Saturday, December 20, 2008

Someone like you loved me

This blog is not about deep philosophical topics or insightful social or political commentary. I am enthusiastic about the things I love. And I like to tell people about them, in case you haven't figured that out already :). I blogged about my visit to the recording studio where Star Anna is recording their newest album here, and in my 1000Markets blog.

So one would think that was enough excitement for a week, or even a month. I certainly felt like I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience there.

Except, as it turns out, it was a twice-in-a-lifetime experience. My friend Dave let me know yesterday that I could come back to the studio if I wanted. Woo hoo!

But I had to convince TJ to drive, because my car is completely useless in the snow. Because he is so nice (yay TJ! props to TJ!) he agreed and we spent our Friday night back in North Seattle at the cozy warm studio, listing to the band record the last couple of songs and bits of songs.

So instead of yammering about it (ok, in addition to the yammering), I'll share a couple of short videos that are quick peeks into the studio. Here's Justin Davis, the fabulous guitar player (his making fun of my Queensryche shirt notwithstanding). If you look closely, you can see TJ at the very end of the video.



This one sort of captures the essence of the experience in the studio - the attention to detail and careful listening to the tracks, the collaboration with Brad Zeffren, the kickass recording engineer, and of course, the mountains of take-out food fueling a week of hard work:



It was another really fun, mellow evening filled with *great* music.

The last song blew us all away. It was just Star and her acoustic guitar, on a song called "Tripping Wires" (I think). I don't write well enough to adequately describe the way this song made me feel, or the atmosphere it created. It makes me a little weepy just to think about it. (And like I said, I'm not *that* girl.)

There was pin-drop silence in the studio, both while she recorded it and when they played it back to listen to it. It was so freakin' amazing, I was rooted in my spot on the couch, almost afraid to breathe. And there was *lots* of snuffling all around.

It was a privilege and an honor to be there. To be in the presence of talent of that magnitude just rocked my world. That moment reminded me of being college, and meeting people who were on an intellectual plane so far above me, it was awe-inspiring. And then a few minutes later, those same people would go with me on a donut run, like they hadn't just solved a problem that no one else in our entire class could even begin to tackle. And it always left me thinking "Where the heck did that come from? How can one person *do* that?"

Yowza. And with that, I leave you with a video of my favorite song, "Wait" from Star Anna's Crooked Path album. I wonder if they'll take requests when they come to play here at the house? ;)

1 comment:

  1. It was a very cool experience. I'm a big fan of the energy of a live performance but I also like the sound quality of a studio album. This was a rare combination of both. The final acoustic recording was pretty amazing.

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