THE THORNS 02 - Writing & Demoing

Story of the Thorns, part two. Plus, two demos!

Twenty years ago this month saw the release of The Thorns’ self-titled album on Aware/Columbia Records. In my previous post, I explained how the group was formed. Read part one HERE.

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Once the ink was dry on our contract, we set out to write more songs for our record. We decided that we would co-write all the material. (In the end, there would be just three exceptions, Matthew Sweet’s solo-penned “Now I Know,” a cover of The Jayhawks’ “Blue” and “No Blue Sky,” which was written by Shawn, Glen Phillips, Marshall Altman and me.)

Matthew suggested that we really focus on our harmony vocals—a great call. As we wrote, we worked out our vocal parts. This resulted in songs tailored to our three-part harmonies. This demo of “Among the Living” is a great example. It’s the three of us singing together live around one mic in a hotel room. There are no studio tricks like vocal stacking or doubling.

I made multiple trips to Los Angeles to write. Shawn traveled from his home in Atlanta. Matthew lived in the Hollywood Hills, so his commute was the easiest.

For budgetary reasons, we would no longer be holed up in a world-class studio. We worked in a few different locations, including Le Montrose Hotel in West Hollywood and a 100-acre ranch in Santa Ynez, California. You can see the ranch in the music video for “I Can’t Remember.” Check out the video in part one of this series HERE.

Our time in Santa Ynez was the most memorable of all the writing trips. We would sit on the porch with acoustic guitars in the sweltering Summer heat and do the work. Once we finished a song, we would gather around a single mic and lay it down live. Often, the one who brought the song to the table would play the guitar while the other two lent their harmonies. Matthew handled the engineering duties on his laptop.

I brought the rough ideas for four of the album’s thirteen songs to the party: “Runaway Feeling,” “Think it Over,” Long, Sweet Summer Night,” and “I Set the World on Fire.” That said, the writing process was always very collaborative.

Another song I brought to the party did not make it onto the album. It’s a folky number called “Blue as You.” A few years later, Shawn included it on his album 9th Ward Pickin’ Parlor. Here is our demo from the ranch in Santa Ynez:

During our time in Santa Ynez, we wrote the song “Thorns” and Matthew suggested that The Thorns would be a great band name. More on our battle with the label over the name in a future post. Spoiler alert: The Rolling Stones would be instrumental in convincing the president of Columbia Records to agree to let us use the name.

Soon we were looking for a producer. One candidate was Brendan O’Brien, who had produced three solo albums for me and two for Matthew, including the hit record 100% Fun. In addition to his history with two-thirds of the band, he was super tight with the head honcho at Columbia, Donny Ienner. So he was a shoo-in for the gig if he wanted it.

We sent Brendan our demos. He was knocked out and interested. Before signing on, he suggested we all get together in the studio to get a feel for our chemistry. He and his engineer, Nick DiDia, chartered a private jet and flew from Atlanta to Los Angeles with a few choice vintage mics in tow.

We set up shop at another legendary studio, Sunset Sound. Everyone from Sinatra to The Doors to Van Halen had made classic records there. Of particular interest to me was the fact that The Rolling Stones had put the finishing touches on Exile on Main Street in the very room we’d be working in.

We set up in the live room with acoustic instruments and tracked two songs: “Among the Living” and “Dragonfly.” These basic tracks turned out great, and Brendan announced that we had officially begun making the record. He was in. He suggested we overdub drums to our new tracks and asked the three of us whom we’d like to get. We replied in unison: Jim Keltner!

The Thorns with Jim Keltner. 2002.

Many of you will be familiar with Keltner. He’s one of the most legendary session musicians of all time. He’s played with a who’s who of fellow legends: Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Neil Young and Tom Petty, to name a few. He was the sixth Traveling Wilbury, for God’s sake! He and Charlie Watts collaborated on The Charlie Watts-Jim Keltner Project. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Brendan made the call, and the next day a drum tech known as The Drum Doctor arrived with a vintage Ludwig drum kit. He set it up the way Jim liked it. As he entered the studio, Jim was pleased that we chose to use vintage drums. We were off on the right foot. The sessions went swimmingly. Everything clicked and sounded fantastic. We were on our way.

Brendan and Nick returned to their homes in Atlanta while Matthew, Shawn and I stayed hunkered down at Sunset Sound to continue writing and demoing. In addition to working on our own music, we cut a cover version of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Carry On” for possible inclusion in a Super Bowl commercial. We did not win the gig.

Soon, we were making plans to convene at Brendan’s home base in Atlanta, Southern Tracks Recording. Stay tuned for a post about the recording of the album in part three.

Peace & Love Songs,

Pete

PS: Normally, the audio I post is available to paid subscribers via my “Rarities” page. However, no downloads are available for “Among the Living (Demo)” or “Blue as You (Demo).” The tracks are available via the streaming player on this page only.