In Defense of the Rough Mix
I’m taking a break from watching Steve Ballmer’s red ass face every time the Clippers sink any kind of basket. I’m listening to the second mix of the new Heiruspecs record (I’m thinking December for release and the working title is “Low Key Whatever Happened to the Heiruspecs”. I’m feeling this raw excitement that comes basically only from the feeling of rough mixes. You’re gonna end spending a lot more of your listening life with the version that is almost the final mix. Have you ever thought about that? Probably once you dial in the song, and send it to mastering, and get artwork? I bet you you have listened to 75% of the total amount of times you listen to your own track before you get the mastered version.
The world? The world, if they do hear it, will hear the final version, and hopefully it will connect with people. But your memory will be the unmixed version, the version where the cymbals ring for a long time. Like a weird long time. Where DeVon’s keyboard goes on for a weird long time. You might remember the CDR with the sharpie more than the final artwork. And there’s a camaraderie about it right? You’ve got your own version. And shit, you might always grab that version even when the new one is out.
Having now spent 5 years doing DJ work full time, you connect with the music differently. I used to bring a advertising oriented musician into some workshops I ran at McNally Smith, great dude named Richard Werbowenko. This guy said that usually the thing the clients are drawn to is the thing with the mistake in it, the thing that is a bit jarring. I don’t want everything smoothed out. I just listened to a record from Pinegrove on vinyl that is basically a bunch of rough mix throw it up on bandcamp jams. This song Need 2. Are you kidding me? I just played along with it on bass, there’s something so exciting about the way the two acoustics at the top work like a bass drum and a snare. It’s such a percussive treatment of the guitar. I absolutely love it. There’s something so compelling it.
We’ve got a tune on the new Heiruspecs record called “Thunder Sounds”. It has relatively unlikely lengths to the verses, it’s got something that I’ve been missing for so long in hip-hop which is just the 8 bar shut the fuck up section. The beat’s not crazy different, it’s not a solo, it’s just a little breather. Those breathers were so well put in I’m gonna say ‘87-’95 era stuff. It was refreshing, it was resetting. It helped create some more appreciation for the stuff on either side of it. I’m glad we got one of those worked in. Those are sometimes hard to pull off live. We are kind of a little too grown to do heavy heavy crowd response. But we are a little too young for the rappers just to linger. But we find our way. I’m excited about so many of the tunes on the record.
We are also doing a tune called “Four Werewolves Forever Ago”, there’s these incredibly quiet guitar parts that are absolutely goose bumping quality stuff that happens during Muad’dib’s verse. I mean so quiet that it doesn’t cut through in the car, even cranked. But if you get your ears next to the speakers you get these way understated Steely Dan meets The National spots. It’s exciting. I think Heiruspecs has had some amazing songs, but I don’t believe we’ve always cooked in enough ear candy stuff. There’s some serious ear candy stuff on this one. Can’t wait to share it with you.