I wake up to the sound of doors downstairs and assume it must be around 7.45 – when Frank goes to school – but I look at the clock and it’s 9! That sleeping pill worked. The snow came, as promised, and we’re snowed in, Frank’s school is cancelled and I can’t get out of the driveway until the guy with the snow plough comes… I am still very tired. I go back to bed. I wake at 10.30 and I’m ready to leave at 11.30 but the plough guy hasn’t ploughed… Beth’s car is and SUV, maybe it can deal with 5″ of snow… I..t can!
I had tentatively arranged to had M Schwaber come in at 12.30 to play more guitar… I get there 10 minutes before he does…
We’re in the small room today, just MS and me. We start on the twangy (Orbison-esque) idea on It’s Late. It doesn’t take long. The basic idea was good and MS executes. He adds a line or two to the bridge and coda and the song is (bar percussion) finished.
Very exciting. This song sounds like nothing I’ve done before, and everything I’ve done , at the same time. If this was the lead song for the next record, I’d be happy to gamble to success/failure of the record on it…
What next? There isn’t much… I know I’m happy with Silver Lake (which used to be I Can’t Stay which used to be I Can’t Leave You Like This) but I think… maybe one more element could elevate it and I’ve bee n wondering if something like the swarm of bees tremolo guitar on Diminsihed Ex might work here, too, as a texture. It does and how… MS dials up a sound and plays a pass. It is great but maybe to much of a pad… I suggest less distortion so the sound is spikier (is that a word?) and we have it. MS plays a perfect pass and then we play with filters (SoundToys). It will be amazing.
Very happy we have a look at Period Piece. There is a part missing in the mid sections. We find it and record it. Simple enough. We then listen. The modular synth which comes in in the second half is cool and very NOT Tom Petty (my only worry). I wonder if something could provide the same or similar function in the first half of the song? MS analyses the part and comes up with a guitar idea. It’s great, but do we have exactly the right sound, right part? Not sure… I will review in the AM and go from there…
That may have been the most productive 5 hrs of the album.