Mike and I loaded up all of the recording equipment and headed up to Rangeley, Maine (way further north than most rational people dare to tread), and set everything up in the sanctuary of Micah’s parents’ church, which graciously let us use their space for the week. The big advantage we had over last time we went to record drums was this space. It was big, and it sounded beautiful. We were able to set up a couple microphones in the pews to catch all of the reverb and ambience, and they make the drums sound way bigger than they ever could on Redivivus.
We recorded a little on Friday, but Micah had to work for the majority of the day, so Mike and I just enjoyed some time on the lake and hanging around reading. It was kind of unreal to be recording where we were. Rangeley is the kind of place that bands pay big money to go and record, just for the natural beauty of the area. We soaked it in on Friday, and with the exception of a couple short breaks, this would be our last time to enjoy it all.
Saturday, we got to work. We started recording at 8:15 a.m., and we finished the day at 10:30. Drum tracking may very well be the most exhausting, stressful, and rewarding part of the recording process. Trying to play with energy and precision to a single sloppy guitar and an ear-splitting metronome for hours on end is something I would not wish on anybody, but Micah toughed it out. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to spend two to four hours recording a two-minute section of music. By the end of Saturday, we had two songs done and a third started.
Sunday was similarly long and productive. Mike went home, and Jared and Josh, a close friend of the band, came up to lend a few extra ears and take turns behind the computer.
Monday was the toughest day, for sure. The absurdly long days of hitting drums as hard and passionately as he could muster started to take its toll on Micah. He was still cranking them out, but this was now interspersed with collapsing on the floor silently for 10-20 minutes every now and then. We took a little break for a nice lunch that day, and stopped for ice cream on the way home. We did little things to ease the tension and to remind ourselves that humor and good feelings were still present in the world. We may or may not have danced at one point or another, and Josh and I allegedly went out into the space where Micah was recording and played air guitar to help Micah feel a more tangible live presence in the recordings. I will neither confirm nor deny.
We finished up Tuesday morning. Micah slammed out a whole song in just about two and a half hours. Then, we took our sweet time packing everything up and listened to music that had nothing to do with our band while we worked. It was a very relaxing, low stress end to an intense six days.
I am very excited about these drums, and about the start of the recording process. We got to experiment a lot this past week with stuff that we didn’t have time or confidence to try last time around—stuff like double tracking, auxiliary percussion, and group drumming. I’m psyched for you all to hear this album. We hope you’ll like it.
Thank you to anybody that's read this or supported us in any way.
Peace in everything,
John
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