Last Relapse finishes our studio EP

I recently had my first experience as a recording artist with my band Last Relapse as we put together our first studio EP at Bedside Studios. We were taken under the wing of the chief music producer and owner Len Milne. He impressed us with his Juno nominations, wall of Western Canadian Music Awards and the several Perpetrators albums he produced.

The project began with Len coming down to our practice studio spot for a pre-production session and we decided which of our original songs would best fit the EP. Now that I look back on it, this was the moment when our songs were the most raw and this is when Len started carving away at the big piece of raw songwriting we dropped on his doorstep. Our goal with the EP is to achieve radio playability while still maintaining our songwriting integrity and heavy sound: this required some musical carving and shaping...

I am sharing this experience because I felt that co-producing and playing guitar on a professional record has significantly challenged and improved me as a musician and as a person. Different stages of the process were humbling as we dissected some technical guitar parts under the microscope and some parts were celebratory as we pieced the 7 odd guitar tracks (played on 3 different guitar models) and the pieces fit perfectly like puzzle. The experience has made me realize that I want to hone my craft as a songwriter for my entire lifetime; it is the greatest sense of satisfaction I have ever felt to play my ass off and nail a track when recording.

I have worked with a couple studio engineers with previous bands, but never a record producer. The big difference is that the producer crafts the arrangement of the songs as well as the technical studio wizardry. I could see how many songwriters could feel this process to be intrusive and difficult, but I was fortunate to have the same vision for this record as our producer and we both supported each-others suggestions. Listening to Lens advice was incredible training for my critical ear and he helped me extensively to listen for a song and not just my instrument. The process was difficult at times when we were discussing how to make the radio friendly four minute mark on our main radio single Miss Misunderstood when the song was written by us to be 5:15 mins. With Lens expert advice we were able to merge the pre-choruses and choruses making one technical but deliciously condensed main chorus that is much more progressive. After cutting and chopping our radio single we moved on to the others to perform surgery by simplifying and combining some of the technical drum and guitar parts.

Len expressed it well when he said that basically he was baking a layer cake with our song lol as a very proper metaphor for tightening up each layer of from the recorded instruments and merging them together in the mix.

I wanted the record to be stamped with my home town in some way so we used Garnett Amplification and Kel Audio microphones: all famous Winnipeg manufacturers. We just finished tracking the last guitar and vocal harmonies last night and I cant wait to hear the mixed product this Wednesday.