i write the songs

The Cross of Christ
I had Justin Romack build a loop for this tune. It was a loop in the popular sense, in that it actually sound like drums. Often loops sound like some future-machine possessed by a daemon, but Justin created a nice brush kit for the song. I like live drums, but the loop just worked cool for this tune.

When we tracked the loop, I recorded it simultaneously to 2 tracks. Since Justin's loop didn't have any sort of dynamic variation, I knew we would need something to lift the choruses. My plan was to take the Drum B and effect it with reverb to give the song some size.

Then based on that loop, I recorded a scratch guitar and vocal. I had Justin come in and lay down a shaker for the intro and outro of the tune.

For bass and keys, I asked Chris Caraway and David McElveen to come in. Chris tracked first and did good - nothing too flashy. We used 2 different tones for David's keys. We had to use them both on the same track, but since the song is guitar-driven, mixing up the key parts wasn't a problem.

After bass and keys were on, I did a find acoustic and vocal part. This is always hard, because it can be very easy to obsess about these things. Since my desire is to provide an accurate demo of the songs for worship leaders, I don't have to sound like David Phelps. As long as I can skillfully communicate the feel of the song, I'm good.

The song lacked something, so I laid down a second guitar part w/ lots of chorus. It's pretty much just letting chords ring out, but it gave the tune some nice depth.

When I went to fix the drum thing, I couldn't really make it work because when I pulled Drum B, the overall drum mix was too much. So, I dropped all of the low end out of Drum B since Drum A's kick was very nice. Then I put a ringy room effect on Drum B to space out the chorus section and third verse.

All that's left is Kristen's vocals, which I hope to have done sometime Thursday night.

I Am Glad
Thankfully, I had most of this done. Months ago, I tracked Mark Saldana on drums and Chris Caraway on bass as I played it live on stage. After that, I brough in Justin Romack on the Udu. Very cool instrument.

I went back and did a new acoustic part and vocal. I've decided that my vocals on "I Am Glad" just aren't going to ever be right - I did my best.

Then the fun part. One Saturday morning, I plugged my guitar into the Roland and found a nice gritty distortion and record an electric rhythm part that really gave the song the sort of power it deserves. Then I got crazy - I found a delay effect and did a lead. Yes, a lead. It's nothing amazing, but I was proud of it. (Hey Neil Young's lead aren't that great either, but everybody thinks he's a genius.)

That one is done. I'm not doing any BGV's.

What's next....
My Lips Will Sing: click, acoustic and vocal this weekend, drums on Tuesday, bass on next Thursday and electric on the 21. It's a shame how much I enjoy this!