Wow I suck…. I really haven’t updated this since summer 2017? Well then, time for an update. Still playing/engineering, thought not nearly as much as I would like. Last week I had to renew a subscription I have to site called Produce Like A Pro run by this rather interesting producer I’ve been following named Warren Huart . Cool music production/engineering site that offers the original sessions of songs for people to remix, I hadn’t downloaded one in a while so I thought I would see if anything interested me, and this was the first song I listened to. I downloaded it right away based on the first 10 seconds because I knew right away this one I had to do.

I try not to listen to anymore than a snippet of the original because I like the exercise of closing my eyes, listening to the song and then mixing it according to what my head interprets it to be. This one pretty well painted a story and feeling right away. It felt like a hot humid summer night, kind of stuffy but in a pleasant way. In a bar that was basically a large screened in wooden porch with dim lighting, some tables and a dance floor. It smelt and tasted like alcohol after you’ve had a bit too much to drink, smooth and appealing and you really want to keep going with the full knowledge that it means bad news tomorrow, but who cares?

And so I start making choices of the way the guitar should sound in the imaginary bar that this all is taking place in, like a beat up old Strat playing through an older Fender amp that breaks up just the tiniest bit in a really pleasant way. I start working on the vocals and the picture gets painted even further of an ex walking into the bar, and just like the alcohol you’re drawn to them knowing there is nothing but a release and bad news ahead. It ends up in a head to head dance with the a sweet smell of whiskey on each others breath and the lyrics of the song running through your head. That of course fuels the choice to make the vocals slightly more “breathy” and to try and have the overall sound be some weird mash up of One Of These Nights by The Eagles and something by Vince Gill. So I start chasing a sound I can hear in my head but know I will never get it quite right.

Jesus this sounds like a 50 year old man’s version of a trashy romance novel. OK so enough of that, the short version is, this was a really great song that I just wanted to do. So here’s my version of the mix of Whiskey by Steve Maggoria:

Afterwards I had a chance to listen to the original as well of some other peoples interpretations of it, and really amazes me how the same song can be presented so differently from person to person. In listening back to my mix, I can still hear the little imperfections that would normally drive me crazy, but in this case they work in the context of the song for me. And the cool part is I’m actually happy with this one because it’s the way I want to listen to this song. That’s the first time that’s happened for me so I’m happy I decided to try this song.