By Chris Moore:
Hello and welcome to yet another all-new installment of the Laptop Sessions! Being that it’s Hump Day, I’m excited — for those of you who may be new to the blog, I’m excited because every Wednesday here is “Original Wednesday.” For just a moment, we songwriters who contribute to this acoustic rock cover song music blog just take a moment to put aside the covers and record a song that we have written. It comes but once every three weeks for us…
Tonight, I’ve recorded “Feel For Love,” a song from my most recent solo release, the EP entitled Love Out of Fashion. To be honest, I’ll never know why I didn’t just finish recording one more song during the recording sessions (and I actually did have one demo with basic tracks that never made the final cut). If I had, then I would have accumulated nine songs and I could have called the EP a full album. But, I guess nine is kind of a cop out after most of my earlier solo albums have an average of 12 songs or so. Either way, I was satisfied that an 8-song EP was not a cop out, so…
I don’t know that I’ve ever told anyone, but “Feel For Love” was the first song recorded for the project. I actually began recording with the idea of making a set of demos to present to Jim Fusco in order to convince him to produce an album for me the following summer. Once I got into the process, I just devoted too much time and energy to let the songs sit as demos — I would lay down one acoustic, then add electric to give it the right sound. After all, I wanted the songs to be presentable to him. Then I would add background vocals. And then some more background vocals. I practiced again and again and again to perfect the solos I wanted for the songs, both harmonica and electric / acoustic guitar.
By the time I had finished eight songs, it was clear that I couldn’t simply burn the songs onto a blank disc for Jim to listen to; I had an EP on my hands.
To this day, I still haven’t recorded an album with Jim as producer, but to be honest, I probably won’t record another project until I’ve fully polished a set of songs and convinced him to let me hire him or at least bribe him with fast food and TNA cards to produce the next Chris Moore solo album. The simple fact is — especially after hearing the new Masters of the Universe album — I can’t go back to self-producing without drums and without mastering. Instead, I’m starting to save my pennies and save my dimes…
As a final note, the tracks for Love Out of Fashion became an obsession for me. I listened to those songs in every way possible — on the computer speakers, on different pairs of headphones, on my stereo, and I even burned multiple copies at different phases to listen to in the car. One early morning around one a.m. or so, I pulled over in the shopping plaza near my house to be able to listen to the tracks clearly and loudly. I leaned over the console of my car to get myself as close to the middle as possible, closing my eyes and listening to every nuance of the mix to decide what needed to change and what aspects were finished. Someone actually pulled into the lot next to me to ask if I was okay and was my car working? I, of course, said I was fine. What I should have said was that I was, for the first time, really becoming a confident producer of my own music.
Of course, the conspicuous absence of time-keeping drums will forever label Love Out of Fashion a second-class album, which I suppose I’ve come to terms with. But I’m still proud of it!
Okay, that’s more than enough from me. I hope you enjoy this and will take the time to comment on it here. Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for an all-new track from our very own Jeff Copperthite…
See you next session!