Mix

(In best Woody Allen voice): I distinctly heard him say mix.

Anyway... It is true: the album is being mixed this week... Tuesday through Thursday. I stopped by I.V. Lab Studios on Tuesday night to sing Skyscraper Hearts, the last lead vocals I had left to record... in fact, the last recording of any sort I had left to do.

It was weird... the Skyscraper vocals are among the most challenging on the record in terms of the range... and coming in cold on a rainy November night... was not the recipe for success. So... we wound up going back to my original scratch vocal track from the acoustic sketch of the tune we recorded back in the summer when we were getting started... and something about it worked perfectly... which is very cool. It just has this vibe that wound up fitting in with where the tune went in the recording process. I don't think I've ever had that happen before.

So... I was also able to hear the final mix of One More Quiet Song... Which was awesome. Manny (who mixed the first record and is mixing this one too) just killed it. It rocks harder than anything I've ever done... it's got two kick ass guitar solos (yes, I was allowed to play some guitar on this album) and it's got a three piece horn section. Yeah... we got a little horny on this record.

Three tunes wound up with a horn trio of baritone sax, tenor sex, and trombone... Back to One More Quiet Song... It's most likely going to be the lead off track of the album. Listening to it, I just can't believe what it turned into... It was written, quite literally, as a quiet song... a whisper... and a meditation on trying to move on from writing quiet songs.

So... is it ironic then that it turned into a burner? A rocker? Musically, it is what my dad calls "A real song." It's harmonically, structurally, and melodically sophisticated. But it's the lyrics that I might be most proud of. There's not a wasted line, not a wasted idea... each line means something.

Something very specific... and it really pulls together a lot of the lyrical themes from throughout the record. I think I posted these when I wrote them but... here they are in context...

ONE MORE QUIET SONG I'm holding on to the first time she looked up and smiled Breakfast in the kitchen and phone calls across the miles I'm holding on to the last time she looked down and cried Dinner on the table, tears and last goodbyes The same moon In the same rooms And one more quiet song The same heart We're falling apart And trying to move on Trying to survive And build it to the sky I'm letting go of the good times that haunt me in my dreams Island skies and Hold on Tight are fading memories I'm letting go of the bad times that bleed me til I'm dry Unpaid debts and When You Left and two sets of bloodshot eyes The same moon In the same rooms And one more quiet song The same heart We're falling apart And trying to move on Trying to survive And build it to the sky We build it to the sky jbg