who worked on it, how & where they did it. This time, I actually know exactly how! Happy listening, and feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think too…
http://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/9441
Here’s some video footage if you haven’t seen it with the day of in studio live mix: