more fun with Turtles

We've been mixing for the past few weeks, along with some last bits of recording. There are a couple of mostly electronic tunes and we saved those for last, so we are finishing up vocals on them now.

look deeeeep into the Blue Bottle

This has been another epic project and I truly can't say enough about producer Jeff Hiatt, who has gone above and beyond with the time, energy, patience and creativity that he has given to this record. It has been a real joy to work with everyone at Turtle Studios. I hope the songs will bring some of that feeling to you as well!

I come in with a lot of musical ideas and parts already created in my demos, but once we begin work with the live musicians we replace some of those electronic parts -- although we also keep many of them (and write new electronic parts). We collaborate with each musician to develop further whatever was on the demo, and/or to create one or more completely new instrumental lines. This kind of process takes a lot of time and patience as each song gradually grows a world around itself. Then, during mixing we have to figure out what to keep or what else to add, along with all of the other kinds of sonic shaping and refining involved at the mixing stage. Sometimes after listening to something over and over you can lose perspective, so you have to come back to it with fresh ears at another time. Or just put it in a big cave and call it a day.

hey let's put it in a big cave