Day 2: In the studio!

Im sorry this post is going up pretty late... Nashville honky tonks are crazy!!! ha. kidding. We went to see a movie. "Saving Mr. Banks" It was just as good the second time:) Go see it!

Anywhooo, YOU GUYS. TODAY. WAS. AWESOME.

I cannot even begin to explain the feeling of being in the studio with such musical geniuses, watching them put life into your songs. Its amazing and I'm pretty sure I am the luckiest girl in the world.

Here's how it worked.

We woke up around 8:00 and went to work out. (aren't you proud?) We did T25, which by the way is amazing and flipping hard.

We then got ready, ate some breakfast, and drove over the studio. I say drive, because i want you to laugh at us. We are LITERALLY next door to the studio. I can see the door to the studio from the front door of the hotel, and yes... we drove. Commence laughing. It was cold ok?

I walk into the studio to a room full of musicians who have worked with and toured with the most amazing artists... people i aspire to be. I felt really cool.

My producer, Brandon Metcalf pulled out the lead sheet for the first song we did and we got started! I meant to take a picture of the lead sheets to show you guys, but ill post that tomorrow. Its incredible. If you don't know what a lead sheet is, its a piece of paper with a bunch of numbers on it and the musicians translate that to chords. Its incredible to watch that process. I wish I could take you all in with me so you could experience how amazing this is. Anyway, they take those numbers, listen to the work tape i sent them, talk through any changes or cool things they think should be changed/added and away they go. The recording starts and they start to layer tracks together. IT IS UNREAL. They are so creative and just come up with cool licks and elements for the song in such a short amount of time. I would go into the vocal booth for the first time (emphasis on first time) they ever play the song and sing along. We call this scratch vocals. They will most definitely be deleted and new vocal tracks added:) They do not sound very good. haha.

Listening to the Work Tape

Derek the guitar player

We repeated this process 3 times before lunch and 2 times after. We had all 5 songs recorded with the musicians by 4:30. WHAT!? Do you know how long it would even take me to figure out one song as well as they did it, much less 5?! I was wiggin.

Derek and Brandon (the producer) hard at work

I seriously felt so honored to be in the same room as those people. It was like watching magic. I can't wait for y'all to hear what we came up with!

David, the piano player. He was amazing. Cool studio too huh?

For lunch, we all went to an irish pub across the street, infamous for their fish and chips apparently. I don't like fish so I got a salad, but everyone said they were amazing. The restaurant was called Dan Mcguinness. It was very very good:) (Sorry, i forgot to take pictures... i was distracted by what had just happened in the studio)

When we were finished in the studio, mom and I came back to the hotel to veg for a bit and then headed out for dinner. This time, i kind of remembered to take pictures... haha!

There's always amazing live music everywhere you go!

We went to another restaurant across the street called South. Its a southern restaurant with an urban twist. Kinda like southern Utah food. haha. I had a Salad again, it was the Demonbruen salad. It was delicious!! It had strawberries on it but by the time I took this picture, they had definitely all been eaten. I also had a side of sweet potato fries. My weakness. SO YUMMY. Mom had a veggie wrap and mac-n-cheese. She enjoyed it too! Here are a couple pictures of what was left of our food by the time i remembered to take pictures....

After dinner, we changed into our PJ's and went to see the movie. We were 2 of 4 people in the theatre. It was awesome. I love being in a quiet theatre.

Now were here, in the hotel room again. Mom is reading, and I'm blogging. And I'm pretty sure were both still trying to process all the amazing that happened today. We were like too little giddy five year olds.

I cannot explain the emotions I felt today. For so long, I've been writing and working on these songs. I've struggled feeling confident in the writer that I am. Ask my roommates, i think I've asked them a million times, "Do you think these songs are good enough? Do you think people will like them? Are you lying to me?" haha. I may or may not have some underlying trust issues ;) wink. But today in the studio it was amazing to see the musicians faces as they heard my songs and got excited about them. It reminded me why i love putting all that work in. It was amazing to see them put their heart into the songs the same way I had put mine into them. To me, they're not just songs... they're little pieces of me. And its such a cool thing to see them finally come together the way I envisioned them. IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY.

BEST. DAY. EVERRRR!!! (if you didn't say it in your best tangled voice, you're doing it wrong...)

I can't thank these people enough. They made my life today.

I can't wait to start vocals tomorrow!!!:)
XX,