According to studio records and since verified by Jimmy Page himself, Led Zeppelin purchased 36 hours of studio time to record Led Zeppelin I (this includes mixing). Including artwork and studio time the album collectively cost Led Zeppelin 1750 pounds. Today this is roughly $2794.40 in US dollars. Led Zeppelin I was released in 1969 and by 1975 the band had grossed $7,000,000 in sales.
The overall sales as of 2010 are unbeknowst to me but I can imagine that they are astronomically higher than 7 million dollars at this point. For those of you who don't know, making a record of high quality in 36 hours is not feasable for 99.9% of bands on this planet.
By today's standards it is extremely rare that anything released by a major label gets recorded for this cheap (relatively) and completed in anything near a 36 hour period. Most bands in general - regardless of their level of success or talent - do not work this quick anymore. The standards and processes have changed immensely.The reasons for bands working so much slower than they used to can be debated for days. Some blame record labels. Some will go as far as to cite the lack of talent and current demands put on the modern band. It could be a combination of many of these things.
In a recent interview I viewed from the Beatles Documentary "All Together Now", Paul Mc Cartney states that our modern technology gives an artist more options which lengthens the creative/recording process. He explains that the Beatles didn't have as many options as bands do today. For this reason they completed songs at a very fast rate. He recalls that they would go in to the studio to work and record songs like "Girl" and "Nowhere Man" back to back, throw them on the shelf and get on the next song. Most of these songs they were writing themselves. When you only have 4 tracks and you are forced to record live you have no choice but to deliver a great performance/arrangement because there are no other options.
For any readers that think the Beatles don't deserve the credit they get consider that they recorded over 300 songs (between live and studio) and released 212 of them in proper LP format ... in a span of a short 8 years.
The quality of the recordings, performances, and songs in general are all around fantastic. Think about your favorite band and try to tip the scales.
Today most recording artists have unlimited track counts and thus more options. It is common that bands 'track' their records over recording them 'live'. Tracking is a process in which each member does their part
individually rather than 'live' (all at the same time). A majority of records are a combination of these two processes. Since the birth of the digital age, post production on records has steadily increased and it isn't uncommon that bands hand their records away or they are taken away to be doctored up by a professional. Why is this relevant? The studio is being used as much if not more as an instrument as the musicians themselves, which unfortunately leaves less of a demand on actual performance.
On the contrary to Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, The Beach Boys took an ungodly amount of time and money (by 1966 standards) to record the Brian Wilson masterpiece "Good Vibrations". This song was recorded over the course of 6 months. "Good Vibrations" was recorded in 17 different sections at 4 different studios. The first section recorded took 26 takes alone. In the end the recording sessions cost $50,000, and used 90 hours of tape. It is rumored that $15,000 of the recording costs went to capturing the right theramin take. Brian Wilson had a vision and used the studio, multi-tracking and tape to build a 'pocket symphony'. Though costly and by no means done efficiently or in a timely manner, this is a masterpiece. This song is a fine example of a band using the studio as a tool to perform something they couldn't do live. Approaches to recording have forever been altered since. I couldn't imagine the work that went into building one cohesive song out of 90 hours of tape and hundreds of takes they had at their disposal.
As we were preparing to track, we sat down and had a long conversation about how to approach our next record. Collectively we decided that this was a good time for us to try to record live. When I came across that Led Zeppelin statistic I was so impressed that they did that entire record in three sessions and was inspired to write this blog and share other stories/thoughts. Those kind of numbers make my head spin. especially when you hear that end product.
*Check out a video tour of the recording studio on Vimeo or YouTube. Your preference!*
This past weekend Model Stranger concluded the recording of the 'core-tracks.' This consisted of Drums, Bass and Rhythm Guitar being recorded LIVE to 2 inch tape. This was especially exciting to us for many reasons. This meant we had to have great takes across the board with no room for error. More importantly we feel this will help convey a similar feeling to seeing us live. We originally planned on recording 5 tracks on Saturday and 5 tracks on Sunday, however, in Model Stranger nature, we blazed through all of the core tracks on Saturday and even prepped another tune. This allotted us the time to record 2 extra songs and start lead guitar tracks on Sunday!
We definitely ran into our fair-share of trials, tribulations and hurdles that had to be cleared; from 'dead tracks' to forgetting a reel of virgin tape and everything in between. However, we kept each other in a positive energy that surpassed any negative issues that arose (having a Moog synthesizer, PlayStation 3 and crash-pad did not hurt either).
The Chrome Attic Studio was the perfect place for us to capture this album. Our engineer Dave Martorana suggested it to us and we dove in with open minds. Turns out it was a great decision. Chrome Attic allowed us to escape the busy, bustling city and instead focus on our music in a secluded haven with all of the modern amenities that a rock n' roll trio could ask for. One of the most influential parts of our performances came from the lighting. Each room had separate (remote) transformers so that the microphones would not pick up the buzzing of the lights. More importantly, each room had amibiant lighting that could be adjusted to a certain color, brightness, change-rate, etc. This really allowed us to set the mood for each and every track. It especially helped when we were recording a waltz version of Eyes Half Open at 2 o'clock in the morning :) (We'll post pictures to our Flickr account later on).
We plan on having everything for the new album done by the end of February, but we are really cookin' now and ahead of schedule, so who knows...
Model Stranger will be taking Nashville by storm this weekend as part of the Moustache Bar Crawl (with the help of 55 other Moustached-Men), so if you are in the Nashville area be sure to let us know! After that it is back to the grind; with vocals, keys and lots-and-lots of percussion to record (there is going to be hand-claps that make your head spin-round!).
We will be posting even more video clips, pictures and other random things-o-fun from our weekend away for you to see next week.
3:30pm: Model Stranger and Engineer Dave Martorana (of Fat Recording) arrive at The Chrome Attic Studios for unload & set-up 8:00pm: Vincent, Kevin and Stephen get tones & levels 1:00am: Complete prep for recording
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 8:00am: Rise 'n' Shine Model Stranger 9:30am: Track mapping and tests commenced 10:00am: Where Do We Go From Here? (tracking commenced) 10:45am: She Don't 12:00pm: Turn Of The Century 12:45pm: Lunch break 2:30pm: Eyes Half Open 4:30pm: Dreams & Bones 6:30pm: Break/Need for Speed/Nap/Acquiring more Virgin Tape 9:00pm: Monster 9:30pm: Fire! Fire! 11:00pm: Disease 11:50pm: Carousel 12:45am: Gone Too Long 1:30am: Break and libations 2:00am: Waltz version of Eyes Half Open 2:30am: Wrap 3:00am: Lights out for Stephen & Kevin 4:30am: Vincent allows the slumber fairy to capture him
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
9:30am: Wakey-Wakey-eggs-n-bakey 9:45am: Play Back and Review 11:00am: Review Discussion and plan of attack 11:30am: Eyes Half Open Waltz version 2.0 12:00pm: Monster - redo 12:10pm:Drums Wrap, tear down 1:30pm: Lead guitar tones/tests 2:00pm: Dreams & Bones (lead guitar tracking commenced) 2:50pm: Technical difficulties and packing-up 4:30pm: Acoustic tones 5:00pm: Carousel (acoustic tracking commenced) 5:45pm: Disease 6:30pm: Wrapped! 8:30pm: Sleepy time :)
I wanted to take a minute and thank Ryan Aylward from the local Chicago band and one of our sister acts Camera. If it were not for him and his generosity the progress for our upcoming record would be regressed to an unfixable state.
To stay on par with "Murphy's Law" (see previous post) our luck would have it that 1 week before we were supposed to be tracking for pre-production our record our computer crashed, taking a lot of our progress on developmental ideas with it. I was heading out the following day for New York and despite many attempts to get the computer fixed in time we lost 4 full days of our planned time for pre-production.
Upon my return to Chicago, our computer was still in the shop and attempts to track onto a 4 track cassette tape machine were just not feasible! Poor Vincent and Kevin tried to make it happen but it just wasn't working.
I put in a phone call to Ryan explaining to him the situation and without hesitation he lent Model Stranger his very own computer to get us through until ours was out of the shop. Thank you Ryan and thank you Camera for the contribution to this record!
Camera will soon be releasing some new music as well. You can now find them at their new website and hear some of their thoughts on their blog.
Strangers in the Night
This past week/weekend Model Stranger have been living out of their rehearsal spot, clocking in 18 hours on Saturday and 15 hours on Sunday. The chops are getting up and everything is progressing right on time! Since we are recording this upcoming record live we have made sure to devote adequate time to making sure we are as prepared and focused as we need to be to make a great record.
The fight against the dry climate and exhaustion was alleviated by Saturday night visit from Chris Balzer of Verona Red and a 1:30am Sunday morning visit by insomniac Coate (with beer and a camera in tow). Chris spent some time watching us work, sharing his thoughts and joined us for our break and dinner. We discussed everything from the recording process and booking to the Model Stranger Peenees Watch collection. Verona Red and Model Stranger will be working together in the very near future!
Coate came in late. He observed loudly, coached, snapped some shots, hazed Vince, gave his advice and in the end, tucked us in. It was a nice visit and a perfect end to a long day.
Sunday was spent verging ahead through Monday morning.
Finding the Right Title
As of late Model Stranger has been sharing and considering potential titles for our forthcoming record due for release in late April. The 'joking phase' is most necesarry in the creative process for me when working on titles and lyrics. Humoring myself allows me to "loosen the grip" a bit on what I am trying to convey. Parodying on two of my favorite records/record titles I have come to find these two never usuable adaptations as potential titles for the new Model Stranger record. Have a laugh then take a listen to these real records if you haven't already heard.
The vague and mysterious route. Titles like these never really give you a clue what the intention of the band is but make sense after the record is heard. i.e.. "Dark Side of The Moon" or "Sketches of Spain"...
"From a Warehouse in a Lonley Industrial Park"
Elliott Smith's last record was titled "From a Basement on a Hill". A simple and lovely title really. I am a loyal devotee to his entire body of work but out of all the records he put out, "From a Basement on a Hill" is still my favorite record title. The title is actually a lyric out of a track off of the record but does a great job representing the feeling behind the record. I couldn't say enough about this record.
Oh Elliott... If you haven't had a chance to learn of Elliott Smith's music you can hear clips and learn a lot more about his career at http://www.sweetadeline.net/
Next is the classic and rarely ever used "take me home to mother" approach. Throughout the '50s and early '60s (perhaps later) a lot of labels would title records like they were an experience with the band themselves. "A Night with ______" "Say Hello to _____", that sort of thing. The parody I keep laughing at is:
All kidding aside now - Here are a few of my favorite record titles (not favorite records necesarrily) that just sum up the attitude of the record so well.
I guess picking a title for a body of work could be really easy or really hard. I am certain it depends on the level of pretention that is associated with any given genre and where each artist is at in their career. For now the title of our upcoming record is undetermined.
In the end I believe that if a record is done well it will define the title itself anyways. I just spent my morning trying to pinpoint whether or not there was a rhyme or reason behind what makes a title great. I have come to find that a great title isn't always a fair representation of the music on its own but always means more with a fantastic body of music behind it. In the end great songs/records define even the simplest and most mediocre of titles and never is it the other way around.
Now let's hear from you. Any favorite record titles and/or the reason behind loving the title? Comment on this post at http://www.modelstranger.com/
Ever wonder what a band does for/during their recording process? I mean, there's obviously your standard protocol but we all have our own little quirks. Well here's a sneak peak into Model Stranger's recording world.
We have been at it in our personal practice space for quite some time working on pre-production to make sure everything is just right so that when we go into the studio we are 110% prepared. How can someone be over 100% you ask? Well, Vincent, Stephen and I have had some long, long, loooooong nights so we know we're going to reach beyond that 100%. Hell, I fell asleepsitting up on the couch a few nights ago and awoke in a daze at 6am and had no clue what was going on or where I was and Stephen's snoring was rattling the walls. It was brilliantly nerve wracking.
Vince has been quite the addition to Model Stranger's recording process. (Yes, that IS in fact Hustler on the piano bench. We're a bunch of young men, what do you expect?!?!?!).
Stephen and I recorded Shaky Coma at our studio and did all the pre-production and overdubs there for A Boy and His Crown as well.
Well, we now have another interested person to record with which is just another weapon for the Model Stranger army. Vince will get this funny face while listening to a take and look at me with a 3 year old's smile and say, "Man, I REALLY want to put a vibraslap there!" I smile back :).
We have been working on rearranging some familiar songs as well as writing and preparing new ones. Not only are you going to hear a new Model Stranger album but there will also be some demos and alternate versions of songs that will be exclusively released with certain promotions.
We will be having long nights from here until January 22nd when we actually go into the studio to start recording all of the rhythm tracks. But that doesn't mean the long nights end there. We have deadlines to meet and I'll be damned if something is going to stop us. Here's a picture of me completely
delirious at 2am from Thursday night's LONG session.
We are extremely excited about this record and the
progress that we are making. If you know where our recording studio/rehearsal space is at we'll be locked in until Monday evening. Come drop in, say hello and have a laugh with us. Or a beer. Or some pizza. You may want to bring both of the aforementioned just to be safe. We are hungry and thirsty young lads. Much love and more updates on the recording process as it moves along.
Ahhhh! 2010 has arrived. I cannot believe that 2009 is over. It was such a long year. A few months back we did a year in review and I would have never imagined (since most of it was unplanned and we planned on stopping) that things would have changed so much between September and December. New Rule - Never under any circumstances in your career say the word LAST. No LAST shows of 2009, no LAST line up changes.
Although unplanned, the show at the Metro with our friends Lucid Ground and Minus the Girl was a great night! Opening for Our Lady Peace with Tom and Aaron's band Bullet Called Life = really memorable evening. Growing up listening to those guys and being able to share a stage and taste their crowd was really awesome! Not a week later the Elbo Room asked us to play New Years Eve - It was the perfect way to end the year, and start the year - PLAYING MUSIC.
A LOOK AHEAD Model Stranger has so much already lined up for 2010. With a new record (which we are tracking in the next few weeks) and a Spring tour being booked, I personally am looking forward to hitting the ground running . A majority of our shows this year will be on the road. Chicago is one of our favorite places to play but after putting in 28 days on the road last year, Model Stranger has a new addiction. We make so many fans and learn so much every time we hit the road. Why stay home for long?
In addition to the new record we will be releasing a whole bunch of new merch including some interesting tracks like early demos and outtakes from Reverieland and first renditions of new material being released on the new record. The record is scheduled to be released April 24th.
Thanks for reading! Photos from our show and some other important Model Stranger information below.
PHOTOS FROM SOLD OUT CUBBY BEAR SHOW WITH OUR LADY PEACE
If you are on Facebook or MySpace click HERE to view them.
These photos were shot by the wonderfully talented Mike Hari and Christie LaMountain. Their names link to their websites. Check them out. Hire them.
OUR MUSIC FEATURED:
So a few months ago, some students from Flashpoint Academy contacted our manager Coate wanting to do a piece on him and Model Stranger for a TV Production class they were in. Coate obliged and brought the students up to our practice space to meet us one night. Impressed by their work and professionalism he later asked if they might be interested in doing some video work for him which eventually led to them wanting to be involved in filming us playing a live set. As it turned out, we had just picked up our December Metro and Cubby Bear shows (those link to photo albums of the shows by the way) so the students came out to film both sets for us in glorious HD. We haven't seen the footage yet, but we're quite excited.
Separately, a man named Tim Jahn reached out to Coate via Twitter to inquire about using our song "Sound The Sirens" as background music for a video he was doing for his website, Beyond The Pedway. On the site, Tim seeks to learn about the people behind Chicago's creative companies, what they do, and why they do it in Chicago. A song from a local Chicago band is featured in each video.
Tim sent us an email the other day letting us know he had just posted the video with our song, and much to our pleasant surprise, the company he profiled was none other than Flashpoint Academy! You should watch the piece (we've posted it below...or for those of you reading on Facebook or MySpace HERE), not just because our music is featured, but because Flashpoint is a pretty fantastic establishment!
Please Help us Broaden Our Reach!!!
If everything (or anything) that you read above excites you, we want you to know that you play a large role in Model Stranger getting further down this path. For it is only through the constant support of families, friends, and fans that we have been able to accomplish what we have - and only with the continued support from you can we reach the goals we've set before us. You have all been WONDERFUL in offering all sorts support such as kinds words, attending our shows and just being there in general. As of now we have a few very specific ways you can help us out using the fantastic resources the Internet provides. Sound good? Okay!
Here's what we need:
FACEBOOK
Invite your own family, friends and coworkers to become a fan of us on Facebook. Follow up! Let them know why you like us and why you think they should know all about us as well. Listen to our tunes on the "MyBand" tab on our fan page or our personal profiles. This is important in helping us gain exposure on the site that we'll explain next!
REVERBNATION
This site might be the most useful tool out there for artists like ourselves! It has TONS of tools that allow us to not only create a cool profile but to help us promote. Of those tools are these nifty little thing called "widgets". We have a few of them on THIS SITE along the side bar (the music player, show schedule and fan collector, etc) and our current music player on our MySpace page is a ReverbNation widget. How these work is that they provide cool ways to share information about us very easily. For all of you with blogs it's incredibly easy to add them and ReverbNation tracks our reach. The more widgets we have posted in more places viewed by more unique people - the better for us (both in general and in the rankings on the site)! Below we've placed a very easy tool that you can take these widgets from and post them on your MySpace pages, blogs, websites, etc! If you're viewing this on Facebook or MySpace CLICK HERE to see the original post and what we're talking about.
