DanaPellerin.com » recording

This is How I Roll

Dana Pellerin — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 03:25:38 +0000

Alright! This is how I roll yo! Ten songs tracked in ONE DAY! Don’t mess with me or I’ll sock you in the face.

Seriously though, can’t wait for this album to hit the streets. Enjoy this sneak peek of the recording process.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Recording a New Album: Day 1!

Dana Pellerin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:45:00 +0000

Some time ago Paul Haugen and I, along with several other musicians started fleshing out songs for an album Paul had envisioned. It’s a long process to write an album. Just the scheduling of musicians alone is enough to kill a project. Add in musical and personality differences and you can begin to see why so many musical projects fail. Our project started out really well and the creativity was awesome, but after many months of jamming, we had really only fleshed out a few songs. The process was just taking too long. So Paul decided to shrink the group down to a few key songwriters to get a dozen or so songs written that could then be fleshed out and recorded at a later date.

That date has arrived.

During the past few weeks my old friend Chris “Mouse” Chmielewski and I have joined Paul and the immensely talented Tim and Jill Douty to rehearse the 13 songs that came out of those songwriting sessions. That list was then pared down to 10 songs and yesterday we entered the studio to lay down the first tracks on the new album from our group, The Avenue.

Recording in the studio is an interesting experience. I’ve done it only twice before so I don’t have a huge amount of experience, but I can say without a doubt that this time around has been so easy compared to the first two. The first time through, I was working with guys who are very talented but also very particular. Nothing wrong with that at all, but for my personality and playing type, it makes the process more stressful. The second album I played on I was responsible for playing drums as well as recording and mixing down the album. I’m not an engineer so this was a huge learning experience for me as well as a ton more work. This time around I just got to go in and play drums and working with such a bunch of really laid back guys made the process so easy. We all exchanged ideas, gave suggestions and then let the drums just “happen”. I think the end result is a set of simple, solid, very natural feeling drum tracks.

So my tracks are done. 8 hours to lay down 11 songs (we recorded an extra song before realizing it was on the “cut” list). Not too shabby if I do say so myself. On Wednesday we go back in with Chris to lay down the bass. Then we’ll progress on from there. If all goes well we should have a finished product by May. I’m really stoked about this album and I think it’s going to be a first class product. I’ll be posting here as we continue to make progress.

In The Studio

Dana Pellerin — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:01:59 +0000

Paul and I hung out tonight and laid down some scratch tracks on a new song he’s written. We took the opportunity to record some of the session just to share some of the creative process with you. Basically how it works is that Paul writes a song, then he comes over and we lay down a really rough version with just guitar and vocals. Then we make CD’s and Paul gives it to a few people to help flesh out the song. This is a brief view of that first creative step.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rock 'n' Roll, Dude.

Dana Pellerin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:41:05 +0000

A few weeks ago Pauly Boy called me up and said he had a song fleshed out and wanted to work with me to finish arranging it and then bring the other guys in (Frankie Fingers, Dougie Fresh, and Fish) to record it. Tonight we finished up the majority of the work and will be mixing down a demo version of it so the rest of the band can learn it. They are going to be playing it at church on Good Friday.

I gotta say that I love the creative process. Hearing a song in rough form, and then having ideas rush out of your head so fast you can’t communicate them quickly enough. I love hearing a song take shape, solidify, and then grow so powerful that it makes you shudder, and maybe even brings a tear to your eye. Bob (SOS) and I could write a song every single time we sat down together. This is the joy of making music.

It’s also incredible to work with guys who are just so good at what they do. Being the guy that runs the recording gear, you kind of have to play director, pushing guys to give you what you need to realize the sound you’re looking for. This can cause friction with creative people, so at the same time you have to respect the skills they have. It’s really kind of a dance you do between leadership and servitude. But I’ll tell you… when a guy comes in and just feels the vibe, and knows instinctively what the song is looking for, and then belts it out… it’s impressive to watch.

Anyway, it’s been a TON of fun recording this week. I’m going to twist Paul’s arm and see if I can get his permission to post the song here when it’s done. I’m pretty stoked about it.