Well, dear readers, I think I shall write these here notes in a hurry, because I need to get a good night’s sleep and be fresh as a daisy for today’s recording session. It has been quite some time since I’ve been in the studio to do a solo album and I’m very much looking forward to it. The last solo album I produced was New Guy In Town, and only the vocals were done in the studio. Other than that, the last time I produced and album in the studio was The Brain From Planet X, at least I think that was the last one. So, I’m looking forward to this immensely, and since I’ve done two previous albums with Mr. Brent Barrett, I know this will be a good deal of fun. We’ll be at a studio that I’ve worked in more than any other, and happily it’s very close to my beloved Astroburger, so I’m sure we’ll be doing that for lunch on one of the recording days. We’ve kept the instrumentation small – that was the concept going in, so it’s a rhythm section of piano, bass, drums, and guitar, to which we add (on certain selections) cello, reeds, and percussion. Today we’ll be doing the rhythm tracks all day, and adding the cello in the late afternoon. Reeds are tomorrow, along with some percussion touches, like vibes and bells. Our very own elmore did the charts, while the arrangements are by Chris Denny (with help from Brent, I’m sure). I sometimes will ask for adjustments in the studio, and Chris is very good and very fast about taking the suggestions. This first day will be on the longish side, and I’ve been invited to the dress rehearsal for the LA Opera, but I may just be too tired to attend – we shall see.
What an informative first paragraph that was. That was so informative I was informed. I had quite a nice little day yesterday. I managed to sleep until ten, which was great. I then had no time to do any sort of jog, since I had to meet Mr. Kevin Spirtas for an early working meal. In the ninety minutes we were there, we managed to get an order for the songs for the show with Linda Purl, and that’s a big chunk of work that’s done. I’m sure I’ll make some changes to it, but on paper it seemed to work well, although we still have about three song slots to fill, but we now know what sort of songs we need to fill them with. After that, I came home, answered e-mails, had telephonic calls, and went to Gelson’s to get some almonds, some spot remover, and some shaving cream, not necessarily in that order. Whilst there, I saw the still-cute Sally Field. I then came home and wrote the liner notes for our next release – that went a little quicker than I thought it would, which was nice. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Cruel Gun Story, from the Nikkatsu noir box set. This was an absolutely terrific film and so far the only one in the set that really felt like an actual film noir. It’s very American in tone, and the action is terrific, the actors were great, and the score was fun. And the transfer was top-notch. It’s now probably my favorite in the set, although I have one more to go, and I’ll then go back and try to finish Rusty Knife, who is not related to Rusty Hamer. Highly recommended by the likes of me, especially if you like hard-boiled noirs like Kubrick’s The Killing, with which this film has several things in common.
After the movie, I reread my liner notes, made a few changes, and then sent them off to the designer along with all the track titles. Then I had a call from a friend who was feeling a little low, so I met her down the street at Aroma so she could eat some chocolate and cheer up. I was not intending to have anything, but they had coconut cake and I couldn’t resist. The piece they gave me was obscenely big, but I only ate half of it – and it was really good. REALLY really good. After that, I came home, had a nice conversation with Chris Denny about the schedule for tomorrow, and that was that.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty sleep and be fresh as a daisy for today’s recording session.
Have I mentioned that I must be fresh as a daisy for today’s recording session? As opposed to what, I wonder – fresh as a watermelon? Fresh as a pair of laundered underpants? Fresh as a chimichanga?
As you know, today I will be at a recording session, where I will be fresh as a daisy. I will have my laptop with me, so hopefully I’ll be able to post whilst on our breaks and at lunch. Of course, I’ll have a full report in tomorrow’s notes. One thing’s for sure – it will be like Christmas in September.
Tomorrow, we do the reeds and percussion, and Brent begins to do his final vocals. I’m sure we’ll get usable things from his scratch vocals, we always do. So, it should be another full day. Then, on Friday, we’ll hopefully finish up the final vocals – if not, we’ll come back for a couple of hours on Saturday. And then we mix it, and get the packaging ready, and I’ll probably make it available for pre-order right around the beginning of November, if not a little sooner, just to spread some wonderful early Christmas cheer. We really need this to sell well, so tell your friends, tell your neighbors, and spread the word. There simply are not enough avenues for sales these days, so we just need to get the word out in a major way. Of course, we’ll have it on amazon and various online stores, and iTunes as well (although they’re so slow about getting albums up, I don’t know if we’ll make it in time for Christmas this year).
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, try to do the two-mile jog, I must attend a long recording session, and I must thing about attending a dress rehearsal for the LA Opera, if I’m up to it. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I get my beauty sleep and then attempt to be fresh as a daisy.