She was about to go to med school to become a doctor, and since she knew she'd have to basically give up her music career, she wanted to get her tunes onto a record while she was still playing, which was a great idea. The recording process went smoothly once I came up with a solution to a very serious problem, but it wasn't so at first. In fact I about reached my breaking point and nearly bailed on the project, but necessity is the mother of invention.
Amy had a bad case of what I call "Chick Singer Syndrome," or CSS. It's fairly common. The deal is that most female singers kinda follow the same program. They'll book a gig at a club somewhere. Their friends will come out and they'll have some drinks and they'll get to show off their talent and everybody has a good time. The thing is that most of the time they only play by themselves, and they have no experience playing with a band. It's not a big deal unless they start playing with a band, or in this case recording with one. She decided that she wanted to do her songs with a rhythm section. She was friends with my friend Shea's girlfriend, so she got him to play bass. He's a monster bass player. He asked me to handle the percussion and we got our friend Randy to engineer. She played the songs for us and we arranged them to fit the band format.
The problem was that since she'd never had experience playing with a rhythm section, she didn't know anything about things like keeping the tempo steady, dynamics and just playing with other people- the give-and-take of it all. Of course those things aren't an issue playing by yourself. There's no need to be concerned with locking in with the other musicians, and that's cool. A little ebb and flow in the tempo is perfectly okay anyway, even with a band, but in Amy's case it was rather drastic. She equated tempo with excitement and emotion. It's human nature to get excited and want to speed up, but especially on a recording you need to keep the tempo reasonably steady. We'd already decided not to use a click track (metronome) on most of the songs anyway, and we'd hoped she'd follow us and keep it steady, but it was a nightmare at first.
She didn't see a problem with playing the chorus three times faster than the verses, but that's a real no-no. Again it's okay to speed the chorus up a bit here and there, but when it's that drastic it pretty much becomes a different song if the tempo triples. It wasn't that she was selfish or anything but she wasn't used to the rhythm section setting the tempo, and she wasn't used to having to listen to anyone but herself, and it quickly became an issue. We tried everything. We tried using a click but that freaked her out. It wasn't like she was saying "Fuck you...these are my songs" or anything like that, but she just wasn't used to having to listen to and follow other people.
It went on for hours and hours over the first two sessions. After trying to record for at least ten hours we didn't have a single song in the can. I'd about reached my limit and none of us had a clue what to do. I remember near the end of the second day I was so upset that I actually went outside and threw up. I love the recording studio but I was regretting signing on for the project. I didn't want to disappoint Amy or the other guys, but I finally went up to her and said "Amy, I'm really sorry but I just can't put my name on this project. You'll have to get someone else." "Please don't go" she pleaded. "I don't want anyone but you on my record." I didn't want to leave but I couldn't see it happening. "Okay, I'll sleep on it" I said.
We were all bummed but I couldn't record under those circumstances. For better or worse tempo is the responsibility of the drummer, and no matter who's at fault the drummer is blamed if the tempo changes too noticeably. Bless her heart she was really trying to work with us but she just didn't have the experience of listening to other people and letting them control the tempo, and it's not something you can take a crash course in. The songs would start out fine but gradually she'd speed up, and by the time we got to the chorus it was like a runaway train.
Then I came up with a solution that I thought would work but she didn't like it. I'd say "Amy, since we know the song is eventually going to be this fast by the time it gets to the chorus, let's just start the song at that tempo and it'll be cool." But she wouldn't have it. "That's not how fast the song is" she'd say. "But it's how fast the song is going to end up" I'd reply. "Let's just start there." I tried to explain to her that it was no problem if the song sped up a bit during the chorus, but not triple-time. I told her that it wasn't an issue when she was playing by herself, but if she was going to record these songs for posterity, if they all sped up drastically it'd ruin the songs and make us all look bad, but she wanted to do it her way.
I was literally about to thank everyone and respectfully split, but then, thank God, inspiration struck. I had to stifle a grin because my solution was pretty belligerent. I knew she wasn't going to like it but I also knew that it was the only way we'd get the songs to tape, at least with me on drums. I went a grabbed a towel and handed it to her. "Here" I said. "Stuff this between the fretboard and the strings." "WHAT? No WAY!" she protested. "I know it sounds bad, but trust me" I said. "I think you'll be pleased with the end result, and that's what counts. Otherwise we've wasted two days in the studio. Let's just try it. We'll do a scratch vocal and then you can overdub your vocals and the guitar." To her credit she agreed. She didn't want to lose me as her drummer, and she was able to see the big picture. I think that was a revelation for her. "Okay" she said. "Thanks Ames" I said, and gave her a big hug. "I think you'll dig it."
From that point forward it was smooth as silk. Shea and I ignored the "clicky-click" of her guitar and kept the tempo even. It took a few tries before she got comfortable with it but after that she was fine. We knocked the songs out in two or three more sessions. In the long run it was a great learning experience for her, and if she ever happens to do another record it'll go much more smoothly. A good thing happened for Amy D that day- she learned to listen, and that's huge. And I quit throwing up.
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