My Very First Experience Inside A Studio

In my previous post, I mentioned how excited I was in anticipating my very first studio experience. After the session while we were heading out for food (that’s right EastCoastLife, I know you are going to ask: where’s the food?), I was still in trance and casually commented that it was the best day of my life. My new drummer Chip and my guitarist Jason turned and looked at me and they both asked “How about … (looking at Cynthia’s direction)”. Duh! I quickly rephrased to … the best day of my life in 2007 so far! Phew! Luckily Cynthia was way ahead chatting happily with Jason’s fiancee Selrol. Dumb things men say at times.

I know, I know … I really should have posted this out much earlier. My life has turned busy lately and I do apologize for the delay. I had one particular text conversation over the wireless phone with a special “fan” of the site. I had no idea that some of you are so enthusiastic to read this!

Fan: How was your jamming session?
Me: Great! Gonna post a blog tonight.
Fan: Too late! You are suppose to do it last night!
Me: I only had 5 hours of sleep last night 🙁
Fan: Excuses, ha ha ha … I forgive you 🙂
Me: Ha ha ha … You bloody slave driver!

My dad was used to work for a company that supported the entertainment business back in Hong Kong with equipment and manpower. Since young, I had the opportunity to often walk in and out of the backstage before and after the pop concert. I have seen what a studio looked like and I think because all these events happened when I was still a very young boy, the images of what is behind the music business left a strong impression in me – almost nostalgic in a romantic sense.

Perhaps it is this “special” upbringing that guided me to develop my music skill despite my almost definite lack of music talent. Joined a school band playing clarinet when I was 12 and soon, I picked up saxophone. Thanks to my seniors who taught me how to play these wonderful wind instruments and at around 15, I joined the Hong Kong Youth Orchestra playing 2nd clarinet with my friend from the same school band. Almost at the same time, I was fascinated by piano. I managed to convince my mum to buy me one and I “learned” how to play piano by reading books and experimenting what worked and what didn’t in a self-taught manner. I got as far as playing grade 3 music scores and could not go further. My parents tried to get me a piano teacher but I had to leave home when I was 17 to study overseas.

Since I could not bring my piano to UK, nor could I afford to buy my own clarinet or saxophone (on loan by the school band), I switched to an instrument that is economical, portable, and easy to learn – guitar. 17 was also the year when I first started to appreciate pop and rock music – a big step away from the classical music I was used to listen to. From then on, guitar and I are inseparable. Whenever I feel blue or lonely, I always have my guitar with me. That is why whenever I work overseas, I bring one of my guitars over as well. Writing my own song seems like a natural progression and I have been doing that incessantly for about 15 years. Time flies!

Back to present time, I do have a humble music studio at home that we often used for “unplugged jamming”. Since our band has now found a drummer to jam with, it is time to hit a proper studio with a proper drum kit!

When I first stepped into the studio and … good gracious me … the speakers are SO HUGE! No way I can fit any of these monster size speakers into my home. Each of us has a speaker for our guitars and bass guitar. To be honest, I have not stepped in front of such a huge speaker while I play my electric guitar. Every time I strum a chord, I can feel the vibration going through my body. The sound level is really high inside a studio. First, you can’t control the volume of the drum kit and trust me, that is loud. Second, my own guitar speaker has to be as loud in order to match with the drum. I could still hear what Jason and Cynthia were playing (because theirs were pretty loud as well and I was standing directly in front of Cynthia’s speaker). But hearing my own voice was hard. Though there were two HUGE speakers hanging from the ceiling pointing right at my left and right ears just to project the vocal track, I have to sing really loud and close to the mic in order to vaguely hear myself. Definitely still trying to learn my way through (as I was the only one in the band who has no outdoor performance experience), I think I have already fallen in love with jamming inside a studio.

So, one tiny step closer to live performance eh? Baby steps … baby steps …

PS. Captions time! From left to right and top to bottom: (1) the “rock” post! (2) Chip, our new drummer, (3) Cynthia, myself, the bass speaker, and Jason, (4) Jason and his fiancee Selrol, (5) the guitar speaker that was less than 2 feet away from my back, (6) group photo.