This past weekend involved a productive band session based on an inefficient plan: start with the cake (another Yossy Arefi recipe), listen to recent recordings and demos, discuss ideas, and only then pick up instruments and start trying stuff. "Cake first" is the sort of idea that most management experts would probably dismiss out of hand, but it worked for us.
I've posted before about the usefulness of joking and messing around. The cake might have predisposed us to that, or that might just be what we do when we get together. Anyway, when it WAS time to play, we started by recording "Last Call" with a different feel than we'd tried in the previous session. (It's always felt like an Old 97s song, but the previous session settled into midtempo Merseybeat. Charlie said he always had Merseybeat in his brain. There were jokes about a Homer Simpson–style cutaway to reveal an old-timey animation, the Mersey Moose.) That evolved into a very fast punk version—which eventually collapsed under its own speed, but might serve as an entertaining outtake.
I've posted before about the usefulness of joking and messing around. The cake might have predisposed us to that, or that might just be what we do when we get together. Anyway, when it WAS time to play, we started by recording "Last Call" with a different feel than we'd tried in the previous session. (It's always felt like an Old 97s song, but the previous session settled into midtempo Merseybeat. Charlie said he always had Merseybeat in his brain. There were jokes about a Homer Simpson–style cutaway to reveal an old-timey animation, the Mersey Moose.) That evolved into a very fast punk version—which eventually collapsed under its own speed, but might serve as an entertaining outtake.
 Herb E. Vore, the Mersey Moose | We moved on to "Now You Know," an arrangement that has been a bit of a struggle. I wrote the song as uptempo and New Wave-y, but it has always seemed to require more synth than we typically use. I layered on some Johnny Marr-ish effects and bungled some lyrics (notably "herbivore" for "hellebore"; Thomas paused to identify the Mersey Moose as Herb E. Vore). Julie picked up a 12-string for some Cure ambience. At a pause she happened to strum the chords as though the song was a moody country ballad. So we went ahead and tried that version. And it totally worked—to the point that now we'll probably record it both ways, once for Posthistoric, once for Backroads. On the drive home, Thomas pointed out that we could also try it as a Pretenders song, and we'll probably give that a shot too; the song's old barriers are more or less gone. |
The point, I guess, is that messing with genre is an extremely effective way to challenge your assumptions about a piece of work. I think it might even be useful regardless of medium (change a romcom to a thriller! change a comic to a Victorian illustration! change a sonnet to a sestina!).
And if Herb makes an appearance in one of our videos, that's why. Now you know.
And if Herb makes an appearance in one of our videos, that's why. Now you know.
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