Week 11, Minimum Style

The eleventh song is called Minimum Style. YouTube link for iPhone

This song was written while fooling around with my two-year-old’s toy guitar, pictured below. Also in the picture is my Orange Crush 30R, which I’ve used for just about all of the guitar and bass tracks so far.

my kid's toy guitar

I recorded the toy guitar part while sitting in on my bathroom floor and using the Blue Mikey. The tile in the bathroom made for a nice punchy reverb to couple with the guitar. It’s my first time recording in the bathroom and that was done because my kid was playing downstairs and if he had heard me playing the guitar he probably would’ve wanted to go upstairs and play the drums.

Sometimes I get a pretty small window of opportunity to get a take down and I can’t be picky. I think that was particularly true with this song knowing that I was working with a short week. Looking ahead at the calendar I have the holidays, traveling to Colorado, coming up on a deadline for a video game soundtrack (more on this another week), and a very important University of Pittsburgh football game in a couple of weeks. So I expect that I’ll need to keep things simple for the next couple of songs. Of course when I set out to keep things simple I end up using seven guitar tracks. Go figure.

Anyway, back to the song. So there’s toy guitar throughout, then the rest of the guitar tracks were recorded on my baritone guitar. One take is clean, more bass-like, and plays through most of the song after the intro. The other two are dirty, more guitar-like tracks, and just play through the last bit of the song where it opens up. I love the baritone and wish I could use it more often. Well, good thing I have 31 songs left to write. The baritone was recorded using the custom break-out cable through the Orange as usual. I added vocals using the Blue Mikey (I think – it’s been a while now and everything is running together). Oh yeah, and I felt compelled to add whistling in the beginning for some reason, which seemed like a good idea at the time, and I think that it came out fine, but every time I hear the beginning of the song now I can’t help but think that I’m listening to Guns and Roses’ “Patience”…not that there’s anything wrong with that. And I suppose hearkening back to G n’ R isn’t an unprecedented move for me – there are probably a few people out there who can recall that my old band Hovland would evey once in a while drop a cover of “Mr. Brownstone”.

Tim Midgett of Bottomless Pit

Andy Cohen of Bottomless Pit

I added drums with the usual four mic setup the day before the tour while I had my studio setup to work on the video game. The drums were recorded in Reaper and everything else was recorded using the iPhone into MultiTrack.

Everything ended up working out pretty well. My friend Chris said that this song could have been a bit longer, and since he mentioned it I think he’s probably right. But I managed to pull the song together before heading out on tour with The Karl Hendricks Trio, and that has to count for something. We had a great time, played some good shows in Columbus and Bloomington with The Kyle Sowashes, and then capped off the tour with a killer show in Chicago opening for Bottomless Pit. It was a great crowd, all the bands really nailed their sets, and I got to see a bunch of old Pittsburgh friends who have moved out to Chicago over the years.

Here are a couple of dark photos (thanks flashless iPhone) of Bottomless Pit from the show at the Hideout in Chicago. These guys are seriously one of the best-sounding bands that I’ve ever heard live, and on a recording for that matter. I’m truly honored to share a stage with them. You should all be making plans to pick up their two records on your next vinyl shopping trip.

Thanks again to Kyle and the rest of the Sowashes for setting up the tour and for good company along the way. Thanks to everyone for coming out, and thanks to everyone here for continuing to listen.

1 Comment to Week 11, Minimum Style

Seth Madej
November 19, 2009

I really like this one. I agree with Chris that it could be longer. Reprise the whistling!

I’ve decided to hide from Sophie the fact that you used to cover a G n’ R song, since she otherwise she might never speak to you again. Bad memories from a former G n’ R-obsessed roommate…

Leave a comment