Part 7 of 18 serialised by Nuance, New Straits Times
16th October 2002
I had 7 hours sleep last night, which is a huge luxury for me. For some strange reason, everyone else was fresh too. With teething problems finally sorted, I guess people were just looking forward to finally making some music without distraction. Anyway, it would turn out to be an extremely satisfying day. I’m writing this with a load off my shoulders like I never thought possible 24 hours ago.
Fresh minds lead to fresh solutions. We arrived at the studio in the morning and saw the problem that plagued ‘Marianne Called’ immediately. The kick drum was stifling the life out of the song. So we got rid of it. Simple. We then stormed ahead and had two songs down before lunch. ItÃs amazing that good vibes are determined by how well the day starts. Everyone was in a good mood.
After lunch, we found ourselves bopping to the sound of our most likely radio song ‘Jesselton Tonight’. The song sounded good during rehearsals and it didnÃt surprise me that things were smooth in the studio too. In fact, things were going so well that we had it down by half past five. Wonderful. Then, after a short break, we started on ‘Alive ‘N Free’.
Now, in my months of playing live at No Black Tie, I broadly split the people who like my music into two camps – ‘the Jesselton Tonight people’ and ‘the Alive ‘N Free’ people. I secretly harbour a soft spot for the latter group because ‘Alive ‘N Free’ is the song I am personally most proud of having written although it’d never make it on radio. But, for some reason, it had also been the least convincing song during rehearsals. I tried expressing my concerns to Ronan but he wasn’t worried. All he said was, ‘The low tom will save the day’. I had no idea what he meant.
Anyway, so we played the song. Within half an hour, we had wrapped the first take. When we gathered around the monitors to listen, I couldn’t believe my ears. The Hayakawa and Lewis that came oozing darkly out of the speakers were just jaw dropping. I don’t mean that in any ‘technical virtuoso’ way. Rather, what astonished me was how the song had this HUGE floor tom hit very gently and with enough delay to last till tomorrow. It was as if ‘Alive ‘N Free’ was on steroids. I loved it. So we recorded another take of the song for safety then called it a day.
It was not quite a day for poor Lewis though. He had a rehearsal to go at midnight. I felt sorry for him. He was so tired that he looked as though he was going to collapse. Still, before he left, he said he had cancelled his gig tomorrow night so that we could have all day to finish off everything here. ‘Thank you thank you,’ I groveled. With a full day tomorrow, we might even finish the remaining five songs and have the luxury of an entire last day to touch up parts weÃre unsure about.
As a reward for a wonderful day’s work, we went to Jalan Imbi for dinner. Then we did what all Malaysians do to foreign visitors – we fed them durian. The verdict? Hayakawa loved it but Ronan took one bite, spat, and decided that they should treat Anthrax with it.
17th October 2002
We took Ronan to buy a harmonium this morning. The producer is a huge fan of Hindi movie music and has ambitions to be a Hindi movie star. Not joking. I sometimes think the only reason he agreed to produce my record was that he could come to Malaysia and buy Hindi movie soundtracks.
Anyway, we finally got to the studio at noon, harmonium and happy American in tow. The smooth progress of the previous day continued as we got through three more songs that afternoon. Things were going very well indeed.
By the evening, the end of rhythm section recording was in sight. We only had one more song to do – a quiet but hugely long composition entitled ‘The Red House’. Everyone was tired but they were also eager to press on, none more so than Hayakawa. And so it was I watched him casually strolled into the recording booth – hopefully for the last time. He nonchalantly slung his bass over his shoulder then reached down to switch on the amp. Then he flicked some switches. Then he paused. He looked up quizzically.
No sound from the bass amplifier.
I watched in stunned silence as Hayakawa flicked some more switches. Nothing. In a moment, he looked up and motioned with his hands. Thumbs down.
The bass amp had died.
Oh no.
The next hour saw us attempting to revive the bass amp. We replaced the fuse, kicked it, talked to it, and bribed it. Nothing worked. The thing had packed up for no reason although it had been fine an hour ago. Maybe it didn’t like the music. May be it’s time of the month. Either way, we eventually surrendered and decided to borrow No Black TieÃs bass amp for tomorrow. Argh.
Still, we ended the day with basic rhythm tracks almost done. We’ll have a full day tomorrow to finish the last song and tie up loose ends. Then we’ll begin the next stage of the recording sessions – overdubbing of guitars, keyboards and vocals. I’m really looking forward to that. I can hardly believe that, after a perilous start, the rhythm section is almost done. It’s such a relief.