Laurence - producer, engineer and eccentric spark
Started recording with PapaTigre! yesterday. We're at what I call the 'honeymoon stage'. The excitement of hearing yourself back in the headphones is quite intoxicating! This is the first time I've recorded 'live' in many years. No click track, no laying down of separate tracks, lead vocal and guitar at the same time - a bit nervewracking.
The only overdubs are a track of vocal harmonies - bleedthrough would have compromised the sound too much if there had been another couple of live vocal mikes in the tiny living room we were in. As usual, Laurence did a brilliant job getting us in the right frame of mind and capturing what it is we do.
Listening to ourselves was illuminating. When you're playing - whether in rehearsal or live - it's next to impossible to hear what the totality sounds like. I appear to have gone back to my '70s rock roots among other things - lots of jokes about me channeling Steve Harley. I've always loved electric 'sturm and drang', so I'm OK with that.
The 'honeymoon stage'? My recording experience follows a particular pattern:
1. Love it on the first day. ( haven't had the time to mess with it yet. )
2. Mess with it. ( start covering up with overdubs what I loved about it on the first day )
3. Be dis-satisfied with the results. ( starting to pick holes in the performances and arrangement. )
4. Tell myself not to make the same mistakes next time!
As Laurence got us to record live, the urge to create a production is almost non-existant. It already has the excitement I usually look to achieve retrospectively.
So, fingers crossed, the final results - Laurence is mixing in the other room as I write - will end up a true representation of PapaTigre!