webcast on theguesthouselive.com
Sunday afternoon I went by the studio to sing a backing vocal part for something. Rob told me the name but, to be honest, I don’t remember it. (edit: It was called Desmond Drive) He had a group of people in, including Michael Lorant and Becky Shaw, and John was there. We sang a lot of “na-na”s. A couple of run throughs, one of which the females in the group sang an octave higher for some variety. I was, of course, asked to join the higher voice. There was some brief talk afterward between John and Becky about my range, something of which I really don’t have a clue about. Apparently I’m a tenor (I think I knew that much) but my high range is pretty extended. I suppose I should try to find out so I can tell anyone who needs to know. Particularly if I really want to try to push doing studio work or whatever, which I do.
Sunday night was the webcast show. It’s a converted house in Duluth, all of the bottom floor is a really impressive professional-level studio space. I mean, the whole project has to have run an incredible amount of money. Upstairs the living room has also been converted and that’s where the webcast performances take place. Two long couches are against the wall. Giant baffles hanging from the ceiling, 3 cameras in various places on the wall. Actually, there are cameras all over the house, broadcasting over the web. The house is full of musicians running all this stuff, all of whom were surprisingly friendly. Just a really impressive set-up.
I played through a Vox amp for the first time, something I’ve always wanted to try. I didn’t spend a lot of time tweaking it, but I was surprised to find I wasn’t all that impressed. I think I prefer my little Fender HotRod. Anyway, even our set-up and soundcheck were being broadcast, though I don’t know how many people might have been watching that. We covered a lot of last minute Bowie songs during set-up for some reason.
The show itself went really well, I thought. Musically we did as well as at the EARL, pretty tight. I’m not so sure, not having seen it yet, that I was very animated. It was hard to give a “show” performance in front of about 10 people on two couches. But I think it came across well. That opinion might change once I see it, of course. After the show I went downstairs to the studio and heard a little of what we did. There was something exciting and depressing about hearing myself in that studio. Surrounded by every single thing you might imagine when you picture a major label studio. Dimly lit cherry wood walls and every computerized toy you could imagine. The sound was amazing, as you would expect, and it was really good to hear myself reverberating around the walls of a room like that, and to know that I could do that given a chance, that the music I’m making is quality enough to sound like it belongs there. But also depressing in its way, because I HAVEN’T been given that chance, and the industry being what it is, I have no idea if I ever will.
Not sad, so much, but sort of bittersweet.