Here you'll find notes from the composer (myself), the engineer (Stephen Jansen), and the art designer (Katie Bohem) about the progress and process of recording this album
MIKE: After two months off, we started back at it today back at the Moonroom 1.9 (soon to be 2.0) by doing some work on the two instrumentals on the record. We started out by recording one of the electric guitar tracks. I've been trying some new things out with my tone, and I think it will make the album interesting. After that, we had our first guest musicians for the project come in and lay down their parts for another song. From the last album, Tim Borst came in to play trumpet, and new to this project were David Ferguson on trombone and Marcus Ranucci on saxophone. While I sat leisurely on the other side, the three of them sweated it out and recorded horn part after horn part . All in all, we got fifteen horn parts out of three players. It was really great listening back to an entire big band coming out of the speakers being made by four people (me on rhythm section). Tim, David, and Marcus sounded fantastic and I think will really make this song stand out.
MIKE: This was a LONG session. It started out with special returning guist, Molly Agnew laying down smome flute parts. After her, newcomer Elissa Metropoulos dropped by and recorded some French horn parts. David Ferguson snuck in to overdub some trombone parts from the preveious week. After him, returning musicians KT Somero (clarinet/bass clarinet) and Hannah Trobe were joined by violinist Lori Cepa and violist Andra Durham. All of them put forth an amazing amount of sound and focus, and it was a pleasure working with everyone we did during this weekend.
MIKE: After a few sessions with guest musicians, we got back to recording more of my parts..I've become really obsessed with tone over the last year so I was pretty particular about the settings on my amp and guitar as I played through the parts, and Steve was able to capture each essence extremely well. We finished nearly all of the electric guitar tracks for the album tonight.
MIKE: Ahhh, yes, back into the regular swing of things, and having regular recording sessions. The new room is done and things are sounding great in there. Tonight we finished up all of the electric guitar and lap-steel guitar parts for the record. That means ALL of the guitar parts are done. Hooray!
MIKE: Today we got to record all of the inaccessible instruments that I like to use that requries our secret agent-guerrilla recording techniques. We recorded orchestra bells, xylophone, timpani, and upright bass.
MIKE: More fun, more guests today. I finished recording all of the vibraphone and harmonica parts for the album. Then Elissa Metropoulos came by and re-recorded the horn parts for a song. After that, Andra Durham, Jon Gauger, KT Somero, and Hannah Trobe came by to re-record clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, viola, and cello.