FADING FAST 04 - On the Record

Two alternate versions plus a radio interview!

For the New Moon, two alternate versions of my latest single, “Fading Fast.”

And as a bonus, my interview with KPTZ radio.

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Welcome to On the Record, where I pull the curtain back on my recording process. To read about the songwriting process for “Fading Fast,” visit my previous post From the Sketchbook.

DEMO #2 BECOMES THE BASIC TRACK

Here’s a rough mix of the second demo I cut for “Fading Fast.” It would ultimately become the basic track¹ for the single. The way I usually make records, the basic would include drums, bass and guitars all cut together live, often with a scratch² vocal track. Due to the pandemic and my fatigue issues, I’m approaching my new recordings differently. Rather than working with a full band, I’m building tracks starting with just guitar and vocals.

TO BLEED OR NOT TO BLEED?

In some cases, I record the vocal and guitar simultaneously. While this is ideal for getting a natural feel between the two, this results in bleed³. For “Fading Fast,” I wanted to avoid bleed, so I decided to track the guitars and vocals separately.

GUITAR AND MORE GUITAR!

To begin, I set up a click track to keep time and make it easier for a drummer to play along later. Then, I recorded a scratch vocal and guitar on one mic to use as a guide. Next, I recorded a fingerstyle acoustic guitar along with the guide, immediately double-tracked it and added sprongs⁴. I doubled the sprongs too.

Tracking “Fading Fast” Demo #1 on my Goodall Grand Concert.

VOCALS AND A PUNT

The next day, with my guitars in place, I moved on to lead vocals. Like my acoustic guitars, I double-tracked the vocals. At this point, I knocked out a quick rough mix and moved on. I was not terribly excited about the track. It felt too relaxed. It did not clock along in the way I’d hoped it would. And so, I moved on and decided to take a stab at another demo.

ONE-MAN BAND THEORY

For Demo #3, I started with a drum loop played on my vintage Ludwig kit. Then, rather than repeating the fingerstyle guitar I tried in Demo #2, I went for a strummy approach using both standard and high-strung acoustic guitars. I rounded out the arrangement with bass and vocals.

Listening to this version now, it’s not bad. It’s not great, either. My limitations as a drummer are what’s holding it back the most. The repetition of the drum loop lacks the excitement and subtle variety a live performance would bring. Plus, the whole track feels pretty middle-of-the-road. Deeming this version vanilla Americana, I printed a quick rough mix and moved on.

THE MAGIC BULLET

Sometime later, after punting on my full-band arrangement, I returned to Demo #2 and fell in love with the vocal performance. Then, I found the ingredient that made Demo #2 really come to life.

The magic bullet? A drum machine! Replacing the boring metronomic click track with a groovy little beatbox made all the difference. It hinted at what real drums might eventually add to the groove. Suddenly I was super excited about this version and decided it had that thing—that hard-to-pin-down x-factor that transforms a recording into a record.

IN THE HANDS OF TRUSTED COLLABORATORS

The next recording phase took place in Los Angeles at the studio of my co-producer, Paul Bryan. Paul is best known as bassist and producer for Aimee Mann. In addition to Paul on bass, we enlisted Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant & Alison Kraus, T-Bone Burnett) on drums and Lee Pardini (from the band Dawes) on electric piano.

For more on how this remote collaboration worked, check out my radio interview with Ward Serril on KPTZ.

Are you digging what I’m sharing here on Love Songs Etc? Please consider showing the love by becoming a paid subscriber if you haven’t already. Your financial support will help to make the next round of recordings possible. Thank you kindly!

Peace & Love Songs,

Pete

PS: Paid subscribers can download both demos by visiting my rarities page.

1. Basic tracks are the initial instruments laid down as the foundation of a recording.

2. A scratch track is one recorded with the intention of being replaced later.

3. Bleed is where a microphone picks up the sound of another instrument. IE: vocal on your guitar track and guitar on your vocal track.

4. Sprongs are long notes played with a raking motion with lots of space between strums.