Found this gem of a blogpost on STV .. written by Terry himself
So I type Terry McDermott into Google as I am wont to do on occasion and Io and behold I find a blogpost to a Scottish news site done by Terry as a guest blogger .. I will try and copy it in its entirety for your reading pleasure lol
When Neil Drysdale asked me to contribute a blog post to STV about the creative process in the studio, I was a little confused.
'Why would anyone want to know about that nightmare'? I thought to myself.
But yesterday, I sat outside a producer friend's house in Nashville and pretty much the same topic crept up in my discussion with a curious guest.
I found myself waxing lyrical about the passion and resultant exhaustion from the last recording session for Lotus Crush's second CD.
We recorded at Langs in Seattle. It's a legendary studio where countless records were given life in surroundings which are dripping with nostalgia.
It's a proper old studio, with proper old stories. We were naturally delighted to make it our own.
We had 19 days to produce the first half of the record and, invariably with recording, if you give yourself a year, you'll come up a week short.
We finished the session, laying the final vocal part with three hours to spare.
Most of us stayed upstairs in the residence above the studio with Bob Lang (producer, studio owner) and his wife Tina who've wrangled mad record schedules and sonic landscapes since the 80s.
Every morning, we'd be up at 9.30am and generally down the long staircase into the control room by 10am. The days wouldn't usually wrap until 2 or 3am.
There are no days off. You start and you don't stop running till you finish. There's an insane urgency and energy that surrounds some chaotic sessions and this definitely had it's moment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdQoxfCpOxM
Within a week, Todd Burman - the producer - and I were ready to kill each other as the long hours and constant requirement of being creatively sharp started to burn us out.
I'm not sure magical is the right word, but the atmosphere can often be charged when you're trying to bottle lightning.
If you put your heart and soul into it, there's frustration, elation and all that's in-between. Or even below. The actual recording went very well.
The drums were shockingly easy to put down, with drummer Scott Mercado "killing it" as people in the studio often remarked.
But our rhythm guitar player John Luzzi, one of my best mates, has a deeply annoying ability to be positive regardless of the circumstances.
Swapping rowies for gumbo: Terry McDermott gets personal
If he had been on the Titanic when it hit the iceberg, he would have been high-fiving passengers because he was going to get to go swimming.
His high spirit though was lost on me as I became increasingly frustrated at my performance on vocals. The key is, it's a process, not an event. Deep breaths and pauses are required.
Everybody's personality is magnified when you're locked in the dark dungeon for weeks, but there are a lot of old pros in our crew, so steady heads prevailed.
We left the studio on the last evening, racing for Seatac airport, utterly spent and somewhat dismayed that we still had half an album to record.
But all the aggression and aggravation is remembered for what it really is: passion.
And everybody knows it is emotionally draining to make a record.
Incredibly, it's just a tiny component of the machine required to create and ultimately successfully sell music to the public.
I'm currently on a tour bus in Newport, Kentucky doing the other part of getting music to people; actually playing live.
And in only three weeks, I'll be boarding a jet to head for Seattle and do it all again.
There are the late nights, the pressure, the creative demands, the lack of sleep and the frustration and blow outs, but finally, there are the incredible sounds that come back at you from the sound desk.
I can't wait for people to hear it all coming out of their speakers.
(neither can we, Terry, neither can we!!!)
much appreciation to Neil Drysdale and STV Aberdeen for asking Terry to guest post... more in future???
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