Pictures from the Studio

The Studio Process

Well, I promised that I’d write in more detail about our time in Nashville – for those of you that are interested – so here goes.  There’s no way to really encapsulate the experience in a few words, but I’ll do my best to give you an idea of what goes on in the studio.

First Avenue Sound in Franklin, Tennessee sits in a nondescript building just off Main Street in quaint downtown Franklin, right across the street from a great breakfast dive called Dotson’s and a few blocks away from the town square.  The main room houses the console and outboard gear – pre-amps, compressors, and EQs used to make the individual sounds as good as possible – the computer, and the monitors.  Todd, our engineer, spent most his time here making sure that the sounds were right and handling the ProTools recording system.  Once Scott, our producer, was finished with his drum tracks he too would sit behind the console and direct our creative efforts.

The band was setup in their own individual spots so that we would be able to record all the instruments at once.  The drums got the largest room so that we could get nice big tones.  Sharing that space was the keyboard player, Jason, and all his gear.  His airport worker-style headphones kept the loud volume of the drums to a minimum.  Jason’s keyboard rig was probably the most extensive of all the players.  He had two keyboards, a Wurlitzer, and a Fender Rhodes all routed through various guitar pedals and into a mammoth 120-watt Fender Twin amp.  (Turn the volume up to 4 or 5 and it will peel your skin right off.)  In addition, his Hammond B3 was setup in the adjacent room with the grand piano.  Off to one side was a small room for acoustic guitar and another for scratch vocals.  Greg Hagan, our guitar player, and Joeie Canaday, our bass player, were positioned in opposite corners of the main room with the console.

The musicians play to charts written in a system called Nashville Numbers, which consists of numbered chords similar to those used in music theory, but written in regular Arabic numbers instead of Roman numerals.  This allows them to be immensely flexible with the key of any particular song, and leaves plenty of room for each musician to imbue the song with his own creativity.  Before recording each song we would gather in the main room to listen to a demo and get an idea of where the song was headed.  Then the players would spend a few minutes getting sounds, coming up with ideas, and practicing specific sections of the song.  Once everyone was ready Scott counted them off and they would start a take. The first goal was to get a good drum track to which the rest of the players would play.  Of course, the musicians were still learning the song, so the first two takes would usually be unusable as they locked in their parts.  Once it became apparent that the take was not going to be a good one the musicians would start goofing off, which were some of the funniest parts of our time in the studio.  We could have created quite the blooper reel!

Rarely did it take more than three tries to get a good drum track – a rather incredible fact when you consider all the different elements that have to be played exactly on the beat.  Once he was finished Scott would join us in the main room to listen to the rest of the players and guide their efforts.  The bass was usually quick to follow, only needing to fix a few things here and there.  Once the foundation was laid the guitars and keyboards would be layered as each player got ideas for the song.  It was really exciting to see each song put together with each musician contributing his own creative energy.  The collaborative process yielded some great moments!  The whole process usually took about two hours per song, and at the end we would gather in the main room and “listen down” to the whole song, making sure that the track was completely finished.

Of course, it was also great fun spending time with the guys.  They were all a blast to hang out with, each with his own unique personality, and our conversations ranged from the inane (worst studio experiences) to the sublime (the synergy of accessibility and artistic integrity in worship).  We left on Wednesday evening having accomplished all we set out to do, excited about the new tracks, and looking forward to laying down the vocals and hearing the finished product.  Thanks to all of you who had a part in making this possible!

Day 3 in Nashville

Well, it’s a couple days overdue, but here’s the skinny on day 3 in the Nashville.  It looked a lot like day 2 – in the studio at 9:30 in the morning, out of the studio at 9:30 in the evening.  We tracked Light of the World (which you may remember from our Christmas service last year), Undone, One (a brand new song), and Thunder Roll.  Then we re-cut the drums on One in a Million and added a little Hammond B3.  The organ gives it a great new character!  That completes all the tracking we set out to do.

After finishing the session and saying goodbye to our musicians we finally had a moment to relax, catch our breath, and reflect a bit on the last few days.  It was truly a fulfilling week for us, both as musicians and as Christ-followers. Working with these world-class musicians was an incredible privilege, and creating this album has long been a dream of ours, but seeing this wonderful experience dovetail with God’s leadership on our lives was breathtaking.  We are so excited to share this music with you!

I’ll write in more detail about the studio process later – for those of you that are interested.  The next step for us is laying down vocals, which we will do here in Houston over the next few weeks.  We’ll keep you posted!

 

From left to right: Dave, Jess, Jason Webb (keys), Joeie Canaday (bass), Greg Hagan (electric guitar), Todd Robbins (engineer), and Scott Williamson (producer, drums)

Day 2 in Nashville

Hey friends!  We had our first day in the studio today!  After hearing the band play through the first song to be tracked, we soon realized how incredibly blessed we are to be working with these musicians.  It’s fulfilling to hear our simple song demos transform into full sounds and expressive music.  The musicians have truly been able to channel our vision for these songs into something tangible.

We’ve tracked the band on five songs (Be Glorious, These Precious Minutes, Face of God, Shout it Out, and Restore Me) and will be hitting another four songs tomorrow.  We’ll also be re-recording some sections of two other previously recorded tracks tomorrow to round out our 11-song album.  The schedule we’re keeping has made for a long day, but it’s great to see us making such progress.

We’re shooting a good deal of video, and hope to have that up soon, as I’m sure the paragraphs of text are getting pretty boring (and cannot begin to communicate all that we’re experiencing!).

Thanks for reading – more coming soon! 

Nashville Studio Pics

Day 1 in Nashville

Well, Day 1 has come to a close here in Nashville.  It was a fun day – if a bit uninteresting from the recording side of things.  We managed to arrive at our friends Jake and Diane’s house in time to catch the Super Bowl last night and then I headed off to Scott Williamson’s home studio today to do a bit of pre-production.  The day was spent working on acoustic guitar tracks, picking out drum loops, and doing scratch vocals so that I can do more listening than playing when we get to the studio on Tuesday.

After completing our tasks for the day we gathered with some old friends at Genghis Grill in Cool Springs, a favorite restaurant from our days in Nashville.  Jake and Clint, both from my old band Better Days Ahead, were there with their wives Diane and Courtney.  Jarrod and Jamie, good friends from Greenville College, also joined us.  We had a blast catching up with each other and reminiscing about the funny things we’ve been through together.  (Here’s a random tidbit for you: Clint is now playing guitar with two former American Idol finalists.)   Ultimately we ended up closing the place, finally taking our cue to leave when the waiter began to clean our table rather demonstratively.

Tomorrow it’s off to the studio! 

putting wheels on the vision…

We are pumped to finally have our tracking dates nailed down!

We’ll first travel to Nashville February 4-7 to track the musicians for the album, then our producer will come to Houston to track the vocals February 17-21.

Check back for pictures and videos from these recording dates!