Touch (It's done!)
Posted: 18th Sep 08, 03:23So, a long time ago I was in a band that had no singer. We intended to get a singer but in the meantime I was sharing vocal duties with the other guitarist, Derek. Then one of the girls who was always hanging out during practices brought a friend along. This girl's name was Jaime. So at some point, somehow, this girl ends up getting up and grabbing a microphone and singing some stuff.
So, long story short, the chick was amazing. She had an amazing voice and she jumped around like she was insane and... frankly, she was really good looking to boot. Now, I've always been kind of opposed to the idea of a female fronting my band... because I'm usually the guy writing all of the songs... but this chick really blew me, and everyone else in the band, away. So we ended up taking her on as our singer.
We ended up having to change some of our set-list around to better suit her... get rid of some covers and add other. We didn't have much in the way of originals at that time... but it was only a matter of weeks until something started coming to me. I wrote this song called "Touch". It was the first time I'd tried writing from a female perspective but it was a hit... at least with the rest of the band and our small circle of groupies.
We were almost to the point where we could seriously talk about playing out when Jaime announced that she had to leave the band because she was moving halfway across the country (from Pennsylvania to Oregon) to get back with her boyfriend. It was a sad day for all. After that last practice, as we were all heading to our cars, Jaime pulled me to the side. She knew that I did a lot of solo recording at home... and asked me if I'd record "Touch" with her before she left for Oregon in a week or two. I'd never really worked in a recording environment with anyone else, but I didn't see a reason why it wouldn't work out.
So I went home and started working. A couple of days later I had a demo of the instrumental track ready for her and she loved it. It was pretty different than the live version we'd always done with the band, but she seemed to see my changes as improvements. So we started recording her vocals. She did all of the vocals, leads, harmonies, doubles.. everything. It took us a total of two sessions to get everything in the can, but not because she required so many takes to get it down, but because there were so many parts for her to do.
Anyway, by the time she left for Oregon I'd managed to get everything mixed and ready for her to take a CD with her.
It took me a couple of years, but I gradually came to the realization that the sound quality was pretty poor on this recording and all of the other songs I'd recorded on my own during that time. So I made it a mission to -re-record all of the old songs and get them sounding right. But "Touch" would have to be left behind since Jaime was gone. I toyed with the idea of letting someone else sing it... even my wife, who has a pretty good voice herself, but eventually decided against it, just because it didn't seem right to me. Instead, I started looking for Jaime on-line. I searched and searched for probably four years and had all but given up.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, I found her at Facebook. We did a little catching up, but we quickly got around to the subject of recording this song again. We started off working out an on-line collaboration where she would record her parts and email them to me and I would mix them in with my new and improved instrumental track. Then, a week or two later, she just comes out and says, "well, I'm gonna be back in your town in three weeks, so maybe I should just record them in person when I get there".
Naturally, I was ecstatic about this development. So I worked doubly hard on re-recording the instrumental track and having it ready for her when she gets here.
Last night, I put the finishing touches on it. It's done now, and ready for her vocals in about a week and half from now.
She seems to like the new version a lot.
Before:
Touch '00 (Beware: Adult Lyrics)
After:
Touch '08 (Instrumental Mix)
So, long story short, the chick was amazing. She had an amazing voice and she jumped around like she was insane and... frankly, she was really good looking to boot. Now, I've always been kind of opposed to the idea of a female fronting my band... because I'm usually the guy writing all of the songs... but this chick really blew me, and everyone else in the band, away. So we ended up taking her on as our singer.
We ended up having to change some of our set-list around to better suit her... get rid of some covers and add other. We didn't have much in the way of originals at that time... but it was only a matter of weeks until something started coming to me. I wrote this song called "Touch". It was the first time I'd tried writing from a female perspective but it was a hit... at least with the rest of the band and our small circle of groupies.
We were almost to the point where we could seriously talk about playing out when Jaime announced that she had to leave the band because she was moving halfway across the country (from Pennsylvania to Oregon) to get back with her boyfriend. It was a sad day for all. After that last practice, as we were all heading to our cars, Jaime pulled me to the side. She knew that I did a lot of solo recording at home... and asked me if I'd record "Touch" with her before she left for Oregon in a week or two. I'd never really worked in a recording environment with anyone else, but I didn't see a reason why it wouldn't work out.
So I went home and started working. A couple of days later I had a demo of the instrumental track ready for her and she loved it. It was pretty different than the live version we'd always done with the band, but she seemed to see my changes as improvements. So we started recording her vocals. She did all of the vocals, leads, harmonies, doubles.. everything. It took us a total of two sessions to get everything in the can, but not because she required so many takes to get it down, but because there were so many parts for her to do.
Anyway, by the time she left for Oregon I'd managed to get everything mixed and ready for her to take a CD with her.
It took me a couple of years, but I gradually came to the realization that the sound quality was pretty poor on this recording and all of the other songs I'd recorded on my own during that time. So I made it a mission to -re-record all of the old songs and get them sounding right. But "Touch" would have to be left behind since Jaime was gone. I toyed with the idea of letting someone else sing it... even my wife, who has a pretty good voice herself, but eventually decided against it, just because it didn't seem right to me. Instead, I started looking for Jaime on-line. I searched and searched for probably four years and had all but given up.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, I found her at Facebook. We did a little catching up, but we quickly got around to the subject of recording this song again. We started off working out an on-line collaboration where she would record her parts and email them to me and I would mix them in with my new and improved instrumental track. Then, a week or two later, she just comes out and says, "well, I'm gonna be back in your town in three weeks, so maybe I should just record them in person when I get there".
Naturally, I was ecstatic about this development. So I worked doubly hard on re-recording the instrumental track and having it ready for her when she gets here.
Last night, I put the finishing touches on it. It's done now, and ready for her vocals in about a week and half from now.
She seems to like the new version a lot.
Before:
Touch '00 (Beware: Adult Lyrics)
After:
Touch '08 (Instrumental Mix)
