I just finished my first two days recording. I went old school and booked Henson Studios, which used to be A&M, which used to be Charlie Chaplin’s studio – you can actually see the little tramp's shoe prints. The room we recorded in was where Joni did Blue and Carole King did Tapestry – oh, and I can’t forget the last Poison record. It has such an amazing vibe –and I don’t use the word “vibe” much. The big studios are a dying breed – they are so expensive and everyone has their own home studio these days. So why am I here? I got a really really good deal, since this is where Don works. The best part of working with Don Was are the stories. While setting up, or in between takes, I get to hear funny stories about Willy and Waylon, the Stones, etc. – ones I can’t repeat – unless you get me drunk one night after a show. The first day we recorded 6 songs with just the vocals, guitar and click. The idea is to include, in “Jill’s Next Record,” the audio files, so anyone can play, sing, mix and produce the songs on their GarageBand or Pro Tools. I am thinking of giving $500 to whomever comes up with the best re-mix of each song.Doing it this way also gave us an idea of how we want to proceed. Maybe we should build the songs up like this, as opposed to starting with a band. It sounded very intimate. By the way, we did Bobby Gentry, Mexican Pharmacy, San Francisco, Eight Years, Empty Glass, and Perry Street.The second day, we did use my band (Eban, Dave, Geoff, and Brian). We laid down tracks for Wendell Lee and Palm Springs.There was a lot of activity going on at Henson’s that day. I wondered what all of the scurrying was about. Well, Dolly Parton was there with... the American Idol contestants. Now, I am happy to admit that I have never seen an American Idol show – not even once. So when I walked the highly security guarded hallway, to use the bathroom (or really see what the fuss was about), a nice cute fellow with an Australian accent came up to me and said he once saw a show of mine in Atlanta and was a fan. I asked him if he wanted to come to Studio B (where we were). He was about to follow me, when this big mean security man told him that he wasn’t allowed to leave his eyesight – it was the same man who told me to put away my camera. It turns out that Australian was, I guess, one of the big Idol favorites ...and a prisoner.I have a good friend who is wild about Dolly – she has her picture (circa 78) tattooed on her arm. I texted her to come over.So we had two successful and action filled days. I can’t wait to come back. The bummer is that Don found out that he has to take care of some family matters in April, so we are continuing mid-May. In the meantime, I will do some live tracks and maybe write more songs.If any of you are in LA then, maybe you can see the studio. I’ll show you were Chaplin walked.Here’s a little movie I made on the second day in the studio. Sorry about the shaky camera: |
