I spent two days this week in the studio....and I've discovered that singing can actually be work!
Of course, it is always tiring to sing with your whole heart and pour yourself into each line, each note...but to sing ONE LINE forty-seven times (or close!) gives a new definition to the word "tiring".
I could hear what I was doing wrong....and MrT, of course, could too, and neither of us were willing to settle for "good enough" on "Dark Angel"....it is such a beautiful song, and it really deserves perfection.
He said, several times, "I'm sorry to push you so hard," but I am, truthfully, thrilled to be working with someone who takes my songs as seriously as I do, and will fight for just the exact feeling on each phrase with the same unrelenting insistence that I would.
When I came out of the sound booth, we sat and listened, for a minute, to the last half of the song....the half we had slaved over with such intensity - and it was worth it. It was more than worth it!
In the booth, with the headphones on so loudly, I never really sound very good to myself - I can hear every tiny rough edge in my voice, and it's such a...
flat sound, not flat as in pitchy, but flat like you're singing into your answering machine flat.
(Which I hope you never do; friends don't let friends make singing messages.)
But sitting in the studio listening, my voice sounded so rich and warmly emotional that I asked him "What did you do to it?" thinking he had added some effect! But he said "Nothing, not yet."
All those things he was saying to me, all the different takes, all the little differences in tone and phrasing really made an
incredible difference. I believe it is going to take that song from "pretty" to "knocks your socks off".
We'll see. *smile*
I've recorded almost half of the vocals for the album...I'm very pleased to have come so far.
