The Kids Are Alright

Saffire! My friend Jeff asked me if I would be interested in recording his daughter's band a while back and I said 'Sure, I'll help you out..." etc. I had no idea I would fall in love with these girl and their music. Saffire is all about the songs. I'm talking three and a half minute pop gems with gleaming vocal harmonies and sunshine abound. Throw in some attitude, classic pop structure, innocence and simplicity and put it in the hands of two 12 year olds and two 14 year olds and there you have it.

The band consists of main songwriter is Anika Scilipote (12) who doubles on lead vocals and guitar, her sister Saraya (14) on drums, Charlotte Harrow (14) on vocals, bass and guitar and sister Sonja (12) on vocals and keyboards. BTW - Charlotte is now studying voice at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. I think back to what I was doing (or not doing) at this age and I say "DAMN! Shoulda, coulda, woulda!!" No, I was probably trying to learn the guitar solo on "Detroit Rock City" and dreaming of becoming a rock star. Well people, these kids are actually out there DOING it... playing gigs, writing songs, doing interviews and recording their 1st record, with me in my house. :)

When we record the songs I always ask the girls to run through the vocals so I can figure out the logistics of the arrangement, etc..... So Ani, Sonja and Charlotte sit there in front of me and proceed to belt out these incredible, natural harmonies that literally send chills through me. You really can't "teach" people to sing like that, either you have it or you don't. Let me tell you, these girls certainly have it.

Here's "Give Me a Break" as it sits now, un-mastered and on it's way to being a finished mix. Make sure you get to the bridge and a cappella sections!!



If you want to see these guys in action go here or here

Heavy Weather

Was under the weather for about three weeks, finally feeling better. During that time I wasn't able to work on my project too much but I did some guitar tracks on my friend Chris Thomas' album. It started with one tune and I think I'm playing on at least 6 or 7 now. I also worked on Saffire stuff, mainly a mix of "Give Me A Break" that I need to finish up for them.

Jo Pelletier came in to lay down some bass last week and it was good to see the man after so many years. Jo plays in numerous bands and has a busy musical life. Here is his myspace page. He and I also go way back to high school and did a lot of jamming back in the day. He laid down some fretless bass on a tune currently called "The Way we are" and I need to suss it out and mix it in to the track.

I also did a lot of work on a tune called "What You're Giving Me" which was an acoustic demo I did last winter. Here's where it stands now...

Obviously this still needs work on the bridge and solo sections......... I've been listening to this on my ipod for a while and said to myself, "this is good and worth looking at again" so I laid into it a little putting down some bass and Wurlitzer. The problem I have is that I get a bunch of songs on the way to being finished and then I start writing again, or messing with something not on 'the list' and then I'm left with more unfinished stuff. It's the paradox of saving mixes and sessions in the computer like they are simple documents. Believe me, I'm not complaining about the luxuries that technology has afforded musicians like me but it's a lot easier to dilly dally in this digital world! Case and point: I was sifting through some old video from my Unspun days when we were in various studios working on the "Souvenir" record. We had to finish because we were on the clock in these big, expensive studios. That kind of pressure can make a project move along and put a good kind of weight on everyone involved. Here's some video from Bear Tracks where Steve Regina and I finished up a mix of 'Flash Flood'.


BTW, the gear in that place was unreal, enough to make any musician/producer/engineer piss their pants. U47, U67's, Fairchild limiters x 2!!! (worth around $60,000 today *_*) and let's not forget that beautiful mothership Focusrite 72 input board made by Rupert Neve himself!!! Good God!

Finally, here's a mix of "I got myself In trouble"....
I wrote this song around 15 years ago and swore I would do it right some day. It was meant for Last Tribe to do but we never got around to it. Dave did these groovy drum tracks about 6 years ago and I've been tweeking ever since. I always thought the vocal on this had 'something' and that it was worth keeping. Also, I really like the guitar solo on this. Great tone from my friend Jeff's Gibson SG through my Mesa Boogie amp. And those are not cheesy strings you hear on there... that would be some ebo guitar inspired by the Pumpkins 'Adore' record! For you Brez!! I'll try to keep up on the posts now that I'm feeling better and work should pick up a little.

Busy Boy

Been busy making music..... 1st off, I did a lot of work on "I fell in love with Regina Spektor" mixing the full blown horn version, tearing it all down again, re-singing the vocal, scrapping that, going back to the original sparse demo... My head was spinning and my wife was ready to leave me so I had to leave it for a while. I started messing with "Beautiful" and I think I have something good going on, FINALLY. I haven't heard it anywhere where it sounds bad so I think I'm on to something. You be the judge. With some mastering it should sound sweet. The line up on this is Dave Ramie on drums, Carl Brooks on BG vocals, Erik Lawrence on sax, Steve Bernstein on trumpet, Chip Larison on slide guitar and myself on bass, acoustic, and vocals. I am in fine company! BTW I went down and saw Erik play @ The Old Fashion in Nyack for his usual Tuesday night trio gig and I was blown away. He had Shawn Pelton on 'magic' drums and Rene Hart on stand up bass. Shawn is the drummer for the SNL band and has played with many great artists, including Johnny Cash, Sheryl Crow and one of my favs Regina Spektor, doing all of the drums on her "Begin to Hope" record. It was an incredible night of raw, funky, thoughtful music and if you are in Nyack on a Tuesday night you'd be a fool to miss this gig....


I also had the Saffire girls in here this week. They laid down all of the basic tracks for their new smash hit "Give me a Break" and managed to eat all of my double stuffed Halloween Oreos and a bag of marshmallows in the process. I'm telling you, you better keep an eye on these chickees......





I'm also laying down guitar tracks for my friend Chris Thomas' album. He's out on the West Coast and we send everything back and forth through the internet, a true digital collaboration. I'd rather be in Cali but this will have to do. Chris and I go way back to Marion St. and 4th Ave. in Nyack where we learned how to compose and record together. His mom Judy Thomas, long time music teacher in Upper Nyack school, bought him a 4 track reel to reel and we recorded hundreds of songs and comedy skits together. We got lost in that basement for hours and it kind of laid the ground work for my musical life.

Infusion Blues

Ah, Infusion Blues...... It brings me back to the days of pre-transplant when I was getting all kinds of chemicals pumped into my failing body by way of infusion. They had to kill off all of these antibodies that had developed as a result of this enormous pump (see XRAY above) in my gut that was doing the job of my heart at the time. I was getting chemo (cytoxin) and it made me feel like total crap. You just had to sit there and take the punishment and hope for a better day, hence the lyric "so pathetic but always hopeful, how long days are, out my window the sun keeps shining on......"

This was essentially a solo track except for Christian Celaya sharing the bass guitar duties with me. He laid down a track and after he left I re-did the 2nd verse and following chorus to make it a little more lyrical... The song is very dense musically, filled with a ton of effected textures like Mellotron Strings through a wah wah and verb, a backwards Casio keyboard playing Bach, electronic drum fills through panned echo etc. At the heart of the song though is a nice acoustic guitar part done in some strange open G tuning. Listening to the guitar tracks soloed you can actually here my heart pump chugging along, something I couldn't suppress if I wanted to! I also did a lot of harmony vocals on this and snagged a bit of "Over the Rainbow" from the Wizard of Oz, hope I don't get sued!! Influences on this? Beatles, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, Oz (not the doctor) Columbia Presbyterian Hospital NYC!

Now to decide: do I have room on this record for this??

Saffire

I mentioned Saffire a few posts ago... the all girl band who I recorded here at the house. Here is their last performance at Lincoln Center (no less!) I think we're gonna record this one in a few weeks. These kids are going places! Oh, did I mention that their ages are 11, 11, 14 and 14. Here's a link to their website...

My Biggest Fan

Definitely influenced by the Smiths!! I remember writing this one after a long night of drinking and seeing a show in NYC with my buddy Jeff. I had this in demo form for a while, complete with cheesy drum machine drums. Dave did a fantastic job (again) with his uncharacteristic little shuffle here. The guy should be known as 'Father Time".......... I really like the way the guitars all blend together with the Rhodes forming nice harmonies and clashes, and the bass line just walks along. I just added the bridge Piano last night and that helps break the monotony up a bit. The plucked guitar is coming through my old Roland JC120, a classic 80's alternative sound. I'm really psyched about this tune but as usual, no vox yet..... the lyrics are about 75% done. I have A LOT of singing to get done in the coming weeks. Here's the music rough of "My Biggest Fan"....... hope you like it.



This record is shaping up to be somewhat mellow...... I like mellow but could use a few more rockers. I know there are a few in my computer somewhere. Off to the beach for a week!!

Bass and Baritone

It's been a busy week with a wedding in the family and people arriving in town etc. but I managed to test out Drew's Precision and it's great. I put bass on "Hearts are Breaking" and it's happening I think. I did the bass in the style of baritone guitar which I've heard on records by The The as performed by Johnny Marr. Here's a rough of the tune... no vocals yet but check out those horns and Dave's great drumming! Volume is a little low so crank it up. I'm a lucky dude....


BTW, The Journal News has linked me to their music blog The Listening Room which is a great site that has local and national features, as well as schedules for all things music in the Lower Hudson Valley. Have a look..........