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THE TWENTY6HUNDRED JOURNALS

 
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Maurice
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Joined: 08 Jul 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 1:25 am    Post subject: THE TWENTY6HUNDRED JOURNALS Reply with quote

Excerpts from the TWENTY6HUNDRED Journals:

I'm sitting here listening to the bed tracks from my bands first recording session on Monday May 15th. For the uninitiated, bed tracks are recording of drums with reference guitars and bass. In house building terms, think the foundation. Anyway, I'm sitting here thinking to myself, who would have thought that I'd be vying for the same recording engineer as Prince. Yes that Prince, as of the artist formerly known as, and then know again as... uh, Prince.

When I saw Purple Rain or bought Parade back in the day, I never imagined that I'd be in a position where Prince would hold my future in his tiny but talented hands. Am I exaggerating, not really as the recording engineer, whom we were saddled with as our original one called in sick, won a Juno for Musicology. Anyway, the studio manager Paul approached me first thing in the morning with the stereotypical good news bad news scenario, to which I requested the bad news first. The bad news being our original guy called in sick. The good news was that we're getting a Juno winning, Grammy nominated Recording Engineer to flip faders and punch pro tools on our behalf. Yeah like there wasn't enough pressure to begin with simply trying to meet the deadline as stipulated in my original recording agreement with The FOF. Couple this with the fact that my band insisted that we increase our original delivery from four songs to six. For real musicians this may seem like no big deal, but when you're dealing with musicians that haven't played in years and only have about a month and a half to get them in shape, arrange all the music, write some new material and then take them to a world class studio to lay it down, it is a pretty large order to be certain. One thing for sure I'm glad I had no idea about the Recording Engineers resume prior to arriving as I'm sure it would have dialed the pressure even higher.




Anyway, Stu, the engineer was an absolute gentleman professional and the most pleasurable engineer I've ever worked with in over twenty years of wasting my own money.

The point of this rant, well we'd all retired, yes the entire band. In fact some of us haven't played in over a decade, or in the case of our bassist, haven't really played bass for any length of time, aside from owning one. The propensity for calamity was huge in this endeavor, including my own shortcomings as a writer, singer and guitarist.

Even without the knowledge of our world class engineer the pressure was pretty high that day as I'd warned the band that if we weren't productive enough, it could spell trouble for the entire recording as The Fortress could possibly pull all support and send us packing.




I might add that this was the very first time in my entire recording existence that I've every played to a click track, aside from basement recording that no one will ever hear. Let’s add another note, there was absolutely no alcohol permitted during the entire recording, another first for me as previously my entire studio sessions started with beer and then ramped up to liquor before the day was through. Having had my health fail and fall out of love with alcohol this was decidedly easy to maintain having not drank with passion in half a decade.

To make a potentially long story short, although we encountered many problems throughout the day, most due to my indefatigable rage exacerbated by excessive amounts of energy drinks the boys performed admirably, most notably Randy the drummer pulled off a killer performance under extreme duress. He was a super trooper indeed. In fact we all endured, survived and actually thrived. Also, although I was warned that the engineer may be on the lackadaisical side due to it being simply a job, our Recording Engineer was a machine. He sat there throughout the entire day and very rarely did he initiate any breaks. For the most part I had to keep badgering him and his assistant to partake in the catered food and drag him outside for cigarettes, as he's a smoker as well. This was the opposite of what I was told to expect. In fact, if we had been able to work faster, or had more material prepared for that day, I feel certain that Stu would have matched us step for step.

Did we make any missteps along the way that day? Most assuredly we did, however we did over come and even the loudest blustering, entirely from me, was met with quiet solutions from both the band and the engineer. To that end, I cannot thank Randy, Jim, Wendel, Stu and Brent enough for a day that will live on in my memory for years to come. I also must offer an additional apology to Brent, the assistant recording engineer who accidentally walked into a fart cloud left by me in one of the isolation booths. Sorry Brent but I figure you'll remember us even if for that fart alone if not for the deli tray.




As it stands, we're biting our nails wondering if we'll be able to get Stu back for another session and if I am correctly informed, we are specifically waiting to see if our next proposed session conflicts with Prince's recording schedule, which if I am correctly informed is haphazard and mercurial (source An Evening with Kevin Smith) as Prince can call everyone in with a moments notice as his whole home is one giant recording studio. Id ask Stu if this is true but I’hm too embarrassed. Same as I won’t get the studio’s owners autograph for my drummer brother.

Anyway, I love music, it was something I was born to do regardless if you or anyone thinks I have enough or lack specific talent. I've always felt that I was meant for something more than just a nine to five slog at "insert office name here". The call of overdriven guitars and thunderous drums is stronger to me than any physical allure and although I've basically retired, I've never stopped writing and recording music in my basement, even when my health failed and I was forced into dialysis and then to kidney transplant four years ago. In the past year I've endured two more sessions under the knife, forty pounds of weight loss, the loss of my mother, the failing health of my brother and a thankless job counting beans and making excuses. I need, want and deserve this opportunity for what it is worth and I will milk every last drop from The Fortress of Freedom to see that this done my way. The Fortress sets it up and I knock it down. This is not news for those thinking I am bashing the FOF, the boss Maurice, knows where I stand and understands me to a great degree.

An aside, I hear a rumor that Metal Works thought The Fortress was insane signing me and my hastily created band without listening to any of our music. Maurice vehemently defends his hands off production philosophy and the more I work with him the better I understand what he's trying to do. He's trying to cause trouble to the establishment and for that alone I owe Maurice a debt of gratitude that I will repay with the best performance a bunch of working stiff musical retiree's can muster, regardless if Prince steals back his engineer or not.

No hard feelings Prince?

Cheers

Michael D.S. Atkinson
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