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Author Topic: The Utterly Weird Session Thread  (Read 26606 times)

RMoore

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Re: The Utterly Weird Session Thread
« Reply #45 on: March 02, 2005, 05:16:41 PM »

John Sorensen wrote on Wed, 02 March 2005 21:21

 I've got some other, better stories. Ask me about the band of cheese-heads who thought they were vampires that broke up in the studio before recording one note, followed by the lead singer having a nervous breakdown and curling up in a fetal position under the console. ....nevermind, that's most of the story right there...


Thats pretty funny - breaking up before playing the 1st note..
Must have been a bizarre  scene to witness..
Was it a Toronto band?
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People's Republic of Ryan

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By the end of today, another day is gone forever. You will never get it back.
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CCC

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Re: The Utterly Weird Session Thread
« Reply #46 on: March 02, 2005, 06:03:56 PM »

Ryan Moore wrote on Wed, 02 March 2005 22:16



Thats pretty funny - breaking up before playing the 1st note..
Must have been a bizarre  scene to witness..
Was it a Toronto band?


Hi Ryan,
No, not a Toronto band - but Canadian. They were unknown beyond their home city, so you wouldn't have heard of them.

The story in it's entirety is kind of funny, and although it sounds like it might be exaggerated it's not.

So anyway - I had meetings with the band, talked on the phone, been to gigs, etc...and read their press (which came in VERY handy in fact). The night before the session I even went to see them play live again, and the band appeared to be intact, if somewhat ghoulish looking.

The next day the singer/complete-lunatic shows up at the studio with a bass in hand - apparently in the 12 intervening hours the bassist had quit. Bad sign. The drummer was very late, and in the meantime the musicians who were there were squabbling, and it seemed like singer/complete-lunatic was having some extremely serious trouble connecting with reality. He kept talking about the fact that because he was omniscient (all knowing and all seeing) he had already seen the session in the future in his head and that it was good - this was supposed to be reassuring to all concerned. He had "willed" the session, had "willed" the drummer to show up, and because his "will" was so forceful it would all come to pass. There was some other stuff about how he had sent his spirit out of his body to look for the missing drummer and so on.

At first it was amusing, but after a great while it became pretty scary - moreso as the general intensity of his prophecies rose to a fever pitch - really rambling, wacko stuff. At this point in my musical career I'd not met people quite this crazy, and I started to get really, really nervous - I mean, you never know what someone like that is going to do. I kind of gripping the edge of the console for support (with sweaty hands) and wondering how the hell I was going to get out of the situation...they'd been with me in the control room for a couple of hours arguing with each other, waiting for the drummer, while the singer made alarming prophecies - and we hadn't even gotten around to getting sounds started or anything. Then crazy dude crawled under the console, curled up in a ball, and kind of rocked back and forth, which was pretty unnerving.

Then a solution came to me - and I gotta tell you - I am REALLY proud of this one. In the press I'd read and in conversations with the singer I'd noticed some of the goofy terms he used to describe his music, and so I conjured up a tremendous load of BS using the terms he was fond of using .... just kind of spoke his language and explained to him why it was probably best to call off the recording under the tense circumstances - and he BOUGHT IT. He stood up, picked up the bass, and walked out the door. The others apologized profusely - they thought they were vampires, but they had manners after all, and they shuffled out....and so ended the inauspicious career of the Canuck vampires.
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compasspnt

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Re: The Utterly Weird Session Thread
« Reply #47 on: March 02, 2005, 06:12:33 PM »

Well done John!  Baptism under fire!  That was a great introduction to....THE BAND!  

.....(not The Band w/ Robbie R, Garth, etc., of course!)

You mention that at that point you hadn't met people that crazy yet....
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RMoore

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Re: The Utterly Weird Session Thread
« Reply #48 on: March 02, 2005, 07:26:53 PM »

John Sorensen wrote on Thu, 03 March 2005 00:03

  they thought they were vampires, but they had manners after all, and they shuffled out....


Lol - great quote.

Sounds like a bizarre scene,

Bands - indeed.,  

Seems like quite the accomplishment they even got as far as the studio doors.

Lucky you didn;t keep your sword collection up on the walls - you never know!




BTW I am a Canuck in exile..
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People's Republic of Ryan

http://www.myspace.com/twilightcircus
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By the end of today, another day is gone forever. You will never get it back.
We must never let up for a second. Work harder at every single thing - Terry Manning

 You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take - Wayne Gretzky

compasspnt

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Re: The Utterly Weird Session Thread
« Reply #49 on: March 29, 2005, 12:30:38 AM »

Here's a funny one:

A number of years ago (won't say how many) I was working on an album (won't say which) for a very famous female singer (won't say who).  The session consisted of very long, hard days, and there were a lot of odd, story-worthy happenings.  But one in particular will never leave me...

This particular singer wanted to be VERY involved with EVERY tiny aspect of the recordings, and indeed that was the artist's right, I would say.  On one particular day, there was a well known session guitarist (won't say the name) who had come to play.  This very good player had his whole setup there, and was playing in the control room, seated, with his very large pedal board on the floor in front of him.  He had switched on the wah-wah pedal, not to vary it for the wah effect, but to use a static position for a particular tone.  The artist wasn't satisfied (never was) with the tone, so she actually jumped over in front of him, and began turning the knobs on his guitar, as he was playing and recording.  Of course, this is not done with session players (if with any player)!  But the guitarist soldiered on, not wanting to create any bad vibes...he just wanted to get the session over with!  As he played, she kept turning anything she could find on the guitar (even the volume knobs).  Finally, she began to tire a bit, so she knelt on the floor, and leaned her elbow on his right knee.  This created pressure downwards, and threatened to change the tone of the wah pedal by the movement.  This went on for quite a while, the artist turning knobs looking for "the" tone, and the guitarist trying with all his might to counteract the force of her weight on his knee, and hold the tone!  She started yelling over the music that the tone seemed to be changing in the wrong way...he continued to try to hold tight.  Finally, he couldn't take it anymore, and just screamed out, YOU'RE PUSHING ON MY LEG DAMMIT, AND CHANGING YOU ARE CHANGING THE WAH WAH PEDAL TONE!  THAT'S WHY THE TONE IS CHANGING!  He actually jumped up, and ran from the room.  The artist was merely frightened, not understanding.  They finally made up, though she never understood what had happened, and somehow the overdub was completed...

It was just one of only 105 guitar tracks which were kept on that particular song!
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adam_w

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Re: The Utterly Weird Session Thread
« Reply #50 on: March 29, 2005, 01:12:56 AM »

Well, this one's not as fun as some of you guys stories, but it is weird. I was scheduled to do a session and the band were REALLY late. HOURS late..Eventually they showed up, and I gave them a really hard time in my usual sarcastic manner only to be told..

"Our singer's dead. He OD'd last night"

At which point I felt about one inch tall.

We transferred the dead singers vocal off a casette portastudio onto the multitrack and did the tracks around the dead guys parts. It was one of the eeriest sessions I've ever done, part recording session, part wake.
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compasspnt

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Re: The Utterly Weird Session Thread
« Reply #51 on: March 29, 2005, 01:20:16 AM »

Wow, Adam.  Pretty gruesome.
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J.J. Blair

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Re: The Utterly Weird Session Thread
« Reply #52 on: March 29, 2005, 10:05:23 AM »

Hey, but like true pros, they showed up to record.  Wow.  I hope the record was a hit.
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