Second installment of our travels in Los Angeles with Melbourne band Cruel To Be Kind. Read Part 1 here on TheVine.
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Thursday 19th January:
Three days in and the band have two songs completely tracked and half of the next finished finished. Good going. When not laying down parts, the guys are similarly burning their way through a series of American dietry staples. Pop tarts. Burgers. Red Bull, naturally. There's free snacks littered around the table in the loungeroom outside the studio, and the boys are taking full advantage. Inside the studio, Nick is going through guitar sounds with James, who's tweaking the array of rented guitar rigs to find something satisfactory.
Recording is not as exciting as you'd think. Hours of talking about tones and tuning and "bite" and all sorts of subjective minutiae, the kind you never consider when actually listening to a song. Nick's a fine guitarist though, and so by the time a sound is settled on he breezes through his parts on a tune called 'Grey Street' with little fuss. James the producer has a knack of being able to focus on the parts going down while hearing it in the context of the song as a whole. Which, sure, is what a producer/engineer is supposed to do. But under such a deft touch, the result is that it means in their dry, unmixed state, the songs sound polished and huge already. Which in turn, excites the band, spurring them on.
While Nick's busy laying down parts — Dene tends to stay glued to the chair next to James while Jonno listens to music on the couch up the back — I sit down with Tim and Mike to talk about where they're from and why they play the kind of music they do. "Everyone brings their own kind of thing [to the band]," says Mike. "Like for example, I know Dene listens to metal and hardcore but he still likes this kind of music. And Tim's more into classic rock: Zeppelin, Beatles. This [music we're playing] is Nick's area. And John likes punk stuff. Everyone brings their own little talents together and it comes into one mix I guess."
They tell me that they're actually close friends with the previous winners of the Red Bull Backroom Jam competition. "The thing is you've got to get people to go on the site and vote for you and stuff," explains Mike. "Seeing [our friends] and all them telling us to vote for them it's like, 'What's this?' It seems simple enough so we thought we'd enter it." I say that they don't seem to fazed by working with a big-shot producer here. And that it must bolster their confidence. "Yeah. It's definitely reassuring," Mike admits. "I forget at times that I'm actually in Los Angeles. In a studio. It's definitely very cool."
In another break I finally get around to asking James about his experience working on Guns n' Roses
Chinese Democracy, which I found listed in his credits online. He says that he only engineered a few vocal takes with Axl "when he showed up". He elaborates on the practice of big artists bringing huge entourages to the studio, and the fact that he can sometimes be booked for a day and barely do any work (but still get paid for it) because the artist is busy being distracted. Or just doesn't feel like it that day. So much money.
Mike has moved on to vocals now, but after a long day is worried that he's blown his voice out early. He gives it a few more shots but it seems to be the case, so everyone decides to call it a day. We pile into a cab and jettison ourselves into the hotels of Santa Monica.
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Friday 20th January:
The band are wrapping up keyboards and vocals on third-track 'Pirates', a rock track with big, anthemic chords that sounds more like Foo Fighters than the punk-pop spectrum they've been exploring. A videographer came by earlier in the day to shoot them galivanting around the Red Bull office down the hall. (Which, by the way, is 10,000 square feet. There's this big metallic wave thing that undulates through the massive room, with offices tucked in underneath and along its flanks. There's an actual racing car on one of the waves flat spots, and — in context — it looks like an ant.)
Mike is still working his way through vocal tracks, getting frustrated when he doesn't nail a part he so easily did on their self-recorded demos back in Australia. "This is the profession you chose," says James mock-seriously in one instance, while discussing breathing techniques. "I didn't choose shit," replies Mike, with a laugh.
Singing in studios is hard. Your voice sounds different in headphones, you can hear every little click that the saliva in your mouth is making, and you start producing more of it because you can hear it. What's more, your voice changes sound as it warms up and then overextends. Transplant that experience to a million dollar recording studio in L.A with a major producer watching through the glass, on limited time, and it would make hardened professionals quiver. Truth is Mike's doing a great job, in that the parts that he is getting right sound perfect. The parts that he's not only relate to the moment, pressure and general abusing of his instrument. None of which anyone can tell him at the time, because it becomes a gentle psychological game. He's just gotta "do it." Dude can sing just fine.
If there's a prankster in the band it's drummer Jonno, and he speaks up. "Hey pass on a message to Mick. 'I love you Mick. You can do it.' That's my moral support." Mick goes silent for a minute. "Alright, someone go in there and give him a hug." The entire band pile into the vocal booth and surround their singer, hugging him, clutching onto his arms and waist. "Alright, let's do a take like this!" It's hilarious. And sweet. Mike runs through a take with the band crowding him but fluffs the last line. "Damn," says Jonno, coming back in to the control room. "Imagine if that had've worked".
Tim's dad Gary is here in official capacity as chaperone. He's been in the studio every day, spending as much time here as the band. We talk a bit about the boys' experience, as well as Gary seeing behind the recording curtain. To his surprise it's not not about a band just standing around bashing out a song until it's done (although that is how it starts.) The process is micro, focusing on little bits and pieces of songs until — like patchwork — it adds up to a whole. He says about his son, a little bashfully, "I'll say the usual things I guess - I'm incredibly proud of him. And I think they're great. It's been an amazing experience, for me too."
Mike's vocals are done and the day finishes with the band fine-tuning little bits and pieces. Nick is doing some back up vocals on 'Pirates' now, and has gotten momentarily lost in the track. "Oh we're doing the whole bit again?" he asks James. "Oooh fuck me I'm stupid, let's do it."
"Welcome to America."
Part 3 - coming next
Marcus Teague - Follow @marcusTheVine
Find out more about the Red Bull Backroom Jam competition here.