Recording with The La La Lies

Chris P. · June 18, 2011, 03:25:34 AM

I just had four great days in Mechelen (Mechlin) Belgium. We recorded drums and bass for the debut album of The La La Lies at the Motormusic studios. www.motormusic.be

Motormusic is home for all the big Belgian bands and we went there with our Dutch producer Huub. He did all kinds of big Dutch artists. It was so cool to record twelve songs in a top of the line studio! My first time in a big studio, my first time recording a complete album and my first time working with a good producer. We started preproduction in December and of course we added all kinds of little changes in the studio. It was also nice being away from the real world, for four days. We woke up at eight am, we had breakfast in Motormusic, then recording until one pm, lunch and recording again to seven pm. Then off to a restaurant, recording till ten pm and then of for too much Belgian beers:D So just four days of making music.

For the freaks:
I recorded six songs with the Gibson SG Reissue Bass, two with a review Warwick Star Bass, one with my 50s P, two with the reissue Danelectro Longhorn and for one song I used the Dano and the SG. Dano for heavy verses and SG for mellow chorus. It was recorded directly into a 48-track SSL sound board through Little Labs, Millennia and Avalon DIs (depending which bass). Afterwards we reamped it through amps. For the heavier tracks I used an overdriven 30W all-tube Ashdown Little Bastard through a Warwick Hellborg 2x12 and for the mellower tracks we used the Hellborg amp with 2x12. Both speakers were mic'd with an SM57 and an AKG D112.

Everything was recorded in ProTools, but afterwards we recorded everything on tape (Otari tape desk) and back in ProTools again for tape compression and an even dirtier sound.

In July we'll finish recordings (guitars, vocals, keys) in Amsterdam at the cheaper studio of producer Huub. We hope to have it ready after the summer. In the mean time we will try to find a label. All recordings are payed by the band, btw. We hope to have a song out this year and the album out at the end of this year or at the beginning of 2012. Exciting times!!

I'm very, very happy with the bass sound. Can't wait to hear it back and to share it with you guys! In the last year the sound of The La La Lies changed a bit. We still have the rock songs, we still only have short songs, but some sound a bit more Raconteurs-like. A bit more rootsy/Americana. That wasn't a choice, but it developed that way and we like it.

Pics. A vid will follow soon.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150213337723855.314702.543603854&l=bd7c9c02f7

Chris P. · June 18, 2011, 03:31:47 AM

BTW: People at Motormusic are great! One of the owner is a great guy. He's blind and he takes a pic of every band recording there!

ramone57 · June 18, 2011, 06:41:39 AM

sounds awesome! can't wait to hear some tracks.

Dave W · June 18, 2011, 07:58:44 AM

Looking forward to the video. I have high hopes for you getting on a good label.

Basvarken · June 18, 2011, 02:56:19 PM

Wow. Pics look promising. Looking forward to hearing the new songs.

fur85 · June 18, 2011, 05:23:59 PM

Very cool. Great videos on your website too. ~~www.lalalies.nl~~

Chris P. · June 19, 2011, 04:39:49 AM

Thanks guys! Please note it's www.thelalalies.nl

gweimer · June 19, 2011, 09:14:58 AM

Sounds great on the video. I'll be waiting for it. Also, if you have video links, I'm part of No Boundaries on FB, which is an international bunch that posts nothing but music.

Chris P. · June 19, 2011, 10:08:11 AM

I'll keep you all posted!

Aussie Mark · June 19, 2011, 05:46:44 PM

Sounds like fun. Multi-day recording sessions are awesome

Freuds_Cat · June 19, 2011, 10:40:34 PM

About bloody time Chris!

I'm looking forward to hearing how it all comes together. Good luck with getting a good label deal.

Highlander · June 20, 2011, 05:30:26 PM

Not another release... the place is going to the dogs...

(all the best Bro...)

Barklessdog · June 28, 2011, 03:33:08 PM

Can't wait to hear the new music. Very interesting about you using your SG bass. I did not know you were that fond of it. Hope you get a nice label & some promotion.

Chris P. · June 29, 2011, 03:22:51 AM

I'm very fond of that bass! I think it's one of my most versatile basses. People never believe that, because it's shortscale, Gibson, pick up looks like a mudbucker...

I normally play it with both pick ups fully open (*). Played with my fingers positioned at the neck pick up it has that real warm, smooth, sweet, mouth-watering and fat sixties sound, which is great for ballads. When a rock song follows, I just position my hand at the bridge pick up and I instantly have a more Fender-ish aggressive sound, which is great too! And no volume drop or change. Yesterday I rehearsed with a covers band for a special occasion with rock songs and ballads and that bass is great then.
While recording I also used it for the ballads and for rock songs.

I also used it on radio programs and this bass sounds very good only DI'd and through a soundboard too.

(*)One thing: I would like to have a pick up switch and sometimes I think of changing the tone pot (which I never use) to a three way switch.