Getting Started

While the studio is always there for “real” recording, sometimes a simple solution is best for making sure ideas don’t get lost. Capturing musical phrases and rough song demos on an iPhone is quick and easy. That’s how it worked on An Ape’s Progress. Rather than getting distracted by studio mic placement and gear settings, I embraced the simple solution of capturing all writing demos on the living room couch — using nothing more than an acoustic guitar, my voice, and the iOS Voice Memos app. If one doesn’t create music notation on the fly while writing (and I can barely do notation), then a demo recording is the only way to communicate a song to someone — other than sitting in the room and playing it for them!

Speaking of playing songs for people, several of the new compositions — Nickel and Dime, Opposable Thumb, and Proud American — got “test driven” in front of a couple of audiences at SOhO in Santa Barbara in late 2018 and early 2019. This was helpful not only for gauging audience reaction to the new material, but also for fine-tuning the melodies and arrangements.

Now, I had to decide between two possible paths forward:

1. Record and mix the album myself (again), or

2. Collaborate with a co-producer.

Recording technology is pretty incredible these days. A home-studio setup is well within the reach of most musicians, and it’s totally viable to record “DIY style” at home and get decent results. I was pleased with the way Little Green Man turned out after working that way, but I was feeling particularly good about the new songs and wanted to “up my game” this time around to do the songs justice. I have much of the studio gear needed to make a good-sounding recording, but as the adage goes, “it ain’t the tool, it’s the person using it!” In music production, that translates to “It’s not so much the recording gear that makes the difference, but the person operating it!”

So I decided to call an old friend — local musician, producer, and mixer extraordinaire Thom Flowers — to see if he was interested in helping me make An Ape’s Progress. Thom’s last project at that point had been Steve Perry’s amazing Traces album, so I was thinking maybe I couldn’t afford Thom’s rate! Eventually, I sent Thom my demo recordings, we discussed my ideas for a crazy concept album, and he agreed to do the project! We met at Thom’s studio in January 2020 to plot and plan the production.

We were all set to book studio time for recording basic tracks in the spring.

Then we all learned a new word: COVID.

-Pawlie.