There's nothing I love to do more than recording new songs that I've written and Terrace was a pretty exciting endeavour for me. I had just moved into Toronto and I wanted to try and record as much as I could in my apartment (except the drums of course). I've got a project studio that I've built up over the years with some good mics, good mic pre's and a mixing consul (interface) that I splurged and bought a few years back because I was all inspired by those 'Lonerism' Kevin Parker photos.
I bought a really nice Roland keyboard, the one from the cover of the EP, that I got after my Grandfather passed away and just before I started tracking. I definitely think of him whenever I play it. I would wake up early on weekends, throw headphones on and work on songs in silence and both 'Until Your Love Runs Out' and 'Precious Anymore' were written this way. Typically it takes me a while to finish lyrics but 'Precious Anymore' came together very quickly which is usually a pretty good sign and I'm really happy with how they came out. Both of those songs feel great live and have some lyrics in them that mean a lot to me.
All the guitar parts were done on either my Epiphone Casino through a Fender Princeton amp (which I got to try and sound like Ryan Adams) or my trusty Larrivee Acoustic. I used to play the odd party in college with that acoustic guitar and it still has jungle juice stains from a birthday party I played when I was 20. Every impromptu show would inevitably end in 'Twist and Shout'…every…..time. That song is just unstoppable when people are drinking! Oh the stories that guitar could tell.
After I tracked everything I could at the apartment I brought the gear back to Brampton and my brother, Mike, who has played drums with me for about 10 years now, laid down all the drum tracks over a couple of days. The only track that took a while was 'The Days and The Nights' and that was only because we were working on the drum part as we were recording it. Great playing though!
If you listen to John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band album you'll see where some of the drum sound inspirations came from. That Phil Spectre echo is something I've always loved when applied to vocals and drums.
I bought a really nice Roland keyboard, the one from the cover of the EP, that I got after my Grandfather passed away and just before I started tracking. I definitely think of him whenever I play it. I would wake up early on weekends, throw headphones on and work on songs in silence and both 'Until Your Love Runs Out' and 'Precious Anymore' were written this way. Typically it takes me a while to finish lyrics but 'Precious Anymore' came together very quickly which is usually a pretty good sign and I'm really happy with how they came out. Both of those songs feel great live and have some lyrics in them that mean a lot to me.
All the guitar parts were done on either my Epiphone Casino through a Fender Princeton amp (which I got to try and sound like Ryan Adams) or my trusty Larrivee Acoustic. I used to play the odd party in college with that acoustic guitar and it still has jungle juice stains from a birthday party I played when I was 20. Every impromptu show would inevitably end in 'Twist and Shout'…every…..time. That song is just unstoppable when people are drinking! Oh the stories that guitar could tell.
After I tracked everything I could at the apartment I brought the gear back to Brampton and my brother, Mike, who has played drums with me for about 10 years now, laid down all the drum tracks over a couple of days. The only track that took a while was 'The Days and The Nights' and that was only because we were working on the drum part as we were recording it. Great playing though!
If you listen to John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band album you'll see where some of the drum sound inspirations came from. That Phil Spectre echo is something I've always loved when applied to vocals and drums.