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What goes into making an album like Welcoming the Night? Listen to these comical outtakes from
recording and read the story behind each track from the album, as written by producer Carl Shinko.
Banana Pie Production Notes - written by Carl Shinko
On several occasions, I would be showing a rough mix of the CD in progress to some friends and acquaintances, and
when I would fast-forward past "Banana Pie", they would invariably say, "Hey, go back to that one!"
That's when I knew that BP should be the opening track on the disc. In the course of less than 10 seconds, it
establishes its back-beat hip-hop feel, wows the listener with Sarah's technically-dazzling parallel tenths, and
further hooks 'em with a punchy bass and sizzling hi-hat. The original opener was to be "Not Waiting", which
is a more emotionally and lyrically substantial song, but takes significantly longer to build up and grab one's
attention.
The vocal on "Banana Pie", laid down on February 8th, 2004, was the very last element recorded for the album.
The previous take was much more liberal in Sarah's experimentation with the melody, but she and I mutually decided
that we needed a more controlled, subdued sound if it was to be the opening track. Controlled, but still
sassy! I particularly like her breathy, playful variation at around 2:19.
The piano was recorded in November of 2003 on a 6-foot Yamaha grand, same as most of the other songs, with the lid
at half-stick, in stereo. Sarah's chops on the ivories become apparent with the musical whirlwind at the
beginning of the song, but the unsung virtues in the piano track are the cool hits in the right hand during the
chorus that are largely buried in the mix. As Todd [Egger, drums and percussion] once astutely observed, "She
has an understanding of 'e' and 'a' well beyond her years."
The bass line in this number is a blend of the stylings of Eric Holgate and Tim Breon. Eric recorded his
interpretation first, choosing a dropped-D tuning. His bright, "clicky" tone helps to give the song a
little extra bite, and his glissando at the beginning of each phrase during the verse adds some character and
clears some space so that the listener can hear what Sarah's doing on the piano.
A few weeks later, I recorded Tim's take on the song. His funky walking line on the chorus created a groove
that I eventually found way too cool to omit. Consequently, rather than making a painful choice between two
sets of very good and virtually indispensable ideas, I incorporated both into the song- Eric's during the verses,
and Tim's during the chorus.
The same night that Tim recorded bass, he laid down the chunky guitar riff that's heard on the choruses- a slightly
"dirty" Fender Strat, panned to the left. It accentuates beats 2 and 4 and adds a little syncopated,
back-beat "tail".
Todd Egger did most of his recording in alphabetical order, so BP was the first drum track to be laid down for
the CD. As I recall, I think it only took him one or two takes. That particular session was also the
virgin testing of my new drum mic kit- a very successful one at that. It was at this point in the recording
process that I realized that the percussion would be a very strong feature of this album.
From a mixing and production standpoint, "Banana Pie" is an interesting specimen. The piano track was one of
the very first tracks to be laid down (November 2003), and the lead vocal was the very last (February 2004). The
tracks were laid down in four different locations on five separate occasions. Vocals were a particular
challenge, finding the right balance between breathiness, sassiness, "laid back", and "in your face". We
experimented with doubling the piano features on guitar, but the part was so busy that it never
really synced up.
I would have to say that my favorite moments of the song are Todd's hi-hat "tss-tss" at the half-way point of the
piano intro, and the overall variation from the repeat of the second chorus starting at around 2:11- Tim's walking
breaks out of its 2-measure containment, Todd switches up to a disco-like back-beat on the ride cymbal, and Sarah
dances around the expected melodic line.
It's an all-around fun tune, and a good opener!
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Not Waiting Production Notes - written by Carl Shinko
"Not Waiting", initially slated to be the opening track of the CD, was also the very first of Sarah's songs that
I had ever heard. I had just interviewed for a position as director of a local community choir, and when I
learned that my accompanist would be Sarah Holgate, an old acquaintance from high school, I decided I would look her
up and see what she was up to. A phone call to her parents' house brought me to Winston's Pub and Hotel, a
newly-built restaurant/lodge that she performed at every Thursday night.
I sat with a loosened tie and a glass of Newcastle, listening to Sarah as she played her electric piano and crooned
various old standards and jazzy renditions of pop tunes. Then, in the third set, I became entranced by a slow,
stirring song that gradually built up to a gutsy chorus. Then it backed off, then swelled, and then receded
again, like the ebb and flow of a tide. I was dumbstruck by the emotion and sensitivity that Sarah was able
to bring though in this tune, whatever it was and whoever wrote it.
I was flabbergasted again when I asked what song it was, and she casually replied something to the effect of, "Oh,
that's just one of the songs I wrote."
Throughout the course of the evening, Sarah delighted me with several other original works. They were all
amazingly good, but it was "Not Waiting" that initially made me a fan of Sarah's music and ultimately led me to
produce a CD for her and promote her commercially.
NW's swaying, 6/8 saunter begins with a piano intro and a solo voice, waiting until the second verse to add brushed
drums, bass guitar, and an occasional back-up harmony. The attitude comes out in the chorus, when Todd's
drums become more assertive, Eric's bass takes on a pseudo-slap/funk sound, and Chris's guitar makes its debut with
a subtle and mellow rhythmic burst on every downbeat. From there, the song moves into an abbreviated third
verse and then impetuously pushes us back into a double refrain. Sarah brings the song to a close with the
forlorn supplication, "Somebody save me now…" and lets the piano chord ring out until it trails off with some light
cymbal hits.
Like a few other songs on the album, the piano and vocals were recorded on two consecutive days in November 2003.
Drums were recorded in late December, during the first of two sessions I did with Todd. The first take we did
was with sticks- but then we agreed that the verses sounded too heavy that way. After trying a few different
approaches, we finally decided that he could use brushes the whole way through, and simply give it a little more
"oomf" during the chorus. This not only allowed for greater contrast between the verse and chorus, but also
gave the song a unique flavor that that drew a sharp distinction between "Not Waiting" and its similarly
minor-key-compound-meter cousin, "Welcoming The Night".
The background vocal was laid down in a pretty straight-forward fashion. Sarah recorded the lead and back-up
vocals consecutively. We had a difference of opinion on how the harmony should work- she favored simple
parallel thirds above the melody, which somehow sounded a little strange to me in the context of this song.
I wanted to match the piano voicings more closely and avoid any pitches that weren't present in the already-thick
harmonizations. We squabbled a bit, she made fun of me, and she ended up getting her way …
(I let her win).
The bass-line in this song comes from the fingers of the Most Excellent Mr. Eric Holgate, Sarah's very-capable
elder brother. His treatment of the verses is subdued and sensitive, but then brings his chops to the table
during the chorus as he makes the bass nimbly dance, twist, and wriggle through the spaces left by the drums and
piano.
Sarah's oldest brother Chris brings his own fingerboard artistry into play with short bursts of shuffling jazz
chords on a Jackson Charvel during the choruses, adding a bit of muted color to the downbeats.
And last, but certainly not least (hahaha), I make my guitar cameo on the album with the melodic line heard
between the first and second verses, and during the second half of the third verse. The line was originally
envisioned as a cello or violin line, so I tried to emulate a "bowed" sound by playing with the tone, compression,
and placement on the instrument. The sound I adopted was very much inspired by the character of Brian May's
Red Special guitar in "Millionaire Waltz" on Queen's 1976 album, "A Day At The Races".
On one particular occasion, Eric and I were waiting for Sarah in the studio to lay down tracks for "Outta Here",
and so we decided to kill time by "augmenting" the nearly-completed tracks on "Not Waiting" with an additional solo
instrument and percussion. To be more specific, I picked up a soprano recorder that I had intended to learn
how to play at some point (you know- the plastic kind you use in elementary school music class) and Eric went to
town with my egg-shakers and a tambourine. Sarah walked in and summarily rejected our arguably
sophisticated interpretation of her music. Sadly, our choice of instrumentation was not used in the final
cut for the CD. But, rejoice, for lo! -with the magic of the Internet, our stylings can still be heard!
Enjoy-
Not Waiting - Recorder and Tambourine Mix
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