Mood Makers

The living room studio had been taken over by gear: a 1/2" 8-track reel-to-reel (with one broken track), a large mixing board, 2 drum sets, many keyboards, guitars, an old upright and extremely out-of-tune piano, basses, amps, and bags of cables intertwined with toy musical instruments.

The Kimball Caravan sat next to the Optigan and both instruments faced out toward the window, overlooking the forest where deer drifted by slowly in the evenings. Some wore flowers in their antlers. The sound of crickets was constant and receded into an ambient backdrop they easily filtered out while recording only to be later detect it on tape.

Mixes were team events which physically resembled a game of twister. Arms overlapped and everyone waited their turn. Mistakes were made. Mixes were ruined.

Occasionally, frustrations flared. But eventually, things panned out right. Group hugs occurred. The deer nodded knowingly.

The song below comes from the room above and its goal was simple: record a song around a single, live take from the Caravan. Then track 6 additional instruments: drums, bass, slide guitar, hammond organ, toy xylophone.

Enjoy!

Mood Makers by airkingsound