Emery started Quite Free on Tuesday and it was pretty rocking by lunchtime.
At some stage in the day Ryan Adams popped his head in to say hi. He looked dapper. Ryan lives not far from the studio. We chatted about this and that and then I played him J. Smith. It floored him and he was still remarking on it as he left. Nice man.
My art work was coming on. I had completed the drawing part of it the day before and was now halfway through the colouring.
I had to get some super thin technical pens to make it sharp at the tricky parts. Colouring in was making me dizzy. Emery liked what he saw. As did Noah. Noah is our assistant engineer. I will try and get a picture. Emery took afew. He has them on his camera.
Anyways, by tea time, Quite Free was perfect. The snare drum was cracking and the music was sounding huge.
Alot of tension in this track which is released at the eventual chorus. Another wee thing to look out for on this record is the played silences.
Usually when a musician pauses during a take the space between the action is muted in the mix. We deliberately made a point to keep all these silences, so at times you can hear Andy positioning his fingers for his next lick or you can hear me sighing or hear Dougie laughing. There were a couple of coughs that sounded shit and were removed but scrutinizing this record with headphones will uncover some lovely moments. With very few overdubs, you will essentially be hearing us in a room just playing like you always hear us at shows except it doesn't sound like this( it sounds quite amazing) but be assured that this is what you'll be hearing.
The 16 track tape machine and the API desk along with the amazing mics we use and Emerys P Diddy tricks ( yes...he cut his teeth at Daddy's House) make it sound more than just 4 people playing in a room. It sounds like a record.
It's the new Travis record and with each finished mix it is becoming more apparent that we are in a new area. It's the hardest thing, living in the shadow of the big hits. You have to sit it out though and at some point you will emerge into some kind of new light. This is what it feels like.
Annnnyways, it's really exciting to be here and to know that we are but days from finishing the mix. With Quite Free safely onto 1/2 inch tape, we move on to the last 3 songs.
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