It Always Takes Longer

I remember when, just before Christmas, Simon and I optimistically figured, that we'd be finished recording our album in March. Of course, we weren't.

The problem with learning new things is that when you make progress, your standards also rise. A lot of what we considered "done" or close to it in January, now doesn't meet our current skill level anymore. So we rework songs, Simon re-mixes something for the fiftieth time, and I re-record vocals.

Sometimes, the re-recording goes smoothly as it did with our first finished song "Straight At Its Face". By the time I set out to re-record it, the intense practising from the first recording had settled into my muscle memory and I got good takes straight away.

Other songs, I have partially re-recorded several times but I am still a good distance away from "we can send this in to get mastered".

The bottleneck is not, as I had feared, the writing. As we stand, have enough material to record two or three albums.

What takes time is the recording. I now totally understand why bands "go into the studio". Sure, part of it is the equipment and the professional help. But surely, part of it must also be the concentration of the work into a couple of days or weeks. Being able to immerse yourselves fully and do nothing else for a week is something I envy.

I have to make do with weekends and evenings for now. It works, but it also means that the recording is stretched out over my vocal progress in a strange way. I have a different voice than four months ago.

One way or the other, we'll get it done, though.

Maybe this will be an album with ten versions of my voice. One for every song.

In a way, that would be quite cool. A journey, rather than a milestone.

When I look back at it in ten years, I won't remember a single, defining "time I made the album". Instead, I'll remember a time when the album was with me for weeks and months on end.