Quick break from answering questions...

I actually have something to talk about without being prompted by a list of questions today!

The Last Chucks are in the studio this weekend. A real-live, big boy studio, with soundproofing, a control room, and everything. Despite having recorded maybe about 45-50 songs in my life, this is my first time doing anything in a real, professional studio. This is also our first time recording anything since May of 2008, when we recorded three songs over the course of a weekend. We're doing three days (Saturday, Sunday, Monday), and trying to get seven songs done. If you know how recording works (and if you know Mike), this would sound very daunting, and possibly undoable. This is a quick run-down of how recording works...or at least how we do it.

Day 1: (After a few hours of setting up, getting levels right, getting bass sound right, etc.)Drums are priority number one. All three of us play together, and all three of us are recording what we play. The guitar is basically just a scratch track, used for reference later, when the guitar is actually tracked. The bass can go either way. If a take is good on drums, we keep it. If a take is good on drums and bass, well, that's just a bonus. With our time limitations, we have to finish all the drums in one day, so they take precedence. If I mess up on bass, but the drums are good, we move on, and I re-track the bass later.

Day 2: Guitars are king. Goose and I actually won't be in the studio at all today. Today is all Mike. He's starting around noon and basically playing guitar all day. This will kill his fingers. I know this because after 6 hours of bass last night, it hurts to type right now. I washed my hands with warm water today, and my left index finger stung at the warmth of the water. And don't even get me started about the blister on my right thumb!

Day 3: Vocals, remaining bass, extras. While day two will have killed Mike's fingers, day three will kill his voice. He will be singing basically all day. I will be doing a lot of backup vocals, totalling maybe 1/3 of what Mike will be doing. In addition, what bass I didn't finish on Day 1, I will do this day. Lastly, we will be throwing in a lot of percussion type stuff and finishing touches: piano, sleigh bells, tambourine, hand claps, etc.

HOW WE'RE DOING SO FAR

Day one was a smashing success in my opinion. We were planning on being in the studio at 3:00. Because the people before us were running late, we didn't get in until just after 5:00 (you find that EVERY aspect of recording utilizes one virtue: patience). We were planning on being done by midnight. Actually, our time estimation was pretty dead on. We ended up finishing for the night around 2:00. Given that we started 2 hours late and ended exactly 2 hours late, I have to say it was a pretty good guess as to how long it would take to do what we needed to do.

Drums were great. Goose never ceases to amaze me. Seriously, these are some complicated songs...especially where the drums are concerned. That was no problem for Goose, though. Dude knocked it out of the park.

Our hope was to do 7 songs. We really only needed to do 5, and we had two extra songs that we'd get done if time allowed. We actually got the drums down (and nearly flawless) for all 7 songs. As an added bonus, the bass was good for 5 of the 7, meaning that I will only have to play bass for two more songs on Monday. Granted, they are the two hardest songs of the seven, but I didn't really expect to have them down the first night anyway.

Despite a few frustrating moments and a couple of times I had to bite my tongue, I drove home feeling really good about our progress.

So that's where we are now. Day two will be starting for Mike any minute now. He will likely go late into tonight, and hopefully when I arrive tomorrow for the final day, all the guitars will be done and we'll still be on schedule.

By the way...Matt, our engineer, is awesome. He is really easy-going, and really seems to know his stuff. With him recording, and Jason mixing for us, we're bound to have some really good, professional-sounding stuff when this is all said and done.