2001-09-18 - 10:01 a.m.

impromptu recording session and the dire need for voice lessons

bloody tired today. last night i went up to CH's place (hour and a half drive up into the mountains), cause we hadn't hung out in a very long time. it was really great to see him and catch up on stuff. we played music. he played his upright bass, which just has a *great* sound. he's got this whole recording studio set up in what used to be the office, with all this amazing drool-inspiring equipment.

so we recorded me.

we recorded, oh let's see, what did we record? moonshiner (good harmonica, crappy vocals), dawn (the best of the batch, both on vocals and guitar sound), dear samantha (again with the crappy vocals), bright angel (i won't even mention the vocals here. <shudder>) and the corn flake song (tried some growly, bluesy vocals which turned out to be ridiculous about half the time and tolerable the other half).

CH said i was way too hard on myself as far as vocals are concerned.

i say i'm in dire need of some voice lessons.

but it was a great experience. just like the stage, you need to get some practice with recording, to get comfortable with it. as soon as CH would say "we're rolling", i'd tense up and start making mistakes. i had three false starts, but otherwise just ran through the songs pretty well. i got much closer to being "one take johnny" than i ever thought i would.

so my voice is pretty well cooked today, and the fingertips on my left hand are swollen and sore (which is kinda funky looking, let me tell you).

and i'm tired as hell. didn't get up early to work out today, stopping my new "i'm gonna work out every day" streak at one day (yesterday). let's hear it for willpower.

but it was worth it.

oh yeah, in other news, i called EchoGirl last night with the intent of asking her out. got voice mail. left nondescript message. no return call. she should be at moveable feast tonight. we'll see.