Then we went to Corner Music Store where the boys jammed out for a while in the acoustic guitar room.
Next they wanted me to take them to Third Man Records which is Jack White's record label/record store/concert venue. The guys loved this.
Before we went to the studio they wanted to work on some of the changes Zac had made to their songs so I pulled into a church parking lot and they practiced right there.
Finally, it was the moment they had all been waiting for for months.....their first day in a real recording studio. As I said before, Zac has a studio in his house, but he does not record drums there, so we met him at a studio on Music Row called Omni Sound Studios. Rory was the drum expert at the studio and he was so great with these kids.
I loved getting to see the looks on the guys' faces when we walked in. A real studio that they were going to record in! Very cool. Here they are getting Aaron's drums set up.
We started recording about 3:00pm, and I got to stay in the sound booth and watch how everything was done. The other guys were in there too playing their parts which were not officially recorded but were used to provide scratch vocals and guitar for Aaron to follow along with. They started out by playing the song for Rory so he could establish the tempo and set a "click". This click is like a metronome that Aaron would follow along to when he recorded the drum track. Staying perfectly timed to the click is harder than you might think!
Rory and Zac watched intently on monitors while Aaron was recording, adjusting things and stopping to make changes and offer advice. Sometimes Aaron would be slightly ahead or behind the click, but he was perfectly and consistently ahead or behind it so Rory could select that section on the computer and shift it a tiny bit so it lined up with the click.
This session was was incredibly tedious and precise. The drum track basically becomes the metronome now for all the other instruments and vocals, so it had to be done perfectly. There were times it sounded good to me but Zac and Rory picked up on things my musically ignorant ears couldn't hear.
I think the intensity of this five hours was a little stressful for Aaron, but he was a real champ. You have to imagine him sitting alone in a room for hours on end with six people looking at him from a glass room waiting for him to perform his part perfectly. On top of that, he said after every take he would look up and see everyone talking, but he couldn't hear a word we were all saying unless Zac stepped on the pedal to open up the mic so he could talk directly to Aaron. Aaron said it was a little lonely in there. I was so proud of him.
One bad thing was that we had eaten a late (and large) breakfast at Pancake Pantry about 11:00am. At 2:00pm, I asked the boys if they wanted to stop for a snack before we went to the studio. They said they were still full from breakfast so we didn't eat anything at that point. That was probably a mistake. As the band manager ;), I probably should have made them eat something. Aaron was recording drums from 3:00pm to 8:00pm, and I'm pretty sure the pancakes wore off around 5:00pm. The studio did have snacks, but Aaron probably should have eaten something before we went. It didn't really matter as much for the other guys, but that was a long session for Aaron.
Overall, the drum recording session was probably harder than everyone was expecting. As Zac keeps saying, these boys are really "green" and they have never had anyone mentor them or push them to be their best. We are not nearly the caliber of talent that Zac is used to working with. With that said, I would have to be his biggest fan at this point. There were times I knew were frustrating for Zac but he didn't show it. Every piece of advice or change he made was followed by an affirmation, and he treated them as though they were professional musicians.
We finally finished up around 8:30pm and went to Burger Up for dinner. When the waiter came to our table, he asked us if we had eaten there before. We said no, so he asked if we were from out of town, where we from, and what brings us to Nashville. Don't you know the guys loved saying, "Oh, well, we came to Nashville to record a CD."
The waiter perked up and said "Oh yeah? What's your band's name? I'm going to keep up with you guys." Little things like this only add to the fun and are once in a lifetime experiences. I'm so thrilled for them that for one week in their life they really are "living the dream."
Last night when we were finishing up dinner, one of them said, "Thanks Mrs. Beasley for doing all of this for us. You're a trooper." I said, "Are you kidding me? I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to get to be here with you guys." And I truly meant it.
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