Four Recent Recordings

 The four recordings are:

-       Sun Sessions (Wheel, 2020)

-       Fantastic (Larsen, Sassoun, Smith, 2021)

-       Hero 1 (Bushell, Clayton, Smith, & Thomas, 2020)

-       Crowded Table (Carlile, Hemby & McKenna, 2019)

“Sun Sessions” (recorded 2020) is the title track from Stephen Wheel’s Sun Sessions EP, recorded and released in 2020. The album was a response to the need, familiar to musicians that world over, that Wheel and I felt to communicate musically with one another, despite being under mandatory lockdown orders in the UK (in Wheel’s case) and Pennsylvania (me). “Sun Sessions” reflects lovingly and gratefully on precious times spent with family, despite the hardships and unprecedented anxiety and uncertainty facing society and communities globally.

My role in recording “Sun Sessions”:

I played drums on this recording. I was sent guide demo guitar tracks to play along to, and advised about the song’s structure. Wheel (songwriter and producer) is a longtime collaborator of mine (we have been creating and performing original music together since 1998), so I had a good idea of how he would want the drum part to fit the song. It was clear to me that the drum part should be simple and just hold down a groove. It was freeing to not have a click track to play to, but instead to play along more organically with the demo guitars, which in turn had not been recorded to a click. In this song, I wanted to provide a platform for the melody and allow ample space for the lyrics and for the glistening piano solo – which I had not year heard, but I knew Paul Jones would be recording it, so I know what to expect and did not want to get in the way with any more notes on the drums than were essential. After rehearsing the song, I recorded the drum kit with two microphones in my garage, in one take. I emailed a .wav file to Wheel and he used my recorded parts in full on the track. Another key element of my part in this collaboration – as with all my co-musicking with Wheel – was to offer feedback and responses to early mixes of the song; Wheel and I comprise a deeply supportive musical collaboration.

“Fantastic” (recorded 2021) is a track from the forthcoming debut album of my new wave/next wave rock band, Black Light Bastards, based in Stroudsburg, PA. The album is fully recorded, bar one vocal the singer wants to refine one last time, and all but one of 12 tracks are mixed and mastered. The album will be released commercially in 2023.

My role in recording “Fantastic”:

When I joined Black Light Bastards (BLB) and started rehearsing with them in December 2020, the song structure for “Fantastic” had already been decided, and the bass and synth parts recorded, along with basic demo drum parts. All that remained was for the new drummer (me) to compose parts that elevated the song. The band mutually agreed that there would be a minimalist drum kit in this group, comprising kick, snare, hi-hats and crash cymbals, plus an additional snare sample that I trigger when striking the snare drum. We rehearsed a set of 12 songs for six months, during which time I auditioned dozens of drum parts for this song and others. The band members all discussed the effectiveness of various grooves and rhythms, and changed bass guitar parts accordingly to fit with drum rhythms we especially liked. In May 2021, when I recorded the drums, I used two microphones to capture kick, snare and hi-hat; I sampled two crash cymbals and several of my snare drums. In august, I layered and mixed all the samples then programmed those sounds to line up exactly with my strokes on the drum kit. I also selected, sourced, EQ’d and aligned the recording of the segment of Dwight Eisenhower’s famous “military industrial complex” speech that appears in the bridge/breakdown section of the song. I contracted our mixing and mastering engineer – a former student of Zack Moir, a close academic and musical collaborator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. When BLB performs “Fantastic” live, I play drums and perform backing vocals (harmonies that I wrote).

Hero 1 (recorded 2020) is the second piece of music I recorded with UK-based fusion collective, “New Titans”; I had recorded with two members of the band 20 years prior on a progressive rock EP, and we reconnected during respective lockdowns to make this new music.

My role in recording “Hero 1”:

Asked if I would like to collaborate in a gratuitous fusion project, I jumped at the opportunity. I love playing music where I support the lyric and allow room for melodies, but sometimes, as in this instance, it’s nice to play lots of notes and contribute to a heady barrage of 16th notes with everyone in the band! I was sent a click track to play to and a guide track comprising a rough mix of bass guitar, keys and rhythm guitar, and the producer / bandleader asked me to play whatever I wanted. I recorded all the drum kit and percussion parts on the recording; along with drum kit grooves and increasingly intricate fills (in particular on the second time around the form), I supplied recordings of shakers, gourd cabasa, chimes (mark tree), cowbell, rain stick, shells and tambourine. To my delight, the producer kept and diligently mixed in every note of every part I had played.

“Crowded Table” (recorded 2022) is a cover of the hit song performed and released by country-pop supergroup, the Highwomen, in 2019. My wife’s side of the family lost a dearly loved matriarch earlier this year, one who had delighted most in being among family at holidays and other celebrations. In loving memory of this fabulous women and the ethos she instilled in three subsequent generations of hardworking men and women, my wife suggested we record this song to share with the family. We emailed it around on Christmas Day, 2022, so far to positive reviews (and many tears).

My role in recording “Crowded Table”:

I was leader on this project. I performed everything on this song except the lead vocals. I knew my wife would be singing lead vocal, so first checked what key she would prefer to sing the song in; she was comfortable singing in the original key, so I learned, practiced, performed and recorded parts on upright piano, acoustic guitar (two parts – one with capo, one without), MIDI organ (instead of bass guitar), drum kit, tambourine, clarinet and violin; once the lead vocals were recorded, I also wrote and recorded myself singing harmony backing vocals. I recorded my wife singing the lead vocal – a process that involved a lot of emotional support and encouragement, since, although once an aspiring professional singer, she had not sung outside the shower or the car for decades; I had to provide positive and constructive feedback about a part of her identity that we did not ordinarily discuss, and this required sensitivity from me as spouse/teacher/producer in that moment. We invited our nine-year-old daughter to sing on the song too, and although she was apprehensive at first, I kept and used her full third take of the song, which I blended with a comped performance of my numerous wife’s vocal takes. I think the women sound charming together (although I clearly have no objectivity about this!). I produced and mixed the entire project in GarageBand.