Will the Real Singer Please Stand Up?

Okay, we've started vocals on the album.

There has been a *major* change of venue for the main vocal session/mixing, we're headed down south to North Carolina in a couple of weeks to work with a friend of my producer. Who is even more anal sonically than my producer is. That should be interesting. So, I will be in NC doing vocals on my birthday, and that suits me down to the ground.

I got a little taste last weekend, we started vocals in the Brooklyn studio. I sang in the basement and shared the room with a few eager mosquitos.

Vocals are a complete mindfuck for me. I only sound a *little* on tape like I do in my head, and I am still getting used to the fact that I will never, never sound as good as I want to, or as good as I think I should. The best I can do is go for the 'tude, which I manage to achieve sometimes. The scratch vocals are pretty damn good, and my producer is lobbying to keep more of those original vocals than I am comfortable with. So, there's a task on my hands, to top those performances.

Gn.

My producer turned me on to Preston Sturges, a *great* writer director in the 40s/50s. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is a subversive film, the anti-MGM. Wrapped in a slapstick, 40s film package. Very funny and weird at the same time. Also saw Unfaithfully Yours from Preston. Not as successful a film, I believe, but Rex Harrison was good, equal parts 'adoring' and 'nasty piece of work'.

I am currently reading John Biguenet's collection of short stories, The Torturer's Apprentice. This guy hits hard. Even for the stories that only last a couple of pages.

I'm writing songs like a crazy fiend these days, imagining the next musical project I will start after my album is done. Or even, before my album is finished.

Hm,

jules