And then there were songs...

Home for another weekend after a thoroughly productive week. We have now completed all the live basic tracking, and just getting to cruise around the beach on my bike and listen is so great. The moment when you hear the music coming through the studio monitors after you walk back into the control room to listen to the song you just played is just too much sometimes. You spend all these hours writing the song in your head and with your hands.. more hours playing parts of the song over and over with the band, more hours playing the whole song, practicing and practicing.. and when you finally get to hear whatever idea you've had manifest in itself in the initial stages of its final form, it can be overwhelming. We have been watching our music getting dressed and prepared for its eternal performance on any and every stereo-stage it can reach. Perhaps that was a bit too dramatic of a way of saying: "..I can't wait for people to hear these songs". Prose people! Prose!

So we all returned home on friday night to chilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllI, the whole drive home C-gak, Matt and I were for the most part silent because of the exhaustion. We've been having the whole writing, rehearsing, and recording process documented so for the past 4-5 months, and in doing so we've had anywhere from 1 to 5 cameras on us at all times the band is together. Luckily the videographers are cool, and Billy takes my ball busting with a good nature. I'm dreading seeing all of myself on film though, I hate seeing myself on video just performing music let alone doing work or just hanging out. I can't imagine what its gonna be like to see all these interactions and intimate moments between us, after having collectively become so used to having cameras around ALL the time.I really really really hate seeing myself on camera.

We've been managing to really get the cooking and eating on at the studio as well.. any in between time where takes are being dropped into protools from tape, or we're listening to takes just played, we all find ourselves in the kitchen going big. The mental exhaustion of recording is hard to realize in the moment, but when the hunger from that concentration and consequent mental exhaustion hits you, you realize that you're famished. We've probably gone through 20 cans of tomato soup, 16 boxes of cheezits, and 10 heads of broccoli. I've personally taken down a whole box of the 'Cuties' from trader joes this last week, which is about 30 small clementine tangerines in a box. I love those things to death. I've also had 8 bananas, two large things of yogurt, 10 fuji apples and enough triscuits and wheat thins to build a large replica of the Taj Mahal. Quesadillas, cereal, chicken soup, frozen pizza, veggie dogs, ice cream.. from the healthiest to the nastiest; we've been eating it all. You know the kind of hunger you have after swimming for a while? That's what we've been dealing with. Not to mention the late night munchie sessions hanging and watching John Bonham drum solos on dvd.

We return to the studio for the week tomorrow to continue work on the songs, where all the icing, bells, whistles, noise, synths, horns, pianos, and tomato soup will be added to the songs to satisfy and expand the musical visions we began with. Its nice, because this stage of the recording is much less stressful without the need to focus and sometimes stress about one's performance, thus allowing listening with different ears and minds. This is the stage where we begin to really surprise ourselves and see the songs go in directions we never could foresee or imagine.. and that's the treasure right there. I'll get some more pics up here, and perhaps some of us venturing up into the Angeles National Forest which is right behind us. We can look up into the mountains from our bedroom balcony every morning we wake up.. well, Joe and Matt are usually still sleeping when I do that but we shall make our own tiny expedition this week.

With tired hands,

S. Choi