We are finally back home again! It was a longer trip this time because... well, I'll explain later.
After driving the 8+ hours, we arrived at our hotel, unloaded and... you guessed it! We practiced until 11 pm! The Best Western staff were kind enough to open up the dining hall so that we wouldn't disturb any other guests.
Yep. Practicing is what we've been doing round the clock lately.
Next morning, we started recording our first song at Brookwood Recording Studio with David Lau. While listening to and coaching us after each take, he made the discovery that somehow, when we were re-arranging our arrangements in preparation for the CD, a couple bogus notes had crept in!!! Out came the White-Out and Abigail went to work.
Oops.
The problem? Getting the stuff to come out properly!
After some laughs, we finally got enough white-out on the page and got on with the recording.
Next came lunch, then more recording and then going back to the previous session's takes and telling David which ones we wanted. He is SUPER fast (and good!) on those computers.
Then it was back to the hotel, supper, part of a movie, some truffles, and then listening for a long time to all the day's work in the studio.There were many decisions to make on what would go onto the CD. After all, it's on there forever! Kinda scary. And, we had to finish the CD by the end of the next day.
One quick portrait of the group + David Lau, our recording engineer before we hit the road.
During the time when the rest of us were recording one song, the guys played Rook, a really old, fun game.
While we were doing a take, David would be sitting with the score and writing in what takes were best in which places and any mistakes he heard. Such a great help!
Thanks David!
Click on a photo to view it full screen and then use the arrows on the right and the left...
In the early evening we were finished, and started driving. Only instead of going home, we headed east, drove to the coast, and then started back, driving for almost 26 hours non-stop. Very exhausting.
Find out why in next week's edition of the Johnson Strings news!