mmmmmmastering!

It's been a while since I've er... blogged. Dunno why. Actually, I suppose I do. I started a new day job and it's pretty intense at the moment. But the lack of communication does not signify inactivity. Far from it! Why just this very day we received the first pass at the mastered tracks for Mantoloking, our soon-to-be-released third studio album produced by Steve Fisk! It's incredibly awesome and I couldn't be more excited about it.

I was explaining to Steph the other day that this album really marks the end of a 12-year journey for me. I can honestly say that this is the first time I've made something that's truly excellent. It's a phenomenal album. The songs are great. The performances are great. The production is great. So much of that is due to Steve. Due, in fact, to one specific thing about Steve: he is uncompromising. He explained exactly what it took to make a great album, in terms of time, effort and approach, and he made it very clear that he had no interest in doing anything that wasn't great. So in effect, he raised our game. When we realized the level of investment in time, money and energy that we were going to put into this thing (and when we saw the level of investment Steve was going to be making and the faith he was putting in us [flying across the country to record a band on the basis of some Youtube clips]), we worked our assess off. Rehearsal after rehearsal after rehearsal, as a band, individually and even in sections. We played tons of shows. We refined the arrangements to the 9s. And I went from having 6, maybe 7 keeper songs to having the complete set of 11 that we recorded. The best songs I've ever written, bar none. In short, we made it happen because we had to. We got it done.

I'm going to write a piece on the story behind the songs: the story of the album as it were. I'm going to try to reconstruct the chronology of what I wrote when, and to the extent I can (to the extent I'm comfortable with), I'll talk about what went into each tune. How they came about. Where they came from. But that's for another night.

For now, I'm writing to label peeps and publicists trying to figure out how we're going to get this thing out there. We're trying to decide what makes the most sense and what's in line with our objectives. This isn't the end of anything, at all. The album being done is a starter pistol going off. The race starts NOW. Now we push and push, in every way we can, for people to hear this thing. We'll work as hard as we can, but more importantly, we have to work smart. We all have jobs and commitments. Chad and I have kids. We're not spring chickens compared to some. But there are advantages to that. We know what we're about, and what we're not, and we have experience to go along with our enthusiasm. You can hear it in the songs, and you're going to see it in the plays we make.

Anyway, I couldn't be more excited. This is a great time for the band. We've made an amazing work of art. It's truly the most immense and impressive thing I've ever been involved with. Everyone played their part perfectly. And soon it'll be time to reveal it to the world. In the meanwhile we'll play some shows, bring back some old tunes and do a whole lot of scheming.

Until next time!

- Jesse Kates / Download Kinda Like Fireworks for FREE

Oh don't even think it

that we're slowing down

it's just NOT happening.

things we have been doing:

1. hiring a business manager (Jennifer Long!)
2. preparing for the halftime show at the May 30 roller derby event and the first Indie Pop Alliance show the week after!
3. designing album art
4. compiling edit lists
5. thinking about mixing
6. scheduling mastering with John Golden
7. learning and re-vamping a whole bunch of songs from TOURISM and Kinda Like Fireworks

oh, and in real life i got a new job.

anywho, if you want a teaser, check out the lyrics and title for album three!

- Jesse Kates / Download Kinda Like Fireworks for FREE

Album 3 Recording Diary: Day 7

I'm actually writing this the morning after Day 7. Steve will be here in about an hour and I'll take him to the airport so he can fly back to Seattle.

Yesterday we spent the morning finishing off the final set of guitar overdubs for You're Out Of Luck and Say Goodnight. Then we took a lunch break and spent the afternoon and evening packing up, cooking up rough mixes of all the songs and backing up files. It was what Steve calls a "low rent" day, though his standards are a little skewed. Steve works hard!

At about 8:45pm, Chad and I rolled out of Eudora with two hard drive copies of the entire session. We high-tailed it through a a few thunderstorms to my house, where I burned him a copy of the rough mixes before he went home. At about 10:30, Steph and I sat down to listen to our own CD copy of the rough mixes for the first time - the first time that I really got to hear what we had done on my own stereo, without interruption.

Now I know I went on and on about the stress, etc., of the last few days. And it WAS stressful. But holy cow this album sounds good. And as early as the car ride back with Chad, I felt a change come over me. It's a feeling of being done. The feeling of accomplishment is only now starting to appear, but the feeling of "done" started to hit pretty fast. I already feel like a different person, like I'm back. And even as I type these words, the feeling gets stronger.

This album has been a huge mental focus, and a huge time consumer. We started rehearsing twice per week on January 10th, 2009, and continued a weekly regimen of two three-hour practices all the way through April 11th. We worked as a whole, on our own and in various sub-groups. During that same time period, we also played six electric shows and four acoustic shows to help prepare. In point of fact, I've probably never put more effort into any single project, and certainly not into any project of my own creation and initiative.

And dang, does it sound good. Steph was floored when she heard it, and the tracks aren't even properly mixed! I don't want to hype things up too much, but this is most certainly the album I set out to make, and I'm thrilled about that. It's an album that I would really, really enjoy listening to even if it weren't my band. I can't say that about anything I've made to date, going all the way back to my bands in Pittsburgh. There have always been obvious, significant shortcomings (at least in my mind) in my work to date. But this album is different. It is what it is, but it isn't compromised. The songs will stand on their own merits. The performances and recordings are excellent, bar none.

And so, cheers to Daniel Torrence, my talented and diligent drummer, who really made this all click by insisting that we play with a click. It was his personal preparation that laid the foundation for all of our success. Cheers to Chad Toney, who aced all of his guitar leads (and almost all of his parts period) during his first takes, which created time for percussion overdubs, vocals and new inventive guitar tricks. And here's to Pat Padgett, whose solid playing anchored us, and whose constant gigantic grin reminded me of why we're here in the first place - because this stuff is fun. And because it's really, really satisfying to MAKE something. And finally, thanks to Steve Fisk for flying out to the middle of nowhere to take a chance recording a band he had never met all on the strength he saw in a a few YouTube videos. How hip is that?

And so, my friends, this ends the recording diary. The album is tracked. It is yet to be mixed and mastered, but our part is done. Vive la Sexy Accident! And oh, BTW, come out to see us rock tonight at the Popfreeradio.com showcase at Davey's Uptown in downtown KC. We're headlining! Pat Padgett's other band, Six II Chaos, is also playing.

Rock on,

Jesse

- Jesse Kates / Download Kinda Like Fireworks for FREE

Album 3 Recording Diary: Day 6

I didn't expect that I would call this experience the third most intense of my life thus far. The first most intense was the birth and early childhood of my son. The second was my wedding. The third is/was recording this album.

This statement is probably very hard for anyone who hasn't done this to understand. And honestly, I'm kind of disappointed in myself for making it. I don't know exactly why. I sort of feel like I should be able to do this - to record an album - to spend seven days in the studio more or less non-stop. And I suppose I *can* do it. I have done it so far. Only one day to go, and barring any sort of sudden awfulness it should go well and be relatively enjoyable. But god am I tired. And at times the pressure (entirely self-inflicted though it may be) was almost too much for me to bare.

It's the fact that you have to be ON. You have to perform. You have to get it right. Right now. This moment. This take. Or maybe on the next one, but today. Not tomorrow. Sure, you could take another day. You could come back. But that'll cost you more money. Hundreds of dollars. You don't want to do that. That's not the deal you struck with your wife. Plus, you hate to be inefficient, right? You want to make this record as cost-effectively as possible. Great, but for the minimum cost. That's why you spent months and months rehearsing twice a week: to a click track, on your own, in groups, in coffee shops, on stage. All in preparation for THIS MOMENT. Right now, when the "tape" is rolling. But this moment isn't a moment. It's eleven hours of moments. And that's just today. Then there's tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

And it's easier than it's ever been, recording. You can copy and paste things. But we choose not to employ some of the tricks that seem to sacrifice too much or make it too phony. We don't do auto-tune. We punch in, instead. We sing the word right, at least once. There's certainly some satisfaction in that.

And why, at the end of the day, do I do this? It's a question I've been asking myself a lot over the last few days. I will most certainly get a high off of hearing this record when it's done. But chances are, when I play it for my friends, for my family, their reaction somehow won't give me what it is I'm chasing, no matter how enthusiastic they are. I'll still want to do another one. And another one. And another one.

I think I'm chasing something that I'll never get. Maybe it's self-acceptance. A feeling of "yes, you did it well enough." A feeling that I can be satisfied with the work that I've done. I don't have any answers here. I don't know why I do this. I know that I've read and said and heard others say that it's not really a choice. That if you're a creative person, you have to be creative. But maybe I have choices within the non-choice.

Steve is an excellent producer. He works hard, he gets great sounds, and he's really patient, kind and supportive. And all of this despite some major, major disruptions from outside of the studio. I can't think of a better person to work with, both aesthetically and in terms of professionalism.

I hope that when I recover from the stress and exhaustion of this week I can look back and feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. I can already see it over the horizon. And I hope I can bask in the glow of that satisfaction and maybe, god forbid, take a few weeks (or at least days) off.

Of course, there are shows booked, etc. I've made sure that I have a stacked plate. No changing that, now. But I need to carve some time out to lie under a tree or similar. Life's too short not to see it as it's happening. I spend a whole lot of time being somewhere else.

Anyway, that's enough of that. Today we finished the last two vocal tracks and did guitar overdubs and percussion. But now my wife is finally home, and we finally have a child-free and studio-free hour to talk. I'm not going to miss that, even to blog about gear and nonsense.

Until tomorrow!

- Jesse Kates / Download Kinda Like Fireworks for FREE

Album 3 Recording Diary: Day 5

So. Today Mr. Fisk continued to share his wisdom with us. While listening to "Merry Christmas" he noted that it's a very marketable thing, to have a Christmas song. He also pointed out that everyone has a birthday, everyone has a mom, everyone has a dog (or cat) and everyone (everyone!) loves Christmas.

In response to this critical marketing intelligence, The Sexy Accident have immediately begun penning a new song. The most marketable song ever! The song that is sure to catapult us to superstardom! What's it called, you ask? (Wait for it...)





...




...




Happy Birthday, Christmas Dog!

And don't forget: Christmas Dog was a gift from your mother! And one of the verses will conveniently mention that now that we know how much we love Christmas Dog, we need to get a Christmas Cat, as well!

Ahem.

In other news, we had another fun (yes, fun!) grab bag of a day in the studio. We did a whole mess of guitar overdubs on Merry Christmas, including a veritable sea of acoustics. We also did a tremendous surf lead overdub on I'm Just Trying To Help (Me Like You) (previously referred to as I Kind Of Want To Be With You) and smacked a vintage fender organ of I forget variety on there, as well.

I recorded vocals for I'm Just Trying To Help (Me Like You), All Surface, Buy Me Out and Merry Christmas. And I sketched in the vocal line that will be replaced by a female vocalist of Steve's choosing to turn Merry Christmas into a duet! The hardest of the four was All Surface by a significant margin. To give you a sense, I spent about an hour and half to net out two solid takes of All Surface, whereas I got two complete takes of Buy Me Out in less than fifteen minutes. AS is hard because it involves many, many sustained notes near that top of my range, which requires not only good breath and pitch control but awareness of where you are standing/looking in relation to the mic. Steve taught me to sing away from the mic for the long notes, so I was doing a lot of playing around with that technique. In contrast, Buy Me Out is just fun - it's angsty and expressive and involves no sustain whatsoever. It's almost like acting. (I am not in fact a shifty executive.)

Oh, and after I did the sketch vocals for the female duet thing, Steve doubled the pitch of my vocals to see what they would sound like in the likely womanly range. Needless to say, I make an awesome chipmunk. It was funny enough already, but when we got to this part that goes "ha ha ha ha ha ha" in various pitches, it just about killed Chad, Daniel and I. That was probably the high hilarity mark for the session thus far. :)

Continuing the list of new gear used, today we introduced:

- My Takamine classical
- The Fender organ thing
- Line 6 delay modeler (used on the organ)
- Single jingle bell

I left the studio at 6:30 to go get my wife and son from the airport (yay!) but Chad and Daniel continued to work through all kinds of stuff, including in depth work recording a single jingle bell and a whole bunch of backing vocals!

So we now have two songs left to sing and a variety of misc. overdubs to finish out, then it's on to rough mixes! Vive la Sexy Accident! :) Wish us luck!

- Jesse Kates / Download Kinda Like Fireworks for FREE

Album 3 Recording Diary: Day 4

This is going to sound strange: I had fun today! To be quite honest, with a few exceptions (playing I Just Need My Car, for one), I really can't say that the word I'd use to describe our studio time thus far would be "fun." Intense, intimidating, focused, challenging, stressful, exhausting, gratifying, enlightening. These descriptors are accurate. But "fun?" Not so much (at least for me!) Until today.

You see, we're done with basic tracking. Now it's all about adding extra colors and flavors (percussion, guitars, hand claps, whatever) and about doing vocals. To a degree, the pressure is off. I was still nervous going into tracking today re: the vocals. We had planned to do them in Seattle in the summer, so I hadn't really prepared to sing. I've been practicing guitar parts and all that jazz. Thankfully, we've been doing a lot of live shows. And the coffee shop shows are especially good vocal prep. So today when we started on vocals because we were ahead of schedule, I was able to do a pretty good job! Some of the songs took a few takes, but we got five of them done. I sang You're Out Of Luck, I Tried Again, Say Goodnight, The Chatty Bandit and Daddy Loves Me Some.

Like I said, we also did guitar overdubs. I won't enumerate all the details, there, but I'll continue the list of new gear deployed for the first time:

- Keeley Compressor
- Pat's Fender Hotrod Deluxe
- Pat's Sovtek Mig 50 (produces what we're now calling the "plow guitar" tone.)
- Black Lodge's Alamo amp (6L6s)
- Black Lodge's 2x12 Marshall cabinet

Tomorrow I'll sing some more songs, we'll lay down some more guitars, percussion and Steve will probably play a keyboard or two!

Speaking of Steve, he has the most amazing stories. Today he told me all about how Marvin Gaye challenged his father to a broadsword duel. It's fascinating stuff, all the things you learn when you're a record producer! In honor of Steve's profession (and Steve's outstanding and excellent representation of said profession), I have decided to stop using the phrase "over-produced" to refer to albums that have been buried in overdubs or otherwise over-slickified. The new word, as proposed by Steve is "Gelded." A strange choice of words from somebody who is so groovy and careful about gender stereotyping and such things. :) Just messing with you, Steve. Don't Geld me.

Well, that's it for today! More tomorrow.

- Jesse Kates / Download Kinda Like Fireworks for FREE

Album 3 Recording Diary: Day 3

Woot!

Today was a good day. First thing, we knocked out the basic tracks for the last two songs on our list: I Just Need My Car and Will You Be Mine?. That took about 4.5 hours, including all the guitar tone setting, etc. Then we took a nice lunch break in Lawrence at the Thai place there.

Next we headed back to the studio and switched over to overdubs.

Now, I'm not gonna lie. Ole' Jesse has been pretty damned stressed out for the past few days. Like really stressed. Today my forearms were tingling. We've been making amazing progress, undeniably quickly. But somehow it's still my baby, and we're still not done, and the more we put into it, and the more perfect and awesome it sounds, the more my subconscious fears losing everything we've done. I know it's not very rational, but there it is. I mentioned this to Mr. Fisk and asked him if he had any words for me, and he said something to the effect of "Let it go. It makes sense. It's OK because how you're feeling is a reflection of the same determination and commitment that got you here." I thought that made a whole lot of sense, but I'm still glad we have three hard drives (two backups.) You never known when a moose is going to run into the control room and smash everything.

I neglected to mention in my note re: yesterday that Steve got to experience his first tornado drill in our company. I could tell he was pretty perturbed, as anyone would be (and as I was, for sure) the first time they experience one. But we checked the weather map and he was relieved to know that these things only last a few minutes or hours. I still think he thinks we're a little crazy for putting up with it, though. Maybe he's right! Of course, we don't live next to an active volcano. :)

So re: the overdubs, today included some interesting activities:

- Chad, Daniel and I clapping in unison to a click track ("That was awful!" - Fisk, re: the first take.)
- Me plunking out some piano parts in two-finger, hunt-and-peck fashion.
- Daniel banging a bass drum with a rubber mallet.
- Daniel playing a tambourine (he was relieved that I didn't see this part as he felt it made him look effeminate. :)
- Chad and I arranging a wall of amps so we could rapidly switch between sounds for different parts of different songs.

Gear-wise, today saw the debut of:

- My Heritage played through the Tweed Bassman replica
- Chad's Yamaha played through my Z.

In other news, it appears we are going to finish all of the tracking here in KC! The intial plan was to do vocals and a few dubs in Seattle, but we're moving so fast that we should have enough time to finish it all up this week!

That's about all I've got, sports fans. And now, it is time to sleep.

- Jesse Kates / Download Kinda Like Fireworks for FREE