*NOTE: This blog is best viewed on Model Stranger's Official Website - ModelStranger.com. Not all links/photos/videos may show up correctly on other sites*
Just settled in at the Washington in Burlington, IA. Last night was a good night for a Wednesday in Springfield. A nice long 3 hour set to knock off the studio rust was the perfect way to start. In fact, the few extra shows we did in March and April really helped us get this material in the right spot.
About "She Don't":
"She Don't" was written relatively quickly over the course of 2 short practices on September 10th and 11th, 2009 before a show at Chicago City Limits. I had been playing around with this riff at a much slower tempo for the better half of a year or two! Occasionally we would play around with it at rehearsal but nothing ever came out of it. It was played waaaay back beat with a "bonahmesque" groove. I still have original demos of it and they are really cool but I could never find a vocal that worked with it. Thankfully I never let it go and it eventually all came together as what you can hear now.
As it went - randomly one afternoon while I was waiting for rehearsal to start I began chugging the chords for it in a different way and at a much faster tempo. These adjustments seemed to really make the riff swing better and immediately I was in love with the feel of it. After I found the pocket I was able to put the rest of the song together no problem. Shortly after the band arrived we were able to work out most of the song including melodies and lyrical context in that rehearsal.
The next day Thomas Miller and Aaron Hosek of Bullet Called Life came to rehearsal to prepare for the show we had scheduled at CCL. "Day of" rehearsals were common with them due to all of our demanding schedules. They learned the song in a few runs and we actually performed it that night - only a few hours old! At the time I only had the chorus lyrics set and everything else I improvised. I have a recording from that show and a lot of what started as working lyrics remained. Perhaps I will dig it up and post it here if I hear a request from you all for it!
Vincent, Kevin, and I had a chance to develop everything more during preproduction for "Dreams and Bones", finalizing arrangement and tempo. I also had a chance to sit down and add some harmonies and pen final lyrics.
"She Don't" really comes to life when we play it live and I am happy with the way it turned out on record. Tracking it live really helped. The demos from preproduction were a lot of fun but they didn't work out as we had thought they would for the record. It wasn't until we realized that in order for it to work on record it required the original arrangement we had developed as a five piece. After tracking the main tracks we called in Thomas Miller to put down the keys from the live fall/winter arrangement we had used at CCL that night and for our other winter shows. In addition to adding some keys to the verse, you can find a really nice honkey-tonk style piano solo before the guitar solo. Once the piano was tracked and the mix was completed I found myself very happy with the decision to bring Tom back for the record. We thank him for his contributions to this record.
Check out "She Don't" HERE and let us know what you think.
Stephen Francis
No comments:
Post a Comment