Here’s what we’ve been up to in Escapist-land:

-Jacob Garchik and Mike McGinnes came to the studio and recorded trombone and clarinet on the song “Invisible Cities.” The arrangement was written by Mr. Garchik, who also played accordion on a few songs on the album.

-Vocalist Yoon Sun Choi came and sang some additional vocals.

-Illustrious producer Geoff has done some mind-tweaking synthesizer sound-design on most, if not all, the tracks on the album.

-Benjamin took some time out of the studio to stage a piece of theatre he wrote, called “Nightingale and the Rose,” based on the Oscar Wilde short story of the same name. Produced by the Metropolis Opera Project, the show played four sold-out performances at the Medicine Show Theatre, in New York City. Details at www.NightingaleAndTheRose.com

Miranda Sielaff  is recording viola on the album next week.  We’re looking forward to working with her.

Right now, Geoff is working away, on his own, at Escapist Studios, sifting through marimba parts, guitar parts, and other odd noises. Mostly, editing is deleting.

But I got an email from Geoff last night, late, with the subject line “Bat.” The email read: “I didn’t realize a bat was staying in one of the bedrooms on the 3^rd floor. I guess I’ll get out of his way and sleep down here by the microphones.” Last I heard, Geoff was recording the sound of the live bat.

I do not have the luxury of flight at the moment. While running to catch a subway train last week, I slipped crashed down onto the pavement. I now have a pelvis fractured in two (maybe three) places. So I bought a good-looking walking stick, and have been hobbling around with it, attempting to look debonair.

Geoff and I will be back in the studio together next week. I should be more mobile. The studio should be less batty.

Oh, and Happy New Year. This one has started out auspiciously…

-Benjamin

VINNIE SPERRAZZA

On the first Escapist Papers record, Vinnie played drums on many songs, including “Otherside of the World.” So it was a pleasure to work with him again on the new album. He recorded marimba. And snare-drum, on one track.

Here’s Vinnie at his marimba.

MALLETS

Geoff and Vinnie discussed, and tested, the relative merits of different mallets with which to hit the marimba; this is the sort of quirky record-making detail that always fascinates me. You really can hear the difference between different mallets.

SNARE DRUM

Geoff programmed a complicated rhythmic noise-part on the song “Never Lasts That Long.” We wanted Vinnie to double the part on a snare-drum, played with brushes. Here, Vinnie and Geoff look over the snare-drum part. (As Geoff peels away part of his own face.)

Here’s Vinnie at the snare drum.

Generally speaking, when we are working in the studio, we spend a great deal of time sitting in front of this, the main control station:

…playing with the flashing lights of this big audio-tweaking toy, called a Pro-Control. (below) It controls the audio once its been recorded.

This is the recording console. (below) It controls the audio while it’s being recorded.

Looking up past the forest of knobs and buttons...

Geoff continues to create the wackiest sounds I can dream of: yesterday, I recorded a 12-string electric guitar through two amplifiers, each of which Geoff had set up with two wildly different sounds. This Ampeg B-15…

1960's B-15 amp, sounds like an organ in this photo

…was made to sound like an organ. And this Fender Super-reverb…

…sounded like the guitar coming out of it was delusional, covered in diamond dust, and the proud new owner of a stolen Picasso. (Both amplifers were mic’d with Royer 122 ribbon mics.)

Here are some of the toys Geoff used to create these sonic worlds.

I love the names of these pedals

We’ve used all these toys to work on that which we’ve kept; but the thought strongest in my head right now is: I need to write some new songs for the album. Currently, there are seven. I’d like one or two more. Which requires me to write ten more, really. And picking up a pen knowing I’m trying to write a song for a specific record is a debilitating task. It’s terrifying actually. And it’s humbling.

And as Geoff looks through his notebook for a jotted idea on sound…

I’ll be sitting, guitar in lap, pen in hand, trying to find a few more songs, and trying to turn darkness into light.

-Benjamin

Josh Dion. How we love his drumming. On the last record, Josh played drums on some tracks, including “Annabelle.” We were back together in the studio last week, recording drums on two songs.

The first song we worked on was “Cried and Cried and Cried,” on which Josh played a big drum-kit, with a 24-inch Ludwig bass drum from the 1950’s. Geoff played bass.

Here’s a video of the two of them. Alas you can’t hear Geoff’s bass; the amplifier was in a different room of the studio.

The second song we recorded was “Leaving California,” on which Josh played a little drum kit: a kick-drum, a snare drum, and a hi-hat. And for you sonic geeks, we mic’d the snare with two microphones, in stereo.

The three of us listened back to both tunes, pleased with what we’d gotten on tape.

Playing an hollow-body Gibson 175 (this big blond one above…) I began recording a fourth song, called “Invisible Cities,” but I realized I haven’t played the song enough; it’s not in my bones yet.

Geoff lightened the mood with a percussion solo, and a British bobby’s helmet.

This is what the studio looked like after we were finished.  Lots of guitars.

The next session, later this month, is with Mr. Josh Dion on drums, who will record on “Leaving California” and “Cried and Cried and Cried.” Stay tuned.     -Benjamin

Jacob Sacks is the most creative piano player I’ve ever come across. So I was honored when he agreed to record on “Songs for the Living, Songs for the Dead.” On August 18th, the record’s producer, Geoff Kraly, and I met Jacob at the studio Acoustic Recording, in Brooklyn. Here’s the studio, with head engineer and studio owner Michael Brorby.

Geoff and Jacob went over some musicand then Jacob recorded piano on six songs: on one song, he listened to the backing track, and decided to cover the piano’s strings with masking tape.

Jacob then recorded piano to the track from memory; he didn’t listen to it while recording to it. Here, he and Geoff listen back to the results.

On another song, Jacob filled the piano with drum sticks, metal rods, pieces of paper; here’s a video of Jacob doing just that.

This wonderful recording session took the music to a new place.

Geoff, Benjamin and Jacob, after the session

The first day we all met, Lari White told us, “if you want to write a good song, write what you don’t want people to know about you. If you want to write a great song, write what you don’t want to know about yourself.” Out of the workshop came two new songs that will be on the new Escapist Papers record. One is called “Invisible Cities.” The other is called “Cried and Cried and Cried.”

The workshop’s focus was on songs for records and performance, as well as songs for musical theatre. We were visited by Mr. Stephen Schwartz, composer and lyricist for the musical Wicked. Here’s him and me hanging out after a concert where he performed some of his tunes, and at which I performed one of mine

called “Leaving California,” which will also be on the new record.

Looking forward to getting back into the studio and getting these new songs on tape.

-Benjamin