Yesterday my session form Coach House Sounds went up. Its kinda special for me not just because of what I recorded there (although I am happy with how the mastered tracks sound) but because of how it came to be. It may not be a big deal for those of you out there in “real” bands; playing shows, recording things, for you its just what happens. For me, its kinda a big deal. I sent the email to them without the intention of even doing a session, I was really just interested in maybe playing a show similar to the one they had just booked. I go through phases where I try self promotion and look around for locals that may be interested. His (Matt) response to my initial email was to mention how he would love to have me in for a session. I basically ignored that, passing it off as him being nice. I did not expect him to bring it up again, in a random other email a good month later. Now I guess I couldn’t ignore him and started to actively figure out my schedule and throw some dates around.
All this is to say, its nice to meet some genuine people. I dont usually play my music for ppl. The fact that he took the time to listen to it and then decided “yeah i want to spend a wednesday evening in 90+F coach house recording this kid” means a lot to me. For me its something that little that is a big deal. Besides that, everyone present at the session was super awesome. Doug and Neal were just so nice to work with. The session, aside from the crippling early August in Chicago heat, was comfortable.
I set up my stuff, borrowing 2 amps from them to complete the 4 amp setup I have been using for the 2 shows I played out this year. Basically, one amp for each channel of the laptop, which is running Ableton Live that is processing 2 lines of inputted guitar. I forget where I pulled the guitar signal in from, I know one was from the end of the line after the Line6 looping pedal and I believe one was the dry side of the vintage MXR analog delay (that I had just picked up in NYC a few days earlier). The other signal path went to the tape delay and then into my 2 amps, a 70′s silver face fender twin and a newish Vox VR30.
I tend to over think about what i “release” and for the whole ride home me and Kcat discussed the session. Then when I got the tracks back I listened to them almost everyday for a week. I am happy with it while at the sametime wishing I could do it all again. I think that is mostly because it was fun and because I have so many new ideas I would have loved to play. I guess just keep an eye/ear here for future updates. thanks for listening.
(@ the vet) 