blog.andrelareau.com

'In the News'?host Christopher Glenn dead - CNN.com

Man, he was good. I used to look forward to his newscasts on the radio.

Posted by dre at 02:37 PM | Permalink

Almost done with vocals! Then mixing and mastering next week. We're going to Dan at Colossal again. What a relief.

Why next time will be way easier:
• We will (if all goes well with Mickey) have a really good drummer. No more staying up all night writing Drums From Hell tracks. Just say, "hey Mickey, play your drums!" and hit record.
• We should have some money saved up from selling this CD and hopefully touring to actually go to a studio. That will save tons of time and headaches on my end. I don't mind recording at all, but of course it's nicer to have someone else to do it for you. Plus, it's nice to not have to be the one panicking when things don't work. Even if we just go to a studio for the tracking and I take it home to mix and edit, I'll be in a lot better shape.
• If we do get some sales on this CD, we'll most likely get some offers from a mid-size US label that will pay a decent amount for a recording. That would be an even bigger load off of our shoulders.

Lessons learned on this recording:
• We should take care of more stuff in pre-production. The more we have done to begin with, the less time it takes stressing out about the equipment and deadlines. We didn't have much of a choice this time, so it's not like I regret the way we did things, but hopefully we'll be able to do things more traditionally next time. By "traditionally" I mean, take a couple of solid months of practicing and demoing to get the songs really nailed-down perfect in our heads, and spend less time going through ideas during the tracking phase.
• It's funny, I look back at this post and the one thing I was happy with was guitars. Well, we did guitars TOTALLY different this time, and I could not be more pleased. Since my monitoring is so much more accurate, we were able to concentrate more on getting really great sounds at the source. Not that we didn't before, but we just did it better this time.
• A little pressure can be a good thing. We are being pushed by the label to get things done in a certain time frame, and it's great because I think I spend less time worrying about things that really aren't that important.
• Presets are a good thing. I used more of them this time and it made life a bit easier.
• Good equipment is fricken' WORTH IT. So worth it. Sometimes I can't believe I even tried to make records on the crap that I had before... sheesh....

  Posted by dre at 10:56 AM | Permalink

So, lately I've been pretty disillusioned with everything, as you, my faithful audience¹ may have noticed from this entry. This comes at a time when I'm completely overworked and completely insecure, so it's not really surprising. Also, I started school again and began to seriously consider the prospect of law school after I graduate. So, this begs the question, why?

Well, I guess it makes sense to beg the greater question, which I've never really treated very seriously in these pages before. The greater question is, who the hell am I?

At work, I'm an IT System Administrator for a small defense contractor called Recon/Optical, Inc. I do everything from replace mice and upgrade hard drives to firewall support to UNIX administration. We have a Cisco/phone guy, a database/applications lady, an older gent that does some miscellany, my boss, and me. My boss and I handle everything Windows and UNIX related. For the number of users, our IT operation is pretty small, so I wear a lot of hats.

Academically, I finally got my Associate's in Arts from College of DuPage just over a year ago. I'm currently attending Roosevelt University, studying English with a concentration in creative writing. I don't really know what I'll do with the degree, but I do know that I've put off getting it for way too long. My parents are pushing me toward law school, but the more I think about it, the more I think that doing law is just more of being a technician. I don't want to be a technician forever. Then again, if I have to be a technician, I might as well make screamingly good money so I can afford to buy a couple of nice guitars, right? Meh, I dunno.

Outside of all that, I play music. I play guitar and sing in a band called Counterpunch, and I happen to record all of our stuff in my home studio. We're currently working on an album to be released in December on Radtone Records. And, right now, by we I mean I. Not that the other guys don't help when they can, but I'm the guy that has the equipment and aptitude to record/mix, so right now I have the lion's share of work. I've been in a bunch of other bands that, if you don't know me personally, you've probably never heard of. I think you can find a few records in Best Buy with my name in the thank-you list, though, which is kind of cool.

At home, I live in a house in the suburbs, where I have my home studio and some computers to keep me company. I also have a roommate that plays drums in another Chicago punk band. We tend to stay out of each other's hair, so there isn't too much drama on that front. I hang out with my girlfriend Kristen when I have time. I have a really good relationship with my parents, which I'm told is rather weird. But, whatever, my parents are cool.

So, what's wrong with that? Not much, I guess. My main problem right now is that I am way overcommitted to a whole bunch of different things.

As any IT guy will tell you, work is pretty thankless most of the time. I get a bit of time here and there to check the news or blogs or whatever, but for the most part I'm up to my eyeballs in Microsoft specifications or backup software manuals or something. Either that or dealing with people lined up three-deep outside my office waiting to tell me their horror story about their computer. I work late hours sometimes, usually when it's most inconvenient to my personal life.

Things with Kristen are good. I like her and she likes me, and we have some problems but we are working them out. We have been seeing each other for a little over a year and a half.

School is actually really awesome. I love reading, I've always loved it, and I'm taking two classes right now that serve up a lot of it. One is Intro to Literary Analysis, which I call Anal Lit, since it makes my inner fratboy laugh. One is British Literature to 1789, which I simply call Brit Lit, because I can't think of anything clever to say about it. Both of my teachers are great in different ways. I am one of two guys in my Anal Lit class. No wonder I write like a chick.

Lately I've been researching law schools and stuff, since there is a definite time constraint on getting applications in, taking the LSAT and all that. My parents are gung-ho on it. Every time I read a "blawg" I get super nervous, because it just does not seem cool at all. But it's weird, because every lawyer I know has been a really cool person and seemed really happy with their lives. I've only known corporate counsel or independent lawyers, though, no examples of the BIGLAW life that I see portrayed in the popular online media. Plus, I seriously can't imagine not being in a band, and just going to classes right now is a strain on that, I'm not sure I am willing to put even more strain in the mix. So, I don't know what to think. Who knows. I have a while to decide all this though, since I won't actually graduate for another two years or so. It doesn't really keep me up at night, but it's something I think about from time to time.

The band has had its ups and downs. Recording really takes its toll on me, I have to admit. I mean, we are not making your average four-track garage band recording here. We're doing a full-on album, that (ideally) should sound just as good as one you pick up from some band on a major label. It's hard work. We haven't actually had band practice for a few months, because we haven't had a drummer. We have a new guy lined up, but since we're still finishing up the album, we haven't had a chance to practice with him. He's great and I'm positive he'll work out, so there's no doubt there. It's just a game of "hurry up and wait." Right now we have lead vocals left on a few songs (2 for me, 1 for Eric), a bit of editing, and some mixing to do. We *should* try and be done by the 15th, since our master is due by the 29th and we have to get in to a mastering session. It's crunch time, and I'm so tired that I'd rather write about my feelings than comp vocal takes together. Oh well. I'll get it done somehow.

So, between work and school and working on the record, I rarely have much time for my girlfriend, let alone reading a book or watching TV or whatever it is that normal people actually do. For the past, I dunno, two years or so, the only "free time" I've had is when I'm neglecting something else that needs to be done. I feel like my house is falling apart, I'm on track to miss my dad's birthday this week and I have laundry on the floor of my room that hasn't moved in months. But I can't really say that I hate my life or anything. It's just stressful right now. Once we get this record done (and I do think it will end soon, and with good results) I should be able to step back a bit and clear my head.

I think this is the longest thing I've ever posted here.

¹ Kristen, I know you're the only one who reads this, but bear with me.

Posted by dre at 10:33 PM | Permalink

Gender Genie thinks I'm a chick from the way I write.

What the hell.

Of course, I had to go back a few months to find an entry where I wrote anything substantial. But still.

Posted by dre at 10:26 PM | Permalink

Scientists see the softer side of Tyrannosaurus rex.

Does this discovery of soft dinosaur tissue mean that scientists will soon be able to clone a Tyrannosaurus rex? Probably not – most scientists believe that DNA cannot survive for 70 million years. Then again, before this discovery, most scientists believed that soft tissue could not survive for 70 million years either.

Posted by dre at 01:21 PM | Permalink