Last night was very intense. I was working with the Southern Backtones on a song for a tribute CD. We were on unusual territory because I had engineered records for the band before, but this time I was the producer. Much of the song's arrangement was left to chance because we really wanted to play with crafting the song in the studio. The result was successful as far as I was concerned, but the band was chagrined over their feeling that they took too long to get their parts.

We ended the night by flipping the 2" tape over and recording two backwards guitar parts. John Griffin, (Backtones, Row Zero, and SugarHill staff engineer) and Hank (from the Backtones really) laid down some good stuff. Next we transfer the tape to Protools and start getting really creative with some guitar, keys, and vocals.

Today, I rehearsed Mark Needs a Chick for our upcomming summer work. We rehearsed powerful rock songs at a conversational volume. The learning was fast and effortless. So effortless, in fact, that Mark was uncertain if I had been hard enough on them(!) I guess I'll schedule some screaming and crying for our next pre production session. As usual, the songs were fantastic. Josh, (drums), and Andrew, (new-guy bass), really got a dual MVP award for today. I cannot wait to track these songs, but we have one more rehearsal first.

Finally, today Jason Landry, Sam Arnold, and I laid down some PLUSH sounding acoustic guitar on three of Jason's songs. This project just keeps getting better every time we record. Jason has really worked hard to assemble a team of players that bring a huge amount of heart to the project.

Time to go do easter with the family. (All in all, a really great couple of days in the studio).