00:00:00:15 [Music]
00:00:30:28 Hi! I am Laurence Currie.
00:00:32:23 And I am Moe Berg, welcome to Master Tracks.
00:00:34:23 We are in the studio today with Mamabolo
00:00:37:00 and we are doing the song...
00:00:39:12 Close Your Eyes.
00:00:40:27 And we have got one day to do it here at Metalworks.
00:00:44:04 Let's do it well.
00:00:45:16 Oh yeah! We are.
00:00:46:23 Cool.
00:00:48:14 ♪ [Music]
00:00:54:18 So we have been together I guess maybe about 8 months,
00:00:58:09 it started with Rob and I
00:01:01:04 just writing songs at home on GarageBand
00:01:03:18 and then we wanted to figure out a way to perform it.
00:01:08:21 ♪ [Music]
00:01:16:28 I know Rob and Barb had been working on these songs
00:01:20:19 for a while in different context,
00:01:22:18 I think originally they started up
00:01:23:28 doing more electronic versions of it
00:01:27:02 and actually when I heard the demos I was like,
00:01:29:04 I think what you guys want is actually a real drummer
00:01:31:12 like a real band
00:01:32:26 and sure enough few months later they called me up saying,
00:01:35:18 hey Ben, do you want to play some guitar,
00:01:37:03 I think we are going to do this as a band.
00:01:38:20 It's a much longer process in a studio like this,
00:01:42:01 like we are spending whole day on one song
00:01:44:07 whereas we did three songs
00:01:46:04 in same amount of time at the home studio.
00:01:48:13 Here you are working with the ProGear
00:01:51:24 and all the toys that come with it.
00:01:54:22 In the home studio you are working under the influence of
00:01:57:22 drugs and alcohol, so really it's straight off.
00:02:00:25 [Crosstalk]
00:02:08:25 I am very excited to be working with you guys.
00:02:10:29 I think you are a very cool band.
00:02:12:11 And so we will work on your song.
00:02:13:28 I think we are just... a lot of this just can be kind of
00:02:15:20 rearranging it a bit so the part sort of makes sense
00:02:18:06 and we can maximize the hook
00:02:19:29 and just getting some cool sounds
00:02:21:17 and I mean you already sort of have cool sounds already.
00:02:24:13 So it won't that be much of a stretch,
00:02:26:18 we will just kind of try and capture what you guys really...
00:02:27:28 I listening to the demo, I mean I am not sure how you did it
00:02:30:28 but there is some cool stuff on there
00:02:32:22 so you know we will just sort of maximize that a little more
00:02:35:22 and that would be great.
00:02:38:10 Let's go in there.
00:02:39:26 So yeah, we are just setting up the band now.
00:02:41:12 Laurence is getting everything sort of organized
00:02:43:15 and we are sort of strategizing how we are going to record this.
00:02:45:25 Guitar is got to be recorded in two stages
00:02:47:17 and we are going to see when we get live
00:02:49:22 and we are going to see what we get as an overdub.
00:02:51:25 So yeah, I mean there is not a lot of elements
00:02:53:22 so we sort of have the freedom to sort of figure out
00:02:55:09 how we can best get what we need for this.
00:02:59:01 ♪ [Music]
00:03:14:07 The track is called Close Your Eyes.
00:03:16:06 How this song came about was really because
00:03:18:08 we have a bunch of slow songs,
00:03:21:12 we started off, we have a lot of ballads
00:03:24:01 and so we thought that was a little boring.
00:03:26:15 And we had one tempo disco song and we are like, awesome,
00:03:30:21 we really love this but there should be more of it.
00:03:32:26 So this song was written sort of as a compliment to that one.
00:03:36:07 ♪ [Music]
00:03:42:18 So, it's like of its own.
00:03:45:10 ♪ [Music]
00:03:49:28 With Mamabolo we are always trying to mix up genres.
00:03:52:21 Usually, something like we... solo song with like a rock style
00:03:59:09 and this one was just sort of like the psychedelic with disco
00:04:03:09 and this was that, that was this sort of idea behind this one.
00:04:05:13 What would happen if The Beatles decided to do disco,
00:04:07:25 that was the idea behind writing the song.
00:04:12:06 And I think the issue with the song is that all the elements
00:04:15:07 are there but they are not really in the right order
00:04:17:18 to maximize the potential of the song so there has been...
00:04:21:22 we are going to do a lot of rearranging of the song
00:04:23:14 and I think the only other issues are kind of like
00:04:25:18 getting the right, how we are going to deal with the sounds,
00:04:27:27 there is a lot of sort of effect the guitar sound...
00:04:29:19 A lot of space.
00:04:30:28 Yeah, and we have to figure out like how we want to get
00:04:32:18 those effects and then also the keyboards, what keyboard sounds.
00:04:36:22 So yeah, this should be really good.
00:04:38:28 What we wanted to get today
00:04:40:08 we want to get a really get recording,
00:04:42:01 we have not had any of our songs mixed or mastered properly.
00:04:47:03 So this is really exciting for us
00:04:49:08 and also being able to be record here at Metalworks is awesome,
00:04:53:20 like it's a great studio
00:04:55:08 and I think we are really lucky to have this opportunity.
00:04:58:15 [Music]


00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:04:08 I think we had some delicious Italian sandwiches,
00:00:06:09 I had like a bread and chicken one and then a sausage one,
00:00:08:25 they are both delightful and nice fresh roll.
00:00:11:07 And it was kind of build your own sandwich, which I like
00:00:14:05 because I am very particular about what goes on a sandwich,
00:00:16:14 and a nice sauce, it was very good, very good.
00:00:18:18 No complaints at all.
00:00:19:28 [Music]
00:00:24:09 We just finished the beds for Close Your Eyes
00:00:28:17 and I came back in just now to
00:00:32:06 just lay down some beats by myself.
00:00:37:08 The tempo was click.
00:00:39:10 I felt like I was having to pull back but I don't know if that's
00:00:42:20 just because I have had too much coffee.
00:00:44:27 We could also go up like...
00:00:47:11 Let's go up one and just see what happens.
00:00:49:12 Let's try a take, shall we?
00:00:52:18 We only have a day to track this song like in its entirety
00:00:57:01 or if there isn't a tape that
00:01:00:19 has a perfect 100% perfect performance.
00:01:03:02 [Music]
00:01:05:01 We will have to take the little bits
00:01:06:20 from other performances but yeah like
00:01:09:03 there are a lot of cymbals ringing and stuff like that,
00:01:12:17 so there is like one part of the song
00:01:15:21 where everything drops down.
00:01:18:01 [Music]
00:01:20:16 Just keeping time on the bass drum and then you have to
00:01:22:18 wait for the cymbals to decay before you can punch in
00:01:26:17 otherwise you will totally hear it when you play it back,
00:01:29:28 it's like you hit the cymbal differently from one time
00:01:32:18 to the next so you would hear the little glitch.
00:01:35:25 Let's take it once more from the build out.
00:01:39:06 So just the frantic part...
00:01:41:03 The song ends with this kind of crazy cute moment.
00:01:45:13 Oh! You want me to play it for you,
00:01:47:28 it's just crazy, it's just like
00:01:50:03 it's supposed to be kind of chaotic like...
00:01:52:03 [Music]
00:01:58:08 it's not supposed to be very structured and fancy.
00:02:02:11 It's supposed to be kind of dirty and chaotic.
00:02:04:13 But it's surprising how difficult that is
00:02:07:11 to capture sometimes.
00:02:09:14 [Music]
00:02:17:18 The problem is that it's random enough
00:02:20:23 that pasting pieces together...
00:02:23:19 It's sort of going to be like that was great,
00:02:26:25 let's use that one.
00:02:27:28 Do you want to get one more shot?
00:02:28:28 -Sure. -Okay.
00:02:31:28 Got one more in you?
00:02:33:12 Sure.
00:02:34:13 Great. Let's do it, same slot.
00:02:36:25 So we just finished the drums.
00:02:38:20 Dean, their drummer is excellent drummer so we got a great drum
00:02:41:23 track and now Laurence and Wayne are just doing a small bit of
00:02:45:10 tiny, tiny bit of editing to it
00:02:46:28 and we will be ready to finish the bass.
00:02:48:29 We have a lot of the bass already
00:02:50:03 so we are looking really good.
00:02:51:28 [Music]
00:02:56:07 What I play with now I got from a garage sale for $200
00:03:00:15 like, and I think it belonged to an elementary school friend.
00:03:04:06 And I was so playing with that old bass,
00:03:07:20 as far as sound, I haven't been playing bass
00:03:12:03 for that long really so I haven't
00:03:14:09 really developed much of a sense of what I wanted to sound like
00:03:17:04 but basically it's just having good timing just being like on,
00:03:21:04 that's all I care about, it is not about being fancy,
00:03:23:05 it's just like keep it simple, keep it tight
00:03:26:03 and that's sort of my whole theory about it.
00:03:29:22 -That was great. -Okay, thanks.
00:03:32:04 That was... and there was just one node that you miss but
00:03:34:16 I know, I know, I got so close to being drum note...
00:03:36:23 I thought there was going to be a one take.
00:03:40:00 I am actually disappointed by myself.
00:03:42:24 Well, you shouldn't be, that was like...
00:03:44:02 I am usually like...
00:03:45:12 That's probably the bass day we have had in the entire series.
00:03:48:21 I think it makes a lot more sense.
00:03:50:22 At first the arrangement, I was like,
00:03:51:28 oh, it's so different, it's crazy
00:03:57:03 but our arrangement I think he called it more of
00:03:59:10 a rush type arrangement.
00:04:02:05 So this is like a little bit,
00:04:04:12 it's a bit more listener friendly
00:04:06:16 and it's just... I think it's all going to come together,
00:04:08:16 it's a lot more cohesive.
00:04:11:05 I am excited.
00:04:12:12 Oh! It's stellar, yeah.
00:04:14:12 How does it feels to you?
00:04:15:24 Fine.
00:04:16:28 The one take wonder.
00:04:19:03 That was the closest to the one take, it was the two take.
00:04:22:27 So we just finished the bass. Bass went extremely well,
00:04:25:03 Allyn is a very talented bass player.
00:04:26:29 It was practically one take so she maybe the Master Tracks MVP.
00:04:32:01 So we are finished out, we are going to set the guitars
00:04:35:01 and tramped in the big room and we will record the guitars,
00:04:37:15 get a real big airy sound.
00:04:41:08 [Music]
00:04:46:22 Well, the guitar is a Gretsch Electromatic,
00:04:49:15 it's basically the scaled down version of
00:04:51:13 the beautiful Gretsch that we all love and covet.
00:04:54:00 But the differences aren't really that extreme
00:04:57:22 and mainly pick-ups are a bit different and the bridges
00:05:00:12 and the tuner is a little bit more lower and...
00:05:02:24 [inaudible] if you place all the parts...
00:05:05:08 Until I end up with it.
00:05:07:14 Yeah.
00:05:08:19 Changes pickup and... For 2500 instead of 3000.
00:05:11:15 In terms of pedals what am I using,
00:05:13:24 to get the distorted sound,
00:05:15:07 we went through a lot of fuzz pedals,
00:05:16:23 but eventually we just came back to the original idea
00:05:20:10 which was the little small no name amp
00:05:22:10 with MXR micro amp pedal just boosting the volume up
00:05:27:09 as loud as we could go hitting that little amp
00:05:29:27 and definitely the loud signal and comes up really nice.
00:05:34:17 [Music]
00:05:43:18 This sounds fantastic.
00:05:45:21 Just keep playing, just keep playing.
00:05:47:27 [Music]
00:05:51:00 Bring that tone down a bit.
00:05:54:04 Yeah, just keep doing that.
00:05:56:09 It will be like...
00:05:58:14 Yeah, kind of like...
00:06:01:14 [Music]
00:06:08:28 It's pretty cool.
00:06:10:23 [Music]
00:06:18:13 Excellent. That was great.
00:06:19:28 Do that again.
00:06:21:08 It was perfect.
00:06:22:28 Basically, a lot of the big changes that happens is sort of
00:06:24:24 simplifying of the parts,
00:06:26:14 you know when the song first started off,
00:06:28:24 long time when we first wrote it
00:06:31:08 my parts were always little bit kind of lose and jangly
00:06:34:00 and I had lot of room to kind of fiddle around.
00:06:36:18 But Moe has sort of more of a idea like
00:06:41:03 where the song has centered around
00:06:42:29 and where that sound is getting some space for the vocals.
00:06:46:08 And like for example, in the chorus part originally
00:06:48:18 I was playing something kind of little more fiddly like...
00:06:50:25 [Music]
00:06:55:13 I think that's really a good part, but I almost wonder if
00:06:57:10 it would be better if it was all that simple, that's like...
00:07:01:18 Then it would be kind of more...
00:07:03:24 [Music]
00:07:10:25 Which I mean this isn't quite as much fun to play and
00:07:13:08 this is showoffie but definitely it's a bit more catchy
00:07:16:24 and works in the song a little bit better I think.
00:07:19:16 Okay, we just did Benjamin's guitars, did a great job.
00:07:22:07 We did two different things.
00:07:23:09 We had sort of a tremolo effect guitar
00:07:25:28 then we had buzzy stun guitar
00:07:28:07 and he did a great job at both.
00:07:30:03 So we are on two organ now.
00:07:32:03 [Music]
00:07:39:28 Bringing in modes has runied it, it was good
00:07:43:17 he thought we go a different way...
00:07:46:23 he was great, he changed it...
00:07:49:02 yeah, this band has never worked with a producer so it was cool.
00:07:52:18 Then he came in and said, what about this, and we are like,
00:07:55:14 hey, producers you know ask whatever you want.
00:07:58:07 And of his ideas were great, made sound better, more dynamic.
00:08:02:18 Do it again?
00:08:04:14 Yeah and the other thing is that you got to...
00:08:07:22 oh no, it's happening again.
00:08:10:05 So when we have those two double choruses,
00:08:11:23 it almost seems like a boo, boo, boo.
00:08:13:03 It would be good if you went to a like a higher chord
00:08:15:18 like the same chord but on a higher place,
00:08:18:10 so if he went to like higher, super-duper.
00:08:21:06 So try again with those two changes and we should have it.
00:08:23:28 Let's give it a shot.
00:08:25:03 Moe suggested rather than hitting it like that
00:08:28:28 than I keep it sustain to go up an octave, so we go,
00:08:31:24 oh no, it's happening again.
00:08:35:02 [Music]
00:08:37:03 Oh no, it's happening again.
00:08:40:27 [Music]
00:08:43:28 That's super-sexy, he is going to that high thing.
00:08:46:28 It went good.
00:08:49:00 We did the keys midi so even when I make mistakes,
00:08:52:08 they are easy to fix so...
00:08:54:18 Don't worry about the audio channel;
00:08:56:04 it's going to go the midi...
00:08:57:28 We recorded the organ, we recorded it as an audio track
00:09:00:03 and as an midi track and so now Laurence and Wayne are
00:09:03:24 looking at the midi track.
00:09:05:08 There is a lot you can do to manipulate the midi track,
00:09:08:05 Laurence had much better sense with organ,
00:09:10:01 so he is mixing it a lot like sort of like more B3 sound.
00:09:13:11 But if you wanted to get the whistles,
00:09:17:08 so they are just trying to see
00:09:19:09 if they can straighten it out a bit so it's in perfect time.
00:09:22:01 [Music]


00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:03:28 Be Quiet because we are going to record.
00:00:10:20 ♪ [Music]
00:00:23:28 Well, I think Moe blew us away when he came,
00:00:26:18 he came to one of our rehearsals
00:00:28:12 and he rearranged the song for us
00:00:30:22 and I think it made such a huge difference,
00:00:33:05 I think it sounds so much better
00:00:34:21 and it's more, it flows way better now.
00:00:38:01 ♪ [Music]
00:00:53:08 And I think he found what was great about it
00:00:56:13 and now it's more organic and more listenable item,
00:01:01:13 now it has a real life
00:01:04:21 whereas before it was sort of mix and match.
00:01:07:06 I don't think it was a whole cohesive song.
00:01:10:13 So I think he made the song sound way more cohesive.
00:01:15:09 So when you say, don't you wonder why, it seems like
00:01:19:07 you are kind of rushing to the end of that.
00:01:20:28 You go, makes me wonder why.
00:01:25:11 Seems like you got there too fast.
00:01:27:14 Just kind of draw that out a bit.
00:01:29:09 -Other than that it was awesome. -Cool.
00:01:30:13 And I forgot to do that thing,
00:01:31:20 but what did you think of the end, I don't know.
00:01:33:11 I don't think that works.
00:01:34:08 I don't know if that was the one,
00:01:35:18 like if you want to try something that's cool
00:01:36:28 but I am not sure that was exactly...
00:01:38:25 -Yeah. -Okay. We will get it.
00:01:41:04 I wanted the song to be a big hit
00:01:44:02 and make us a lot of money
00:01:45:10 and make us a lot of fans and stuff.
00:01:49:08 Yeah, I mean eventually we would like to put together
00:01:51:27 a whole album.
00:01:52:24 We have not done that yet.
00:01:53:29 And we are lucky, we would love to produce it
00:01:57:08 in a place like this where we have so many options
00:02:01:17 and great sound quality
00:02:03:09 and experienced producers,
00:02:04:23 I think that's what we really need as a band,
00:02:06:23 is a producer to come in and rearrange our songs
00:02:08:24 because I think we really learned a good lesson
00:02:10:18 here that we need somebody else's opinion.
00:02:14:16 ♪ [Music]
00:02:28:08 So we just finished tracking lead vocals
00:02:32:00 and they went extremely well
00:02:33:15 and now Wayne is being a great guy and
00:02:37:09 editing them up to Moe's standard.
00:02:40:15 And once that's done, we will do all the backing vocals
00:02:43:23 and we will be done for the night.
00:02:46:09 It would be awesome.
00:02:50:12 ♪ [Music]
00:02:59:28 I am just singing, just backing-up part basically.
00:03:03:28 Our voices just sound good together,
00:03:07:07 they are totally different but for whatever reason they just,
00:03:09:29 they blend well.
00:03:11:08 So I love singing with her and it's always,
00:03:13:22 that's my favorite thing to hear at the end of a recording,
00:03:16:28 just hearing how the vocals go.
00:03:18:13 So we just finished the back-up vocals.
00:03:20:13 Allyn came in, did some beautiful back-up vocals
00:03:23:14 and Rob added a harmony as well.
00:03:26:12 I Sing, owww!
00:03:28:28 Well, all we have to do now is mix it.
00:03:30:03 It's going to sound amazing.
00:03:31:22 [Music]


00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:06:10 Now, this was a lot of fun.
00:00:08:21 Yeah, yeah.
00:00:09:22 -I love doing this track. -Yeah.
00:00:11:07 Wasn't our normal fair for Mater Tracks which is great.
00:00:15:09 -Yeah. -I mean,
00:00:16:10 what's great about Mamabolo is that they are
00:00:18:26 they are artists.
00:00:19:27 What's great about that is that they sort of
00:00:21:28 aesthetic about everything they do
00:00:23:23 and so everyone had a good sound
00:00:25:15 and everyone had a really cool part.
00:00:27:15 So it kind of brings a whole,
00:00:30:08 a lot of what we might have to bring to that
00:00:31:28 they have already kind of conjured up in their own mind
00:00:34:01 and it's a lot different than what probably
00:00:36:04 what we would have brought to it.
00:00:37:16 So it made this track really unique.
00:00:39:23 And another thing I like about this track is that
00:00:41:13 it's really sparse and a lot of times
00:00:43:23 what we will do to try
00:00:46:17 and make something sound sort of modern and professional,
00:00:49:26 kind of layer stuff and make it sound
00:00:51:24 Larger than life.
00:00:52:25 Larger than life, exactly, perfect.
00:00:54:05 And so with this track we did the exact opposite.
00:00:55:26 We just kind of let everyone play their part
00:00:57:12 and we kind of stayed out of the way in some ways.
00:00:59:28 Yeah.
00:01:00:28 And in some ways we didn't stay out of the way.
00:01:02:04 -So let's play it. -Yeah.
00:01:03:24 [Music]
00:01:06:00 So the track starts out with an organ and the vocals.
00:01:10:29 The organ was done midi originally here in the studio.
00:01:14:19 So I ended up putting a different sound on it
00:01:17:16 for the final mix.
00:01:19:28 [Music]
00:01:21:15 I think it sounds pretty good.
00:01:22:11 It's sound great. I love it, yeah.
00:01:23:26 Yeah.
00:01:25:01 And there is really just the bass playing away,
00:01:27:24 drums and one guitar.
00:01:30:03 So it comes in every once in a while.
00:01:32:02 -Yeah. -Pretty occasionally actually.
00:01:33:22 [Music]
00:01:36:28 We have put mics up in the room specifically
00:01:39:25 to get the room sound,
00:01:40:27 there is no added reverb to it
00:01:42:19 except maybe a little from the amp.
00:01:44:18 -Yeah. -Little bit,
00:01:45:29 but that's been to the room.
00:01:47:11 ♪ [Music]
00:01:50:28 Now one thing that was sort of unique for this track
00:01:53:16 was a lot of the vocal lines were doubled
00:01:56:23 -but by the other singer, right. -Yeah.
00:01:58:08 So they sang at the same time so
00:02:01:15 ♪ [Music]
00:02:07:28 Yes, it's almost more like a duet
00:02:09:10 where the other singer was basically singing in harmony
00:02:13:08 almost through the entire song.
00:02:15:16 Yeah.
00:02:16:11 ♪ [Music]
00:02:22:27 The drums were great on this one,
00:02:24:02 there was no problems wtih that
00:02:25:06 They sounded great, he is great drummer.
00:02:27:00 Yeah, great drummer, and by that drum sound you got is
00:02:29:27 this is phenomenal super Indie rock sound.
00:02:31:27 I really like it.
00:02:32:28 It fits this track amazingly well.
00:02:34:20 [Music]
00:02:37:06 Yeah, the first time I heard about the mixes
00:02:38:29 I just freaked out with the drum sound.
00:02:40:20 So we also added a couple sort of buzzy guitars.
00:02:44:07 Again, they have got the room sound,
00:02:46:24 that's the sound of the room in there.
00:02:51:21 And Benjamin, the guitar player had a lot of really cool guitars
00:02:54:19 and cool amps and really just
00:02:56:20 so he had really interesting sounds
00:02:58:04 that he kind of came with.
00:02:59:13 [Music]
00:03:14:08 I would like some normal pop songs
00:03:15:15 where you try to sort of make like chorus the big part,
00:03:17:26 it actually...the entire song sort of crescendos up
00:03:21:09 to the big point at the end which is really nice.
00:03:23:24 Yeah. It turned out really great.
00:03:25:00 I am super, super happy with this track.
00:03:26:22 It turned out great.
00:03:27:23 ♪ [Music]