Zen in the Studio

[smoothmoniker]

I'm in the studio this week working on the second record for an LA indie singer-songwriter duo called "The Dailies". I can't wait for this thing to come out so that I can tell you guys more about the project, and you can hear the songs. This is going to be a beautiful, beautiful record.

We had one of those moments last night where everything just clicked, the studio disappeared, it just became the four players in the band sitting down together and making music. It seems like that wouldn't be unusual for studio musicians to be able to do, but we were in 3 separate rooms, looking at each other through soundproof glass, only hearing on headphones, trying to stay tight to a click track, and reading charts on songs we've never heard before. It's very, very rare for all of those distractions to fade to the background and for a song to emerge.

Last night, that happened, in a major way. We were tracking a song called "The Tide" - coldplay style rolling piano song, pumping 1/8th notes in groups of 3+3+2. On about the 4th pass, everything, just everything went into zen mode. It was nearly the perfect studio moment

We kept on going back and playing it again, took another 4 passes after that, not because we needed to fix anything, but because the song was so beautiful, we wanted to keep playing it. Each pass was different, each one was incredible all on it's own. I don't envy the producer who has to go back and make the choice about which one to use.

Anyway ... all that to say, I love my job. Often, it's just work, but sometimes, it's simply beautiful.