XL427- Thee Attack (Vol. 2): Andy Versus the Metronome

I've heard it said that Evil (or Satan or Lucifer or whatever you want to call it) creates nothing new. It just distorts, diminishes, or contradicts the truth. I completely believe that and the physical proof I have of that distortion is named "The Metronome".

These robotic time-keepers do nothing other than shame me, mock my natural ability to sense the vibe, mess with my emotions, lie about my identity, and overall make me want to quit creating music. "The Metronome" is the literal "Voice of Evil".

If you can't tell, today was intended to record drums for "Thee Attack". Playing with a metronome really is as dramatic a struggle as I make it out to be. I never feel as inadequate a musician and human being as when I am in that psychological war with "The Metronome". Like all the other lies we believe, the battle is just to one-by-one pick them out and compare them to the truth. I am a good drummer and no Demonic Bleep Track is going to tell me otherwise.

With all the tweaking I did yesterday, I dialed in a pretty big drum sound. I'm talking Weezer "Pinkerton"-era big. I love huge drums. And no, that is not I pick-up line.

It may be too big though. The floor tom is out of control. I'll have Brenna take a listen, now that she is trained in the technicalities of the recording process that I am not.

So the first song I worked on was "The Covenant". This may be my favorite song of this batch of songs. I don't remember where this song came from but I remember it coming quickly in two parts. The bulk of the song was formed when the idea came. I added a bendy vocal in the chorus to cap it off.

It's funny and sometimes frustrating that even within a normal 2/4 time signature, just an odd rhythm on the kick bass or floor tom can add to that struggle to keep on time. My tendency is to speed up. This song has both but after a few failed attempts and some more dial tweaking, I nailed it. And no, that's not a pick-up line either.

I was ready to move on to "Nasa, Arizona". This is a newer song that we have never played live. I am really happy with the vocal medlodies and the guitar chord progression that I have but I have yet to figure out what I want to say. The drum line has a Psychedelic Furs "Love My Way" inspired delayed crash in it. It was going to take me playing through the song to figure out how exactly what I want.

So I started and went through a few unsatisfactory takes. That was when I noticed bizarre marks on my pants. It was blood, on my nice demin!

Everyone who knows me knows that that is a problem. I am Easy Queasy, even at the thought of blood. While I was drumming on "The Covenant" I guess I was following through on my snare hit by hitting my upper leg. The middle-knuckle on my left hand was raw and bleeding. Even though the small amount of blood seeping from my knuckle wasn't enough to bother me, there was still blood on my jeans. A lot of blood. Like a murderer.

I tried a couple of more drum takes, changing the direction of how I struck the snare. The amount of blood streaks on my jeans just kept increasing. Oh my Lord! That's what got me. What did I do? Who did I kill? What would people think? I have a dark imagination and I was too distracted by the blood to continue drumming.

So what was intended to be a day all about the drums and "The Metronome" dissolved pretty quickly. I moved on to record some guitar/vocal guide tracks and called it a day. Longsuffering is just not my talent.

For all you Gear Geeks, here is the set-up I am using to record this album and specifically the drums:

RECORDING
2 PreSonus Studio Channel pre-amps
Mackie Onyx 1220 12-channel board (only 4 channels have XLR inputs though)
Apple Logic Pro 9

DRUMS
Mlasko Custom Drums (24" Kick Bass, 16" Floor Tom)
Tama 8" Snare
Sabian AAX 16" Dark Crash
Sabian 21" Hand-Hammered Raw Bell Dry Ride
Evans Heads

MICROPHONES
Rode K2 (Overhead Microphone)
Blue "Spark"(Floor Tom)
Shure SM7B (Snare Drum)
Shure Beta 91a (Kick Bass)