UPDATE: Congrats to Travis Mercredi at Outland Sound and to Fred Ngo for guessing what was silly about the photo of Jer and I (below). I’m going to send out a couple more too, because Zach and Mark are awesome and guessed stuff that was way more complicated than I would ever have thought of. Thanks all of you for participating!
Had a chat over skype with Jeremy Bradfield today, a dear friend* and collaborator who also happens to be mixing / co-producing the album. Jeremy and I met at Universite de Montreal, where we quickly identified each other as the two struggling anglophones in a very Quebecois environment. I like to think of our friendship at that time as a romance between nine-year olds. We rode our bicycles to school together, sat on the grass and ate pears from our knapsacks (we’d both always bring two), watch the sun go down and cram for exams in between Monty Python references. Boy was I sad when he moved back to England.
We stayed in touch, and thanks to the wonders of modern transportation and an opportunity in Ukraine, I went to visit him in Newcastle some years later. It was during that visit that we recorded the awesome saxophone solo in Up Like The Dirt (thank you Heather!), and did an electronic version of Yellow Coats, which isn’t on the album but we’ll probably finish it someday just for fun.
We are collaborating from a distance on this project, and it’s amazing how technology makes it possible for us to do so. We use dropbox to share files, then sometimes we will jam over skype to throw ideas back and forth, or listen to the song together taking notes about where we want to see changes made, all the while using the chat box to send links to other songs we are drawing on for inspiration. What a process, I tell ya.
I feel like it’s a bit of a tease to say all this without even a little taste to show what we’ve been working on, but it’s not ready yet, so sorry! Instead, I present to you this photo of us from our first ever recording project we did together, Lullaby, which you can listen to if you join my mailing list. First person to guess what we find funny about this %100 completely unstaged candid action photo of us working on it wins a postcard from Yellowknife’s Old Town by the wonderful Alison Mccreesh!
* I realize I often say people are my dear friends on here. It is because I make a point to collaborate with people who are also dear friends! I highly recommend this way of working.
PS. For those of you in Yellowknife, come have brunch at the Dancing Moose on New Year’s Day between 1 and 3 and say hi!
Zach says
Is the funny thing that one of you has your head phones on the wrong way?
natasha says
oh! ha, I didn’t even notice that one. nope, that’s not it, but you’re on the right track 🙂
Mark says
Doesn’t this studio have monitors? Why are you wearing headphones at all
natasha says
geez you guys, your guesses are so good but you are missing the WAY more obvious thing.
Zach says
Well I’m guessing if it’s not the headphones alone it’s the mirror image aspect.
natasha says
I’m not quite sure what you mean by mirror image? it’s really not as obscure as you guys think though! honest! even someone who’s never even used pro-tools could guess (that’s a hint, btw). 🙂
Travis Mercredi says
the computer is on the login screen, which means Pro Tools isn’t even open yet, which explains why all the faders are all bottomed out. Either that or you are working on the sound of silence…
natasha says
YES! You got it. I’ll email you 🙂
Jasmine says
I heart you. This is so natural and candid and totally relaxed. 😀
natasha says
I bet I heart you more. just sayin’.
Zach says
Ha, I did notice the computer screen. But what kept sticking out to me was the symmetry of the image. You are looking slightly to the right, he is looking slightly to the left. Your left hand is on the board, his right hand is on the board. The wire on your headphones hang to the left, his to the right. You are a lady, he is a dude. You have long sleeves, he has short sleeves.
natasha says
Zach, you are light years ahead of my silly contest! So I am sending you a postcard anyway 🙂