Recording Day 11

Wow. I've been really sucking at this blogging thing lately. Writing has become...difficult. Inspiration is few and far between or comes at the wrong time. But what can you do?

Last Wednesday I went back to the studio for more vocal work. It went MUCH better than last time. I definitely need to stick with recording my vocals at night. My voice is much more warmed up and "used" and cooperative.

Two more songs are done! It's so exciting and yet so sad. I really enjoy recording and the whole process of building a song. I'm kind of bummed I'm almost done. But also super excited to share it with everyone. Next Saturday we go in and pretty much hammer down the rest of the instrumentation. Then it's just more vocals and some tinkering here and there to complete it.

I'm thinking I'm going to have to start a Kickstarter to pay for the mastering and pressing of the album. Not sure how to go about that and I am also worried that I won't get funded. What if no one pledges??? So embarrassing. I also really dislike asking people for things. But, I guess, really it's just pre-ordering the album...so...that's not so bad.

And here's the third sneak peek! This song is the first song that was written for this album. I wrote it while practicing in my living room to prep for the CD release party of the last album. So it's been lingering around for a while waiting to be captured. It's called "Can't Even Tell".

 Can't Even Tell (snippet) by Niki Becker

Lyric Of The Day

"and you know that she's half crazy
that's why you want to be there"

-from "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen

Bridesmaids

I like stupid comedies. I also can enjoy a simple romantic comedy. I am not a very picky movie viewer, at least I don’t think so. I don’t see a lot of movies, because in general, movies aren’t my thing. I’m a music gal and I’ll spend $10 on a new CD than $10 to get into a movie.

I will say that I am not a Kristin Wiig fan. In fact, she might be one of my least favorite TV/movie star persons out there right now, so really, I should have known better with Bridesmaids. Which is also why it took me until this past weekend to finally see it.

I had heard it called “The Hangover with women” and that is was super super funny and everyone should see it because it is the funniest thing since funny became a thing.

I really really liked The Hangover.

I hated Bridesmaids.

Let’s start with the basics: The title. 

This movie is called Bridesmaids. On the cover of the DVD box and on all of the movie posters, you see the 5 bridesmaids and the bride, played by Maya Rudolph. You think, oh, this is an ensemble cast. But you would be wrong. The movie is 2 hours of Kristin Wiig living a shitty life and blaming everyone else around her for it and then destroying her best friend since childhood’s various wedding events in non-humorous ways.

Kristin plays Annie, a single 30-something whose bakery recently went out of business and whose boyfriend left her. She lost her apartment and now rooms with a British brother and sister who really serve absolutely no point in the movie except that, I don’t know, we’re supposed to laugh at them because they are weird and gross and British and maybe a little incestual? I don’t know.

Her best friend, Lilian (played by Maya Rudolph), just got engaged. So, basically her life is perfect because she found a man or something. And not just any man, a rich man with rich friends.  Meanwhile, Annie is sleeping with a dude (played by John Hamm) who just sleeps with her and then asks her to leave. But, yet, she keeps going back because, you know, she is scared of commitment or thinks poorly of herself or whatever. I don’t know. When Annie heads to the engagement party held at some lavish destination and meets Lilian’s new rich friend, Helen, well, she just can’t stand it. I mean, her BEST FRIEND is HAPPY…WITHOUT HER. And even though her BEST FRIEND asked her to be the Maid of Honor, you can understand why she would feel the need to only think of herself and let her crazy jealousy of her friend’s new life completely destroy the fun and happiness her friend is supposed to be having.

This is the whole movie.

Sure, there are other bridesmaids. They make an appearance here and there. There is the awesome bridesmaid, Megan, played by Melissa McCarthy, you know, the one who got the Oscar nomination for this – she is really good and is definitely the best part of the whole movie.

When they would let you in on the brief glimpses and conversations of the rest of the bridesmaids, the movie was entertaining. And if they would have stuck with this and really made an ensemble comedy about crazy wedding planning, then this movie could have been very funny.

Instead, it’s a vehicle for Kristin Wiig to pity herself for 120 minutes and that got old really fast.

It makes me sad that women flocked to this and talked it up and oh my god finally a comedy for us ladies. Ugh. Gross. If this is what women are really like or what they relate to or what they strive to be…there is something seriously wrong.

I know we are meeting Annie at her lowest and most everyone has had a low point in their lives and that this is what we are supposed to be relating to. But she is an awful person. 100% self-centered, catty, immediately dislikes her best friend’s new friend because she is rich and pretty, as if that is a reason to automatically hate someone. Not once giving her a chance.

And it’s not that Helen is not a fault. She automatically dislikes Annie because she wanted to be the Maid of Honor.

It’s all just so stupid. Who cares?

To me, it was a movie filled with women being completely stereotypical and barely being funny. There are so many ways they could have gone with this.

At one point they are headed to Vegas for the Bachelorette party and I thought, okay, here we go. Hilarity is about to ensue.

But, nope. Annie gets drunk and they have to turn the flight around. I watched that thinking, what, did they not have the budget to shoot in Vegas? Really? That’s it. And then, so just because Vegas got cancelled, there is never a bachelorette party? They couldn’t go to the bar?

The movie is filled with missed opportunities. Instead it is filled with Annie’s unfunny self-loathing which you can’t even feel bad for her for. She, of course, gets a love interest and a bunch of stupid stuff happens with him  and then in the end (SPOILER – though this a romantic comedy so you can probably guess what happens) when he forgives her and shows up, I had completely forgotten about him and that story line and the movie could have ended without ever resolving it and I wouldn’t have noticed.

Maybe I’m just not girly enough for this flick. But, I liked Sex and the City, so, it’s not like I can’t enjoy super-girly stuff. It just seemed like the only characters that I liked were Megan and the two other bridesmaids who were in the movie so briefly that I don’t even know their names.

Oh, and there are montages of Annie baking cakes and stuff. Really, fascinating stuff here.

New Song Preview #2!

I'm somewhat slowly/somewhat quickly finishing up the new album. Things are coming together, there have been some bumps in the road here and there, but for the most part, we are on track.

As I gear up to release day (sometime this summer), I'll be posting these song previews to give everyone a glimpse into the new album.

This is the 2nd preview. This song is called "Blue Whale".

Thanks for listening!

 Blue Whale (snippet) 2 by Niki Becker

Unravelled

I HAVE NO CLOTHES ANYMORE!!!

For the past week, every outfit I wear I have noticed a small hole has formed somewhere. Most of the time they are not very noticeable (I hope), but some are and I am quickly running out of clothes that are acceptable to where to the office. I mean, running around to shows and hanging out with friends, it’s totally cool for me to have a couple of small holes…but to work, I have to look somewhat nice.

And it’s gone beyond my clothing. My newish boots (I got them for Christmas) somehow got a rip in them. It’s small…but it is noticeable and I wear them all the time and they are supposed to be my “nice” boots and boots aren’t cheap.

And then this morning, as I was getting ready to head to the bus to go to work, I tried zipping up my winter coat and it just wouldn’t stay zipped. I would get it zipped up and then look down and it would be split. It’s been giving me trouble lately and now I think it just gave up. So I had to rush around the house to try to find some sort of seasonal outerwear because it is still winter here in Minnesota and it had just started snowing outside. I settled on a hoodie underneath a jean jacket. I was still cold.

Luckily it is going to be 60 degrees on Saturday and in the high forties and fifties for the foreseeable future after that. I should be able to get by. For now.

But that still doesn’t help my clothing situation. I honestly don’t know what to do. Every extra dollar I have is going into the new album. And I can’t afford to not do that. Because the new album is very important to me. Which means no new clothes for me.

And that’s fine. I can live without being fashionable. I’ve never been all that fashionable in the first place. I’m just so bored with my hole-filled clothes.

Thankfully I only work 4 days a week now. One less day to find something work acceptable to wear.

Recording Days 9 & 10

It was a busy weekend as far as recording goes. I was in the studio all day Saturday (from about 2pm to 11:30pm) and back on Sunday for an additional 4 hours.

It's such a weird process, recording and really just songwriting and arranging. I start with these little ideas that somehow, eventually become full ideas with beginnings and middles and ends. Then I bring them to Shawn and he hears them and starts playing something on them that is the either a) exactly what I had in mind or b) so completely different yet always so completely better. I usually end up leaving those practice sessions feeling very inspired and excited about songs and writing and collaboration.

Then we get to the studio and you start to put these things down on their "permanent record" and I suddenly get filled with all sorts of doubt. I'm not rolling in dollar bills here and recording costs money and because of that, I know "perfection" is not exactly attainable. But I have to like it.

And I liked what I left with on Saturday. I had grand ideas for one of my new songs and had been saving it for the end because I wanted to make sure it was arranged correctly and that I could explain clearly what I wanted.  So I had created a really shoddy demo for Shawn to listen to so he could have an idea of what I wanted from him for his parts.

And he nailed it.

The track is ridiculous...in such a good way. It's very grand. Big. I'm really excited about it. And, even though it is one of the bigger songs on the album (and by big I mean lots of instruments, longer in length, louder, etc) we got through it fairly quickly and finished pretty much the entire instrumental with just a couple of little flourishes still to add. And we did this after working on two other songs earlier in the session.

It was a successful day.

Then came Sunday.

I planned to record some more vocals on Sunday and record them, I did.

But vocals are such a different beast.

I have no problems (anymore) standing in front of a room of people singing. I would rather do that than stand in front of people and just talk. I love to sing and I think I'm pretty okay at it.

But something happens when I stand in front of that recording microphone. On stage, fine. But recording vocals is so weird. I'm not playing my guitar along. I'm not singing to anyone or for anyone. I'm just trying to get the sound I want for the vocal while standing in a room all by myself. It's really more like acting and I am no actress. You have to get into character so you can convey the emotion you want the song to have...with no setting. I've read stories of people who set up the recording room a certain way or get drunk beforehand or even get naked before they sing. I used to think what the fuck...but now I totally get it. It's really hard to just pull that out of nowhere.

And then, even when I think I've nailed it...I go and listen to the playback and I'm like holy shit turn that off what the hell is that???

I have a hard time removing myself from the listening experience so I can just hear it as a listener and not as myself listening to...myself. No one likes to hear themselves. Like hearing your own voice on tape or a voicemail....it's like seeing a picture of yourself sometimes. You leave the house thinking you look fabulous, all night long you check the mirrors and you think, yeah, I look pretty good tonight. You have a fabulous time in all of your awesomeness and then the next day you wake up and check Facebook and your friends have posted photos of the evening and you look like total shit and it kind of taints the memory of the night. At least for me.

That's how I feel about recording vocals. I hear these really great instrumental tracks and I'm so tempted just to say "let's just leave them as is and put them out without me singing all over them". I'm always so worried that once I sing on them it will ruin them. I just want them to be good. I want them to make me want to shout in the streets "LOOK WHAT I DID!!!" and I feel that way about the instrumental parts...but the vocals...

That's not to say that I've disliked all of my vocals so far. I've done some good ones that I do really like. But yesterday...yesterday was just off and they need to be fixed. Soon.

So, I'm going to try to get back in there soon and fix them. Sooner rather than later. Which is extra studio time, which is extra money, which is frustrating.

And this is the part of the process where I start to get frustrated because we are so close! I'm so excited about these songs and we are so close to the point where I can share them with people, which I'm so excited to do...my patience starts to where thin because I want to get it done so bad so other people can hear it.

But I need to remember not to rush. Rushing isn't good for any of this.

It will take time and that is okay and I'm not on any real deadline...just my own personal one I've set for myself.

I need to stop doing that.

Davy Jones

Davy Jones of The Monkees died of heart attack yesterday at the age of 66. I loved The Monkees growing up when I would watch the reruns on Nick at Nite. When VH1 picked up the show and started replaying the episodes when I was a teenager, I loved them again. And whenVH1 made that made for TV movie about The Monkees in my early 20s, I was once again reminded how good their songs were and how funny that show was.

So, thanks for the laughs, Davy Jones. And Axel Rose thanks you for the side to side shuffle step he stole from you.

Here's one of my favorite Davy Jones' sung Monkees' songs: