Ha Ha Tonka Tour Blog

Our first session is coming to a close, and Brett and I were finally able to put a bow on our harms at about 10p last night. It’s tougher than you might think to spend 8 hours in a room working to get the best take at the same time, but I think the reward will be well worth it. There’s already more vocal parts on this record than anything we’ve done in the past, and I personally feel it’s some of our best harmony work yet. Nothing too extravagant, we’re working to keep things simple… but they’re there, and we’re very proud of what’s happening.

Luke will be blowing up the low end today, and then the plan is to try and get some rough mixes down to take home with us to painstakingly pick apart. From there the tracks will go to The Ryantist in Kansas City who will begin to put his production touches on what’s been laid out. We’re all very confident that when everything is said and done, and the tracks pass through both Kevin and Ryan’s fingers we will have something truly unique to what it is we are trying to do.

Again, this process has been and will continue to be very different for us. It’s not always the most comfortable, but we’re trying new things, and a lot of times new things will take you outside of your comfort zone. We’re trying to expand. Trying to make the best record we can possibly make. Hopefully, our best yet.

- LB/HHT working on the LP3

We can see the light.

Nearly all the big picture sort of tracks are done. We’ll be trying to wrap up all of the harmonies today. We were fortunate enough to get our first review of our unfinished and unreleased record last night.

“Holy SHIT! Mother fucker…” – Jesse from New Paltz, NY

We think it’s a good thing.

- LB/HHT working on the LP3

The following tracking is now complete:

- 100% Drums
- 100% Acoustic Guitar
- 100% Mandolin
- 90% Bass
- 70% Electric Guitar

It’s sounding great. It’s really neat to see the changes come together since we recorded the demo’s for all of these tunes. Some things are working better than others, but the big picture is coming together and it’s apparent that this record will be something that we’re all very proud of in the end. We’ve still got a whole other batch of songs we’re working on, and another session in September for tracking, so we’re a ways from the finish line, but things are certainly moving forward.

Today we wrap up all the electric guitar/ bass stuff and move on to our favorite part, vocals!

- LB/HHT working on the LP3

Yaay! Photo’s!

We started tracking acoustic last night after wrapping up the drums. It’s a completely new approach for us, as Brian is simply sitting in the big room of the barn playing his little tushy off while the rest of us drink beer and watch, walk around, etc. Pretty awesome, and it sounds great.

Time is money. So, until tomorrow. (These pics took way too long for me to upload.)

- LB/HHT working on the LP3

We’re all currently sitting in Kevin’s living room taking our shower rotations. My personal first in 3 days. It felt good. Gold Bond will only get you so far on freshness, but I’ll continue to live and die by the stuff.

Another day down. We were able to wrap up all of the drums minus one track yesterday, and around 80% of the bass tracks are done as well. It was nice to make some hefty progress on the basics so we can begin to hear the tunes come together as a whole. I think today will start to get interesting. Well, less interesting for me personally as I’ll be doing a lot of hanging out until we get to vocals, but more interesting as far as listening is concerned.

Again, no photo’s today. Sorry. For some reason the blog is giving me fits and anything I upload won’t show up. We WILL get it fixed, I promise.

Until next time.

- LB/HHT working on the LP3

Greetings from New Paltz, a quaint and beautiful little town located in upstate NY. We’re here kicking off the recording sessions that will be Ha Ha Tonka’s third LP. Last night marked the end of day one, and we were able to get a good amount of basics down on three of the eleven songs we have prepared. There’s a whole lot to be done, but we’re starting to get a feel for how things are going to work out here.

Our home for this week is a barn just outside of New Paltz. Our host is Kevin McMahon, co-producer/engineer for the project.

I have photos, but alas I’m unable to upload them to this site right now. Soon though, soon. Be calm children. Calm…

We have no internet out at the barn, go figure. It is a barn after all. So I’m updating you all from the local Starbucks, a nice little coffee shop I believe to be unique to New Paltz. We’ll update as often as possible, and will try to be here daily, so be on the look out.

- LB/HHT working on the LP3