Recording "Artist"

Well, haven't I just been woefully neglectful when it comes to updating this chronicle lately? My apologies, gentle readers, but the truth is, life just went back to normal after my trip to L.A. Personally, I find my life to be fascinating, but I am starting to wonder how many posts about karaoke you possibly can read.

That said, this quick post is going to be about music. I've been working on a couple of recording projects lately and have decided that recording music might be one of my favorite things to do ever. My band Sober Nixon recorded our version of Matthew Sweet's "I've Been Waiting" for use as a demo. It's not quite done yet because a few more guitar tracks need to be laid down, but it's coming along. Frustratingly, I had some pitch problems during that recording session, but they were nothing that multiple vocal takes, editing and just a tiny bit of auto-tuning (don't judge) couldn't fix. I was stressed out about my pitch issues at first, but about 100 people have assured me since that every singer has pitch issues sometimes. So I've decided not to worry about it (much) and move on.

Unfortunately, our guitarist Kenn has decided that Sober Nixon isn't the right band for him. Frankly, it probably isn't, given that he's more of a heavy metal/hard rock guy and we cover pop music. He's going to finish up his part on the "I've Been Waiting" recording, but that's it. So for the second time in a year, we're on the hunt for a new guitarist. I've already got some leads on potential players; let's hope we find the right one soon and the line-up can stay consistent for a while.

This afternoon my voice teacher and I made a recording of me singing "Save the Best For Last," a positively beautiful song that became, in my opinion, a little schmaltzy as produced for the Vanessa Williams hit version back in 1992. It's a lovely ditty, though, and I love singing it. Which is a good thing because it's taken me long enough to learn to sing it properly. My voice teacher and I have worked on that song off and on for more than a year, but I think I've got it now. Or at least it's pretty good now. We did a "live" recording, meaning we recorded the piano and my singing simultaneously. That might make it a little challenging to edit together the very best takes of each portion of the song, but regardless, I think it will turn out pretty good. And the live recording means auto-tune isn't possible on this one, so the final product will be me au naturale.

Recording is a lengthy process, but it is so much fun that I can see why professional singers so love what they do. And if/when the final product turns out okay, all the better!