I flew out to visit and sing/play on some of the next four Smashing Pumpkins songs for a week. I was ecstatic to get to see all my friends (Billy, Kerry Brown, Kristin Burns, Bjorn Thorsrud, Kat Turner) because they had been out there in Chicago together and I was missing them.
The Smashing Pumpkins studio is the stuff of dreams. It certainly would fall into my own personal dream category. I was so blown away by the hundreds of pedals, rare analog synths, guitars, vintage gear, and some of the coolest microphones I've ever seen
+ one of a kind boards, eq's, compressors. I didn't have as much time to nerd out over everything as i would have liked. Its the kind of thing where if i locked myself in there for years I'd never get bored.
The process of recording to tape was entirely new to me. I grew up in the digital age and i'd never recorded to tape the entire time i was working in engineering. I really enjoyed it and I even prefer it. I love that you really have to nail the performance consistently. Its such a creation/destruction dynamic. If you record over a track you had better be sure you can do it better because you can't get that last take back! Its so technical. It was definitely a challenge. Plus, i got an attack of fall allergies so i had to rely on the opera singers cure - guaifinesin. It dries you right out, almost too much if you aren't careful. I ended up feeling like parchment. ;)
Its really crazy how sometimes Billy's voice and my voice will blend in such a way we can't tell who is who.
I love being in studios, it's my favorite place to be and it brought back de ja vu to be sitting on a black couch listening as billy and bjorn worked on stuff. I even jumped in for a few hours and helped assist like old times.
Billy was really on fire vocally. I think he nailed his in three to four takes. Me, on the other hand, well, i took much longer than that. haha.
I don't know what I can and can't say about the songs recorded.. so i'll play it safe and leave it at that, to go further into detail at a later date.
check out Kerry's instudio blog glittercop.blogspot.com
Well I think i'm going to leave the doll wars/stickam stuff for a separate post. so, here are some pictures. :)