Dan & Faith

We’ve been busy recording a new studio CD, and we’re excited to share it. We’ve got more work to do yet, so it will still be a little while. The studio experience isn’t the same as live music. Sometimes it feels like it’s not even related. That’s not to say it isn’t useful or fun, it’s just different.

In live performance, we play instruments and sing all at once. We communicate back and forth with a glance, a smile, a raised eyebrow. The music comes out how it does, and exists for that moment in time and then is just a memory in the mind of the listener. In the studio, everything is recorded, listened to, analyzed and dissected. The challenge is to make the song sound the best it can, while not losing the emotion and that sense of presence we get when performing live.

For this CD, we’re recording instruments first, but with both of us playing, separated by glass between isolation rooms. Then we’re recording vocals, with both of us singing, again separated by glass. It’s not quite as good as being in the same room, singing side by side, but it is working pretty well.

Having spent the past many weeks mostly in the studio, playing live feels a bit less comfortable, since we haven’t been doing it much. We’re looking forward to getting out a lot more in the coming month and once again enjoying the energy of singing for a live audience. All the work in the studio really helps, though, as you get to hear every nuance in your playing and singing, and think about how to improve each. In the end, while studio recordings and live music aren’t the same, recording in a studio is a great way to tune in to your own skills and performance. The growth from the studio experience lifts the live performances to follow.