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Rob on Sticks & Stones
In contrast to Consistent Variation, Sticks & Stones ended up costing a fortune in both time and money. After I signed with Will in 1995, I would drive from my home in Maine to Will’s house in Vermont every other weekend for about a year until we finished the record. Imaginary Road Studio is located in a separate building about 50 yards from Will’s house. From an inspirational point of view, this record was a pleasure to make. In all, Will’s property comprised close to 800 acres at the time, situated on a hill in Windham County. Hence where the name “Windham Hill Records” came from. The studio overlooks the West River Valley and is washed in reflective light through the trees and the valley below. If you can imagine the ultimate place in the whole world to record solo guitar music, I assure you, this place is IT! Many of the pieces I originally intended to cut for this album were actually never recorded. Not to sound too negative, but our methodology was little more than organized chaos. We were really, really disorganized. As it turned out though, that disorganization helped shape a lot of really interesting performances. For someone like Will, having a studio on your property is probably as much of a hindrance as a convenience. He’s easily distracted and has a really hard time sitting still for any period of time. There was always a call to make, a shed to build, a walkway covered with fresh snow to shovel, or one of a thousand other carpentry projects to finish. At the time, the ground floor of the studio was being used as a lumber mill. No Joke. I must say though, that out of this chaos came some really special things. Here’s why… A typical day would start at about 10 AM. I would meet Corin Nelsen (Engineer and Studio Manager) at the studio and we would spend a couple of hours changing strings, patching cables, and placing mics. We would get the sound happening and ready to cut whatever piece I wanted to do that day. Then we had to track down Will so he could come in and “produce”. While waiting for Will to show up I would get bored practicing the intended piece and not wanting to play out my fresh strings too much, I would grab another guitar and sit out on the porch and jam. While fleshing out my “new” ideas on the porch, Will would show up and say, “What the Hell is that? We’ve got to record that now before you lose it!” So I would go in the studio, sit down and just start improvising. We would end up rolling tape for 20 minutes or so, during which time I would meander aimlessly between different sections, trying to expand on the core idea as much as possible. When I got tired, we would stop tracking and Will would leave Corin and I to edit it. We would dump the whole performance into Sonic Solutions and start marrying sections together until we had a piece happening. At the time I was a little annoyed with the whole process. It was really time consuming and it got pretty expensive. I have to say though that when I listen to the record now, the end result of the process turned out really cool in most places. Creating a record using technology to help capture raw ideas from scratch and actually be able to use them for the final product is amazing. “Trance Dance”, “Elizabeth”, “Rhumbline”, and “1126#2” are all good examples of pieces captured with this process. My only real regrets about this record are the way in which it was marketed. There was a tremendous amount of hype surrounding the release of this album because of Will’s involvement in it. Because of his history producing Hedges, de Grassi, and Bensusan, the pressure on me to perform was tremendous. All these guys are, and unfortunately were, monstrous! I think everyone was expecting to be leveled by my originality. The problem is that when you work with Will, you really get bullied into giving him what he wants. And what he wants is Windhamesque guitar music with that Windhamesque sound. It is sort of a paradox since I think he signed me because of the energy of my rhythm playing. I remember early conversations with him when he came to my house in Maine. I was playing stuff like early versions of “Trance Dance” and JamMan loops like “1126#2” with these huge chords and a rock & roll vibe and it really turned him on. The problem was that when the record was released, every bit of the marketing, right down to the cover art smacked of this new, loud, aggressive acoustic player. I really think we fell short in delivering that since only about 20% of the album has that vibe. Don’t get me wrong, I cherish all of the pieces on the album, and I like the ballads too. I think we really nailed them, and Will got me to play them in the most heartfelt way. I’m proud of that. I just think the record should have been marketed as a really good “New Age” guitar record and not an album that would change the way you felt about acoustic guitar music forever. But I can’t complain. After all, Sticks & Stones launched my acoustic career. The album sold well both in the states and abroad, the tours were successful, and radio was extremely supportive. All in all, when I think of this record, I think of how exciting it was at the time to be involved with Will and the launch of his new label. It was a great honor to have someone with a track record such as his to be into my music as much as he was. It’s funny…I have a hard time remembering the actual recording sessions. What I remember the most is how fun it was to be with friends. Sleeping in the spare room above the shop at Froggy Bottom. Making tacos with Michael Millard and playing fetch with his dog, Bubba. Drinking wine and watching the Super Bowl with Will and Corin. Watching in amazement as Manring ate a sandwich one day that outweighed him by 40 pounds! Wondering if my ’87 VW Golf was going to make it up the hill in a snowstorm…good people…good music...real good times. — Rob
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