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Watching You Fall
Inspiration & History
Watching You Fall was the first song idea. In mid-1998 I was the lead guitarist in 2 bands, and was in a strange place musically. I was kinda unhappy in both of the bands I was in because I felt walled in creatively, and this was apparently a time when my creativity was ready to blossom. I was also working as a security guard at the time. While I was patrolling at Casa Dorinda Apartments, I wondered to myself, if I was to have a solo album, what would it sound like? I knew that for anyone to sit up and take notice, that you have to get their attention immediately. First impressions. This is especially true for record companies I know.
So I figured, the first song on this imaginary "Jake Skylyr Solo Album" would probably start with a quick string swell, and break into a heavy-ish riff, probably with some sort of odd time signature changes, and lead right into a mellower clean guitar part. Vocals would go there (if I could find someone to sing it) and the song would progress in "standard" fashion. The riff I hummed in my head as I was patolling pretty much transferred exactly to the song you hear today. Picking up my guitar and playing through this musical idea pretty much gave way to it's complete and current arrangement.
Technical Info
Since this was at a time when I had pretty much nothing in the way of recording equipment, the initial recording of this song is laughable. I am unsure as to if I even have a copy of the "Original" recording anywhere. If it turns up, I will make it available to listen to (and laugh at) somehow. It was recorded with the tape/cd/line input on my drum machine, a standard cassette recorder, and a walkman. I programmed the drums, and I plugged my guitar's line out into the drum machine's line in. I then hooked the drum machine's output into the front of my cassette recorder. I recorded the drums and me playing guitar along with it into the left cassette channel. I took that tape, put it in the walkman, hooked that into the drum machine's input, and again routed it into the cassette's left channel. I then overdubbed a bass track direct into the right channel as I recorded the guitar/drum track. The resulting track was poorly mixed, and of even poorer sound quality. However, this was the original Watching You Fall Demo. It started all of this and became the basis for all of the other demo tracks, and I still think it is one of my best pieces to date.
It was recorded a second time 12-11-98 with what was my recording process until I retrieved my 4-track from NJ. I borrowed my sister's Aiwa bookshelf stereo system that had a karaoke mic input. I would use 2 cassettes and layer sound on sound via the mic input. I would send the resulting mix into my MiniDisc recorder. Thus, beginning a long journey into digital audio.
The mix that made it to this CD was recorded on 11-24-99. It was recorded in my new apartment with what became a Jake trademark for this CD, the "silent" recording technique. To reinforce the silent-ness of it, this song was recorded at approximately 3am, while Connie was visiting from NJ. She was asleep in our living room on the couch maybe 12 feet away from where I was recording. All 4 tracks were recorded while she was asleep, and she was not once awoken by my recording. This was a necessity living in an apartment.
Rhythm & Lead Guitars:
Ibanez UV777BK into Mesa/Boogie Mark III with Rocktron Intellifex & Peavey AEQ 2800 in effects loop through 4 inch 1981 Toyota Corolla front kick panel paper cone speaker as a speaker cabinet, ultra close miking with Radio Shack 33-3002, wrapped in a blanket for silent recording.
Bass:
Steinberger through Korg A4 Bass processor
Drums:
Yamaha RY-10 through Rocktron Intellifex & Peavey AEQ 2800.
Recording:
Recorded and mixed onto Yamaha MT120S 4-track. Mixed to Sony MDS-JE320 for final mix. Transferred to PC and mixed and finalized with GoldWave.
-={E-Mail Jake}=-
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