onemonkeyshow

Okay, so honestly I’m excited about our latest Christmas Album (we both are).  Keith has created some fantastic arrangements.  But damn it all to hell, I just could not get the harmonies for “A Living Prayer”.  I’ve let my voice get so out of shape, that after belting the high part 3 or so times through my voice was already weak and I couldn’t keep it up.  That’s so sad.  I used to sing for hours a day.  Now my vocal chords cry in protest after just a short while.  Of course it didn’t help to have Keith over my shoulder last night screaming “DO IT AGAIN!  I DON’T CARE IF YOUR THROAT IS BLEEDING – THESE HARMONIES NEED TO FUCKING RING!!!”  I started crying, and he hit me with the microphone.  It was a bad night.

Okay, none of that actually happened.  I just get really touchy about music I’ve recorded – and he has this fantastic ear that can pick up the slightest sound and the most subtle changes.  So he’s been coaching me to make his arrangements sound the way he hears them in his head.  It’s just that my voice won’t keep up.  Man, what was I thinking?  I should have been warming up and practicing for weeks before this.  I knew we’d end up having a week long music crunch as we tried to finish this album in time to ship all 36 copies out to friends and family.  Oh well, I think I finished everything last night (actually I’m expecting Keith to ask me to re-record at least one thing tonight…he’s not a task master, and I REALLY appreciate it when he asks me to re-record because he knows my voice and wants it to sound as good as he knows it can).

So now Keith is faced with the daunting task of mixing all the songs.  Silly me, I just thought I could record a song in GarageBand and that’s it.  Nope – Keith plays with the levels on each and every track (some songs have 20 tracks!) until the blend  suits him perfectly.  So tonight, once the blend is right for every song, it’s time to stamp them with a label and stuff them into the CD cases with the cover I designed (with a photo of Max, of course).  Man, Christmas is exhausting.  I can’t wait until we mail everything out tomorrow to be done with it all!!!