20th October 2005

9:15am: New blog! & Ryan Meyers day 1
Here I am, delving into the world of blogging. I've wanted to start one of these for a while, and thought that the beginning of a big studio project would be a great way to kick it off. So, this is the morning of day 2 of the new Ryan Meyers album production. Disclaimer: My spelling and grammar skills are rusty, so with that I will begin . . .
Ryan arrived at the studio about 11:30 Tuesday night, after driving all the way from St. Louis and as of the time I’m writing this its already been a very eventful session. Upon his arrival we spent some time relaxing, socializing and talking about the album production over a few shots of whiskey. Dan the man was present for the occasion as well. There were some minor concerns from the record company about some of Ryans lyrics, and the lack of blatant "God" reference, and we discussed some options to try to please everyone. After a good night of sleep (thanks in part to Mr. Beam) we awoke to a pleasant phone call from the record company guy that erased all of our concerns. One of the great things about Ryan’s lyrics, especially on this new album, is that he leaves room for interpretation and it gives the listener a more subjective experience. I would have been disappointed to see that compromised. Ultimately it was decided between Ryan and the record company that some descriptive liner notes would suffice. This solution is better than changing his songs, but will still take away from the listener’s experience of the song if he/she chooses to read the notes (in my humble opinion). This has always been a big criticism of mine with most of the Christian music that’s produced these days (especially Catholic). The lyrics are often too literal and repetitive.
Wednesday was spent on click tracks, scratch tracks and arrangements. I am very impressed with this batch of songs. Ryan has grown a lot since his last project with his songwriting abilities and confidence with his vocals. Listening to the scratch tracks made me very inspired, and production ideas are flowing effortlessly.
Through the course of the day, my main studio computer caught some kind of strange virus. Every time I would open an explorer window, the calculator would pop up, and this was the only symptom. Ryan and I spent a few hours at the end of the day trying to track down this problem to no avail. So, the day ended with a little concern about how we would fix the problem. Ryan installed about 51 antivirus and anti-spyware programs on the system, and this morning, the problem was found by one of said programs after it downloaded new definitions. These viruses and spyware are out of control! I can’t believe the amount of crap that’s out there. Having my studio computer connected to the internet is a no-no, but I like to live dangerously. Plus, checking email between takes is convenient.
Other cool things about this morning: My lovely partner in life and in the studio, Kate, surprised me with a package that arrived via UPS red. She knew that I loved the sound of the old Mellotron synths, so she ordered M-Audio’s m-tron soft synth, basically a software emulation of the classic. She rocks! And, I’m very excited to try it on this project.
As I write this journal entry, we (Dan, Ryan and I) are in the car on the way to the airport to pick up Josh the drummer. Lou Contumelio (of Aardvark productions) was kind enough to let us use his Pearl drum kit for the session. On the way back from the airport we will be stopping at Guitar Center to pick up Tascam Gigastudio and a new hard drive. An updated version of Native Instruments Guitar Rig has been ordered and is on its way to the studio.
Today, Josh will be recording for the first time in his life. It will be a great day.
I will do my best to update daily, so stay tuned!



Josh at the airport