Erik Schau in The Shed — Day 1 and 2 (and sort of day 3)
Erik Schau (pronounced “shh-ow” ["ow" like ouch]) [www.myspace.com/erikschau] has been a regular in The Shed and Shedaluma since his campaign to take over the singer/songwriter world. Ryan Tamborski (aka Tambo) and sometimes myself have ventured into the production of Erik Schau’s music ever since his first songs, Dreams of Driftwood and Most of All. Since then, Schau’s done some maturing — musically and mentally. His newer songs are less like the campfire songs of a few years ago and more along the lines of some heavy shit that a lot of us real people go through.
Schau has about eight or nine songs he’d like to record in the next few weeks. Tambo is somewhat busy with his own endeavours, but will most likely be in the fray of this album sooner or later. But until that day comes, Schau and I recorded a song called Back Home over two days. The original demo, which will hopefully see the light of day, had this Hawaiian/tropical vibe to it that everyone but myself pointed out. I saw this song as more of a way to introduce something Schau hasn’t really been backed by: a band. We’ve done a bunch of not-so-traditional drums on all of his recordings in Shedaluma, which usually turned out great, but never have we crossed into the realm of just some four-piece kit with some cymbals and only one guy behind the set. Of course, we couldn’t necessarily do that either so we went with some machine drums instead… but it’s a start.
Another aspect of the song we recorded is the slowly developing idea of whether or not Schau wants to stay on the side of what the song means and how it feels altogether… or if he wants to bounce to the side he’s very familiar with musically, just having some good fun with a mic, a recording machine, and no one to tell you not to. Except me of course. The line is very fine at the moment, but maybe when we lay a few more tracks down we can gather up what the album should actually sound like… a party? or something more serious?
Since the song was recorded at The Shed (and parts in my own room) it’s hard to say how different the quality would be if we also recorded some tracks down in Shedaluma. The quality of mics and space shoot through the roof in Shedaluma, whereas here at The Shed we’ve got very very very limited space and equipment to work with. Engineering a tasty hit out of this place is kind of like trying to build a skyscraper with toothpicks — it’s possible……. but it’s a very very long way before it will actually happen.
If you’ve ever followed my production blog [nwlikesmusic.blogspot.com] then you probably know about the only mic that is owned by The Shed. It’s an Audio-Technica PRO24, which is a really cheap condenser mic. There are a few Sony mics in The Shed but no phantom power to use them, unless we run it through the Korg D4… but then it’d be way too much of a hassle and recording wouldn’t be as fast as it would be annoying. So we’re stuck with some shitty mic here but we’re making it happen.
Another thing that we’re doing is using the old school Fender Bassman with… dun dun dun! An actual BASS guitar!! We’ve also used it with my electric guitar as well. Luckily for this song, it’s kind of got that beach vibe so the Fender tone isn’t too much… which it could be at times.
We did vocals in both my bedroom, which gives a better acoustic sound and doesn’t sound as cramped of a space either, as well as The Shed. The difference in the ceilings really helped out for differentiation in the double tracked vocals. We also recorded all of the acoustics in my room since hardwood gives off better vibes than carpet does. Electrics were all done in The Shed.
During the mixdown, Felisha Gonzalez helped me out with the ending of the song… whether it should be more Weezer or more Mason Jennings. Turns out, the mix of the two was her decision: the vocals from the first mix and the solo from the second mix. She also would like to add that she “perfected it”. Also, Schau asked her prior to the mixing that he “demands perfection”. Great job editing team, you’ve appeased each other. As for the song itself… it’s in the link below! Check it out!
right click and “save target as…” to save to your compy. or just click it to stream!
