Day 1
As the marine layer blankets the coastal communities and the inland towns of San Diego, its’ sphere of influence dissipates to the east as just beyond Mt. Woodson, lies the Santa Maria Valley, the Valley of the Sun, a small musical town that we love: Ramona. Here, Londons Falling and Jim Nau have reunited from a seven year absence since Anxious Season to assemble and construct the new album that Londons Falling hopes will tear the faces off of their small brood of rabid fans.
The day began about noon for the four of us, but it began about 9am for Brant. Brant set up the drums, Jim set up the mikes, and Jon Hasz supplied the mikes courtesy of the Ramona Music Center. Unbeknownst to Trav and me, we were informed that our scratch tracks might be used for the recording if they sounded good enough. I was like, “Shit”, as I hadn’t changed my strings since Londons Falling had destroyed O’Connells’ a few weeks back. The first few takes on each of the first few songs were a bit rough as we were all a little nervous and anxious. Brant and Nick were both recording their tracks simultaneously as we were recording on both digital and 2 inch tape. Now what does that mean, well I had no fucking idea until I was told that it meant we could choose between the two for a specific sound. If you really want to know what they mean then mail Trav a letter with a self addressed, postage stamped envelope inside and he’ll tell you all about it. Anywho, by the time we were half way through the songs and thinking, “God this is quite arduous”, Brant and Nick started cranking on all cylinders and shelled out the next six songs. After Brant was done shredding and Nick finger-banging his bass, WALLAH, they were done. By this time and after two California burritos and two vegetarian burritos (that equals four, geniuses), it was around 9pm and we were all pretty beat. I have to hand it to Brant, for a drummer, 12 songs have got to be brutal to record in one day, but he is our Brendan Nobles. Oh yeah, we all took on different aliases as Trav is now known as Cheebs Maurice, Nick: Nicki Royce, Brant: Brendan Nobles, and yours truly as Kevy Hallous. Well, little did Cheebs and I know that we would be recording the next day at 7:30am, so it was off to the Ramona Music Center to pick up strings, and then to our old resting places to lay our heads on the sweet pillows that our parents would hopefully still allow us to be placed upon.
Peace,
Kevy Hallous
