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Heartbreak Update
August 20th, 2008I have been doing an obnoxious amount or recording lately, and songs dealing mainly with bad love. This includes a fresh version of One Heartbreak Away From the Grave.
An interesting process occurs during recoding blues tunes. Before hitting the studio, your head hears a very complex arrangement with all manner of screaming guitars, honky tonk keyboards and maybe even background singers.
If you are lucky you will whittle down that list until a more bare and raw song emerges.
The band version of One Heartbreak is a case study. I had a lot planned for this tune. But as I punched mute buttons to hear underlying instruments, the more raw and basic the song sounded and the more blues-worthy it became. I dropped a lot of tracks out of the final mix.
The end result included a basic drum track (little more than rim shots to keep the beat), an acoustic guitar, and electric that minds its own business most of the time and does not compete with the vocals, and the vocals.
There’s no harm in over-producing a song providing you take the time to take items out to see if less complicated is better.
