Recording Diary 2: Rhythm Guitars

Tonight, Troy and I finally got the chance to sit down and record some rhythm guitars along with the drum tracks that Chris recorded a month or so ago. It may seem that there was quite a gap (say, month-long) between drums and guitars, but this time of year there's a lot to schedule, and there was a lot of work to do just going through drum tracks.

So, the first thing we did was gather some tools together:

First off, we recorded the song "In the Wake of Fear", which we've been playing for years. The main guitars for me were the green TW Manalishi and the 1979 Les Paul Standard. Troy used his Les Paul Studio and Jackson Soloist. It's a very little-known fact that Troy did everything he could to sell me that Soloist back in 1999 or 2000. It's a phenomenally good guitar that I should have bought. Thankfully, Troy bought it, and it's one of his most cherished guitars. That's for good reason. It's a tremendously good sounding guitar. 

I used my "Green Manalishi" guitar that I built last year. I don't really claim a lot of credit for that guitar sounding good, but it sounds good. It's a neck-through guitar, with a 5-piece mahogany/maple neck with a walnut body. It brings a special midrange body to the recording, along with a huge low end and articulate highs. 

For secondary tracks, I used my 1979 Les Paul Standard and Troy used the aforementioned Jackson. With 4 tracks of guitars, In the Wake of Fear sounds huge. 

One thing of note is that, due to modern technology, we're able to record the guitar tracks without committing to a particular sound. What we're doing is recording direct with amp simulators. What that means is that the raw performance is captured directly from the guitar, which can be then fed to the amplifier when we choose to record live tracks. 

After "In the Wake of Fear", we hit "Inversion (Streets of Fire)". That's a dropped D tune, so Troy used his Jackson Adrian Smith and Les Paul while I used my Green Manalishi and LP Standard. That was somewhat more work, as it's a considerably newer, more intricate song. As often happens with recording, we kept working until we were nearly microscopically viewing the guitar tracks. At a certain point, you have to let it go, particularly with a tune like this. We doubled the guitars in the chorus, and for that I detuned my E string to D, and my B string to G, just to add a little resonance. Troy's Jackson offered up a free 'G' in the rhythm for his solo, which accidentally added a lovely bit of life to that section. I don't know exactly where that G came from. It could have been a ringing tremolo spring or something. I listened back to the raw guitar track a couple of times before I realized two things:  

A. I couldn't tell where there G came from. 

B.  It sounded awesome. 

So there it is, as far as I'm concerned, forever printed on the yet untitled Rule 17 album. 

Recording Diary 1: Tracking Drums

So, we've finally decided to buckle down and make a record. Or a CD. Or an album. Whatever you want to call it, we have 9 songs ready to go. You may have heard demo versions of a handful of them. At any rate, they are now being properly recorded. And the first step with that is drums.

We had originally kicked around the idea of heading down to the Twin Cities to spend some quality studio time tracking drums, but as is often the case, it came down to budget and time constraints. What did happen is that we wound up renting a shop to rehearse in for a few months. What it lacked in atmosphere and weatherproofing, it made up for by having a surprisingly good drum sound.

So, with that idea in mind, we quickly got things sorted out and started drum tracking last week. The real work in drum tracking, especially with songs that we've been performing for years at this point, is figuring out the type of sound that you want and how you're going to get it.

Warning: Gear Talk

As I mentioned before, our budget wasn't huge, so it pretty much boiled down to using what we had, rent a few other bits, and make up the difference with time. The limitations? 8 total channels, limited mic selection, no room treatment.

Since this is a metal album, I wanted to get a decent spread on the overhead mics. I measured from an imaginary line running through the batter head of the kick and the center of the snare head, just for the purpose of phase coherence. The right overhead wound up covering the ride, china, crash, and floor toms. The left overhead wound up covering the hat, other crash, snare, and rack toms.

I spent some time working on the overheads until there was a good balance of the kit while maintaining that equal alignment so that the snare and kick would remain in phase once the close mics were brought in. For you gearheads, the overhead mics wound up being Shure pg81s. Yes, they are not the world's greatest small diaphragm condenser mics, but I'm not in the world's greatest room, and I'm not the world's greatest engineer. They sound good for what they are, and well-placed less expensive mics can still do a decent job. The end result wound up being an overhead sound that I'm much happier with than any other time I've ever mic'd a drum kit.

From there, it was time for close mics. I wound up with an SM58 on the snare, PG52 on the kick, and Beta 56's on the toms. I spent a good deal of time working on the close mics as well, to ensure that I was getting what we needed from the snare and kick, as well as trying to get the toms in the ballpark.

Why in the ballpark? Because I was whacking the drums. I'm not Chris Fritz, and I have the recorded clips to prove it. The following night, Chris came in and we worked more on the close mics. I had worried a bit about the kick, which was a little too "bouncing basketball" for my taste. Sounded completely different with Chris whacking it. We tuned everything up, got the mics pointed where they sounded best, and got things ready.

Part of getting things ready included having appropriate accessories, like a beanie to help keep the headphones on and proper drummer fuel.

Granted, the combination of the "drummer fuel" and the hat resulted in something like this:

The actual recording took place in 5 hour sessions on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night was definitely more work. In that way, it's a lot like gigging. You're tired from the day of work, kind of worn out, and not quite as ready for another few hours of work. I think there might have been some sort of mold thing in there too, because after a few hours each night, my voice would drop an octave.

With the proper application of a bit different "drummer fuel", we got 5 of the 9 songs tracked on Friday.  Chris drummed, I played guitar. Troy stopped by to take a quick listen, and we all headed home to hit the rack. We had taken care of Act of Defiance, In the Wake of Fear, Beyond, and Awake.

Saturday night was set up to be more of the same, but seemed that it would be a lot more work. Our two newest songs, Inversion and Shadow were on the docket, as well as Waste Away, which probably has more time changes than anything else we do.

Shadow was a one-take wonder. We hit a couple of things with it, but that first take was the one to go with. Once we got a few cues sorted out for Inversion, that was handled in similar fashion. We touched up a few things on In the Wake of Fear from the night before, and then hit Another Life. Another Life is far and away the simplest tune we do. That said, it was probably the hardest to track. That's not so much because it's hard to play, but because upon entering the final chorus, Chris' beanie (see the top photo) fell off, right in front of his face. The headphones followed soon after. That didn't really affect his performance at all, so that's the take we kept. It has that "Hatless" vibe.

So, with some time dedicated to sorting through the drum tracks, picking out the best versions, and throwing in the odd scratch guitar track (for cues), it looks like Troy and I will be ready to start tracking guitars in the next couple of weeks.

Stay tuned...

Go Dunk!

Friday night, we opened for the Killer Dwarfs at the Garage in Moorhead. This was a whole lot of fun. For those of you not in the know about the band, they're a hard rock band based out of Toronto that was mostly active through the 80's into the early 90's. Like many bands, they fell prey to a changing industry that was running away from hard rock and metal of all sorts by the mid 90's.

It's a shame, really. They wound up with a "Lost Album", which they just released, and you can buy here: http://russdwarf.bandcamp.com/album/start-one  It's good stuff if you like melodic hard rock. They often wind up bundled into the same genre as a lot of "Sunset Strip" bands, which in a lot of ways is somewhat inaccurate, as they really never were an eyeliner and nail polish type of band.

Anyway, getting to the gig. We put together about a 45 minute set, which wound up being closer to an hour set. It seemed to go pretty well, as far as I could tell. We were kind of crammed in there a little strangely, since Killer Dwarfs touring support band Modern Superstar had their gear in there, then us in front of, in between, and around them. The Garage Bar has a big stage, but it was hitting its limit size-wise.

We finished our set, which consisted of:

Act of Defiance
Beyond
Perfect World
Inversion
Awake
I am Your Shadow
Waste Away

Then, we got a request for one more, so we did "Revelations" by Iron Maiden. It went over well.

Modern Superstar was up next, while I was horsing around with gear. I didn't catch very much of their set, as I was shucking gear back into the car and running it home, then visiting with the members of Killer Dwarfs.

The first thing that struck me when Killer Dwarfs started playing was that Gerry Finn (Dwarf), their guitarist, had my exact last two guitar rigs on stage. On one side was an original Peavey 5150 with a Marshall bottom cab, and on the other was an early Marshal JCM 900 Dual Reverb 50-watter through a Marshall top cab. I've always wanted to hear those amps run at the same time, so this was my chance. It sounded good - really good. They played a tight set and put on a really good show. All in all, it was a really fun time.

And - on to other news:

SEPT 21 - RULE 17 AND PHOENIX RISING AT THE NESTOR TAVERN

This will be a good show. We played with Phoenix Rising about a year ago, and they put on a great show. I'm really looking forward to this one. We're doing our "full night", so we get to stretch out a little more than with opening sets, which will be cool. Plus, it's not that often that we play two shows this close together, so we get to roll into this next one with the last one under our belts - that's always good for a band. So - come check it out!

Knocking off the Rust

Hi all!

After a relatively silent period since May, we decided with a week's notice to take up a short notice (for us) show at the Nestor with Red Flag Riot, 13th Chapter, Michael Pink, and one other performer whose name I didn't catch (Sorry, I'm not a professional name gatherer!)

It was fun. We put together a last-minute all Rule 17 set with the addition of one song that we had kind of abandoned since last fall's show at Rick's. That was a lot of fun. It made up about a 50-minute set, and it felt really good to roll through it all. I also have to give props to the other performers. It was a really diverse mix of bands, with Michael Pink playing solo acoustic, Red Flag Riot playing full band acoustic, us doing what we do, followed by 13th Chapter ending the night with a short set of death metal. I love the energy of mixed events like that - it's kind of like hitting shuffle on your ipod.

This past week, we got a brand new (well, new to us) rehearsal pad. This is the first we've had in a LONG time. Most of the rehearsals over the past couple of years have been in my basement, which brings with it its own set of issues, like things falling off the walls upstairs, rehearsals ending because of bedtime, and the basement stairway that was not designed for the easy removal of Marshall speaker cabinets.

The new joint is generally better for access, no stairs, no noise problems, and still has electricity! So we're looking forward to getting back to our old-style "grind it out" rehearsals.

Speaking of things that we're looking forward to, on August 24th we are playing at the Garage Bar. This will be our "Full Night", which means two full sets from us. We haven't done that for quite a while, so it'll be nice to be able to stretch our legs a bit again. This spring we did a lot of openers, which tend not to pay well, but can be nice ways to open doors. Besides, we got to play with Dan Spitz' band Red Lamb, did an incredibly fun show with JP tribute Electric Eye, and opened for Bret Michaels. Now, we get to not worry about the set being too long, whether the other band is going to let us use this or that (or if we're setting up around their equipment) or anything else.

If you haven't seen us for a while, we've added (and are still adding) some new songs, reworking sets, and generally trying to keep a "special event" vibe to each show. If you have seen us, you know that there are some songs that we just haven't been playing, like most of the covers that we do. Since we have the luxury of time, we're going to try getting as much stuff in as possible.

August 24th at the Garage Bar in Moorhead.  Check it out!

Garage Bar with Electric Eye Recap

Whew!

Saturday night was a good night! We had been looking forward to playing this show for a long time. Pretty much as soon as it was announced, I hit up Al from the Garage Bar about opening. Why so excited?

Because we're all big Judas Priest fans, and Electric Eye is a phenomenally good JP tribute band. They mostly do JP's classic material, and they do it incredibly well. I'll admit, as a singer I'm pretty envious of anybody who can nail Victim of Changes, and Chris (Electric Eye vocalist) hammers the high notes effortlessly. By effortlessly, I mean Unleashed in the East levels of effortlessly.

But, before we go too far into Electric Eye's set, let's talk a bit about Rule 17, which is at least theoretically why any of you are reading this. We switched things up a bit which was, for lack of a better term, strange. For the past few shows, we've opened with Act of Defiance. The beginning of that song was written as a show opener, and only was tacked onto that tune later as a permanent addition. I wrote that harmonized beginning at the end of the 7th Seal era because at that time we had decided to try Judas Priest's "Hellion" as a show opener. The theory worked great, except everybody was expecting Electric Eye afterward, which we didn't do.

This time we opened with Iron Maiden's "Powerslave", which went over well. We followed that with "In the Wake of Fear", which always seems to get buried mid-set. Things got back to normal a bit when we got around to "Act of Defiance", "Awake", and the newcomer "Beyond". For the first time in a few shows, we brought out "Perfect World", which for some reason always winds up getting kicked off the set when we have to cut songs. Perhaps we have the irrational belief that switching guitars or tuning a string takes upwards of five minutes or something. We closed off the night with Black Sabbath's "Children of the Sea" and perennial closer "Waste Away".

Oh, and there's video evidence!

Powerslave

In the Wake of Fear

Awake

Perfect World

So, we wrapped up our set and settled in to catch Electric Eye. Metal Gods, Rock Hard Ride Free, Victim of Changes, Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown), Diamonds and Rust, the list goes on. Tight drums, tight bass, tight guitars. Having played as a two-guitar band for a lot of years now, I always enjoy hearing other bands that do the dual-lead thing well, and these guys synch up and play off each other really well. And the vocals - spot - on.

After a set of Priest classics, they took the stage and did some other killer metal tunes - Take Hold of the Flame (I'm a sucker for early Queensryche), We Rock, Bark at the Moon just to name a few. All in all, it was a whole lot of fun. When they come to town again, definitely check 'em out.

Travis

This blog entry is dedicated to Les Binks, who has been awarded "Best Priest Drummer, EVER" by Chris Fritz and me. 

Look What Rule 17 Dragged In

Have you ever had a really strange dream? The kind of dream where you maybe ate a bit too much potato salad, and that night you're in some sort of bizarre situation with a very random cast of characters? I have those kinds of dreams all the time. 

Here's one for you: I had to rush from work to get all of my guitar gear into a tent in a parking lot. There was snow on the ground. There had been a blizzard the week before; that's why all the snow was there. We were apparently opening for Bret Michaels at a cigar bar. But we couldn't smoke cigars at the bar, or within 20 feet of the door, because North Dakota had changed their laws. So there we are, opening for Bret Michaels, and my buddy Jon shows up and says "Hey, let's play 'Lights Out' by UFO." So we play the UFO song, and Daisy Duke circa 1980 walks in. I look over at Daisy and realize that I don't remember the words to Lights Out. Then, I try to step on the footswitch for my amp, and can't do it. A very short clown is sitting on it, trying to steal my shoelaces. I'm wearing slip-on shoes, so I try to convince the clown that his mission is in vain, but he persists. Then I wake up and go "wow, that's a WEIRD dream". 

Subtract the clown and Daisy Duke, and the rest is all true. 

Those in the know, which pretty much includes 90% of the people who will bother to read this blog post, know that Rule 17 plays original metal in Fargo, ND. They also know that it's a relatively small scene. I consider it kind of a comfortable room. Playing metal in Fargo is as rewarding or unrewarding as you let it be. Cover bands generally get higher profile gigs, but we generally have more hardcore fans. There are Rule 17 fans who have seen nearly every show we've played since we were known as 7th Seal, which takes it back to 2005. But sometimes, it's good to step outside your comfort zone. 

I've known Jon Stensland since we were kids. He's the one who recommended Dave for 7th Seal back in fall of 2004. It's well known that he works for Bret Michaels, particularly since he's on stage with him every show. Jon got us the in. It was textbook nepotism, which is fine by me.

We hit the stage at 6pm, not really knowing what the crowd was going to be like. We've never played that early. In our world, we generally don't do a soundcheck before 10 pm, often 11 pm. We got our gear there, got it set up, did a pretty comprehensive sound check, and let 'er rip. 

I don't think the crowd necessarily knew what they were in for. There were people camped out in the non-VIP area. The only familiar faces were members of Dave's family, the bar staff, and a handful of others. We played Act of Defiance, Troy had trouble with his pedal board, we finished the song and...people cheered. Huh. So we played Awake. No technical problems, and it actually went over relatively well considering its thrash metal pedigree. Oh, there were a few duds in there. We had picked "Dusk" from the 7th Seal album as a "friendly" tune, and that died like a doe on Highway 2. "In the Wake of Fear" suffered a similar fate, but that was okay because it's just a terribly fun song to play. Jon joined us for our final run through "Lights Out" by UFO - it was one of two covers that we did (Children of the Sea was the other). It was a lot of fun, although it wound up being a little improvisational since the 5 of us had never actually rehearsed it together. We ended with "Waste Away", which went over pretty well again.   

After our set, I ran over to the bar and grabbed some grub. JT's has a restaurant in the old smoking area, so I had a burger and some seasoned fries. Pretty good stuff. After that, I caught the last bit of Face for Radio's set and helped get Fritz's drums off the stage. 

Bret came out and played to a very receptive crowd. His band was really solid, the set was tight, and he did what he does very well. "Bret Michaels knows his crowd" was the thought that ran through my head as I watched the whole thing. Seriously, he knows how to work his crowd, which is a talent all its own. 

Overall, I had a LOT of fun playing. It was a big stage with a really good monitor mix. I always enjoy working with a professional crew and Bret's crew is very good. The JTs staff was helpful and accommodating. The crowd response was mixed, but the net result was positive. 

Big thanks go out to Jon "King" Stensland for really making this happen, JT Cigarro management and staff for being very flexible in working with us, the Bret Michaels crew for being super pros, and finally to Bret himself for letting us play in front of his crowd and for thanking us at the end of his set. 

Here's a little clip of "Beyond". Big PA meant big clipping on the camera with every kick hit.
http://youtu.be/gNVWfES-yfU

Red Lamb Recap

Last night was probably one of the shortest sets we've ever played, but it was a ridiculously fun show.

Reverence of Apostasy kicked off the evening with a short, intense set of metal. If death metal is your cup of tea, then these guys are definitely worth checking out.

We hit the stage for a half hour set. Now, we've been at this for some time through the years, and I can't remember ever playing a half hour set before. We're so used to trying to fill 2 hours that the notion of dropping songs just seems crazy. We managed to drop some stuff on the fly so that there would be sufficient time for Red Lamb to get rolling at 10:30.

Red Lamb were great., That's pretty much an understatement. Dan Spitz has put together a really strong touring lineup for that band, and I hope that a follow-up album to their debut features all of these guys. The Red Lamb material translated really well live, we were all front and center diggin' it. The Anthrax material that they did went over REALLY well. It was interesting to hear it with one guitar, but it really did work. I've always maintained that Danny Spitz has always been underrated as a player, and listening to him play from 5 feet away, I'm going to amend that by saying "tragically underrated". The guy's a monster.

Candy Machine Guns closed the show. At this point, my hearing was pretty well dying, but they sounded good to me. Really high energy modern hard rock/metal with some industrial influences. Lots of cool sound stuff happening with these guys. They're at the Legacy Ballroom next weekend (I think the 30th) so if you missed them this time around, check them out there.

One thing that makes shows like this so cool is when you get levels of camaraderie and mutual respect between nationals, touring acts, and local openers. Everybody at the show was cool and fun to hang out with - no ridiculous egos or anything like that. Our friends and fans were awesome as always. We always appreciate your support, and hope you have as much fun as we do.

On a final note, the whole point in Dan Spitz doing Red Lamb is to raise autism awareness. As I had mentioned in my previous post, he and his wife have idential twin sons with autism. For those who've never dealt with autism in any form, it's hard to really imagine the difficulties involved. One thing that he had mentioned is that the rate of children being born with or developing autism is still increasing. They're saying 1 in 50 at this point (they used to say 1 in 150). That's pretty scary, particularly when looking at what the future holds for people with very profound cases of it. My wife and I have dealt with some neurological issues with our son, (not autism, but that was one thing that the doctors were considering when he was about 2-3 years old). Something we sort of anecdotally noticed was that a huge amount of available data about autism and other neurological/communicative issues came from English universities. The USA needs to step up its game and start seriously funding research the way we fund research for other diseases, because at the rate things are going we're going to have a pretty massive health and human services issue in a couple of decades.