Saturday, February 09, 2008

Studio Update 10

It's been a while since I posted an update so I thought I'd give a short note on where we are. I'm deathly ill with the flu so the last couple of vocals will be done by the end of next week, I hope...and we'll have to hire out the bgv's...but...we're almost done!!! The album will be mastered February 19 and from there I hit the road on my radio tour. And in a little less than 90 days you will have this record in your hands (figuratively of course, if you get it on iTunes).

There are now 13 songs on the record. Brown is producing 7. Steven & Brown are co-producing 3. And Will Owsley is producing 3. Of course tracking was done on everything by early December, so it was just overdubs and vocals. I'll kind of go through all the songs and give you guys an idea of what is done.


Arise (Running Back) (Brown) - I did almost all the guitars on this one. I already talked about doing vocals earlier on. A few days after I did vocals, Chris Rodriguez came in and we teamed up on some background vocals. Everything on this sounds incredible. Basically, it sounds just like the demo, but it just sounds better...but most of the parts that I came up with ended up staying the same. Blair Masters came in and did some keyboards on this one and really took it up to the next level. This one is completely done and mixed.

Cry Tonight (Brown) - this one is the one from the HPF album that has changed the most. It still has the same basic arrangement, but the addition of acoustic guitars and a different guitar riff at the top of the song and on the bridge really take this one even another step up (and this was one of my favorites from TACOSB). I did most of the guitars on this one, though we did keep the new intro riff that Jerry McPherson came up with in tracking. We also added an acoustic guitar part that I composed, but had George Cocchini actually play because we had limited time and it was a pretty difficult part. On Tuesday, Don came up and we recorded strings. We basically used the same arrangement that Don had on HPF, but he fleshed it out a little more and the real violins take this one up a notch. I still have to do vocals on this one.

I'm Clean (Owsley) - This was one of the first 4 songs we mixed, so it's been done for a while. Owsley works a little differently than Brown in that he plays most everything. We tracked drums and then Will went and recorded bass, guitars and some keyboards. Jason Walker played piano on this one (actually on the original demo) and I did some synth stuff as well as a string arrangement and midi string playing. We used only snatches of the string stuff, but where it comes in it's cool. I pulled off the vocal on this one in about 2 hours. This one is all done and mixed.

Empty Me (Brown) - Obviously, it's the first single, so it's done and mixed already. In fact, it's already been mastered. Blair Masters added a bunch of cool piano and keyboard stuff that really took the song up to the level it's at. And Chris Rodriguez and I tag-teamed on the bgv's on this one.

Something Beautiful (Brown & Stephen) - I talked about how this one changed a lot. Some of the first vocals we did were on this one, so it's been done for a while. Stephen went back and re-edited the bass so it's a little bouncier than the original tracking session, but it sounds great. This one is all done and mixed.

Let You Know (Brown) - The basic arrangement and most of the parts are completely the same on this one as the HPF album. On Tuesday, we did the strings and the real violins added a nice touch. Don's string arrangements are really fantastic. I did the vocals a coupla weeks ago and did all my own bgv's. I did all of the rhythm guitars and some of the lead stuff on this one. Blair Masters did the keyboard stuff. Paul Moak did some cool Edge-like guitar work on this one. This one is done and ready to be mixed.

In a Moment (Brown) - this one is basically the same, though it is a little poppier throughout. I gave one of my best vocals on the record on this song. We kept the key change but changed its placement a little bit. We did the strings on Tuesday also, though the string arrangement changed a good bit from the HPF version. Blair, again, did keyboards. This one is done and ready to be mixed.

Are You Pleased (Brown & Stephen) - this song took a HUGE step forward when we got into doing keyboards. I had done the vocals a while beforehand, but something still wasn't quite clicking. So, Blair literally did like 6 different piano parts plus a bunch of keyboard stuff and it ended up having a very, very cool Keane kind of feel to it. This one was one of the first four songs up for single consideration, so it's been mixed for a while.

Potential (Brown & Stephen) - This was the song that changed the most from my demo. I was surprised at how close many of the songs ended up being to the demos I did out on the Idol tour and in my house. But this one took a surprising turn in tracking when the bass player came up with a cool different bass line. The vocals on this one ended up being really cool, too. This one is basically done...it just needs some bgv's.

Loaded Gun (Brown) - This song started off as an in-your-face rocker complete with almost screamed vocals and raucous guitar riff. Then I had the idea to turn the song on its head and do it completely different than anyone would expect...just strings and vocals. And it worked! I am so pumped about this song. We did vocals last night and it sounds incredible. Don took a string arrangement I did and made it 100 times better and on Tuesday we had 3 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello and a double bass come in and record it. It's so different but still rocks your face off. I can't wait for you to hear it. It just needs bgv's.

Waiting For You (Owsley) - One of two songs that still need vocals. Owsley did the bass and guitars and I'll be adding some synth stuff. It's basically the same as the HPF recording...just sounds better. Owsley and his 10 year old son did the bgv's! They sound great.

Love Is Raining Down (Owsley) - This one ended up exactly like the demo, including my loops and synth parts. It sounds great and I gave a great vocal for this one. I love this song. It's all done and ready to mix.

Vessel (Brown) - This song was on my first solo album (in fact the title song) and we felt we needed one more "change of pace" song. I did a little demo of it and everyone flipped for it. It's very simple...two acoustic guitars, string quartet and vocals. We did strings on Tuesday. Don's arrangement on this is seriously one of the best things on the album. He seriously knocked it out of the park. It's just a simple prayer that will close out the album. It just needs bgv's and it'll be done.

35 comments:

Carrie said...

This sounds like it's going to be a really well-rounded record. I have an itunes card put aside so that when it comes out, I can get it there and then I plan on getting a hard copy eventually. Do you know where the hard copy will be distributed to yet? I want to be able to get it locally, but if I have to order it online, I will. Or should I go tell stores to get ready to order it?

The flu sucks. Sorry you have it. I had it last week or two and it ruined a good few days that I needed to get things done.

Billie said...

What a birthday present!! May 6th will be a great birthday this year as it is the day your cd comes out! Can't wait.

Sorry to hear you are sick. Are you taking your vitamins? Sorry, that's the mom in me. Get well soon.

Billie

Cathy Storms said...

So sorry you have the flu..
Less than ninety days..wow...What a year for you. This time last year you were in LA..Now the world is yours to take my storm. The album sounds amazing and it has my favorite song from HPF on it. "Cry Tonight"..Still wish it had "Faith Begins" but maybe next album...HPF was such a great album it is really cool that some of those songs made it onto your new album.
Will your radio tour bring you to So. California?
You are having the most amazing journey and it is really cool that you take us along with you. Thanks for that..

Carrie said...

Also you really should play near Buffalo for your radio tour because if not, I will be sad. I know we don't have a K-LOVE station here, but I'm hoping that won't be exclusively the places you hit up. Buffalo is really music and arts conscious so we need you here!

/my begging haha.

risalea said...

If I could ship you some good old chicken soup for that flu, I would, but I bet Sarah is on top of that. : )

This is going to be an awesome CD. I need to talk with you Chris about getting a quantity. I've talked with our youth minister, and I still want to get those for our youth group. (And yes, I'm all about a bulk discount rate! LOL)

And those of you anxiously awaiting picnic news....Paypal is ready and Lori will have the link up after the weekend. It's going to be fun!

p.s. What is going on at chrissligh.com? I thought you had put up the new site, and then I started reading and it was talking about you as if you were in the beginning stages of AI.

ChrisSligh said...

1) February 19 is when we master. It's exactly 1 year from my first live performance show on Idol! A perfect bookend.

2) I think we are getting up to New York...not sure where yet. Once I have the schedule, I'll post it here and at myspace.

3) I just took a long steam bath and it has made me feel so much better...it's amazing what steam can do. And yes, I've stayed well this long from taking vitamins...but half the guys out at Hanson's place had the flu and so all the late nights and long days finally caught up to me, no matter how much vitamins and water I took in.

4) chrissligh.com is not yet up. It will be soon, though. We did however take down the porn that somehow got spammed in the forum. Thanks to Lori. I called Don (who right now is the site administrator...he'll be relieved of his duties soon) and said, "Hey I was thinking that since I'm a Christian artist, it might be good to take the naked men and naked women down from my forum." He laughed and immediately took it down. So, if you saw the unfortunate spamming...I apologize...the forum was supposed to be disabled. No more naked people at chrissligh.com, I promise.

Peace and love,
Chris

Carrie said...

Risa, I'm gonna shoot you an email on myspace then get back to working on my drawing project for class Monday.

xangelglitterx said...

HI TO CHRIS AND ALL,
OMGOSH I HAVEN'T BEEN HERE IN FOREVER. I FEEL LIKE I AM IN AN EPISODE OF LOST OR SOMETHING...THE FLU HAS BEEN KICKING BUT AT MY JOB HERE IN NY. PEOPLE SO SICK THIS YEAR. IT CAME ON SO LATE AS WELL...I GOT THE FLU SHOT BUT HAVEN'T GOT THE BUG AS YET. GLAD TO SEE I HAVE YOU ON RADIO CHRIS OMG I WAS DRIVING TO WORK WHEN I THOUGHT I HEARD YOUR VOICE ON MY RADIO...NOT HALLUCINATING HERE. SO I HAVE OFF TODAY AND WANTED TO GET RECONNECTED WITH YALL. I WILL HAVE TO READ THE BLOGGER LATER BUT MAN WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE TO FIND YOU ON THAT STATION. SHOUTS OUT TO ALL MY BUDS HERE AS WELL...BIG SQUISHY HUGS ALL AROUND.....ANY WAY CAN'T WAIT MUCH LONGER FOR THE CD CHRIS. ANTICIPATION TO THE EXTREME HERE.HOPE ALL IS WELL WITH YOU ALL. CHAT LATER...GOT TO RUN!
PEACE & LOVE.....
ONE LOVE............

risalea said...

Ok, I realize what I did. Someone has put up a page at chrisligh.com (minus an s) and that's what I was seeing. Totally missed the apparent fun on the forum.(LOL-Just kiddin'!)

risalea said...

PICNIC INFO and HOTEL RESERVATION INFO IS NOW UP!

First of all, thanks to Lori for keeping us informed as picnic plans were in the works. You can go to her site at http://fropatro.googlepages.com and find the hotel info as well as a link to the picnic payment/info. Click there and you'll be taken to a site put together by Carmen with some info on the picnic and payment information. And turn up your sound...a couple of the pages have music!

gdahimself said...

Chris,

What's the difference between mixed and mastered?

GDA

Anonymous said...

The post deleted above was mine. I had mentioned a site that was saying some negative things but Carrie said everything and more that needed to be said in there :)

Chris- Everything sounds great, cant't wait for the album. It sucks that you're sick but a steam bath sounds awesome.

Lore-Don't worry, I'll keep you updated! Nothing yet.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately I can't pay for the picnic yet because I'm not 100% sure I can go.. although there's no way I can miss that, I mean duh :P

My friend and I had to walk/drive through about 18 inches of water to get out of the parking lot of fanfest today. (Florida Marlins) It POURED for about an hour but we never expected the parkinglot to be so bad. The water was an 1 inch from coming in the car, it was insane! Floods in winter.. *sigh*.. only in Florida lol.

Carmen said...

Tawny,
Not to worry about your picnic payment. I am sponsoring you, So your picnic is paid for if you go. Just let me know as the day gets closer if you are going to be able to meke it. I also need to know your shirt size. That way you get an exclusive limited edition "FRO PATRO PICNIC" T-Shirt from the first annual picnic.

Carmen

rosalee said...

Hey -

I just took a look around the new picnic site. Very impressive.
Nothing CREEPY about it at all!
(hee hee)

And the music on those two pages -
what excellent taste you guys have!
Couldn't have picked it better myself!

I was just wondering - I didn't see any "mild" Rotel on that stack of cans... (lol)

Anonymous said...

Aww Carmen, you're too nice! Money isn't an issue for me though, I wouldn't mind paying. My sister is the only issue but I haven't talked to her about it yet. But I'm hoping since she'll have the baby any day now, she won't be as worried and will trust my judgement. It depends on what style the shirt is but if it's a regular t-shirt then I'd be a small.

Holly said...

I am so thankful you followed God in this CD. The 1st song is awesome. I am one of Melindas Backups... I cant wait till you project comes out.... Hope you feel better Chris.... Holly Clark

Carrie said...

I remember someone said they were going to help sponsor me and now I don't remember who it was and I feel bad. But whoever it was if you could email me at inkedstars@ hotmail... My bad. :(

HstryQT said...

First off, thank you so much for putting the picnic site up on your list of links!

As Risa said, the site has been updated with important information on how to buy your ticket and also how to reserve a hotel room at a lower rate through our block of rooms. :)

Secondly, I'm so sorry the flu followed you from the writers summit! Darn. Take it easy and just sit back, listen to KLOVE, and listen to yourself on the radio :).

And finally, it's really exciting to hear how all of the songs on the album have progressed! I can't wait to hear Loaded Gun and Cry Tonight, especially. I'm curious about the name changes on some of the HPF songs. Are there some marketing secrets to how songs are titled? Is there a reason why some have changed slightly? It'll be hard to remember to call some of the old songs their new titles :).

Lori

ChrisSligh said...

Lori,

With Know, it's going to be our first mainstream single, and since the pronunciation of Know can also be No...we wanted to make sure that people knew what it was. So, Let You Know, it became.

Chris

Anonymous said...

I guess I'm slow because I was wondering what song is this? but didn't even realize that it was "Know."

Lori-Still nothing going on other than more backpain and more braxton hicks. I'll let you know how her appointment goes tomorrow.

xangelglitterx said...

HEY CARRIE,
JUST WANTED YOU TO KNOW THAT KLOVE @ 104.9 ON THE RADIO SHOULD COME UP IN YOUR AREA. I SAW LORI GETS THAT STATION TOO. THE BUFFALO AREA MIGHT GET IT @ THAT SITE NOT 104.7 ON CHRIS'S LIST MENTIONED. THAT ONE HAS STATIC. GIVE IT A TRY...

DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THE HOTEL HAS FAMILY SUITES AVAILABLE AND THE PRICING ON THAT??? I MIGHT JUST MAKE NASHVEGAS MY VACATION PACKAGE THIS YEAR... OR MAYBE CHRIS CAN PRETEND WE ARE FAMILY AND PUT US UP....(LOL)I'LL BRING MY MINI DASHAUND PEANUT TO PLAY WITH LITTLE GUY AND THEY CAN PRETEND THEY ARE COUSINS CHRIS.(HE HE HE)
STILL HAVE TO REQUEST IT OFF OF WORK THOUGH. BUT AM GOING TO TRY FOR SURE. THINKING YALL MENTIONED BBQ I'M DOWN WITH THAT. IF THEY SAY YES TO THE VACATION REQUEST MIGHT BE ABLE TO PICK YOU UP TOO CARRIE AS I WILL PASS BUFFALO SO YOU MAY HAVE A RIDE. SEND A PRAYER OUT FOR THAT OK?
PEACE & LOVE.....
ONE LOVE...............

risalea said...

Hey, xangelglitterx-the rooms at the Residence Inn have a queen bed and a sofa that pulls out into a bed. If you want a regular room with two beds, you might try the Courtyard by Marriott which is right in the same area. There is more information under the hotel link at http://fropatro.googlepages.com. Hope you and yours can make it. Tennessee is a beautiful state and a wonderful place for a family vacation. We're planning on heading on over to Gatlinburg after the Nashville festivities. Risa

HstryQT said...

That makes perfect sense about changing the title of "Know." I don't know why but that reminded me of that movie with Tom Hanks, "That Thing You Do" where he manages a band and their name is the "Wonders" but they spell it the "One-ders" trying to be funny but everyone mispronounces it to be the "O-need-ers". OK maybe that doesn't relate at all. lol :)

Hope everyone's staying warm today!

risalea said...

bgv--background vocals? I bet you could find a whole group of folks who have been practicing with every song on HPF and on myspace for the last several months who would do it for free! Just a thought....LOL (OK, you can stop laughing now!)

It's actually a gorgeous, sunny, almost warm day here. Quite a contrast to the violent weather earlier in the week. Lots of personal stories in the Sunday paper today from the tornadoes. It's amazing what can happen in less than a minute.

Chris, hope you are feeling better! Risa

Cathy Storms said...

background vocals? yep..I know a few people who know every word and can harmonize right along with you. Yeah, and we would do it for free.
The weather here is beautiful. We are having our first barbeque of the season.
Chris~hope your feeling better..
Oh yeah, is your radio tour bringing you to sunny So. Calif?

Jason said...

I loved vessel from that first album...belive it or not i still have that album in my cd case in the visor of my car...I also liked Lay it down...those are both good songs from that album...

risalea said...

Chris, any thoughts on the Grammy awards? Unfortunately, I have been holed up with my laptop finishing a class review from last week, but I see the Eagles won for country performance with vocals. A bit of nostalgia to see them come back and win a Grammy. Gaylon and I have a couple of "our songs" that are Eagle numbers from our dating years.

DJ in AL said...

Chris,

I'm so happy that quite a few songs from the HPF Album made it on the new one. I love the selection and can't wait for the CD to drop. I was really hoping Hero would make the cut but figured it wouldn't, oh well can't win em all right?

I got an Ipod for Christmas, which is pretty funny considering I am extremely challenged when it comes to technology but I actually love it and have downloaded my favs from the SB Album and can't wait to download the new stuff. May seems like an eternity away!

Sorry about the flu man, you gotta find some time to rest man! I know that's a ridiculous statement, but you seriously need to. Feel better!

So please tell me you are coming close to B'ham during your tour? Like Carrie we don't have a KLove station here. I hope you get close!

Sending you love from B'ham!

HstryQT said...

When it comes to Chris' radio tour, I would think it's actually better if you *don't* have a KLOVE station near you.

Because KLOVE is a national broadcast, he just has to go to the one main station to do an interview for KLOVE and then it's broadcast everywhere; so there's no reason for him to come to, say INDIANAPOLIS (Gosh darn it) because the nationally broadcast program has already aired.

For those who just have local christian stations it makes more sense for him to come to you.

Does that make sense?

So DJ you have a better chance than I do, I'm thinking. We'll just have to wait and see when his schedule is posted *fingers crossed* :)

DJ in AL said...

Lori,

Excellent point! Residing in the Bible belt we naturally have quite a few Christian radio stations in the B'ham area so maybe I'll get lucky!

Thanks!

DJ

rosalee said...

Risa -

I thought the best part of the Grammy awards (besides the Cirque du Soleil LOVE parts) was when Ringo handed Vince Gill his Grammy and Vince Gill remarked, "I was just given this award by a BEATLE!" - and then he asked Kanye West if that had ever happened to him.

Oh, and on the subject of the Beatles, My four year old grandaughter Rachel sang the entire
"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight" to me yesterday after only hearing it once a few days ago in the car! Isn't that amazing?

DJ in AL said...

I thought Tina and Beyonce's performance was awesome!

I thought Kanye's acceptance speech was a little, well...very Kanye.

rosalee said...

Yes - the Tina Turner act was very good, too. Not bad for an old lady! There were a bunch of good performances, including Josh Groban/Andrea Bocelli (and I don't even like that kind of music).

risalea said...

I adore Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli and I can't believe I missed them, but hallelujah for youtube. I love "The Prayer" and when they harmonize on the Italian, it sends chills up my spine. Beautiful. Risa