THE MIX

We returned from the DC tour June 4, four days before beginning the mix. The mixes must be completed by June 12, with mastering on the 15th and delivery the next morning via Airborne. We're right up against absolute deadline for release in August. That goes for the cover too, so we schedule a photo shoot for June 6. There's barely enough time to catch up with our families, so we put off the song we had put off before during May and June. No time to do it justice. After weeks -- months, actually -- of recording, we are anxious to get on with it and mix what we've completed. And we're excited to get back in the studio with Jim Scott.

Jim has become quite a hot mixer since we last worked together on Pendulum. He had engineered Tom Petty's Wildflowers just before that record, and this time he mixed Natalie Merchant's Ophelia album (including the hit "Kind and Generous") and the upcoming Golden Smog collection in the weeks before starting our mixes. His busy schedule coupled with our need to get our album out by August necessarily meant that we would produce the album ourselves, a step we had been both dreading and dreaming of. The timing was right, the situation ripe and we made the leap into producer-hood. Knowing Jim would be mixing the album gave us a familiar haven and the confidence we would end up with a good record.

For the studio, Jim chose Sound City in Panorama City, a San Fernando Valley suburb. Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Van Halen and the Red Hot Chili Peppers had all recorded there. So had we, a year and a half ago when we cut "Avalanche" with Jim producing. We had come full circle. The record we didn't know we were starting back then was five days from being finished. What a trip.

June 8, 1998

Jim starts with "My Own Way Of Doing Things". He feels it was up and loose enough to start out with, so we could get a toe-tapper under our belt before tackling the heavier numbers. He spends most of the day getting the drum sound right, a normal first day occurences. If the stuff on tape is produced with any consistency, a mixer's first day will be the toughest (if there is no consistency, all the days will be tough). So we start with something fun and by 10PM we're done.

Jim pulls a quick mix of "Maybe Tomorrow It Will Rain" to end the evening. The sultry moodiness of the track requires a gentle approach, and he chooses to flange the drums and reverbs to add a swirly mistiness to the ambience. He puts a "goodnight mix" on tape and we go home.

Picking up where he left off, Jim makes subtle changes to the overall balances on "Rain". At first, they're done without our input, as we are recording new parts three miles away, repairing "Beyond The Pale". Eric feels the main guitar line is whiny and wants to replace it with an acoustic sound that bolsters the underpinnings of accordion and mandolin. We also replace the vocal -- the relatively low range of the song made it sound perfunctory, dull. Now it has a bit more "stick", We also make a few very minor lyric changes along the way. Jim phones us when he's ready to commit "Rain" to tape and we drive to Sound City to listen and approve. Before we return to Dave's, Jim puts down a TV mix -- a version without vocals, for use in live TV shows where (for whatever reason) the band starts "Blessing" while we return to Dave's, shuttling back and forth between the two studios a couple of times. After 6PM we're at Sound City for good. Ultimately a couple of minor vocal edits are made and we call it a night around 11:30.

Today we're in a bit of a jam. We need to mix at least two songs a day to make deadline, but we are on our third day and only have three songs in the can. We are two songs behind schedule! We must make up the time somewhere. We start with "Stranger Than Dreams", which is one of the gentlest songs on the album. Jim decides to drop the electric guitars from the choruses and makes a canny vocal edit at the end that allows us to fade the song rather than have a hard ending.

Jim then moves to "Avalanche", the song he produced for us in March of '97. The electric guitar on the demo had been re-cut for the Radio Free Music 2 collection, but Jim discovers technical problems and we decide to return to the original part (that makes RFM a collector's item, folks!). We consider the original guitar too clean, so Jim runs the signal through an amp, adds a bit of grime and transfers it to another track. Now it sounds great! Possibly because he is more familiar with this tune, he gets the mix very quickly.

He tackles "Weight Of The World", interweaving the accordions and acoustic guitars for a lovely backdrop to the sweetest vocal we've ever recorded. . .and all this on a song with lyrics darker and more cynical than usual. Jim mixes like the wind and we shut down around midnight, back on schedule.

We only have today and tomorrow left, so Jim chooses two of the lighter songs on the list. "Long Way" is first. Not much of a mystery here. Jim really has his system down by now, and the song goes very quickly. After yesterday's catch-up session, two songs a day seems almost easy. Jim keeps the EQs honest, the levels real and avoids a lot of complicated moves. The song works best in this "take-me-as-I-am" light, and is put on tape within a few short hours. "Happy Birthday" (the new title to what had been called "HBD2U") is the silliest song on the record, and is also kept light and reality-based. A decision is made to cut a short solo section. It seemed to be distracting. Jim makes two versions of the mix, one with a long fade and tossed-off vocals from old party songs, like "It's My Party", "Tracks of My Tears" and "Having a Party" and one version without. We decide we would have too much to deal with in clearances, copyright and $$$ changing hands, so we choose the shorter version as the final mix. Whatever. We can always do the tributes when we perform the song live.

It's the last day. Jim sets up a couple of mics, should we decide to have another go at the unfinished song. We will revisit the idea periodically during the day. But first, we must finish the only totally unmixed song, "Beyond The Pale". Jim says the repairs were worth the effort. The vocals are assured and convey the energy that had been lacking from the earlier version. Guitars ring and support the other instruments, rather than whining and covering up the other colors. Jim finishes relatively quickly and it's decision time. Our first is to finally, absolutely, give up on the 12th song. Oh well. maybe next time. . .

So we listen to "When The Lights Go Down" and "Do With Me What You Will", which were mixed in early June. "Do With Me" seems fine. Anything that rubs the wrong way simply does not merit a full re-mix. Time is short, so we move to "Lights". Because it's our best shot at radio, it has to be as close to perfect as we can get. Jim believes he can top the earlier mix, so we go for it. He creates a sonic blend that is less dense than before, and the simpler approach works. It breathes now instead of choking in its own smoke. As the first pass is completed, we know we are only yards from the finish. We do two more versions as a protection, do the TV mix and stop.

At this point, we are ostensibly done with the album. But there are still two tasks left of enormous significance. The album must be sequenced -- the songs edited together to make a cohesive whole -- and then the tape must be mastered -- the final tweaking of EQ (equalization, or tone controls) and levels. An album poorly sequenced will be a bore. And an unmastered tape just won't sound like a record.

We tested several sequences in the past few weeks and had a rough idea of what we liked. Starting with our first single, "When The Lights Go Down", we tried to go from mood to mood with the story remaining cohesive. We think we did it, but in the end, you all will be the judges. We finished up after midnight and went home.

Eddy Schreyer from Oasis Mastering had worked with us before. He mastered the legendary live EP Parachute had given away in 1993 (the one with "Walk Away Renee"). Coincidentally, he had just finished the new album by Spread, led by Dan's cousin Dave Navarro. Now he was with us. In mastering, treble and bass levels are tweaked to give the recording that certain sheen and punch we associate with a real record. The mystical world of the mastering engineer is like a secret society, with skills and senses known only to an elite group of technical wizards with highly musical ears. Eddy did his magic in just under six hours, including grafting a bonus track (an acoustic live version of "When The Lights Go Down") onto the master of the cassette to balance the side lengths. The parts (the actual masters from which CDs are made) go to Intersound tomorrow.

And that's it. Recorded and mixed in 25 days spread over 15 months. We expected little going in and regretted little coming out. We just did it and let the rest go. Now it's yours, so do with it what you will. Hell, if we scratch at the door long enough, you gotta let us in.