As the band pushes toward album completion they’ve reduced the number of gigs they’re playing. Since I’ve mostly been blogging gigs these days instead of just blathering about the band this means I’ve not written much here. So, it’s time to go back to babbling about the band. Sort of.
I know you’ve been waiting patiently–and not so patiently—for the new Run Devil Run album. I know because so have I. 
Making a album takes time and it always takes more time than you think it will. (I speak from experience.)
For each song add the total number of band members. (If the vocalist also plays an instrument, add one.) That’s the minimum number of tracks that must be recorded for that song. Then multiply the length of the song by that number. Multiply that by the total number of songs on the track. That’s a bare minimum. Then there are overdubs. Don’t think bands overdub? Wrong. If you hear anything “extra” in a track, chances are it’s overdubbed. Sometimes you can’t even hear it. Backing vocals are often overdubbed even though there are plenty of band members to sing backing. Hear any percussion? Well, unless the band spontaneously forms a drum circle in the studio, chances are each bit of percussion was recorded separately. That’s the thing you’ve got to keep in mind: everything is recorded separately. Though there are a few bands who still record “live in the studio”, most songs are constructed one instrument and vocal at a time then mixed together. This takes an excruciating amount of time and is not nearly as much fun as playing a gig. So, let’s say it’s a band with four members and the vocalist plays an instrument, it’s a 3:30 minute song, so multiple that by 5 and pray to God that absolutely everything about the set up, and take is perfect on the first take (it won’t be), then double that to cover overdubs and flubs (that won’t be sufficient to cover it, no matter how good the band is). Then multiple that by the number of tracks on the album.
That’s the absolute minimum amount of time it takes to get the basic tracks down. This doesn’t included set up and sound checks, and getting everything just right before “rolling tape” on it. It doesn’t include doing new arrangements of the songs because what a band does live is (and to some extent has to be) essentially different from the studio version. You can do things in the studio that are simply impossible live and some of these things make the songs better. But you’ve got to work all that out. In the studio. (Though some discussion will take place before you actually start recording.) And of course, some things won’t turn out as well as you think. Listening to a playback in the studio is different from listening to yourself in a monitor in front of a screaming crowd at a gig. Suddenly that guitar solo you’ve been doing sounds a bit thin, less wicked. Maybe lame. Doubt creeps in. So you’ve got to work up something else for that spot in the song. Try it. Go back to what you had before. Give up and move on to the next track. Multiple by 10. Or 100. Depending.
Then there’s the mixdown. The engineering, the mastering. Making what you’ve done sound as good as it can, making it sound like you hear it in your head. This is very difficult. Sometimes producers, engineers, etc make this easier, sometimes they just make it more maddening by imposing their own ideas (which they somehow contrive to seem like they’re your ideas). What’s done to the tracks after they’re created can take a mind-numbing amount of time. I don’t want to say it can take as long as it took to lay down the tracks, but, uh, yeah, there have been bands and albums where that’s very nearly been the case. 
It shouldn’t take that long, but remember that someone after the songs are “done” has to metaphorically pass their hands over every single track of every song at least once, usually far more than that. If there’s a patron saint of studio techies, go ahead and start praying now for his/her intercession. 
Time. Well, you say, optimistically, I’ve done the math. I could knock out a brilliant album in nothing flat. It’s true that there have been brilliant albums in the history of music that have been recorded in a week or less. I don’t know how they did it—except that in most cases these albums were done back when all bands played live, together in the studio, so there were few, if any, individual tracks (drums are problematic and often have to be recorded—or rerecorded—separately). Also, back in the day, there wasn’t as much you could do to a track once you laid it down. Throw in a few backing vocals and call it done. Digital technology and the sophistication of a 21st century studio make anything and everything possible. There’s a danger in this because you can tweak the sound endlessly without re-recording a track. Yeah, you’ll do multiple takes for each instrument, but often that’s because the performance and feel may be different from take to take. Little things can be fixed digitally. But it takes time. Do a little fix here or there for each instrument on each song and it adds up.
Then there’s the whole thing of studio time. Until the band become so rich and famous that they can give up their day jobs and noodle around in the studios built into their respective mansions, they have to find time to record. That means booking studio time which will not conflict with any band member’s day job, will not conflict with rehearsals or gigs, and the time slots must be open at the studio. LA has a lot of studios and if they just wanted to lay down a track here and there at whatever studio they could get at whatever time they could get, it would be messy, but they’d have less juggling of the schedule to do it. But this album is being recorded at The Bomb Shelter and I’m thinking Le Bomb probably takes a bit of scheduling well in advance. So, that takes more time between the band member’s schedules and the studio’s schedule. Also, since time is money (and nowhere more so than in a recording studio), to optimize the dollars from the Pledge Music campaign they probably tried to get “off” hours which traditionally give a bit of a price break. (Given our 24/7 society, is the concept of peak and off hours even valid anymore? I hope so, because it’d help with the band’s budget.)
Oh, yes, there’s one more very important thing that I forgot to figure in…the band members have lives. 
If they spent every hour of their lives, gigging, rehearsing, working, recording, eating and sleeping, and did absolutely nothing else—-that way lies madness. Some of rock and roll’s most spectacular band breakups and meltdowns have happened in the studio or as a result of the band being cooped up in the studio day and night.
Getting some distance from the work in progress is good, not just for the band’s mental health, but also to get perspective on the work-in-progress. You can see both the flaws and brilliance of something better if you let it cool off a bit from that moment when you created it. Also, life informs art. The band needs to have a life outside the studio and rehearsal space in order to experience life which will result in writing more wonderful songs.
Finally, all I’ve written here about being in the studio is speculative (and to a great extent simplifed). Nothing I’ve written should be taken to indicate anything specific about the band recording this album (eg: crap guitar solo, percussion overdubs etc.). I’m just talking in general about the obstacle course known as recording an album. What I’ve written here doesn’t sound all that difficult or time-consuming, not enough to account for how long it actually takes from the time the band starts recording until the album is released. (Oh, and there’s album art, liner notes, CD manufacture…all after the album is “finished”. This also takes time.) What you’ve got to keep in mind is that with a few asides what I’ve written here is an absolute optimum and nothing is ever as fast, perfect and easy as this. They want to make the best possible album with the best possible music using the best possible technology. Technology has made our lives better and easier, but sometimes it seems to me that it isn’t working out quite as well as a time-saving device.
I hope this little imaginary excursion has helped curb your impatience. I know how much time and energy goes into making an album and yet, honestly, I’m impatient too. So I just remind myself of all the work I did on my albums and how crazy-making it can be and take a deep breath….and wait, knowing it’ll be worth that wait.
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