And we're back, now with more maraca

It's been a long time, I've missed you all so dearly. With Zack out of town and lot's to do, we had a major lull in the festivities here. But Mr Svoronos has returned, and along with him, my dear sister. Freshly arrived from her New England domicile, McKinley has brought with her an arsenal of talents on things with keys and strings. With only a short amount of time, we set out to get something down, and are in the final steps of putting out a track we're both very proud of. I'll be sad to see her go, but she has to grace the rest of the country with her presence. In the meanwhile, myself and Zack are also fairly close to our most technically challenging song so far, and hope to have that sorted out soon. It's fall here in Northern Virginia, and there's lots of shows to see and music to play. I do hope everyone else is enjoying the weather and the tunes as much as we are.

Videotape - Lake Jackson

So things are moving slow lately, all of my collaborators are out of state or tied up, so I decided to write up a post about this little number I wiggled my way through a month or so ago.

This song is a really complex song. On the surface, well, It's a downer. Really haunting melody and lyrics.
But I've always admired the message between the lines. A soul on it's way out of our world and on to whatever is next, reflecting on a moment, or perhaps moments in time that will be chronicled forever in the metaphorical tape. The minute before death that feels like an eternity, memories of loved ones and better times.

I was going through some really tough stuff recently, and during what could have been my lowest point I cleared my head for a moment and decided to focus the cacophonous energy that was consuming me into something productive. I left work early with a mission, came home and spent hours trying to master the relatively simple melody that makes up this lovely piece of music.

Like everything I have done, or likely will ever do, I fully intend to come back to it at some point to add more, improve on some things here and there. But, like the state I was in when I recorded it, it is a flawed, fragile piece of emotion. Certainly hope it sounds ok.

Here is Videotape by Radiohead

Reptilia - Lake Jackson

Well, this thing seeing the light of day is making me all types of happy.

The first 5 piece song we ever decided to do, this final track is the culmination of at least 3 separate sessions, countless retakes and at least 10 hours alone of mixing and tweaking.

A very appropriate send off to our very own Zack Svoronos, who leaves for the jewel of the midwest, Austin, Texas. Recordings will come slower while he's gone but we've already zeroed in on the next big project upon his triumphant return.

Ironically enough, at the end of the song, I decided to leave in our original exclamation of joy upon getting through our first solid play through, nearly 5 weeks ago. Little did we know how flawed it was, but It's been a real labour of love, and I couldn't be prouder.

Without further ado, enjoy Reptilia by The Strokes

Fell In Love With a Girl - Lake Jackson

Another end of the night project, this is probably the 10th take or so. We had all had a few beers and people kept messing up takes. I had been singing initially but at the end of the session my voice was shot.

Travis took over on vocals from there and layed it out on the second take. If you listen closely at the start you can hear me bitching that my throat felt like John Lennons' after his infamous Twist and Shout sessions.

Also listen for Zacks' banshee falsetto in there that would make Prince blush.

Enjoy Fell In Love With a Girl by The White Stripes

House of Cards - Lake Jackson

So this was basically the, I think, first semi-complete recording we had ever put down.
Me and Travis have been singing and playing this song since he learned it, always really loved it's sexy little shuffle.

The lyrics are deceptively gloomy, a crumbling marriage set to an ethereal guitar jangle. The original track adds some glorious accompaniments that we would just love to get to adding some day.

Anyway, here is House of Cards by Radiohead

-Jack

Follow Me Around - Zack Svoronos

So this was a one off we did between, god knows how many takes of whatever it was we were doing that night. Zack singing and strumming "Follow Me Around" by Thom Yorke.

One take later he was happy with it!

I've found a lot of fun shit we do is in between takes of whatever the goal of the night happens to be.

Here is Follow Me Around by Thom Yorke


-Jack

Local music and Russian Royalty

Woke up at the crack of 11 and myself and Travis took a jaunt over to the local music store, Nova Music Center. After the trials and tribulations involved with tracking a loud, sloppy garage rock song I decided to invest in another mic, and replace the drum sticks that finally gave up yesterday.

The place is the bomb man, lemme tell yeh. Met Anastasia, the head engineer there and she showed me around their studio, where she was mixing a song for a local group. Told me a little about her process. It was super interesting, in a "I want to do this for a living" kind of way. She was also very pretty...

Anywho, I have a dedicated drum mic now

Red with the curls and aquatic oddities

The best days are the ones where you were prepared to not be productive but you end up sitting and recording for 7 hours and forgetting to eat.

Worked out the percussion for one project, and then some kind of drum wizard showed up and we blew through 5 tracks of the next song, after a few retakes. We set a lofty goal of covering an entire album, hope to have that done in a month or so. 

Late in the night Travis came by and we blazed through about 15 takes of "Fell In Love With A Girl" by The White Stripes. Lost my breath after 10 or so and we finally locked it down a few after. 

Job well done today boys. 

Bells and animals in hot cars

My latest project makes an annoying ringing noise.

These bells are fairly old and there's some kind of vibration in there somewhere. I've actually had a lot of fun with them so far, basically making up an accompaniment to the next song I'm working on. Might need to tap someone to play bass on the track because I doubt my ability to bring the necessary level of funky grunge to it. 

Hope to have most of it down tonight if I don't get distracted. 

It's a bummer of a song, lemme tell yeh'.

-Jack

New Yorkers and that loud feedback noise

So the most ambitious project we've undertaken so far is a 5 piece recording of Reptilia by those fantastic lads from New Yeork, The Strokes. I can't even begin to guess how many hours I've sunk in mixing this thing alone, not even to mention how long the guys and myself have spend playing it.
Good thing It's such a great fucking song.

The process of it was so backwards It's embarrassing to think about it now. Suffice it to say, don't try and record a rock song with three guitars WITHOUT a drummer.

After uncountable amounts of retakes, and section overdubs, we are getting really close to a finished project, and myself and Zack just spent a late night "working out the kinks" session that proved very fruitful. Once the song gets the stamp of approval I'll go over some of the weird stuff we subjected ourself to to commit this thing to virtual tape. Until then, enjoy this picture of the man himself, right before the fortunate lightbulb moment.

-Jack

Where we start and how we got there

Hello, my name is Jack Corbley, and I decided to start centralizing all the thoughts, ideas and projects that I, or my good friends and musicians are working on or dreaming up.

Short recap: I live in a wooded sanctuary in Virginia and I love music, my whole life I've been surrounded and immersed by it. So recently I decided to start involving myself in it a bit more.

I set out to learn and start mastering the art of recording sound. I set up and expanded upon the the music room to turn it into a ramshackle recording studio, and so far have enjoyed moderate success with the projects we've jumped into.

I'm happy to have a place I can easily use to plop down everything we're up to, for any of you lovely folks who flatter me with your interest.

Here's to a hopefully moderately successful venture into the intricate, wonderful world of recording and performing music.

Cheers - Jack