Ramblings From Justin Penney

The 359s are recording in a guerilla style. The concept is:

• Setup up somewhere
• Put up some mics
• Play some songs

We recently recorded a four song EP at Quentin and Heather's house. They affectionately gave the place the name Bonehill Hideout.

Since we weren't in my basement I had no pre-conceived notions about how things would sound. I had some worries early on when we found out that the room was pretty lively and had a lot of flutter echo. Once we got mics in place and recorded a test track I was sold!

I left a lot more space than I usually did. Actually, I did everything different than normal. I used a different overhead arrangement on the drums based on the fabled Glyn Johns setup. I used condensors on the guitars about a foot away from the speaker. I used a mic on the bass where I usually take a DI feed. I also had a ribbon in the loft that was just hanging out, a technique I don't have in the basement.

We did overdub the vocals, but even that was different. I didn't bring monitors so we were listening through Quentin's stereo. When we started vocals we just set a mic up in the room and blasted the stereo. The vocal takes went amazingly quick. There was some bleed, but it was very manageable. I only edited the vocal track in one song and that had more to do with the jangling of keys from all of the observers right next to the singers.

I handed the mastering off to Duane Trower; I'm pickjng up the master tomorrow. I've really excited to hear it as I've really loved the mix so far.