Ahhhh its been a week in the studio and things are shaping up quite nicely! Lots to talk about… let’s get to it! WARNING: HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE POST!
Insinner
Quick intro of the band members:
Jamie: Guitar
Jesse: Backup Vocals, Guitar
Lee: Bass
Brent: Drums
Me: Lead Vocals, Keyboards/Keytar
James North: Our producer <– I consider him a band member whilst we’re in the studio 
Guide guitars were done Tuesday morning and Brent started recording drums and knocked over 2.75 songs (ie. nearly finished his 3rd) in half a day! I guess his practice seriously pays off. I mean this guy is determined! And the band is so lucky to have him, especially with the style of music we play. Brent practices a good 4 hours a day, it blows your mind how solid he is at drumming. I mean we even added and changed up parts of the songs we’re recording (with James, our producers, help. More on him later) and Brent had no worries changing it up. So on Day 4, Thursday, Brent was done at about noon. We messed about with our songs a lot on Wednesday and Thursday.
Lee started recording Bass in the afternoon of Thursday, but we had to leave early on Thursday so Lee only got about three quarters of a song done. And Lee finished up his 3rd song today, Friday, even though we had to leave early again. James pretty much altered all the bass parts being recorded and made them groovier and cleaner, basically more effective. It all sounds really awesome. So that’s where we’re at now.
Before i get to the producer, I might mention a few other events, and maybe share some great Insinner EP Studio quotes! (WARNING: Quotes May be Offensive)
Turkey!
Event 1: The Turkey
There’s a wild turkey that hangs around James’ Studio that he’s been trying to get his hands on for years. We were all sitting outside on James’ porch eating lunch when the turkey came around. And it was trying to sneak up on James. So I handed James a huge stick and when it came close James swung so hard for it but missed. In the process he dropped his lunch on the ground and snapped the stick lol
So Jamie and I have taken it upon ourselves to catch this turkey. So on Thursday we had a Cornetto wrapper with a bit of chocolate on it. Jamie hid himself behind some chairs that have covers on them so you can’t see between their legs or anything, and Jamie covered himself with a chair cover and hid behind these chairs. I would get the turkey’s attention and drop the wrapper near Jamie and walk away. Once i walked far enough away the turkey would think it was safe and come and have a look at the wrapper, and that’s when Jamie would lunge and grab it… Theoretically.
We came so close one time! The turkey walked up to the wrapper and stuck its head around the chair that Jamie was hiding behind. Apparently it just stared at Jamie for a moment and he jumped up but it flew away. So close!
Then today (Friday) we tried the same technique but it failed again. So i came up with the idea to hide behind the chairs WITHOUT the chair cover covering Jamie. Instead use the chair cover as a net! But unfortunately the turkey was being too cautious so we didn’t think we had a chance. That was, until Jamie got fed up and jumped up and chased the turkey into a corner! HAHA! The turkey didn’t know what to do! But just as Jamie went for it with the “net” the turkey flew high up in the air and over the fence we cornered it in with. Dang… We’ll get him on Monday…
Tuning Fork... set at 3682hz lol
Event 2: 3682
All throughout our recording I would hear this occasional ringing noise, it almost sounded like a telephone. I’d never heard it before in my life. I noticed it on Tuesday and asked Jesse if he could hear it, he said he couldn’t. I thought nothing of it. But today I asked James and Lee if they could hear it, because I just wanted to be sure that it wasn’t coming through in our mix. It only came occasionally and it was a lot stronger in some parts of the songs. So James went through the songs and asked me where I hear it and we found a section where I could hear it constantly. James and Lee looked at me funny and said they couldn’t hear anything. But it was clear as day! Well, i’d been sitting in this seat on the right side of the room everyday, so we thought it might be that spot in the studio. So I got up and walked to different areas of the room and I could still hear it when they played the section of the music that I found it prominent in. Then James goes, “Oh… that’s fucked”, before he explained that it might be a form of hearing loss and could escalate into a serious case if it was in fact what he thought it was. Basically he said that there could be a frequency that my ears are seriously irritated by and therefore are ringing. So to figure this out he decided to find out what exactly was creating the “bad” frequency. He went through the drums: toms, snare, kick, hi-hat then the cymbals. We narrowed it down to 1 exact cymbal that would set off the ringing. It was narrowed down so much so that we went into the recording room, he picked up the cymbal, smashed it and the ringing began! Lee asked if he could narrow down the exact frequency in Hertz, James said he could. So he went back to the recording, grabbed a section where that particular crash cymbal was hit, and scanned which frequency was the most prominent. It was 3682hz. He then opened a tone producer and made it produce that exact tone. This is where it went downhill, he had the studio monitors turned down, but then he went to turn them up, but he turned it up waaay too loud and that frequency hit my like a punch to the gut. My head felt like it was about to cave in and I had to cover my ears and I screamed for them to stop. They turned the volume all the way down, as in they muted to sound, and i felt so sick. Like i was gonna pass out, throw up, I was hot flushed and everything. Then I the frequency came back again and I was telling him to turn it off, and James is like “It is off” and I could still hear it. It was insanely shit. I had to go outside for a breath of fresh air. So uhh… gonna get my ears checked. James was telling me that there are special ear plugs I can get custom made that cut out a certain frequency band and that’ll prevent any more hearing loss. Good idea James.
Imagine that with 5619611341516 more cars
Event 3: The drive home
UGH! The drives home are gay! Granted, I don’t actually drive home I get a lift off Brent, but I feel sorry for him. The studio is just passed Brisbane city and we have to drive there and back, in peak hour traffic everyday and it’s pretty crap. I don’t see how some people do it every single day. That’s it really lol
Quotes:
Quote 1: “Insert a tube?” – James messing up our song title “Incertitude”
Quote 2: “Ahh I dropped the soap” – Lee or Jesse; “Yeah pick it up and I might drop a cock in your arse” – Me
Quote 3: “Lolololololololololololololololololol” – Lee being Lee
Quote 4: “Yeah you bang your drums more than your girlfriend” – Jamie (Maybe)
Quote 5: “It’s like a huge wall of ‘F*** OFF’” – James’ explanation in technical terms
Quote 6: “We should get a tuning fork that rings at 3682hz and chase Jace around the place” – Lee
James North - The man himself
James North
Anywayz, so i’ll do a bit of a spiel (yeah, coz this entry needs it *sarcasm*) on our producer James North. James is pretty awesumo. He’s a really kind guy with a sense of humour that can handle our bands crazy ramblings (trust me, you gotta be mentally tough to spend a day with our band, let alone a week or two!). Not only that he’s EXTREMELY talented at producing music (not to mention being an amazing multi-instrumentalist). This guy knows exactly what needs to be done to boost the effect of a song. He’s brutally honest, to the point that he’s convinced us to ditch some of our favourite riffs and restructured some of, what we thought to be, our strongest songs. But the songs have seriously taken an awesome turn, they are so much more powerful than they could ever have been without James. He has taken our music to another level, and not only that, he has shared with us golden information and techniques in terms of songwriting and the music industry. We are going to walk away from this EP with more than just an EP, we will walk away with precious knowledge of where to go from here and we will forever have an invaluable contact.
Now i’d like to be corny and say “we have also made a new friend”, but I dunno if it’s true or not. Now this is by no means a quick stab at James, allow me to explain!
James is the type of guy the band (i assume) and myself would like to hang out with, I mean it feels as though he fits right in with us and vice versa. He eats lunch with us and shit and we talk about random stuff and its great the sort of relationship we have with him. It feels like he likes us and I know we all like him, but I can’t help but think that we are probably just another band to him. Now, don’t get me wrong, he hasn’t done anything to give this impression, but thinking that someone who makes money off us truly gives a damn about us, our future and our music is just the kinda thing that has always screwed this band over before. James has what we need to get where we want to be; the knowledge of the industry, contacts, and his production skills. Not only that he’s just a cool guy.
Now, with this EP, the main thing we want to get is find some sort of management to push us in the right direction, seeing as that is the weakest part of this band at the moment: Direction. I was even suggesting to Brent if we should possibly ask James if he would be interested in managing us. But I came home today and looked on the internet and saw all the other stuff he’s been doing with his friends/partners and it just seems as though he’s got his own stuff to do. And it really kinda gets me down, i don’t know why. It’s like, in the hands of James North, we’ll get to where we want to be, but it feels like the only way we could do that is if we had enough cash to throw at him, don’t get me wrong, its not because he gives the vibe that he’s money hungry, but because he seems like he’s got his own projects to take care of. And it *seems* like he gives a damn about our music and us, but realistically he produces musicians all year and i’ve only known him for a few weeks so how would i truly know if he cared? So I dunno if i’ll pop him the question or not… (the question about management, I’m not considering marriage or anything lol)
Anywayz, I guess it feels a bit better that I got all that out of my system…
Ciao for now…
