#7 Chick in the Fold

I love trying a thing out only to discover you like it much better without it – in this case, click tracks. For those of you wondering, a click track is a studio device included in most recording software that plays a “clicking” sound to keep you in tempo. As with most other musicians/engineers, I’m not the biggest fan of the click in terms of turning in a lively performance. I try to think of the click, when I use it, as another musician with whom I’m jamming, but that is very difficult since it’s a machine and devoid of sensitivity or variance. We even tried making it into a drum beat, which I played on the keyboard – and that was worse because it went from jamming with a machine to jamming with a really bad drummer. Finally Nick and I ceded that before we were using the click, even though we weren’t perfectly on a tempo grid, the room it created in the song left everyone much more comfortable. And of course our rhythm was improved having worked the better part of an hour with a metronome in our headphones…

This was a very pleasant evening, just what I needed. Thank you fellas.

A Word on the Engineer:

Joe Clapp is as nice a guy as they make on Boston’s South Shore. He’s calm, he smiles, shakes your hand, makes sure you’re comfortable, sets the mood and gets down to business without making it seem like business at all. He knows his program (Logic), loves what he does, and has worked with everyone and their brother between Boston and Plymouth. We met through our mutual friend, Bob Jennings. THANK YOU BOB!! True friends introduce true friends to true friends!

A Word on the Studio:

A magical place! They’ve made a multifunctional venue/studio out of much less space than you thought was possible for all the stuff they do! Whether you want to record an album (or a single), make a music video, use the greenscreen, the soundstage, or “totally put on a concert with lights and everything man!” Ultrasound Productions has your back! Cool, equipped, simple yet quixotic vibe here.

A Word on the Accompanist:

Nick Thorkelson has been a good friend and Additional Father (I think I’ll call them “Add-Dads” from now on, I don’t think you can have too many family members, especially if you’re homesick!) since I acted in The Good Person of Setzuan with Fort Point Theatre Channel Group. Since then it’s been a mutual respect for each other’s musicality and versatility, and I’m so glad I got this opportunity to bring him on board and show off how cool my musician friends are with their rollicking bass lines and tinkling pianos. Nick did all the work on this one, I didn’t have anything resembling notation, just chords above words and slashmarks. He’s a good sport. The best.