First, a short disclaimer as some of the information might only be interesting for gearfreaks or hardcore pien feith fans.
Today we had our first day at the IJland Studio in Amsterdam. Pien is having a sore throat, so we decided to postpone the final vocal recordings until Thursday. We worked on two songs, which only need a few overdubs and perhaps some audio-editing. The first one features a lot of percussion and still needs some overdubs, as it still is a bit mellow, although this is also something that delays and reverbs can solve. The song started out in 147bpm, we weren’t satisfied, so we bumped it up to 150bpm. 3bpm equals a world of difference. We caught the 2nd song on tape quite fast and this one is built around a processed vocal samples and a dubby drumsound.
The synths came straight out of Ableton, we recorded the midi, audio and we mic’ed two amps (Pien’s Fender Showman and IJland’s vintage Marshall). This gives the ableton synths some nice edge and room, and the midi gives us the possibility to adjust the sound in a later phase, if we want to that is.
Tomorrow I will post some pics of our setup, and we will probably turn to some of the synths/organs that IJland has to offer. The next songs will feature a lot of electronic drums, Lil’ Wayne-style swagger, and arpeggios. So it’s going to be fun tomorrow. Hopefully, Pien’s throat will feel better tomorrow and the day after, although her guide vocals still sounded wonderful.
As always there were some minor setbacks: 1. I lost the keys to my bike, which are probably underneath some amp/keyboard/stompbox. 2. The casing of the external backup hard-drive we bought fell apart. So I had to go to the Mediamarkt and get in a minor fight with one of the employees. After I survived the cold journey to Bijlmer and I showed the drive to the lady at the servicedesk the casing was firmly attached. I told her that it was probably because of the cold and that I would not make the journey for fun, and if she wanted I could pry the thing open. She complied and I got a new drive.
Quote of the day (in Dutch): Je kunt niet altijd pieken! – Pien Feith
Tomorrow we will play four new songs. We are playing in a somewhat stripped-down setting, so we had to come up with some suitable arrangements. It’s nice to try out these songs in front of a crowd!
To be expected are:
no guitars
keyboards
processed drums
The songs on the setlist are: throw the stone, dirty laundry, i have done nothing, and dance on time.
here’s melvin, as I’m also very involved in the new material, I decided it would be fun if I would post updates every now and then. The last week, I have listened to a great numbers of demos Pien and I recorded over the last year and a half. It has taken us so long to write the stuff because we wanted to do something completely different. Goodbye to the dissonant rocksongs, hello to the laptop and electronic sounds. This has led to the creation of four batches of songs. 1. The electronic, dense, brooding songs; 2. uptempo, electronic songs; 3. tearjerking ballads with some additional arrangements, and 4. Acoustic songs with very sparse accompaniment. We are now deciding which songs we will put on the record (there are over 25 songs!), and which songs we are going to keep for the subsequent record (which will not take this long, we promise). Moreover, we are looking for people who can help us produce and mix the songs. If you know (or if you are) a decent producer please let us know (pienfeith (at) gmail.com).
For those interested in all the details. Today, I re-arranged one of the first songs we recorded for the new record: “No Goodbyes”. We recorded the demo in Pien’s old apartment in Utrecht, using a keyboard, acoustic guitar, african finger piano, and a guitar with an octaver. Today, I stripped everything but the vocal takes and came up with a pianopart to go along with Pien. Then I added some Jim White-esque drums (read: very low tuned) drums. I messed around with the vocal takes which led to a radiohead vibe. It still needs some work as the parts are not very tight and the vocals need to be re-recorded. Yet, I’m glad I dug the song out of the musical graveyard.
Een nummer van singer-songwriter Pien Feith is te horen in de nieuwe Amerikaanse film Trucker. Op het moment dat in de film de vrouwelijke vrachtwagenchauffeur over een lange, eenzame weg rijdt en aan haar zieke man denkt, hoor je Bones To Pick van de Amsterdamse. “Het is echt een emo moment van twee minuten”, vertelt ze. “De soundtrackcoördinator kwam bij ons terecht via CDBaby, een online distributiebedrijf. Het nummer moest eerst door alle betrokkenen goedgekeurd worden, van de producer tot aan de regisseur. Maar hij is er doorheen. Het contract is getekend!”
In eerste instantie wil ze niet zeggen hoeveel ze ervoor heeft gekregen. “Dat is niet chique. Oké, duizend dollar. Dat is misschien niet super veel, maar tof is het wel.” Het geld zal opgaan aan nieuwe apparatuur voor de opnames van de opvolger van haar debuut The Wilderness Sound uit maart 2007. Na een stilte van bijna een jaar heeft de zangeres met haar band het repeteren weer opgepakt. “Ik heb de tijd genomen om goed na te denken over wat ik wil. In de tussentijd heb ik samen met Melvin, de gitarist, veel nummers en ruwe schetsen op de computer gemaakt. Tijdens het oefenen moet blijken welke van die nummers ook in bandvorm blijven staan.”
Feith vertelt dat het nieuwe album een stuk elektronischer zal klinken dan de voorganger. “Het wordt geen vette dance, maar meer een mix van Neonbelle (het zijproject van Pien met Jelte Heringa, red.) en de oude Pien Feith. Ik heb veel geleerd bij Neonbelle. Zo ben ik erachter gekomen dat toetsen heel goed bij mijn stem passen. Ik speel dan ook bijna geen gitaar meer, maar keyboard.”
Drummer Sebastiaan Janssen is onlangs vervangen door Pim Verlaek, van de overleden band De Nieuwe Vrolijkheid. “Een verschil in stijl heeft ons doen besluiten met Pim verder te gaan. Dat gaat goed. Maar optreden willen we pas weer na onze release, hopelijk is dat in januari 2010. Ik beloof bij deze dat het prachtig wordt!”
In september komt de film uit in Amerika, het is nog niet duidelijk of hij ook in bioscopen in Europa te zien zal zijn.
I did a cover of a sting’s Englishman in New York for coverclub. This time the theme is ‘Guilty Pleasures’. I have always remembered this song for it’s fantastic weird break, which of course I have included in my version as well.
The Silence is Sexy-guys re-edited the original footage of the video’s, so there’s also a youtube clip. Enjoy!
Be sure to check out the other videos as well.
