Abandoned pools + Tommy Walter + the School of Music

TW06

AP6 Update

More work in progress for the 6th album. Like other previews, the track you’re hearing is just a mockup. The strings aren't real, but a full string orchestra will be recorded for the final version.

Late pledges are still available if you want to support the album on Kickstarter. Click here to contribute.

How the Song Was Made: The Remedy

The idea that you have to be in a “real” studio to make quality recordings definitely has merit, but there are definitely times when that’s not the case.

Take, for example, my most successful song—the one that put Abandoned Pools on the map—“The Remedy.”

The Humanistic album was recorded at Q Division Studios in Boston with masterful producers Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade in the spring of 2001. I had made a demo of the song (available here) that was pretty well fleshed out—all the parts were written, and the arrangement was set. We were essentially doing a track-by-track replacement of the demo with much better-recorded individual instruments: vocals, guitars, bass—and most importantly, we had a real drummer play on the album.

Not just any drummer, but Josh Freese. If you don't know the name, he’s one of the most in-demand drummers around. He’s played with Foo Fighters, A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails—and probably secretly played drums on your favorite band’s hit song. I had seen him back in ’97 on the Lollapalooza tour with DEVO, when I was with the eels—we were headlining the second stage, they were on the main. But our session at Q Division was the first time we had met, and we got along great.

[Coincidentally the drummer who played on the last AP record, Jeff Friedl, is currently touring with DEVO]

When Josh played that fill on “The Remedy,” coming out of the last breakdown pre-chorus to bring the drums back in, I almost fell out of my seat. It was pure magic and became a highlight of the song. That’s what makes him so great—he plays drums like a songwriter.

When it came time to record the vocals, I was nervous. I had never sung lead vocals on an album before. Recording demos in your bedroom is a lot different than standing in the middle of an expensive, big-room studio with a mic in front of you and two producers pressing record. Eventually, we figured it out. I learned how to approach the songs, and how exactly to sing them. I remember Paul reminding me to use “that voice”—the one I had found, and what was working best.

We recorded The Remedy vocal, Paul and Sean edited it into a final take, and then made a rough mix for reference.

When I returned to L.A., the record company—Extasy Records International, and specifically the owner, Yoshiki—and I reviewed all the recordings. I did some additional recording at the studio attached to Extasy, on Beverly Blvd. near Fairfax Ave. Mostly just to beef up the guitars—though I’m not sure if mixer Chris Lord-Alge ended up using the extra tracks.

One note that came back from Yoshiki was about the vocal we re-recorded in Boston. He thought the original demo vocal had something special about it and recommended we go back to using it instead.

So it turns out, the vocal I recorded by myself—on an 8-track Roland VS-880 digital recorder, in a room of an apartment on Gillette Crescent in South Pasadena—became the one we used in the final mix. Luckily, I had recently borrowed—I don’t remember from who—a Neve mic pre, a Distressor compressor (a compressor reduces the dynamic range of an audio signal, so the loud parts are quieter and the quiet parts are louder), and a nice microphone to record with, and that did make a difference. But I think the element that really made the vocal special was the cheap, built-in compressors on the VS-880. They gave it a lo-fi, squashed, semi-distorted sound that I don’t think anyone would’ve thought to do on purpose. And I didn’t know enough about recording at the time not to do that. But that seemed to make the difference. Had we done it “right,” the song may not have done as well as it did.

This kind of scenario is especially true for the original Clone High theme song. But that’s a story for another time.

Want to Chat Music?
If you’d like to go deeper into music, creativity, or songwriting, I’m now offering private lessons and discussions over Zoom — and I recently dropped the price to make it more accessible. I would love to connect.