Invasion U.S.A. - Day Six

Pretty easy day today. I just did two vocal tracks and Justin did a lot of comping. I would've done more vocal tracks but my throat is still pretty sore so I figured I'd save the last two.

The photo below shows me singing Werewolf One. You can't see it in this photo but for many years now I've had a habit of thrusting my hands in my pockets when I record vocals. I don't really know why. They're usually wrist deep in my front pockets, but every once in a while I'll just hook my thumbs there, and sometimes my hands end up in my back pockets. I wonder if it has anything to do with the way singing makes you feel exposed. I kind of doubt it but who knows?

The two songs took me about three hours, which might seem kind of long to you but that's actually pretty quick. Vapid likes to sing the song all the way through over and over until the producer has enough takes to comp the vocals. I prefer going a section at a time. Today I did verse + chorus, verse + chorus and outro (on both songs - they have a similar structure). I lose track of the number of takes pretty quickly but it's not uncommon for me to sing 20 takes. Even if I demo my stuff - as we both did for the new album - I don't really figure out all the little details of how I'm going to sing the song for the recording until I'm actually in front of the mic with the tape rolling (or the hard drive whirring, in our case). So usually my first 4-5 takes are just getting the feel of the song. Then once I figure it out it's just a matter of singing it over and over until the producer has enough good takes of every word. In this case we need twice as much, because we'll be doubling all the lead vocals in the mix. So I'll do the first verse, or like today, the first verse and chorus, over and over until Justin is happy, then move on to the second verse and chorus, etc.

Justin just sent a comp of Vapid's vocals for his ballad. It sounds fantastic. Vapid's written some great ballads for the Riverdales but this one is easily the best. I can't imagine putting it anywhere else but the three spot.

The storm watch is in effect from tonight at 6 until tomorrow night at midnight but it's only calling for 3-5 inches of snow rather than the 6-8 that was forecast yesterday. So we're going to try to reconvene tomorrow night so I can finish vocals on my last two songs and maybe work on some backing vocal ideas too.