These past few weeks in the studio have been devoted almost solely to experimentation.  With Nathan away on vacation, Mark and I got a chance to put on our mad scientist goggles and fuck up some sounds, yo!

I have always been a fan of acoustic-based music that finds a way to tastefully incorporate electronic soundscapes.  However, being the folked-out, hippie dippie that I am, I have been limited in the past to do such.  Luckily, Mark (with his gadgets and gizmos galore!) has been illuminating me as to how to go about achieving the palate of sound that I have admired for so long. 

As I have mentioned before, staying organic on this album has been extremely important to us.  Therefore, employing typical canned sound effects was not going to fly.  We wanted to achieve ethereal, outside-of-the box sounds, but not use them simply for shock value.  We're steering clear of anything gratuitous.  Every addition must have a purpose.

We began with Borders.  I had a melody line that had been coursing through my brain for weeks.  I didn't know exactly what instrument should be utilized to capture it.  We tried piano, to no avail. After brainstorming, we decided to capture the line vocally, just to document the idea.  It was then that Mark got that crazy-eyed expression and brought out his magic box.  This box o' magic is essentially an analog tape machine in which sounds can be distorted by hand as its operator sees fit.  We gave it a go.  The result was a beautifully haunting distorted vocal line that has become a touchstone of the track.  We continued building on this concept with great success.  It is now the glue that pulls all the other sonic elements of the song together.

Next we had to tackle the issue of reverb.  I am a bit of a reverb junkie.  If I had my way I would have someone follow me around with equipment all day so even my speaking voice would sound echoed and delicious.  The problem is that most digital reverb effects can be a bit cheeseball.  Being that this is a lactose-intolerant project, we had to forge another way.

There are several stairwells in the building where the Doghouse Studio resides.  There is this gorgeous booming echo that fills the space. We decided to run a line from our studio to the hallway encompassing the stairs, play our intstruments through an amp, which was then captured by a mic stationed at the very top of the stairs.  We did this for both the piano on Picket Lines and the drum track for Q&A.  The effect is lush and beautiful.  And more importantly, dairy-free.

We have also been tooling around with fuzz pedals and other toys that have previously tweaked me out.  I'm learning to embrace technology and my inner nerd.