Ok, so we were up at Reelsounds on Memorial Day doing more work to the SKWM song. We did some tracking at FinerFoods, but needed to dump the tape to digital and continue on.

First problems were that the first verse of vox ended up on the guitar track too – not too good. Then we realized the vox mic was creating a weird phasing with the cymbals. So we decided to ditch the gtr/vox tracks and start from there.

So, we began with my rhythm guitar using a sweet Strat (a gift from Pat Methany), a Vari-Drive (thanx, Lucas!) and a Super Reverb. There were 8 (count em – 8!) mics on this amp. Ridiculous, but we have the power. Then we moved to some keys. AJ played some clavinet and then moved to a Hammond with the Leslie Rotating Speaker. Then we plugged in Nate’s Les Paul through a Rat into a 4×12″ cab powered by a Fender Bassman. Blazing solos – take after take. Yet, nothing was feeling like ‘it’. Finally, at the end of my rope, desperate, I found something. Then we moved on to some ‘gang vocals’, my lead vox, and a back-up vox.

We mixed for a couple hours. Thom and I weren’t sure if we were there, but our ears had had enough. We gave up for the day and I left with something of a mix. I sent the mix over to AJ for some fresh ears the next day; he loads it up and gives it a listen and says it sounds like shit. Turns out, his software did a number on it and fucked it all up. He reloads it again and it sounds great.

Only problem, Bill’s guitar was unintentionally left out. Need to mix it into the mix.

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