Life Is Sweeter… Released December 19, 2007
The recording of “Life Is Sweeter…” wasn’t always sweet. It was my first real record. It took about a year to make. I really wanted it to be great.
I went into the studio to record 11 songs that were all written within that year. I actually started off only recording two songs “Big City Life,” and “Worst Looking Man” in December of ’06.
With the exception of the song “Punished”, all the rest of the songs were written relatively close to recording them. I really wanted to encapsulate my first 2 years of living in New York City on this record.
In hindsight, the easiest part of the process was recording the drums and bass. Felipe Torres on the drums, and Ricardo Rodriguez on the bass both did spectacular jobs.
Besides “Worst Looking Man,” and “Big City Life” that was already recorded by Felipe, and Ricardo, I believe they cut all their track’s for the final 9 songs in a day or two.
Here’s an interesting story that I was just reminded of. My plans were to record the record analog and digital. I recorded the drums, bass, and some guitars to analog 2” tape. That way I would get the warmest rhythm section sound that I could get.
It turned out that without me knowing, the studio used the last recording artist’s 2” tape reel instead of opening up a new one which would’ve cost a few hundred dollars. I would’ve had to pay that anyways but it was never mentioned to me.
This artist happened to be Dan Torres, Felipe’s brother. Felipe, Ricardo, and I were Dan’s band prior to me recording “LIS…” We had all just played on Dans record, and now unknowingly were recording over Dans 2” masters.
We realized this when Felipe was counting in the start of a song. As the song was beginning there was another count in with his voice. He couldn’t get the timing right to start the song. It turned out that the count in that he was hearing was his voice counting in a song from his brothers record. What a trip.
I’m assuming that all of Dans masters were transferred to digital before we recorded over them so all was good. It’s still interesting to me that my album was recorded over a real masterpiece in Dans record “Where I Stand.” A little bit haunting.
I was also the producer on this record, and I was paying a lot of money in this really great studio. All though I had experience as an engineer, I was not doing any of that. Mike Presta was doing a great job engineering. Where I ran into some problems was in the mixing stage.
The reason I decided to record at The Engine Room in Chinatown, NYC is because I had played some guitar on Dan Torres’s record that was made there like I mentioned. I was loving the sounds that he got on his record with Mark Christensen mixing. Mark did a great job on Dans record. Mark also recorded another friend of ours named Jamie Rae. It seemed logical for me to record there all well.
Mark stepped in when it was time to mix. Mark was a great engineer and I was expecting the same magic that Dan had. That was just not the case with me. I recorded all 11 songs and when I was finished it didn’t sound like what I was hearing in my head.
At this point all the songs were very simply produced. The only instruments were guitars, bass, drums, vocals, and a trumpet line on “Lancelot.”
I thought ok, let’s spice this up a bit. I hired a cellist, and violinist to come in and play on “Turned Around,” and “Slip.” Later I hired another violinist to play on “The Meaning.” I hired a horn section to play on “Worst Looking Man.”
I even brought my engineer to another studio in Soho called The Magic Shop where they had a grand piano. There I played piano on “Hello, My Dear,” and “Fit in.” They also had a beautiful Hammond organ so I hired a fantastic organ player to play on “Punished.”
I really kicked it up a notch adding all this instrumentation from these great musicians. Now we just needed to mix again.
After completely mixing the record for a second time, I was still not happy. It didn’t sound like I wanted it to. Even know this was only my first record, I was no stranger to recording. I’d been recording demos by myself since I was a kid and had great expectations for this record. This time I wasn’t the engineer nor did I want to be.
Mark was a great engineer but this just proved that he wasn’t the right person for me at that time. I do have a lot of respect for him.
I want to mention that during the mixing sessions I would walk out into the hallway where there were also other studio rooms. There was one small little studio that I would walk by where the door would be slightly open, and the lights would be off. All you could see in there were the recording gear lights. What you heard coming out of there was amazing.
I was struggling to get a sound and what I was hearing from this little room was the sound I wanted.
As time went by I got to meet this engineer in the common area. We had a great conversation. His name was Mike Rogers. I told Mike that I really loved the sounds that he was getting. It was very tight, slick, and very pro sounding. It sounded like the record that I wanted to make. He was getting the sound that I heard in my head.
After talking for a while about it, we came to the conclusion that I was going to give Mike one of my songs that was all ready finished, and let him remix it.
I didn’t even need to be there with Mike. I just wanted to hear what he could do. When it was time to listen, I was blown away. I had given him “Freakshow” to mix. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was way above my expectations. The drums were pounding. The guitars in your face.
At that point there I knew that he had to mix my whole album. Luckily for me we came up with an arrangement for him to do so.
“Freakshow” was perfect. Let’s see what the rest of the songs will sound like. As Mike progressed with the mixes we both noticed that because the music was starting to sound so good, it made us realize that the vocal performances weren’t up to par.
Mike raised the bar on the music. It was clear to both of us that I would have to sing the rest of the songs over. It would take longer. More time, more money, but we were on to something and it was sounding great.
By the end of August of that year ’07, we were finished with “Life Is Sweeter…” What a relief it was to finish this record. A year of setbacks, and struggles but all worth. We made the best album that we could.
“Turned Around” got some great radio airplay across the country and was climbing the NMW radio charts. “Freakshow” video was on rotation playing on Fuse TV. I also played some great shows across the country in support of the album.
This record also landed my gig with Chubby Checker. Mike Rogers and Gary Lefkowith had recorded a new Chubby song called “Knock Down The Walls” just before I started working with Mike. I was really impressed by that and loved the song. It also had an amazing guitar solo.
It turned out that Gary liked my guitar playing on my album and thought that I would be perfect for the new band he was putting together for Chubby. I will always be grateful to those guys for that.
The release of my latest album “Married to Myself” in a way resurrected “Life Is Sweeter…” A whole new group of people who never heard the record before now love it. The sound, and the songs to this day still hold up.
Life Is Sweeter for sure.
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