Cleveland, Ohio's The Sidekicks have been busy prepping Weight of Air, the followup to their 2007 Red Scare effort, So Long, Soggy Dog. To get people stoked, they agreed to pen us a series of Dispatches, the second of which we bring you this evening.
Day three of recording started the same as day one, unloading and sorting out the assortment of gear Eric brought along. The site for recording on this day was much different than the previous two, which found us in a somewhat proper recording space situated in a warehouse. Today we were recording at my house in Columbus, Ohio. It just so happened that the room with the best acoustics for vocals was on the third floor. We lugged the gear upstairs and set up a makeshift vocal booth in Pat and Ryanâs room and a pseudo-studio in my room.
It didnât really feel like we were actually recording when I started singing the first lines of "A Healthy Time." This can surely be attributed to the fact that I was so comfortable with environment I was in. I will go so far as to say that this session was. . .the most comfortable recording session of all time. We would go through each song about three solid takes each, then move on. To listen back I would walk down the hall to my room and settle in on my bed. Throughout the day, more and more people were filing in and out of the room, lounging like it was "the Max" in Bayside.
As the songs began to come together, it became apparent that the lyrics this time around are, at least to me, more straight-forward. As opposed to dancing around a subject, most of the songs describe a specific time or state, or at least attempt to. I will be extremely vague and say what every band is supposed to say: I think this album is different than anything weâve previously done.
With each subsequent take, the wear on my voice stood out like a sore denz. Despite the occasional cracks, though, I was able to go through the songs at a pretty steady pace. By about the halfway point, my room had become filled with close to 12. It also is of note that an immense amount of talent was in that room at that moment (members of Tin Armor, Delay, Reverse the Curse, and Ghost Town Trio). The night went from loose recording session to full-on social gathering in my room. People were talking over the very music I was simultaneously singing over in the other room.
My roommates didnât seem to mind the noise, if even notice it at all. Ryan felt it crucial that he find a certain tape in his room/the vocal booth. He was filing through cassettes by candle-light as I intently sang parts to "Looking." A group of people were sitting around a fire in the backyard as the songs blared through my window out to the crowd. Nothing less than a riot ensued, with bottles and skulls breaking to the brutal beats we so heavily laid down (thatâs a lie).
I eventually finished the vocal tracks for all the songs that day. My two thoughts at the end of the day were:
1. I canât wait until Matt does his vocals.
2. That's so Raven.