Making A Record In 36 Hours, Recording One Song For 6 Months.

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.

Thanks for reading.

Stephen Francis

With A Little Help From Our Friends and Finding the Right Title "___________".

With a Little Help from Our Friends

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:

Meet Model Stranger

"Meet The Beatles" - The Beatles second release in the states (I believe it was released as "With the Beatles" in the UK. This record is a blast if you enjoy jumping on your bed or slow dancing with yourself while singing doo wop. "Please Mister Postman", "It Won't Be Long", "You've Really got a Hold on Me" are raw and fantastic performances. Then again, I am talking about the Beatles.

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.

Pet Sounds - Beach Boys

Digital Ashes in a Digital Urn - Bright Eyes

Appetite For Destruction - Guns 'N' Roses

Young Modern - Silverchair

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/

Thanks for reading and sharing!

Stephen Francis