The Years

We recorded "The Years" using a 4 track cassette tape recorder (a Tascam mkii to be exact). Besides the fact that cassette tapes are cool, the real impetus for recording this way was simplicity. Having only four discrete tracks to work with definitely makes you rethink the question “what is essential to this song?”. On a computer you can have nearly infinite amounts of tracks which can become an insanely tedious prospect. It allows you to add part after part after part which in more cases than not end up detracting from a song (not only that but it’s a pain to mix). A big reason why I wanted to record on a 4 track was to pare things back and let the limitations of the medium help dictate the decision making process (in all honesty having 8 tracks would have been amazing, but making a track sheet for four tracks made me feel like George Martin). For example Kristen and I recorded vocals and guitar in live, full takes using a two mic set up. The two voices occupying one track and the acoustic on another. This forced us to interact with each other in real time and even though there are overdubs the heart of each song is two people playing music together. I think this helped conjure a warmer and more pure dynamic from the performances. It also left room so that the other instrument parts could be added to the empty tracks. Whenever three tracks became filled it required bouncing certain things down to a single track, but with each bounce down comes a slight loss of quality and thus makes you limit the number of reductions (ah, the puzzle of the 4 track). That’s not the only difficulty. Once the bass and drums, for example, are locked on to one track, that’s it. There’s no going back. No micromanaging the levels and getting the balance just right. Your level of commitment rises exponentially when recording to tape. I struggled with that. After years of working in the digital realm I have come to appreciate the ability to fine tune and make everything sound perfect(i.e moving things around, combining the best of different takes, etc). But I think that’s a big part of the charm of recording in an analog format. Sometimes you have to not freak out about the little imperfections and just accept them. Part of the joy for me of listening to most older music is hearing these little anomalies. Little things that in a perfect world wouldn’t be there, but end up imparting a greater element of character/mystery/whatever on a song. I live for those moments. So maybe you’ll hear our e.p. and think it sounds like scratchy, poorly recorded folk tunes. But hopefully, you’ll hear a quaint little collection of songs ripe with character, oozing with personality and charm and put together with a lot of love and care, not dissimilar to the difference between eating an organically grown tomato that uses no pesticides yet taste delicious and juicy and one that was scientifically designed to look amazing under the supermarket lights but is flavorless and bland.