...Back in Nashville

Dear Diary,

I mean BLOG! Dear BLOG! I was totally not about to write diary-worthy secrets concerning boys and how my teacher gives way too much homework. I would never...

Anyway, I got back to Nashville a little over a week ago. Brian (the fabulous guitar player/producer from all those video blogs) and I both definitely needed a little recovery time, but we checked in last night, and I have comfortably returned to obsessing-over-the-album mode.

Confession: It's really hard to be be away from Boston, and working on the album from afar, but I'll be back up there in a few weeks, and I'm working on midi parts and arranging harmonies from down here. In fact, today's multimedia portion of the blog is all about midi! (Note: These audio clips have no vocals and may be of absolutely no interest to you.)

Here's a sample of "Why It's Blue" - still in its rough form, and no vocals yet, but you can tell it's going to be cool. Pardon the audio quality here, I dumped it into Garageband to make a short clip:




Now, here it is with a midi part I added (just a rough version. Consider this a first draft.):



Fun, huh? I heart technology.

New Video!

Yay. I finally threw this footage together into a video blog. If you can't tell, I'm having the time of my life making this album :)

Hooray for Graphic Design

Dear top secret blog readers (a.k.a. album supporters),

I am so excited about the graphic design for the album! Thanks so much to those of you who voted on the poll about album lyrics. I met with Abby Getman today, and the album art is going to be fantastic! (I do plan to keep some things a surprise, but with Kamikaze Love as the title, we're envisioning a World War II  direction as far as fonts and graphics.)

The front of the album is going to be one of Abby's awesome illustrations, but I will have a picture of me somewhere on the album (probably the back). Here are the two finalists, taken by Markus Kleinen in Alexandria, VA:

I need your input!

Hey folks...

I still have a bunch of footage from the bass and piano recording sessions that I need to edit, but I have some decisions coming up that I'd love your input on.

Because they're running a promotion (and do good work), I think I'm going to use Diskmakers for the replication of the CD. I'm leaning towards the 4 panel digipak. (You can view it here if you're a nerd like me and into such things.) Budget wise, this makes total sense. I've also noticed that, personally, the way I experience a CD has evolved, and I no longer sit down with the lyrics like I used to. I dump it right into my iPod or pop it it the car stereo. Because of all these things, I'm leaning towards having the lyrics available online, but not printed on the packaging itself. (If I were to print it on the packaging, I'd need a bigger digipak and the cost would jump).

So, the question is: How important is it that the lyrics are on the packaging? I've made a poll in the sidebar.

(Bonus: here's a video of my hilarious bass player telling a hilarious story. I posted it on my normal blog today, too.)

A set of unnecessary charts.

We've had a lot of coffee... Brian is particularly addicted, as you can see:

It may appear that I am drinking more coffee than Steve Sinatra, but he was only here for four days, so his daily average was more than mine. This graph demonstrates his sudden drop off:

 Steve Belleville doesn't drink coffee. And I am a nerd. That is all.

Update!

Tom's gorgeous piano. Sigh.

So week 2 is over! As of now we have the "basics" done for 9 tracks (that's the band, plus the piano parts, which I recorded on a gorgeous piano at Tom Eaton's studio this weekend). I have video footage of this stuff, which I plan to edit and post soon.

Thanks for voting on the title! Kamikaze Love was my favorite, too, and is now the official title of the album. I'm meeting with an amazing designer, Abby Getman, next week to go over ideas for the cover. You can see some of her work here:

Abby's Photostream

Let's see... what else?

Oh, I'm totally sick. As it turns out, working into the wee hours for days at a time is bad for you. Luckily, I'm already feeling better and still have over a week until we do my vocals. Also, I'm doing a CD fundraiser house concert in Durham, NH this weekend. If you're in the Northeast, and want to attend, send me an email at kate AT kateklim DOT com.

Alright... videos and more interesting posts than this one up soon. Promise :)

-Kate

What a week...

Well, this first week (and craziest week) of recording is over. And what a week it was. Really, it was a week of making music with 3 of the nicest, most talented guys I know, and trying to capture the best of those moments for the record. So far, we're succeeding at that (I think) and having a great time doing it.

Brian Packer (producer and guitar player) and Steve Sinatra were in my college band, and we spent a  fair bit of time recounting stories from "the good old days," including the time Steve dared me to work the phrase "Purple pony" into my banter at Alfred University, or the "Best Western Olympics" which, among other things, resulted in this picture (right), which Steve proudly uses on his facebook profile.


Bassist Steve Belleville has has caused me to nearly pee myself at least 4 times, with stories like "mom releases iguanas into the wild" and "Steve and brother explode things in the backyard." We have many Steves. And by many, I mean two. I hope to be an honorary Steve by August.

So, in short the collaboration over the music is feeding my soul... and I'm laughing my butt off. Of course, I made you this video, too.