The making of an album (or CD for those too young to know what an album is)

Wow. I’m a song or two from being done with my latest CD. It’ll be the first solo CD I have ever done. Yeah it’s a vanity CD. An unwanted and unasked for CD. No one has ever came to me and said “Sammy I want you to put out another album.” Well you got it anyway. It’s coming along great and I’m excited to see the finished project but I have a way to go before I get there.

You might think making a CD is as simple as walking in with a band and bashing out some tunes and then sending them to the CD printer. But it’s nothing like that at all. It’s a little tedious at times but most the time it’s fun tossing ideas around, listening to a song that you created that day and that wasn’t here yesterday. It’s like magic. Here’s how you do it, or how I do it.

Step 1. Decide to make an album. It’s not as easy as it sounds. You have to be ready to give up a lot of your time, plus be inspired, plus a focus on the type of CD you want to make. Can you afford it? Will your family or girlfriend be angry when you are in the studio… Can you sell it? Do you even want to sell it?

Step 2. I usually have a few songs or pieces of songs I’ve worked on and forgotten. A chorus here, a line or two there, some chord changes. I write best under pressure. When I walk into the studio I do have an idea of the type of album I want to make. I’m a roots rock guy so the instruments I use mostly are guitars, bass, both electric and upright, acoustic drums, Organs, and pianos. I’m lucky enough to know plenty of musicians so if there is something extra like banjo or Dobro, I know the guys to call. This time I had a title for the album already “The Monkey Speaks His Mind” the blog was named after it. The title is from an old New Orleans talking blues. I’ve always loved it and the story it tells. My version is recorded and one of the first songs finished for the CD.

step 3. The studio. I’ll go in with about 4 or 5 songs and a bunch of covers (other people’s songs I’d like to redo.) During my time there I write more and replace the cover songs with original compositions. I’ve worked with Both Jon Clarkson and George Ozier on albums. They are both great in their own ways. Jon is a perfectionist. He’ll spend hours getting the sounds he wants trying different microphones and placing them in different spots to get different sounds. George on the other hand works quickly. Set up your amp dial in a  good tone and get to playing. Both have their pros and cons. Sometimes taking too long to get set up takes away from the enthusiasm of laying down a part, sometimes the sound actually inspires you.

Since I don’t have a band in the studio, I’ll bring my songs to George. Play them, work out the parts if needed and then we go in to the keyboard and record a “sync track” its a drum track that simply repeats at a certain speed. A person naturally speeds up and slows down while playing. You’ll never notice it but when you are trying to put another part on and the tempo is off, you will be too. Drum track down, I’ll play the guitar over it with my arrangement of the song. Intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus….out. That how a commercial song is put together. I use it a lot, but not always. Mixing it up can make for some interesting results. Take a look at Stairway to Heaven by Zeppelin. It speeds up, there is no chorus. It’s the most requested song on classic rock radio and it doesn’t follow the commercial pattern at all. Weird. After that I usually lay down a bass part. Not all of these tracks are always kept. Sometimes a different part is called for so you redo it.

Rarely do you play a song all the way through without making a mistake. Onstage you’d never notice a bum note here or there or a chord not fretted correctly. In the studio all these things stand out and if you don’t fix them you spend the rest of your life wishing you would have taken the time to fix it. So we play the parts as many times as it takes to get it right. Sometimes we’ll record two or three different parts and chose from them. If you play a good take but there is a mistake in it we “punch in” or just record the messed up part. Sometimes we add the vocals or a scratch vocal to the song just to get an idea of what it’s going to sound like. the melody and tone. We usually end up rerecording that later. Then I take the finished backing tracks home.

Step 4. Brainstorming. After I get the backing tracks I listen to it over and over trying to decide what instruments to use, arrangements of the instruments, changes to the song, effects you want to use.Vocal backups arranged or at least written. Changes to the words, and melody. This is where you get to be creative.

Step 5. Laying down the rest of the song. I’ll go in play guitars, bass, maybe a little keyboard, while describing what I’m going for to the recording engineer. In this case its George. We’ll argue over instruments, me wanting to add everything plus the kitchen sink and him wanting it to sound naked. We usually compromise and the outcome either blows us away or we remove it. George played a lot of guitar on this CD and tons of keys. I’m not a keyboard player but I can play a little George on the other hand plays well and why should I play crappy when he can do it. I do the same for him on bass quite a bit, and sometimes guitar. Then you spend the rest of the time lining up who you need to finish your track. Book a drummer. Female backups, call the girls. Horns? Call the horn players and schedule them. The list can go on and on. No wonder it takes a year to make an album of 3 minute songs.

Step 6. Finishing the song. At a certain point, to me at least anyway. A song just sounds done. You listen to it over and over. Sometimes it needs something else. You don’t know what but it just seems not finished. Try a harmonica, mandolin, keyboard, percussion…etc. Till its finished.

Step 7. Repeat steps 2-6 until you have enough songs to fill an album. If I had a band that I played these songs with a lot I could probably make the CD in about two weeks. I don’t and prefer to make this using the musicians I want for the parts.  So it takes some time.

Step 8. Mixing. So I have all the parts of the song I want recorded now we have to blend them together, put effects and EQ’s on things to make them thicker, or less pronounced, louder, quieter. It’s a tedious process that I hate and usually leave to someone else. Jon Clarkson of X-Krush will be mixing my CD. He can also change the entire sound of the song. His main purpose is to make it sound good with all the parts where they need to be. A simple example of this is Van Halen 1. The bass comes out of the left speaker the guitar out of the right, the singer and the drums come out of both. Play with your pan button on your car and you’ll see how they place the instruments  where they are.

Step 9. Mastering. After listening to mixes you have probably listened to the same batch of songs at least 1000 times by now. Your kind of sick of them, you lose perspective. Are they any good? Will people like them? Are they the greatest songs ever written? If your like me you float back and forth between loving and hating it. You play rough mixes (quickly mixed versions) for those you trust to tell you the truth or your musician buddies and get an idea of what they like and what they don’t. Sometimes I follow their advice and sometimes My favorite parts are others least favorites. There is no right or wrong, just opinions.

The entire group of songs are then mastered. They are put together in the order you want, made to sound like they were all recorded together to give it a consistant flow. Placing the songs with the standard 2 seconds between them, and getting the CD as loud as you can without it distorting. Its kind of like smoothing out cement. The songs are put into the truck, the truck spins and mixes them together so the become concrete, and then its dumped into where ever you want. Mastering is the smoothing out of the cement. Making it look like one piece of sidewalk.

Step 10. Art work. I’m a graphic artist and do a lot of CD covers so doing my own is fine with me. I don’t have to check with anyone, just play with it till I like it. Making liner notes, thank you’s, giving credit to the writers and musicians who played on your CD. I usually do this while it’s being mixed and mastered which can take a month or so after the CD is “in the can.”

Step 11. Proof. Is everything how you want it, songs in the right order, does it sound good on your home stereo, car, or huge sound system? Hopefully yes to all of them. Are names spelled right? Did you forget someone important? (Like thanking Kelly.) If you mess it up now you’re gonna be living with it for the rest of your life.

Step 12. Having it printed. Send the artwork and cd to the printers. They’ll in turn make it into the CD, package it, Bar code, shrink-wrap it, and then send it to you. That’s one long week. Even scarier when you have 1000 Cd’s setting in your living room and you wonder how in the hell you are gonna sell em.

Step 13. Promote the CD. Sell the damn thing, get reviews, play it out, get it on the radio, get it to bigger companies who may be interested in picking it up and selling it or signing you to make another CD for them. Lets not forget by the first time anyone hears it, you have listened to it a million times. I usually listen to the entire thing when I get it and never play it again for about 6 months. All the while you have to be excited about it, talk about it, and sell it. Don’t put out another one too soon or it’ll stop the sale of the current one.

By this time you get what is known as “Finished Album Blues” you work so hard to get it done then all of a sudden your done. No running to the studio, no fighting with George or Jon, no decisions, just time on your hands that you haven’t had for a year. You start thinking about your next CD… Start all over at step 1.

I had a ball making “Love Is” that Becca and I put out under  Becca Kaid, (her stage name) I co-wrote most the CD and played on it. Mixed it with Jon Clarkson and also produced it with Jon. We had fun writing the songs, recording and touring with it. Becca and I put out a good CD with two minor hits in Europe on it. We hit #99 and #64 on the top 100 songs there. Sure they fell right off but damn it Becca and I broke the top 100 twice. More than I could ever have imagined. Sold all the CD’s too!

I did three CD’s with Dr Wu. Our EP “Fingerpoppin” Worst cover ever. Do You “Wanna play Doctor?” Which was released after I left the band but I was the guitarist on all the stuff, and “Dr Wu Live at the Mark Cornell benefit” Not an album I’m especially proud of but it is a picture of the night. George is too drunk, but thankfully Becca, Pat and Mark sang songs on there and saved the day. Mark put out all three Cd’s and I haven’t seen a dime from any of them. LOL! Oh well I wasn’t expecting to.

My cd has some wonderful cuts I think

“Fireball 8″ is about my old 49 Buick and after George tweaked the lyrics it’s now about my 49 Buick and his penis. I get to play with Garrie Carlen on guitar. A musical mentor, and great friend and guitarist. Dueling master and student…Garrie is still the master.

“Come On Katie” a love song to Katie that never worked. She loved the song. I rarely tell anyone who my songs are for but Katie deals with depression like me and I thought it might make her feel good to know someone thought enough of her to write a song about her.

“Lookin’ For Trouble” just rocks.

“Howl at the Moon” Some girls with long legs just make you wanna howl at the moon!

“Lola” is my latest and my favorite so far. Teddy Pedergrass eat your heart out!

Plus about 8 or 9 more. They all mean something to me. I hope they strike a chord with you too. It’s a happy CD. I bitch a lot on my blog to release frustrations but I am happy. I refuse to put out a negative album. Like a bad tattoo it’ll follow you for life. I want a happy record to celebrate love, love lost, love never gained, monkies, cars, and even George’s penis. Celebrate my friends and make you smile when ever you pop it in.

Thanks for listening

Sammy and the Snake Charmer’s Union (that’s my band name)

Here is Steve Earle and the Pogues recording “Johnny Come Lately” They are doing it live as a band. I do it the same just one instrument at a time. Oh yeah listen to as much Steve Earle as you can!

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