Making Wildcat Creek

January 29, 2012 — chapel hill, jay manley, north carolina, recording, the good graces

A few weekends ago, I traveled to Chapel Hill, NC, to record the new The Good Graces EP with my friend Jay Manley. I had been meaning to blog about the experience since, and finally found some time. This is long and self-indulgent, and kinda all over the place. So go ahead and bounce if you want; it won’t hurt my feelings one bit.

I had recorded my first record, Sunset Over Saxapahaw, with Jay, and it was such a wonderful experience. That was several years ago, and I was still learning the basics of songwriting and playing guitar. Not that I’m not still learning those things. But I do feel like I have a better understanding of them now.

Some background first. I LOVE recording. Almost as much as I love songwriting. Performing live is another story. I still get stage jitters, I still hate feeling like I’m bothering people about coming to see me (but also hate dealing with poor attendance, kinda stupid I know); I always feel like what’s in my head is just hard to transfer into that live performance. I think that’s why it’s really important for me to write and record new songs as much as I’m able. To me, that’s the fun part. Creating something from scratch and then hearing how it ends up, especially when it DOES match what you first heard in your head, is pretty awesome.

So anyway, after my silly “retirement” from music and then my “come back” a year later, which I won’t rehash again, I’ve been experiencing quite a deluge as far as songwriting goes. So I’ve been excited to document these songs, as I feel like the break really did me some good and that my songwriting improved as a result of it.

I arrived at Jay and Jane’s house Saturday afternoon. After a little catching up, we got started. I could almost immediately tell the difference in their new set up. When I recorded Sunset… they lived in an old farm house in the country. The atmosphere was PERFECT and I was wondering if we could still get that feeling at their new house. Well their new digs are AMAZING. It still has that country feel; in fact, their backyard is basically woods and while we were recording we saw several deer. I’m sure my reaction to that was pretty funny, snapping picture after picture, but hey I just don’t get to see that in Atlanta.

Deer! In the backyard!!!

The really cool thing about their new place though is that it’s “country,” but upgraded. The room where they have their drums set up — Oh. My. Gato. A tall cathedral ceiling makes the drums sound unreal. So of course I knew I’d have to do some drumming on this record. I hadn’t played in about 7 months or so; I don’t even know where my sticks are! But yeah, it was like riding a bicycle. And I got to hit pretty hard, which I love to do. A good drum sound is really critical, in my opinion, to your recording sounding good. That and vocals. Get those two things in place and chances are your recording is going to sound great. I like to think that for this record, those two things are really on point. Yay, Jay!

This is Jay's guitar. It has like 21 strings or something, and sounds like bass and acoustic and electric at the same time. !!!

Another thing about going to NC. I grew up there, and it’s still like home to me. There’s also something about it that really inspires me. I named my first record after the area where we recorded, and while I was there this time, I decided to do the same. Jay and Jane live off a road called “Wildcat Creek,” which we’d take whenever we’d leave to go get a bite to eat or whatever. I liked the way “Wildcat Creek” sounded, and it just seems to fit this collection of songs, so while I was there I decided that was it, that would be the name of this EP.

I just like this. It was on the cushion of the bench at their bay window, where I'd sit and watch deer while Jay worked his magic.

We worked all day Saturday and got back at it Sunday morning. Sunday was a recording marathon. We must have spent 15 hours on it. It was exhausting, but also exhilarating. I loved the feeling of really immersing myself into the project; especially with my ADD brain, I find it hard to focus on something for hours at a time but it feels awesome when I’m able to. I’ve never been on a retreat, but I liken it to one, simply because it’s so singularly-focused, and afterwards you really feel like you’ve cleansed your brain or something. Not to mention the sense of accomplishment you get from just really focusing on one thing and nothing else, and putting your everything into it. There’s one song in particular that we spent most of Sunday afternoon on. It was totally a last-minute edition to the EP, but I am so thrilled that we chose to record it. I’ve read interviews with musicians who talk about writing or recording a particular song, and just getting that “feeling” that they’ve done something great. Well in all my years of doing this music thing, I don’t think I’ve ever really had that feeling. Until that Sunday with Jay. We had been working on little bits and pieces of this particular song for hours, recording a little bit and then listening back to it, but not really listening to the entire song altogether until we were done. Once we did, it seemed like we both heard it. We both just sort of lit up and smiled at each other. I kinda couldn’t even believe it was me. It’s weeks later, but I’m still appreciating all the hard work we put into that song. And the really cool part is, for every single thing I’ve ever recorded, when I’d go back and listen to it later I’d always pick out the little mistakes. I’d always listen to it sort of critically rather than just enjoying it. But with this song, I actually listen to it just like I listen to another band or song I love. I just listen. And I smile. I can’t wait for you to hear it.

There's a song on the EP called "Blacklight." This is not one, but it reminds me of it. This was taken at the Standard, where we went late on Sunday night when we needed a break.