Charlie and I wrapped up the main recording for Highway Gothic yesterday. There are still some riffs and patches to do here and there, but the bulk of the album is done.
My favorite sound from the session was one I wasn't sure we were going to be able to produce, a low, fuzzy, cello-ish drone I got by playing a baritone guitar (this one) with an e-Bow. My first attempt was on my Hofner, whose strings aren't optimally placed for e-Bow work, and when I switched to the resident P-Bass, the resulting noise was a screech several octaves above what we wanted. But Charlie had just finished recording the "Subourbon" solo on the baritone, and he suggested that we give it a shot. And oooeeee, did it work.
A funny thing: the e-Bow sound sustains for the entire song, and it's all on one string, which means you're pretty much stuck with whatever finger you put down first. On the take we kept, that was my middle finger. So yes, we're referring to it as the middle-finger guitar line. Appropriately, it underscores "Gen X."
We also did some work on "Lost in America," which meant I got to listen to the incredible guitar textures Charlie created by layering lines of high, muted picking through a delay pedal. It's really gorgeous stuff, not least because by the end it's completely divorced from what you expect a guitar to sound like. It fades off into the horizon and you can't tell what instrument is even playing. (We were expecting to use a synth pad until he played this.) I can't wait until everyone else gets to hear it.
My favorite sound from the session was one I wasn't sure we were going to be able to produce, a low, fuzzy, cello-ish drone I got by playing a baritone guitar (this one) with an e-Bow. My first attempt was on my Hofner, whose strings aren't optimally placed for e-Bow work, and when I switched to the resident P-Bass, the resulting noise was a screech several octaves above what we wanted. But Charlie had just finished recording the "Subourbon" solo on the baritone, and he suggested that we give it a shot. And oooeeee, did it work.
A funny thing: the e-Bow sound sustains for the entire song, and it's all on one string, which means you're pretty much stuck with whatever finger you put down first. On the take we kept, that was my middle finger. So yes, we're referring to it as the middle-finger guitar line. Appropriately, it underscores "Gen X."
We also did some work on "Lost in America," which meant I got to listen to the incredible guitar textures Charlie created by layering lines of high, muted picking through a delay pedal. It's really gorgeous stuff, not least because by the end it's completely divorced from what you expect a guitar to sound like. It fades off into the horizon and you can't tell what instrument is even playing. (We were expecting to use a synth pad until he played this.) I can't wait until everyone else gets to hear it.
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