Today is my final day of reckoning. It is the last day Mr. Steve is going to be in La Crosse, and I have committed to finishing up my involvement in the guitars by days end. Because I think it's a testament to Steve's commitment (and mine/ours - pat on the back) I feel the need to mention that we woke up at about 9 AM, stepped out into the perfectly warm, and calming breeze of the back yard, with my pup Max in toe and immediately decided on a plan for the day. Plan being: make Will and Logan cook breakfast, work until its ready, eat, and then work until my guitars are done. That is what we did. I should probably confess that Steve had a hot dog somewhere in the course of this day, and I had a few quick smoke breaks, but other than that, we had our goal, and we worked feverishly to achieve it, phallic food and drug items aside.
By 7PM I was done with all rhythm "BIGination," every overdub of effects, and every last harmony that I had contributed to the record. The only thing left was my 1 guitar solo (on track 4.) I think I probably took 20 - 25 runs at it by the time I was 100% happy with it, which wasn't a huge deal, as it's a pretty short solo in the first place. Anyway, I was pumped, I don't choose to solo often, so when I do its usually pretty fun for me.
As I was basically ready to toss all my shit and my dog into the piece of shit I call a car and finally drive home to my home and fiance in northern wonderland of Wausau, we decided to take one more listen to the final song on the album. Without giving to much away, this song began as kind of a nice comfortable, and soothing coast into the oblivion that is the end of this record. It was never meant to be some giant crescendo, the record has plenty of those. This song was meant to give you you a sense of comfort, and hopefully a sense of unfinished business, as we will no doubt continue our musical evolution with whatever we put out after this. But this will all make much more sense as the concept of this album is revealed and you as a listener/reader/music lover are able to see where this song sits in the "storyline" that is AVOHFASIH.
Seriously, I need someone here to stop me from going on crazy tangents...
Long story short, I added 2 additional solos to this song. The first of which is more of background spacey deal, and the second, another more traditional, but short offering. I have to say, it was pretty damn fun to do this. Like I said, soloing is not my thing. I've never felt confident with it, and normally I only do it when I hear the solo in my head and it just happens. My brain doesn't process sitting down and writing a solo. However, we knew the song needed something. It had the comfortable, hopeful feeling that we wanted, but it needed more variation in the background, it needed things here and there to surprise you and wake you up a bit before putting you back into the sunny warm haze.
9:15pm - Tim - guitars - DONE.
Erik gets off work at 10, so I'll be about 1/5 of the way home by the time he gets here to work into the wee hours of the morning with Steve on his overdubs, solos, cleans, etc. Regardless of what happens tonight, Steve is heading back to Minneapolis in the morning, and everyone is going to take a breather for a few days. We are well aware that we are now left to our own devices to capture the remainder of the bass, a few guitar solos, and the vocals, but after spending 9 grueling days of working on this record at such a constant pace, this music feels like its in our blood. It's part of how we think now, and our loved one would attest, that it's part of how we breath and talk. I have never been so enveloped in a piece of art/music/whatever AVOHFASIH decides it wants to become, and although I know its hard for those around us to really understand just how deep into this we are, I think it will become very apparent upon the release of the record.
So, this is me, signing off for what I'm sure will be at least 4-5 days of solid relaxation and reflection, and unfortunately a return to the everyday rat-race of normal life.
See you in a few...
-T
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