LNOYL

My body doesn’t want to change. It’s sabotaged me, and got it’s ducks in a row. If you align the right muscles, and twist them so a knot appears, then charlies your uncle if a nerve get’s caught up in the fray. Ha ha it says- your destined to record in a messy bedroom forever….

The messy bedroom phenomenon began to show its limitations a few years back. Basements and bedrooms formed the staple of our songwriting and recording environment. You don’t really see the clutter when the clutter is all you have to work in – but even more importantly, the state of the space is just not a priority when most of your effort is spent in just trying to get something started in the first place. Dareck and I spent a lot of time in Guelph a few years back, and that’s also when we got our first taste of multitrack recording. I was learning how to record, and Dareck had just found a way to translate his ideas into arrangements that flourished in this format. I’d go to school in the day, and sometimes Dareck would stay in the apartment, spending the day with congo drums, two mics, a guitar and bass to record. The big dejembe drum, when miced up from the bottom, served as the kick sound. Sometimes, when I got back from classes, Dareck would have this dazed look, and he wouldn’t have have too much to play back on the multitrack. He would just point to the “recording room” (the bedroom in disarray) with an exasperated look. Now that I’ve got my own place, it’s time for the messy bedroom/apartment/basement concept to be supplanted. My place is definitely better than the old basements and bedrooms, but it’s unnecessarily utilitarian. The kitchen cart on broken castors, which formed the hub of our music making system, wants to retire.

So all of January, I’ve just been feverishly working on the environment. My arm has fought back in the form of a squeezed out nerve, but no matter, it’s going to get finished. The process of massaging the equipment, colours and furnishings into a new state is akin to mixing music – much of the intended effect comes down to the arrangement, the focal point and intent. I’ve ripped out cubboards, painted out dark colours (dark things are readily found if you go looking for them – i don’t need them staring me in the face all the time), and refinished/upholstered the greatest of MCM thrifty finds. This weekend, I watched Dareck improvise and build a kitchen island in the same way he might write a song. In his new balance running shoes, dareck trudged up a country hill covered in 4 feet of snow, and we took some 30 year old barn boards from Jen’s old horse barn. We then bought some steel bars from gargantuan depot. Dareck brought his laptop and we streamed lots of music from spotify; but I just remember yoko ono. She’s still at it, which is impressive. While Yoko filled the garage, Dareck would take a piece of steel, or whatever, and would start working on it – if that tool didn’t yield the right result, he’d drop it instantaneously (they are rubber coated, and hence bounce off the floor), and grab the next one on the roster until he got the effect he was looking for. We had to stop a few times to move things when the sparks from the steel cutter bounced off a gas can, or into the electric heater. The nerve in my arm turned me useless – I was an ok clamp though – I just held onto stuff real tight.

Dareck cut the barn boards at the side of the road so it would fit in the toyota. People stopped to see if his car shut down. He said no, im cutting wood.