TIC DIARY Part I – HOW IT ALL BEGAN
A lot of listeners have an idea of what it takes to make a CD but they don’t really know the details. Some could even say “the music is in the details” and they are not far off. Every stroke, every color and every shape is what makes a painting speak to you. With music, every note, every nuance, every choice is made so that your point is getting across. This series will discuss many of the details, starting from the beginning and finishing with the final product. You will find out how and why choices were made and you will see how even an independent production takes a significant amount of effort.
When all the songs were done being recorded at my studio I sat down with a watch and figured out the time of each song. Armed with the knowledge that all the music together comprised a little over 23 minutes I said to my producer Mike Woods that I should have named the CD “How to turn three months into 23 minutes ”. Out of the four months Mike and I spent about three solid months of full time hours taking the music on the CD from inception to birth.
As with things artistic, it all starts with an idea. My idea was to put down some songs both old and new onto a CD so I can place a marker at this period of my life for my kids to look back on and think, “Oh, that’s where our father was”. If you get to know me you would understand everything I choose to do – I chose to do it correctly and “to the max”. Fate has always seemed to be on my side and when the band Damone came to my studio to record one song – an anthem for the Major League Soccer Team the New England Revolution – I never thought it would lead to a long and prosperous relationship with it’s song writer and lead guitarist Mike Woods.
After finishing up their latest CD I know Mike Woods was interested in producing. This is a hard market to get into and while he worked on getting contacts so he could do this work, I knew he needed some work to keep himself afloat. I had the idea “Maybe he can come here and help me do my CD”. With two younger children and ranch that requires upkeep I was lucky if I could spend 1-2 hours straight in the studio without interruptions. I thought if I had Mike here I would have to work in larger chunks of time. If I were spending money to have him here I would feel the need to make sure we are working.
At first Mike said “Don’t do this because you want to help me out as a friend” but I quieted him pretty quick telling him that this is my dream and he is the one person who can assist me in accomplishing this dream. He signed on but warned me early on not to go for a 12 song CD that it would be a years worth of work and just to work on one or two songs at a time. I met him half way and decided on a smaller CD with 6 or songs on it.
At the same time this project was a benefit for Mike. He was using an archaic recording process/system for his demo work and he knew he needed to get into Protools, which is the world wide standard for audio recording. I have Protools, understand it and worked with it so I would in turn teach him what I know and he would be forced to learn a new system. Part of his payment was setting him up in Protools. When were done with my project Mike was probably better on Protools than me and he would say he successfully converted to Protools and is much better off on his personal music now that he went through the process with me.
So in the spring of 2008 we looked over our schedules and decided on a few blocks of 2 weeks where he would come and we would start working. That meant that Mike was to live here for those two weeks. He lives in Boston and I am 2 hours away so it was a matter of him coming down and living here weeks at a time. As the linear notes indicate the hardest part about that was getting Mike on my schedule. I am a 5am to 9pm type of guy and Mike is the noon to 3-4am kind of guy. It took some work but after the first week the schedule was I got up at 5am and did what I had to do, then wake him up at 9am, work from 10am-6pm, then when I went off to finish my responsibilities he worked on editing that days recordings.
Most everyone has had a guest for a week at their house or been a guest of someone’s for a week and quickly you learn it is difficult to get along all the time. With Mike it was easy because he was always so respectful and helpful. When you stay at my place I want you to treat it as your own home. Truthfully when all was said and done my wife and I would sit there and miss Mike’s company. He is like a brother to us both, and a member of our family now. So for four months Mike spent two weeks at my ranch at a clip, and then took a few days off to go back to Boston and take care of his affairs.
All this and we haven’t even started recording one note….