Day 54-59: On The Home Stretch

Right now I'm eating Alphegete and drinking Pepsi (sorry Sarah) - that's mostly what I've been doing here for the last few days. That and taking photos around the studio. We've been working on a lot of Rob's guitar parts for the last few days, which means I haven't been playing that much. I did play 2 verses yesterday though. It was pretty easy. Didn't even have to play full chords.
Besides that Tim has been showing me how to use Pro Tools a bit - that's the program that we're recording the album on. It's pretty fun and good experience for when I'm a big time record producer living in Hollywood, producing big stars like Paris Hilton and Lil' Bow Wow. The most that I got to use it was today. Tim needed a little break because he was working overtime last night (he really wanted to read his new Harry Potter book) so I got to push the buttons and say things to Rob like, "That was horrible!...What is this?! 1st grade band class?! Naw, you in a rock'n'roll band now son...So shape up! We've got gold records to make!" That might not have been the exact phrasing, but it was definately something along those lines.
We had Saturday and Sunday off, a nice break for sure. Sunday I went downtown to catch a service at this church called Sanctuary - it's a church off of Young Street that has a good number of street people coming out regularly. It's pretty choice. I first heard about the church in a book I read called "God in the Alley". The book was written by the pastor of the church, Greg (something). The book was really good, and when I heard that it was based on a church here in Toronto I figured I should check it out. I went for the morning service, which doesn't exist - only a night service at 5pm. I went to the Meeting House instead, then chapters for a few hours where I checked out a few radical books, then saw Brandon (the intern here at the Hive), he told me was going over to the Bloor square to do some break dancing with his buddies. He is actually really amazing at it. He has some videos on youtube. Anyways. after hanging out at the square for a bit I walked down to Sanctuary just in time for the service. As I was getting closer I noticed that I was walking behind a middle aged man carrying a case of pop. In my head, for some reason I thought, maybe this guy is the pastor, the guy who wrote the book...as we got closer I noticed he turned into the church. "Is there a service in here?" I asked. "Yeah in a few minutes," he said..."My name's Greg," he held his hand out for a shake. "Are you the pastor?" i replied reaching for his hand, "Yeah I am," he said..."You wrote the book!!" I said with a smile, "Ahh get out of here," he said with a laugh and turned into the sanctuary. (That part was supposed to read like a story because I imagined writing it in my head that way.) When I actually stepped into the Sanctuary it was amazing in itself. It felt totally comfortable and safe. No one judging or watching, even though the make-up of the crowd might have seemed like an easy target. Instead, everyone said hello to one another while a real sense of family brightened the room. It kind of reminded me of our LIFE services back at St.FX. It was great. The service was awesome too...a real blusey worship set (great musicians) and the baptism of two new christian girls. It was amazing to see everyone crowd around them and cheer as they came out of the water. I may have shed a little tear but in fear of looking like a dweeb I set my thoughts on something less moving, like Rob standing in his boxers (since I have been seeing a lot of that lately). I talked with the band members afterwards, who were really nice, and told them that I'd be back the next time we were in Toronto.
Now back to the present...1:03AM Monday night - recording guitars through an old organ speaker for a song called Revolution. We're about to do a few final takes for the night before catching the bus back to Marjori's where we will then pack our stuff, sleep for a few hours, then get up and drive back to God's country...Antigonish! Hallelujah.
Overall the 2nd phase of the recording process was a lot of work, a lot of hours, and a lot of good laughs with Tim. I think the ratio of laughs to tracks being recorded is something like 34:1, if my calculations were right I mean. I may have mixed up the perpendicular modulation theorum of the 2nd verdabray capsul in the time/space continuum.
I hope everyone enjoyed the blogs...I know I slacked off a bit near the end but when you hear all of the sweet guitar sounds on the new album you will then begin to understand how all my time was being spent! I'm loving it so far.
Stay tuned for the blog of the next recording phase...probably in September. Keep rockin' behs!
Blessings,

Jordan