Across the Stateline

Divided We Fall

Tag: Across the Stateline

How the Instrumentation Supports the Melody

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On October 17, 2016

In Songwriting Blog

divided-we-fall-albumcover-1400-300dpiThe instrumentation of each track plays an important part of supporting the melody for the entire album. As I mentioned in one of the other blog posts, I’m not the best singer… so the instrumentation did have to make up for some of the vocal shortcomings.

The first thing the instrumentation did is to cover up some of the not so great sounding parts of my voice by filling in the gaps. After the vocal tracking process was finished it was time to sweeten up the vocal takes… but just like squeezing a lemon… you can only get so much juice out. We had tracked vocals with some SSL micpreams going into the UA610, UA Precision channel strip, and LA-2A. This gave us some solid sounding vocals, but as the instruments started to add into the track it was clear that the vocals were not going to be the star.

At this point the decision was made to really go nuts with the guitar takes in order to make up for what was most likely going to be a vocally weak album… so that is what we did. All of the rhythm guitar tracks were tracked after the main vocal line was done, but before the backup vocals… this really brought the rhythm guitars to life. Now the guitar tracks were playing off of the vocal line and off of each other, which brought a LOT of motion into each song. After the rhythm guitars were finished we then went back and added in the backup vocal lines. The great thing was that with the busy rhythm guitars, the backup vocals could just take it easy.

I do have, and we will be releasing, acoustic versions of these songs. I think when I listen back to the songs without all the production I may have a more satisfied perspective on the vocals, now that the album is finished. However, while the album was being written it was clear that there was going to be a lot resting on the instrumentation of each track.

Instrumentation for “Divided We Fall”

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On October 3, 2016

In Songwriting Blog

divided-we-fall-albumcover-1400-300dpiThe instruments list for “Divided We Fall” is fairly extensive and crosses from traditional country music to modern rock. The overall feel of the album was meant to be a blending of traditional and modern sounds, so that is why I tried to pick a blend of instruments and gear that would give the vibe of both worlds. I think, overall, I am satisfied with the results of this blend. The next album will probably be a little less of a blend, but “Divided We Fall” came out just fine.

I’m going to start with the drums… mainly because I feel the drums have the biggest impact on the overall feel of an album. I’ve worked with multiple projects before where the songwriting, guitars & vocals, and gear was all the same between album and we only changed the drum set… wow what a difference. For this album I went with a real hodgepodge of drum for the set. The kick was a Rogers, the snare was a Ludwig maple shell, the toms were Slingerland, and the cymbals were from Sabian. I had originally started off with a Gretsch kit… but that just didn’t cut it as I added more of the guitar tracks.

Now on to guitars… get ready! Each track on the album has at least 10 guitar/bass tracks on it, of some sorts. So as you can imagine, I’m a big fan of doubling up on parts and panning into fun spaces:) The bass I used was my ‘04 Fender Jazz Deluxe which sounded amazing in my Ampeg SVT-4 Pro. That is really what all the songs sit on. From there I tracked a stereo pair of Gibson J-200s and a stereo pair from my 1959 Fender Stratocaster going into my Mesa/Boogie Mark III. I also had single tracked guitars with my; 1966 Rickenbacker 370-12, 1935 Dobro Model 32, 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, and 1960 Fender Telecaster Custom. They say variety is the spice of life… right… This mostly came about because each individual song seem to need a little something special, and that lead into just adding more tracks to all the songs. This is not really a great way to make your instrument selection… but it sure lead to a very full sounding album.

The vocal takes on this album were fairly straight forward. I am not the most amazing singer… so I decided to keep things real simple. I have one lead vocal and 2 backup vocals for all the songs. These were simply recorded with my Shure SM7 going into my SSL preamps and then processed with some of my Universal Audio gear and a LA-2A. This gave me a little of a raw sound and the vintage edge for the vibe.

Inspiration for “Middle Class Anthem”

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On July 18, 2016

In Songwriting Blog

“Middle Class Anthem” is the last song I wrote, but I think it has become my favorite on the album. The inspiration and feel of the song is just frustration/anger/angst with how politics have been handled. There are so many times I’ll watch the news, or worst yet Facebook posts, and just want to yell “WAKE UP” at someone. It just baffles me at how complacent Americans have become and it makes me nervous that the complacency actually comes from a place of ignorance…

I really wanted to write songs that folks could sing in a bar, but yet still have some political activism in them… so that is where “Middle Class Anthem” came from. Also, I needed a Bernie Sanders themed song on the album. I think this song really embodies the feel of Bernie Sander’s campaign, has a good bar sing-along vibe, and still has political/historical significance to it. I absolutely love the Civil War part of the song… to me… that is what makes this song. Since “Middle Class Anthem” was the last song I wrote for the album, I do think I was able to get all cylinders to his on this one.

The Songwriting process for “Divided We Fall”

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On July 6, 2016

In Songwriting Blog

The songwriting process for “Divided We Fall” started with the song “Campfire Song”… but really it started with the year preceding making the first note. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never played Country music before… or even really listened to it much on the radio. However, I’ve been working as an A1 at country music venues on a weekly basis for a little over a year leading up to this album. It is during this time that I really started to fall in love with the Country crowd, musicians, and musicianship.

This is really where the songwriting process started… mixing great Country bands, from all over America, and paying attention to how the instruments work together. There are some things that I can’t do; like play Steel Guitar or Fiddle, that I would have liked to incorporate… but overall these songs incorporate a lot of what I noticed would go over well in venues, with the bands I’ve been working with.

The album also, of course, was inspired by the current political events that have been going on. I would consider this to be part of the songwriting process. Just watching how ridiculous the presidential primaries have been. Eventually I went from writing an ultra critical album to a more satirical album (slight, but significant difference). This was just the result of my process where I try to slow down the songwriting process in order to let inspiration evolve.

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