Even though it was to be our second collection of recordings, our second album - As Ugly As You Are - was our first attempt at actually making an album. To get the feel we wanted, we needed a drummer. However, our recording sessions were sporadic, amateur, and happened in Shawn’s dark, dank, psychedelic bachelor apartment. We couldn’t just bring in a drummer and try to improvise together and get productive recordings. I decided to go out with the recorder, get what we needed, and then we would just “play along” with the recordings afterwards. We needed someone who could jam and improvise without any guidance regarding the final recorded sounds. I called Casey Cohill.
Casey lived in Phoenix and we were two hours north in Flagstaff, so that Christmas season, I brought my trusty Korg Pandora 4-track digital magicbox along during our family holiday visit in the valley. I met up with Casey and we hung out and recorded some drum tracks. No metronomes or other measures – just Casey freestyling for minutes at a time while I recorded it all through the single input mic of the Pandora box. When I got back home, I used a pirated copy of “pre-Adobe” audio editing software to re-mix, loop, and trip out these beats into weird skeleton-rhythm tracks upon which Shawn and I could hang the meat of our improvised recordings and poetry. This is how the Frankenstein creatures of As Ugly As You Are were assembled and brought to life.
Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Shawn and I had to learn the hard way that improvising music with no experience in audio production, using borrowed and used equipment, all while drinking 9% ABV beers was not that easy. Dead cables, digital effects boxes that would lock up or mute out, static, buzzing – it took a lot of patience to get through these sessions. Adding to the challenge was that my trusty, beloved Korg Pandora 4-track allowed you to listen to multiple tracks while recording, but you could only record one input at a time and so we had to plan our improvisations a bit. At home, I would record my remixed, tripped-out drum-skeleton track onto track one. Once I got to Shawn’s place and all “beer-ed up,” I would record a bass track (guitar or keyboard – unrehearsed, of course) and complete the rhythm portion of the song. Then we would set Shawn up to do his poetry and solo guitar pieces. He would listen to the rhythm tracks and time his poetry and guitar solos along with them. We didn’t always record in that precise order, but every track was improvised and recorded all in one take. The only tracks that are “second takes” are a result of forgetting to press the record on the first take.
I hope you take the time to listen to this album – it’s worth it just to hear Shawn utter the words “erection of anticipation.” It’s a great album for making co-workers, friends, and family uncomfortable during your holiday season.
