Today's job was to put Robert's rhythm guitar strums into another of the two songs he's playing on. I'm waiting for a Hawaiian Steel part from Jack Hayter, and I need to sing Terry Edwards' trumpet part on to a track for him. Then it's some backing vocals from Gina (yay!) and some bass from Winston Blissett- then my lead vocals on most of the tracks, and some tidier backing vocals to replace the raggedy demos.
I have a title, and an idea for the cover. I think it will all be done by the end of June, so long as there are no weird mixing blips, because I've kind of been mixing it as I go along; this involves booting up the computer every time I walk past the kitchen table, having a listen to a track and making volume and panning adjustments until everything sounds better. My aim is to make the sounds speak to each other in different ways, not always distinct and contrasting; a blend sometimes works really well. Every time you add an instrument, the whole thing recalibrates itself. "Now I do need bass guitar, even though I didn't before'. 'Now that guitar part needs to be an octave lower'. It's the best sort of puzzle, especially when you unexpectedly do something right and the sound of the whole track changes just because of one tiny adjustment.
I haven't played the songs to many people. Nobody has heard the whole thing yet. I want the opinions to come from the music before they come from listeners. I know that's weird but it feels as though the songs tell me what they want, and it seems churlish to override that with anything a human says... just yet!
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