Where are you
Now this is a song Bill and I recorded 25 years ago - on 2 inch tape… But never released. This is all brand new cut in our new Rolling Blackout Music Co studio in Feb - we ran it till we had the cut!. Where are you is one of Bills that we cycle in and out of standard rotation, but it is especially good for 2 guitars - where we can work different inversions. Bill probably that tape in his garage somewhere - with Ernie Taira and Bill's brother Dan on kit. But it wasn't anywhere near as tight as this cut - and releasing music / studio time was a different game back then. Anyway the song is a sneaky one with time - 6 to open, 2 bars of 5, 2 bars of 7 and into an upstroke 4 with the chromatic slide. It's so easy to mess up. It took Erick a long time to get comfortable with it - and again with John added we had to come up with low-high string variations. It let me stretch to focus on the mid-higher tones and flash riffs and John the chugmaster owned the low crunch. The song came out great and we always love the gratuitous endings. We all had a hoot recording the vocals But when I went to mix - I kept Bill’s 2-3 tracks and my backing – John and Erick I made into a crazy effect at the end. Heavy faster songs ironically seem easier to play and sound good but mixing is brutal. I always find the dense tones tough to balance - hard to right - there is so much natural compression in those filthy guitars right out of the gate, so much of all sounds that it’s harder to find space in the field of sound. For this my callout was focusing on those transitional pick slides – and getting the inside out mix where the pick slide travels to the outside of the stereo field to meet the crunchy rhythm. I definitely trained my ear on the the master Tom Scholz – this song was tone of finished early but I mixed probalbly had 3 overhauls and almost minor mix version. It took for ever and I wanted to get it done for Bill's birthday - finally got it gthe spot right when I was ready throw in the mix towel! I learned a lot mixing this one.