(1) On the first day of recording, we set up all the equipment, tuned up the guitars, and warmed up on a song or two… then when we tried to queue up the recording, the metronome* wouldn’t work. It took about an hour for Adam (my producer) to it figure out. Meanwhile, I was just sitting there silently, thinking, “I’ve made a terrible mistake….” (Arrested Development reference anyone?) Apparently Adam was thinking the same thing. So we weren’t exactly off to a good start, but things got much better quickly… until…

(2) I had recorded all of the guitar tracks for the original set list of the album and I wanted to record drums, percussion, piano and guitar for a new song all on the same day. We weren’t exactly set up properly for drums. I am a very rusty drummer – I was in my prime in high school (and in hindsight, I wasn’t even great back then). On top of that, we had a poor quality drum set and only two microphones. All of the drums and percussion we recorded that day was scrapped in the end. We didn’t get any piano done either. I did, however, record the rhythm guitar for “No One But You” that day. So at least I got something (other than a lesson well learned about recording drums) for my money.

(3) The first day of recording vocals, I experienced the harsh reality of my limited vocal range. All of my songs were too high. I could hit the notes, but they didn’t sound very good… or at least not professional. I was pissed off. I thought that I sucked and I seriously considered throwing in the towel and cutting my losses. I spent most of that day moping around the studio, feeling sorry for myself. Adam convinced me that I really do have talent and that I just need to find my sound and use my strengths. For the first time, I tried singing in my lower register. It felt weird at first, but I eventually started to love it.

(4) When the recording was finished and it came time to get the album professionally printed, I ran into a couple problems. First, the day before I was going to the printers, I tried playing the master copy of the CD in my computer. To my dismay, it did not work properly. We burned the CD in the wrong format. I almost panicked but Adam and I solved the problem the next day, just in time to get it to the printers. Then on the next day, the printers sent me a digital copy of what the artwork would look like and there was a new problem. My eye on the front cover got cut in half because of the bleed room**. This looked terrible, so I actually had to get Matt (my designer) to put a new photo in and re-send it to the printers. Thankfully, it all worked out in the end.

* A metronome, aka click track, is a constant beeping beat that keeps musicians in time (not slowing down or speeding up) when recording.

** Bleed room refers to the part of a picture that gets printed, but cut off in order to insure there is no unwanted white border.