00:00:00:15 [Music]
00:00:30:21 Hi! I am Moe Berg.
00:00:32:12 And I am Laurence Currie. Welcome to Master Tracks.
00:00:34:24 We are here in Metalworks Studio and a band called
00:00:36:28 The North has bought in their song All That I Am,
00:00:39:18 and we have one day to make it amazing.
00:00:42:18 And we will.
00:00:45:03 ♪ [Music]
00:00:51:28 We are basically like trying to be,
00:00:54:14 can as next big thing I say,
00:00:57:06 like it sounds kind of lame but,
00:00:59:03 we've all kind of like had roots in Canada
00:01:02:09 and been in different bands and now we are just kind of,
00:01:04:19 trying to see where it takes us, I guess.
00:01:07:21 [Crosstalk]
00:01:20:06 So great to be working with you guys.
00:01:22:11 I really like your song,
00:01:23:25 and so we've talked about it a bit
00:01:26:19 and should we listen to it right now first
00:01:28:18 before we get into this?
00:01:29:27 Track that we are doing today is pretty much just been written
00:01:32:23 like we found out abut the show and we are like, well, we don't
00:01:35:28 really want to do something that we've already done before.
00:01:37:28 So let's see what we have, kind of.
00:01:40:17 And up the time like we always have riffs and different things
00:01:43:03 going like every band member has something kind of in the works
00:01:46:13 and we just started jamming this riff one day and it just kind of
00:01:49:03 developed in this new song, which is kind of like a heavier
00:01:52:10 old country [inaudible] I think.
00:01:54:26 [Music]
00:01:57:28 This is great because I haven't heard this thing.
00:02:01:02 [Music]
00:02:07:28 How old is this?
00:02:09:19 Couple of weeks ago.
00:02:11:08 -Oh really? -Yeah.
00:02:12:18 Wow! And this demo was done then?
00:02:14:18 This is probably the day after it was written.
00:02:16:21 Yeah, this is now in the second verse yet.
00:02:18:24 We are at bridge, right.
00:02:21:15 We talked a bit about maybe doing like an organ over that.
00:02:24:15 [Music]
00:02:28:11 A lot of people will tend to seem like old country or
00:02:30:16 something like that but I've always referred to as country
00:02:32:26 stand rock and roll, this is really how I call it.
00:02:35:10 Okay so, where we are at right now with this song,
00:02:37:17 is that we turn the chorus from minor to major.
00:02:40:18 So to kind of give it more of old country vibe
00:02:44:28 and also we have sort of transformed the chorus
00:02:47:12 so it's a little bit more tied
00:02:50:04 and it's not as... it doesn't go on as long.
00:02:52:08 So it's a little bit more of a tight.
00:02:54:03 That's good, [inaudible] little bit.
00:02:56:00 Yeah, yeah. So all that's happening.
00:02:57:25 We are going to run through it a couple of times and so we will
00:02:59:17 ...like we'll run through it as a band.
00:03:02:08 ♪ [Music]
00:03:15:18 We all have different influences really in the band so mashing
00:03:18:23 together of our styles is really what we've ended up being.
00:03:21:28 So, I don't think any of us ever consciously, like,
00:03:24:18 Oh! We want to be this, we want to be that, we just play it
00:03:26:26 and how it sounds is how it sounds.
00:03:28:28 ♪ [Music]


00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:03:28 They are a great band and what I like about them is
00:00:06:03 a real band like they act like a band,
00:00:07:19 they are joking around with each other,
00:00:09:05 they are obviously friends and
00:00:10:26 they are also really committed to what they are doing.
00:00:14:18 [Music]
00:00:29:18 I have done significant amount of recording I think with
00:00:32:01 a bunch of different bands, different styles, music as well.
00:00:37:13 I personally think I am better suited for live,
00:00:40:28 not to kind of knock myself
00:00:43:20 but you kind of need that precise,
00:00:45:28 everything is probably perfect kind of thing
00:00:48:08 and it's not really my thing.
00:00:50:05 So I think we just need to quickly just rehearse
00:00:53:06 that side stick part because it seems
00:00:54:24 like you are just getting from the one to the other,
00:00:56:18 it just seems to get kind of bogged down.
00:00:59:17 So just try that.
00:01:01:08 [Music]
00:01:18:28 So just like do another du du, and then start it.
00:01:23:16 [Music]
00:01:31:28 Then narrow it, then you do it, then let do du maa du,
00:01:34:24 so that was right.
00:01:36:00 Exactly what you played right now was exactly right.
00:01:37:23 -Okay. -Okay.
00:01:38:24 I just want to rock out, play hard kind of thing,
00:01:40:25 and with recording,
00:01:42:28 yeah, you still rock and play hard kind of bit,
00:01:45:05 but every little thing has got to be perfect
00:01:47:05 and I am just not that perfect.
00:01:49:10 [Music]
00:02:11:18 In some ways that was the best one.
00:02:14:03 In some ways. Yeah.
00:02:16:28 Let's try it, let's try one more.
00:02:20:28 Okay, let's try one more.
00:02:25:07 Yeah, it's a process. It's a process.
00:02:27:28 Nice to say that.
00:02:30:06 [Music]
00:02:36:17 So just we are still in the process of editing the drum,
00:02:39:10 so I am just trying to accelerate the process
00:02:41:00 a little bit because we are...
00:02:42:09 just so that we don't run out of time.
00:02:43:24 So I am going to go over the bass part with Tom now
00:02:46:19 and then... so hopefully when we are actually recording it,
00:02:48:23 we want to spend a lot of time working on it then.
00:02:50:29 [Music]
00:03:07:04 That's all fine. Yeah.
00:03:09:28 Think about like one point and that kind of.
00:03:12:15 Okay, maybe later.
00:03:13:18 -Do it a little later? -Later, yeah.
00:03:14:18 How about when it starts with...
00:03:16:09 starts to go into just [inaudible]
00:03:17:18 D, A, G,
00:03:19:03 instead of just like the... you know this is the B minor and
00:03:21:27 then build on with D [inaudible]
00:03:25:18 So when we are in the tag, like it's one of the core part,
00:03:28:01 yeah, that maybe a good swap for it.
00:03:29:13 Okay, so up until the tag, I will just do like
00:03:32:01 basically what we just did.
00:03:33:29 Yeah.
00:03:35:12 Yeah, I think it is more like one of the things
00:03:37:05 a little more like concise, you want to take out [inaudible]
00:03:41:25 and stuff like that.
00:03:44:01 You just make sure everything kind of has
00:03:45:22 like the punch it needs to,
00:03:47:05 and you just want it to like consistently flow well.
00:03:50:00 [Music]
00:03:52:18 -That's fine too. -Yeah.
00:03:53:28 I like the slide.
00:03:55:15 Okay.
00:03:56:19 Yeah, I think that's going to work.
00:03:57:23 So if you play it like that, I can feel good.
00:04:00:04 Now the drums are being added right now
00:04:01:16 and I am imagining any time soon,
00:04:04:04 I'll just be called in and I'll do it all [inaudible]
00:04:07:28 hopefully we'll throw it down real fast and get these going.
00:04:11:20 [Music]
00:04:27:06 All in all, I thought it was pretty good.
00:04:28:26 Yeah, there is a couple of things that give me a punch in.
00:04:32:08 Okay, I think that first chorus was where
00:04:35:14 that was the one really glaring.
00:04:37:11 Do you want to...
00:04:38:16 how comfortable are you feeling right now with it?
00:04:41:05 Because we could run through one more now
00:04:43:08 that we've finally gone through it once.
00:04:45:20 -Let's do it. -Let's do it.
00:04:48:05 I think you could maybe just get in right all the way through.
00:04:51:12 I didn't exactly do the slide on the same chorus,
00:04:53:08 I forgot to try that, anyways.
00:04:54:28 -Second verse. -Second verse.
00:04:56:28 Yeah.
00:04:57:28 Right, going in chorus.
00:04:59:03 Yeah.
00:05:00:05 Okay, let's do a quick tune there.
00:05:02:08 I think the day is going to be later today.
00:05:04:08 [inaudible] the day hasn't spared it yet.
00:05:09:05 [Music]
00:05:24:13 Yeah, it's 5:30 right now.
00:05:25:28 The bass sort of caught us up and depending on how fast
00:05:29:28 we get up in running with this acoustic,
00:05:31:28 we might be almost be back on track, we'll see.
00:05:35:20 [Music]


00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:02:29 Me and Moe are going to get the work now
00:00:05:04 and I am going to lay down some rhythm.
00:00:06:17 See how it ends up.
00:00:07:25 [Music]
00:00:18:23 This is my Washburn acoustic.
00:00:20:17 Ashley Bernadette's dad gave it to me-well he probably gave it
00:00:23:08 to her but I have kind of adopted it.
00:00:24:25 It is my own and my amps are SWR California Blondes.
00:00:28:08 My, basically best acoustic amp I have ever played
00:00:31:07 it sounds amazing so.
00:00:32:18 This is the same guitar I play on stage all the time.
00:00:34:24 So it's good to play in the studio as well.
00:00:37:08 [Music]
00:00:41:09 So I am just going to stop you there.
00:00:43:19 Like one of the things I was talking to Tom about was like,
00:00:46:01 he is trying to make those
00:00:49:10 like make them sort of like more staccato like
00:00:51:20 because now we have Greg going...
00:00:56:00 [Music]
00:01:03:29 If you want to just roll in every song, just you know...
00:01:08:11 [Music]
00:01:14:28 I am just playing a simple rhythm,
00:01:16:27 I am just basically playing the core of the song
00:01:18:08 and basically in the intro,
00:01:20:07 it was just... it's going to be so technical,
00:01:23:17 you are not going to even realize it
00:01:24:26 but it was going to be
00:01:26:10 [Music]
00:01:30:04 and Moe just wanted to keep that switch to the A there
00:01:32:11 a little bit less wispy so now it's like.
00:01:35:25 [Music]
00:01:39:28 Simple stuff like that, because you are trying to make it
00:01:42:01 because there are two guitars playing all the time
00:01:43:23 so you are trying to make it.
00:01:45:03 So each of them are not necessarily playing exactly
00:01:47:08 the same thing and they are complimenting each other
00:01:49:13 rather than just being resemblance.
00:01:51:29 [Music]
00:02:16:18 You can see now I am playing Stratocaster,
00:02:17:28 it's American made.
00:02:19:23 It's actually Eric Johnson Signature series.
00:02:22:22 I grew up on the Blues, grew up on classic rocks.
00:02:25:18 So I mean, I grew up listening people like Clapton, Zeppelin,
00:02:28:03 Hendrix, all those guys.
00:02:29:13 So I am definitely not into the metal sounds.
00:02:32:12 I am not going for any of that really thrashing type of stuff.
00:02:35:04 Really just like the melody, I like really fat, fat tones.
00:02:38:08 So I actually, I brought a Roland Jazz Chorus Guitar amp
00:02:43:13 but it's not usually what I use.
00:02:44:24 I use Fender DeVille, which has that really nice bluely drive to
00:02:48:18 it and really to crank up all the dials up, it gets...
00:02:52:01 it will be like mind blowing sound.
00:02:53:29 [Music]
00:03:01:28 I wonder if we should go
00:03:06:03 and not play through to the next section.
00:03:08:23 Well, okay yeah, it's interesting.
00:03:10:21 So it will just be the same, both the times.
00:03:12:08 Be the exact same thing both the times.
00:03:14:13 Let's do that in the last chorus.
00:03:16:14 And one of the things, I mean, right off the bat,
00:03:18:28 which was an issue even when we started with the drums
00:03:20:29 was the chorus and how much we wanted that to be
00:03:24:10 really pop through.
00:03:25:16 So the original riff and the riff of the chorus is
00:03:28:07 [Music]
00:03:32:28 Alright, so now that we have that as the chorus,
00:03:35:08 the drummer really has straighten out his riffs
00:03:38:13 in order to get the
00:03:39:17 we wanted that to punch as much as we possible
00:03:42:01 could right.
00:03:43:11 So basically, that's going to be the same rhythm on the bass,
00:03:46:00 the guitars, the drum, and the vocal.
00:03:48:09 So you will really hear popping that comes through.
00:03:50:09 So even in the chorus, we are doing
00:03:53:12 [Music]
00:03:56:18 and one of the things that we had to talk about,
00:03:58:03 Moe and I were just talking,
00:03:59:23 straight down the rhythm that I did where we went from
00:04:02:19 [Music]
00:04:05:18 and I was like doing all the stupid
00:04:06:28 skiddy stuff and all that.
00:04:08:08 Although this didn't work, it will be a lot cleaner this way
00:04:10:29 and a lot heavier, really, in terms of drums and other stuff.
00:04:13:27 Little pressure on the vocals.
00:04:16:15 But we are just about done all the electric guitar.
00:04:19:25 So who knows this could be pretty good if Bernadette
00:04:24:16 kicks it off really fast.
00:04:26:04 We will see.
00:04:26:19 ♪ [Music]
00:04:46:17 We've never really recorded in this kind of process before.
00:04:48:29 I don't think that,
00:04:50:19 like a song and day doesn't seem like such a crazy thing,
00:04:52:28 doesn't work how I used to being-most songs
00:04:54:28 I sing four vocals in a day,
00:04:56:27 and I only do... because it usually...
00:04:58:21 you are there for three weeks or something,
00:05:00:16 you just want to bang out as much as possible.
00:05:02:20 So I think it sounds like it's almost more relaxing
00:05:05:18 because we have actually just focus on the one song
00:05:07:08 and just every little detail of the song
00:05:10:07 being the way we want to be.
00:05:12:15 What kind of attitude can we put into this line?
00:05:15:04 While it was like I was tried to change a little bit in this
00:05:17:08 Because I like when you bring it down,
00:05:18:13 it's little more intimate but I am just wondering,
00:05:20:04 like, I don't want you to sing out loud
00:05:21:28 but I am just wondering what kind of...
00:05:23:16 That changed the way it goes... like a little bit it outgoes
00:05:25:15 but that's why I need to sing the way
00:05:27:08 the other ones are, couldn't leave it.
00:05:29:08 It's just... it's more like it would be good if there is like
00:05:31:27 touch of nastiness to it like, that's the other thing that,
00:05:34:23 you think you know every thing like you
00:05:36:16 would say with the kind of a bit of a.
00:05:39:07 Just say it with a little bit more false.
00:05:41:00 -Yeah. -Yeah.
00:05:41:25 But not louder.
00:05:43:17 Not louder, but just more intense I guess.
00:05:45:09 [Music]
00:06:03:28 Great.
00:06:04:28 Spectacular.
00:06:05:28 That was awesome job.
00:06:07:08 We like it.
00:06:08:18 We are done.
00:06:09:29 Yeah we are done.
00:06:10:25 Excellent.
00:06:12:16 Yeah, that went amazing like Bernodette had just knocked it
00:06:16:15 out of the park like everyone of those takes was great
00:06:19:07 and she just sang with so much confidence.
00:06:21:16 She just, kind of, went up and nailed,
00:06:23:00 like that's exactly what you want to see
00:06:26:02 from a singer that they just walk up to the mic
00:06:27:26 and are not afraid and they know what they want to do and
00:06:29:12 it's all kind of thought out.
00:06:31:03 ♪ [Music]
00:06:44:25 How is that first the second was actually pretty good.
00:06:48:24 It's not bad, it's in the realm that we could fix it later
00:06:51:28 but it's not prefect.
00:06:53:08 Okay, so do you want to just take it again?
00:06:55:28 -Sure. -Okay.
00:06:57:13 One more time.
00:07:00:02 ♪ [Music]


00:00:00:14 [Music]
00:00:03:12 I think when you record something,
00:00:04:28 you just want to have it sound like you sound like you're raw,
00:00:09:03 sounds if someone sees you live, they go, oh my God!
00:00:11:13 It sounds, like it sounds on the CD.
00:00:14:03 [Music]
00:00:21:28 So in this one, the trick was balancing
00:00:25:02 the acoustic guitar with the electric guitars.
00:00:27:09 If the electric guitars were too loud,
00:00:29:21 they would come across too much like a rock band
00:00:32:07 and that is an element of who they are
00:00:34:28 but it's not all of who they are.
00:00:37:10 So we wanted to make sure
00:00:38:28 that the acoustic guitars were loud enough.
00:00:41:03 So we layered two of them just to make a little wider
00:00:44:08 and with each, there is a mic signal
00:00:48:14 that's actually what came off the acoustic guitar
00:00:50:27 and at the same time we ran through an amp
00:00:53:07 to give it a little more power.
00:00:55:06 As you can see, it just changes the tone
00:00:58:24 and takes the high end off a little bit
00:01:00:23 and when you blend all those together.
00:01:06:19 Nice blend actually, and then when you add that
00:01:08:14 with the electric guitars,
00:01:10:02 [Music]
00:01:14:14 it creates a nice texture but it's not just all rock
00:01:17:26 and then when you put it in the track,
00:01:20:15 [Music].
00:01:27:17 You still get the a power of electric guitars
00:01:29:20 and everything but it's not overwhelming the track.
00:01:37:24 At the same time we also had some guitar overdubs.
00:01:41:12 So those, kind of, act as a counter part to the vocal melody
00:01:53:13 and then this last one just kind of paste , kind of,
00:01:54:28 played some drill, to get to the near about of the chorus..
00:01:58:04 [Music]
00:02:03:00 And then the chorus we added one
00:02:04:20 just to be able to build it up,
00:02:06:12 after the vocals.
00:02:07:16 [Music]
00:02:15:13 In the initial one, we had those overdubs
00:02:18:01 because it's like a lot of bands think that
00:02:19:08 they are just rolling through the chorus
00:02:21:07 is an intro and it's like to me,
00:02:23:12 that's, kind of, like walking to a party.
00:02:25:09 It's like there is nothing interesting
00:02:26:17 about walking to a party.
00:02:27:18 The only interesting thing is the party.
00:02:29:08 So it's like we are just rolling to the chord,
00:02:31:03 it's just... there is nothing interesting about it.
00:02:33:13 So, you are throwing overdub a guitar thing.
00:02:34:28 So it's like some kind of a event that happens.
00:02:37:05 So it's kind of like getting mugged on the way to a party.
00:02:40:13 So now when you hear it with the track.
00:02:43:03 [Music]
00:02:49:07 Some singer walk work with their microphone like
00:02:50:18 it's going to shock them or something like that.
00:02:52:25 They are really timid around a mic
00:02:54:13 and some singer just walk up
00:02:55:29 and they are just like today is the day they were born for,
00:02:59:04 to come up and, it's like super bowl Sunday.
00:03:01:17 They come up and there are going to knock this out of the park.
00:03:03:21 So that was Bernodette.
00:03:05:08 Bernodette came up and she really nailed it.
00:03:07:13 So it was pretty easy to record her.
00:03:09:03 She has really has quality to her voice sort of really nice
00:03:11:20 country quality to her voice that help a lot.
00:03:13:02 You know immediately.
00:03:14:13 -Yes. -It's quite that.
00:03:15:17 Let's play a little bit with her.
00:03:17:09 [Music]
00:03:28:17 Good vibe, good style to it, strong.
00:03:31:20 You get the sense that she is actually thinking about
00:03:33:22 what she is singing when she sings it.
00:03:35:12 -You are not thinking too much. -Yes.
00:03:38:09 [Music]
00:03:42:20 Great, now we are going to listen to the finished track
00:03:44:29 and see how the vocals are blended.
00:03:48:27 ♪ [Music]
00:04:07:14 For this song the band hadn't really worked out a lot
00:04:10:07 of this song before we started with them so it was basically,
00:04:13:18 a vocal with not even fully finished lyrics
00:04:17:03 and acoustic guitar.
00:04:18:13 So we sort of forwarded the opportunity to really
00:04:21:08 orchestrate this song and sort of build it.
00:04:23:16 Sometimes it's a really good thing.
00:04:24:28 Sometimes it's great to have a band come in and you just record
00:04:28:08 them and sometimes it's fine to be able to really get involved
00:04:30:14 in every aspect of arranging the song
00:04:32:24 and helping each member to invent their part.
00:04:38:00 ♪ [Music]