The Overdubbing Process

Over the remaining two days, the rest of the work on "Free" was all up to me. Tommy and Michael came to the studio for it, but their parts on this song were done. Bruce, Mark, and David from the original Avalanche crew also came to many of the sessions throughout the recording of the entire album. Katherine, and Charlie Catalano, an old friend since childhood, and a former housemate, also showed up at a number of these sessions as well. I think all of them were still very interested in seeing whether this project might be able to ressurect the band in some new form, and they were still true believers...and I think we all missed hearing the music the original band had spent nearly three years creating. And other friends and fellow musicians I knew also dropped in from time to time..to spend a few hours to observe, and catch up on things...and I think that was also partly because everyone knew that an Avalanche recording session was always a party, too. As the overdubbing process began, I added a second electric guitar rhythym track to the first half of the song, and then the same to the second half, along with all the guitar solos for both sections, and to try to recapture the energy of the original band, for the most part I played the song all the way through...as if I was doing it "live on stage". The studio enables musician to make corrections on sections of a song that might not be exactly right by re-recording a musical phrase or two if needed..and although I nearly avoided that process entirely because I knew my own parts so well, I did take advantage of that, doing a few quick "punches" on the final solo. After I went into the control room to listen to the final version of the song before any vocals were added, I realized I had never heard this song recorded before, and even without vocals, it was the best sounding recording of any Avalanche music yet. At that moment, I really missed the original band, because we hadn't even scratched the surface of our true potential in the studio or live, and that recording made that very clear. It also became clear how important it was to make sure these songs got recorded, before they were lost forever. On the last of the four nights, I went in and recorded all the vocals, and as the final version of the song appeared in entirety, even in an unmixed form...it was very good. I knew this project was going to be a great way to heal some of the wounds I still felt after the band had broken up...and I couldn't wait for the following week...when we were scheduled for four more days...to rehearse and record the next song.