Video Blog: How Songwriter Jim Fusco Records A Song in His Home Studio

By Jim Fusco:

Originally done in four parts, this remastered video (originally recorded in 2007 and remastered in 2020) is about the triumphs and pitfalls of recording a song in my home studio. You’ll see techniques, advice, and most of all, a bunch of bad luck. The song I’m recording is called “Go Back To Him,” written by Jim Fusco and Alberto Distefano.  The song was featured on my album “Halfway There”, available at http://jimfusco.com and on iTunes!  Make sure to stick around for the end of the video and check out the music video for “Go Back To Him”, complete with remastered stereo audio for the first time!  For those who saw the original video, you’ll recall how dark the video looked, as the overhead lighting in my home studio at the time was not conducive to great video quality.  Thankfully, through the magic of Final Cut Pro X, I’m able to breathe new life into this documentary, which captures what it was like to record a song at 4am (which was easily done at 23 years of age…).

More from the archive

“Essential Question” (Original Music by Indie Songwriter Chris Moore)

By Chris Moore:

Well, it’s the best time of the week. It’s the time when we songwriters — Jim Fusco, Jeff Copperthite, and myself — get to really believe what we boast: that this is the best acoustic cover songs music blog on the web. And we get to do that…

…by not recording an acoustic cover song!

We still record and post a music video of an acoustic song, but it is not a cover. On Original Wednesday, we bring you an original song for your enjoyment that you most likely have never heard before. Today, I bring you a song that I have had kicking around for a few years called “Essential Question.” It never quite made the cut for Love Out of Fashion, either because I hadn’t finished writing it or because I didn’t feel it was up to par. It finally saw the light of day as a track on Weekend Demos… but only on the bonus disc. I don’t really know why it never made the cut, even on a demos album. Overall, I’ve always felt that the song was a bit simplistic, particularly in the verse and bridge. I do like the chorus a lot, though, and that’s one of the reasons that I wanted to break it out for an original Wednesday.

I have been working on some new songs, and I hope to bring an all-new one to the music blog very soon! For now, just be sure to hurry back for another great, all-new acoustic cover song (business as usual!) by Jeff tomorrow…

See you next session!



Related posts

“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” (The Beatles Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening and I hope your weekend is off to a good start.  It’s Where-the-heck-is-Jeff Copperthite here today to bring you the latest installment of the Laptop Sessions, another in our series of Beatles cover songs, and session cover song music video #90 overall.

I am continuing to delve into the libraries of previously covered bands, and I have always enjoyed todays song a lot.  It really is amazing just how many Beatles’ songs I know and am familiar with.  Of that huge library, this is probably my favorite.

“You’ve got to hide your love away” is from the Beatles’ album “Help!” and it’s extremely incorrect Semaphore album cover.  You may also be familiar with the cover version of this song by Eddie Vedder.  And while that is a good version, it’s hard to beat the original.

You will notice a singing style that i’m not used too, and I feel it is quite effective.  Lately I have been hearing great things about my most recent video, and that my ability to sing on video has taken a lot of leaps.  i’m glad you think so!  Thank you for all your support.

Also, i’m nearing 39K views, and while I fell about 2K short of my 40K goal by the end of August, I still did quite well and I am very proud of how we are doing.  No reason we can’t continue to increase our views per day.1

I hope you enjoy today’s session!

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

More Laptop Sessions covers

“I Need…” (Original Acoustic Song by Songwriter Jim Fusco)

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to another edition of “Original Wednesday” here on the best music video blog of all time: the Laptop Sessions!

After the success of last time’s “Jim Fusco downer song from ‘My Other Half’”, I decided to give you another cut from the same album: “I Need…”.  Actually, in a half-hour span, I wrote these two songs.  It was a difficult time for me- I knew my relationship was ending, but dealt with it by writing two “downer” songs, but with different meanings.  On one hand, I had “I’m Just Waiting” that was about the end coming in the relationship.  The other, this tune: “I Need…”, dealt with the fact that I was going to be without someone again.  That wasn’t something I was too happy about, but new love will always come eventually.  It’s MUCH better than being unhappy in a relationship, I’ll tell you that.

That’s why, over the past few years, I haven’t had much to write about relationship-wise, as I’ve had such a steadily growing relationship.  In fact, the songs on my upcoming album (which I’m mastering tonight) that deal with my relationship are simply about my unhappiness that after all of this time, I’m still forced to be away more often than not.  I’ve waited long enough, I say! 🙂

I hope you enjoy tonight’s original Wednesday Laptop Session.  I’d write more, but as a guy, I find that I can’t do two things at once.  I have to go back to mastering my songs now so I can give a copy to a select few to review and tweak.  Until Saturday, enjoy Chris and Jeff’s videos!

Related posts