….and so it began. PJ and I started documenting his ideas. Little did I know this process would continue for the better part of the next decade.
With the sax put away, PJ borrowed my acoustic guitar (I think?) and we got started.
We cut one basic rhythm guitar track from beginning to end. Then punched in a couple overdubs for second acoustic guitar parts. Then we cut one take of the main vocal. Here’s what it sounded like:
I get a kick out of listening to PJ’s voice on this version. He was far less confident and comfortable in his abilities at this point in his musical career. He hadn’t done much live performing yet as a solo singer/songwriter, with the exception of a few open mics here and there.
I hadn’t heard this demo in a long time and when I first listened to it I was startled by the amount of vibrato PJ had in his vocal delivery. I’d never really remembered him using vibrato at all. What I have noticed is that singers that are just starting out tend to overuse vibrato a lot. It’s almost as if they don’t know that it’s OK to let your natural voice just be what it is. Or perhaps it’s just an exploratory exercise. Either way… as singers develop their vocal skills, many learn that all that vibrato is overkill. In my experience, simply locking on the note and holding it, showing the purity in your voice, is what really takes the skill and confidence. (I suppose that could be considered a matter of opinion)
As PJ’s vocal control developed over the years that followed, he really began to excel at being able to lock on to a note and hold it. In fact I think it is one of my favorite parts of his vocal skill set. I remember hearing him perform his ballad, “Boston” a number of times (live at Mercury Loung in NYC, Uncommon Ground in Chicago, or recently in his kitchen) and just being floored when he’d get to that point in the bridge. He’d nail a note in his high falsetto voice and just lock on to it for like 4 bars! It has the affect of a soft violin line just floating along with the music. PJ has come a long way. It’s great to hear an artist progress….and even more fun to be there to watch and document it as it transpires.
To show the progess, here’s where Shoebox ended up a year or so later on PJ’s first studio release Selections from the Shoebox.
Yes, my trusted sidearms. We just solidified plans for a set of December marathon rehearsals and a January recording stint. Can’t wait to shake the dust off…
Last time we got together it was like riding a bike. I think it was two summers ago, my manager had booked some gigs on the east coast and a Living Room date in NYC at the end of the run. I had been very nervous about these dates since it had been over a year we’d played together, and it looked like our schedules would only allow for 2 rehearsals before the run of dates. The three of us (along with Doug Derryberry on lead guitar, the most recent addition to the last version of our crew) got together over a weekend, and after about an hour, it all came back. I was shocked and pleasantly awed by how much we all retained and how immediately in sync we were.
Early on, we rehearsed like crazy. We used to drill and drill and drill the arrangements so that the breaks and fills and all the little bits that make a show sound tight were VERY very tight. It probably helps too that John’s got IMPECCABLE time, and Dave has a great way of relaxing the beat so that the preciseness of the arrangements never feels too robotic.
So, that all being said, you have to hear it for yourself. This recording is one of my favorites, of “Madison” from the Living Room back in ’04 around the Holidays… turn you bass up a bit and you’ll hear how comfortably the guys lock in together. It also features Alfredo Hidrovo on percussion and our virtuoso pal John Putnam on Guitar.
This recording always reminds me of the context of that day. Just before the show, Alfredo and I had an argument about money (always the worst kind of argument), and I had probably had one beer (or Gin?) too many. We’d just come off a string of dates so everyone was a bit worn, but we were also in a very optimistic place then due to all the management and industry attention we’d started getting. Emotions we’re high and I think this recording has a great vibe to it because of that.
Here’s a video of the same song, same venue, a year later, about 9 months before I moved to Chicago. Things were really peaking at this point… I had a full 9 piece band that night that sat in on various songs, and John Leventhal (big producer, Shawn Colvin and others) was in attendance. Another great night and a prime example of how rock solid my guys are/were.
Ah, great memories. looking forward to making some new ones.
So, here’s a few of those “sketches” I mentioned in an earlier post, for a couple of the more mellow songs on the record. These were recorded using the set-up in my office and they’re little bits I use for reference when writing the lyrics and arranging the songs. Hope you like em.
Shirk and I are planning to release a 5-6 song EP in the next month or so that’s made up of revises of some of the early tunes from GRENADINE. A new chorus here, a new ending there, a remix or two… these are all definitely small improvements over the original recordings. More info as it develops….
Getting ready for next week’s 5 day-in-a-row session… planning on getting the guitar parts for most of the tunes in place and sketching out the arrangements.
Also, John and Dave and I are in the midst of planning a 4 day recording stint here in Chicago for mid January and some pre-session rehearsals in NYC in December.
…I went to see a band called Shagg at a bar in Manhattan’s West Village called the Baggot Inn. My roommate at the time, Brendan Stanley (aka “Brains”) had a cousin who was married to the leader in this band, Michael Preston. Brains informed me that I might want to check them out as a potential band to record. This was 1999 and I was about a year deep into my 6 year stay in NY. I owned a basic protools rig (the now discontinued Digi 001) for less than a month at this point and set up a home recording rig in my apartment in Astoria, Queens. After seeing Shagg we chatted and talked about doing some recording at some point. Nothing got locked in. After going to see them a few more times, I guess I was able to earn their respect. Either that or they realized that me recording an EP for FREE was a pretty sweet deal. We agreed to start a 5 song recording project using my apartment as the studio.
The band was made up of Aaron Mitchell (vocals), Michael Preston (guitars and vocals), Eddie Rubiez (djembe/percussion) Mark Sakamoto (Monster FRETLESS Bass) and one PJ Loughran (Sax). We did a weekend recording session in February of 2000, using my living room as the live room and my bedroom as the control room. The end of the elevated N train (Can anyone say Ditmars Blvd.) was about a block from my house so trains were roaring in and out every 5 -10 minutes. We got pretty good at spacing out takes. I’m amazed that my elderly Greek landlord that lived above me never said a thing about the thumping Djembe in the apt below him. Anyhow, we cut basic tracks for 5 songs that day. Djembe/percussion, Bass and Acoustic Guitar. We’d overdub vocals, and sax another day. I’ll always remember this session because, A) it was my first session in NYC that I ran using my own gear and space and B) it’s the only recording session I’ve run to date, where the artist(s) brought homemade cookies.
Fast forward a month, through lots of vocal overdubs, drum and bass edits, countless engineering mistakes on my part and probably over a thousand playbacks of these 5 tunes. Now it’s time to record the saxophone parts that PJ had planned out. Up until this point I had actually never met him, only seen him on stage. So he came in and we got started. It was my second time recording saxophone. My first time (seriously) was when we had Michael and Randy Brecker in to Pink Noise (the Jingle/Music Production company I worked at) to do some kind of funk track for a Canon copier ad. I literally setup a mic and they made it happen…we had a take in 10 minutes. This time it didn’t come as easy. Not because of the talent, but because we were working with denser arrangements of instruments and it was hard to figure out where to put the parts PJ had in his head. But after 3 or 4 hours we had what we needed and were happy with how it fit together.
Here is a track to give you an idea of what we did that day and where we were in our musical journey’s back in early 2000. Listen to PJ cut loose at the end of this one. I think he broke his EWI the last time Shagg palyed this one live.
I just booked a gig in Chicago on Saturday, December 6th @ 9pm at Uncommon Ground. I’ve played there 4 or 5 times since I moved here… it’s a great intimate room with lots of vibe. I’ll be trying out some of the new material, as well as revisiting some of the older stuff. If you’re in town, hope you can join me.
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