Doug “Sluggo” Ward (bass/vocals)
Meet Doug.
If you don’t know him already, Doug Ward is our upright bass player. He also contributes to harmony vocals and songwriting. On stage he stands a good head-or-so taller than the rest of us, and with his big bass fiddle he keeps us rooted into the groove. I guess you could say he is kind of like our own “big oak tree” ;-).
3 QUESTIONS FOR DOUG WARD ABOUT RECORDING THE ALBUM:
Q1. Why did the band opt to do live takes all together of almost of every song as opposed to doing more overdubs?
A: The decision making process in this band is a very relaxed and casual affair. Though there are strong confident personalities, we don’t clash on matters and each of us seems eminently willing to investigate all of the points of view on the rare occasions there might be some differences. Our collective recording experience led us to believe we would capture a more accurate picture of our music if we all played together as the fundamental recording process rather than one predicated on constructing the whole from separate recording sessions of individual parts. The end result would be a) more efficient, thus b) more productive, and lead to c) a recording which captured the nuances and “humanity” of the music; resulting in d) a finished product which best reflects how we actually sound, and what our listeners have come to expect from us. The members of the group were comfortable with the premise, and I sincerely hope are more than satisfied with the result. There are, of course some overdubs: we are determined to present the very best that we possibly can for those who have supported us, and so certain situations required either some minor corrections, and/or additional layers of instrumentation or vocals. We tried not to go crazy, but it is incredibly fun to experiment with songs in the studio- we actually get to “hear” them more like the audience “hears” them, and that can lead to some revelations about what really works and what really doesn’t.
Q2. Did any of the songs take on a new quality being on recording or are they pretty consistent with the live sound?
2) Both! Had we had the time and budget and patience, we could have exhausted ourselves experimenting with attempting to create new sounds and add a pinch of this or a dash of that to see what results we could cook up and what they would turn out to be. Some songs were just about as good as they could be as we set them down. Some needed some additional spicing up. One or two were quite literally beyond all expectation, I think. Listeners will note a few moments which sound different ‘live’ as opposed to how the recording sounds, due to some extra little touches of additional instrumentation or a vocal addition, but overall I think we achieved a fair and faithful reproduction of how we present this music in a live setting. We certainly learned about some parts which sound really good when we added them into the recording, and we’ll work to incorporate those discoveries in the ‘live’ shows.
Q3. The band had originally planned to include a song you wrote called “Life in a Day” on the album. What became of that?
3) Lol. Refer to the last sentence of my answer to question #1: we learned that something about that song was simply not “right” the way it was arranged and being performed. While the song seemed to get at least polite positive response in the ‘live’ shows, on the recording it simply wasn’t up to the standards we set for ourselves. It simply happens that way: every band that records and is honest in its assessment of what has been recorded finds itself with “outtakes” or songs that don’t fit with the rest of the works on a given compilation. We are certainly no exception to this general rule. We could have recorded twenty or more songs and and simply thrown the kitchen sink into this project, but it would not have been fair to the music, the audience, or the folks who generously supported the making of the record. Personally, while I loved the arrangement that Simon put to the song idea, I agree with his thought that the piece may work best as a prelude or prologue to something else. Sean has a lovely piece that might or might not work with it, and perhaps someday soon we’ll take it all out and tinker with it and see what it becomes. Part of the joy of being a musician is the creative process: it can be like training a puppy or raising teenagers at times, but in the end, the result makes the effort worth it.
Bass Eye View