This past weekend we started working on our new album at Philly Jam Recording with engineer Mark J. Montoro. Mark engineered our first album, “Winter’s Veil”, back in 2017, and we liked working with him, so we decided to return to the scene of the crime. Plus, Tom and Joe have worked with him as a session drummer and keyboardist, respectively, for various projects, as well as their own projects, for many years prior to that. Tom even keeps a drum kit at the studio for his use when he’s there. So we have a good working relationship with Mark.
On Thursday, Tom set up his kit in the isolation booth and Mark miced everything and got the sound levels for everything to Tom’s liking. Then most of the band (minus Dean, as he had family committments), drove up Friday evening to begin tracking four of our songs. Our initial goal was to get drums recorded plus “scratch” tracks to create a template for everyone to use moving forward. The initial four songs we picked to record included “Revolve”, “Boiling Black Water”, “In Time”, and “Broken Language”.
Early on Friday, we decided one of Tom’s drums didn’t quite have the right feel so he switched out to a different one that came across much crisper during recording. Tom also wanted a different kick pedal than the one he had at the studio so when we came back on Saturday afternoon, he switched that out. From there we got most of the songs down in one or two takes, with the exception of “In Time”, which we had a little timing trouble with. (ironically!). But after a few more takes, it was done. Part of the trouble was we were trying to do stuff to a click track, but some parts of the songs have a natural (slight) speed up or down and when we tried to do everything to a click, it made the song too stiff / stilted.
Next up will be tracking bass lines. Stay tuned!
Below are a few photos and video from this weekend.
