I was on to something, but I had to follow the threads. You know creation doesn’t work like a chocolate factory. Our unconscious pulls us towards our inner preoccupations, and it’s a constant dogfight with our conscious thoughts. The mental space becomes completely overwhelmed by the process. The wife and kids realized, I think, that something was happening, but they didn’t really know what journey I had begun. “Another one of dads’ fantasies!” I can hear them all say that at least it keeps me occupied! As if I didn’t have enough on my plate. Or course, they were right. Hyperactive or bursting with energy? The second option is my pick! As a matter of fact, Lost in my broken mind (spoiler!), before I wrote the lyrics, had Hyperactive as a working title.
You have to follow every train of creative thoughts, but you need keep your eye on the whole of the tapestry. I worked on the songs in a disorganized way, often without having any lyrics to cling to, but only melodies, melodies that sometimes told a story in French and other times in English. For 9 of the songs, the demo had to be ready at least 2 weeks before the Drum session. The drummer man had to figure out his beats.
I recorded all the demos at my office, with my Godin Guitar. I had everything figured out, the songs structures with all the right measures, the chords, the different parts, breaks, etc. I didn’t have a clear idea of the arrangements, but I relied on my instincts and the people around me, real pros! It would solve itself out, one way or another. I had sounds in my head, things that I wanted to hear on each of the songs. But I knew I would have to fight reality! By the way, there was no unlimited budget here! But I absolutely wanted to create a product that was as complete as possible, with the studio environment that we had. Anyway, Ben is full of resources; he would take care of that.
It’s at that time, by the way, that I began to understand that the studio in itself was part of the creative process. Guitar set ups, amp orientation, the room, outside temperature… Anyway, the first one to join us, for two days of intense recording, was Yannick. Percussion man! We had to bring our lunches and Ben being Ben, who doesn’t eat meat, I couldn’t even bring some chicken or a pizza slice to keep energy levels up! I made due with apples and nuts during those two days.
The Drums were setup upstairs, the guitar in the studio, and the bass in the war room! For the first time, I was going to get an idea of what the songs that I had created on guitar alone could sound like. Funny band… we played non-stop for two days without seeing each other! It was great, but I hadn’t practiced enough (Hey ho! I had barely enough time to create these songs!) Good thing we were only keeping the drum tracks!
Fred
