The evolution of Lucid
Lucid began as an adventure with the capo on the 6th fret. As I settled into the initial chord progression, I recorded a couple minutes of it to my phone – quietly in a small basement, with my family sleeping upstairs, and without a metronome or “click track” (more on that later). Thereafter, I acquired a Roland synthesizer (thanks to my family for all those gift cards!) and began writing a keyboard accompaniment. After recording several takes over the original guitar using a preamp and laptop, I edited those parts to create a single keyboard part. Then the song sat for a few years, as a nice audio nugget, with the hope that someday I might find or stumble upon the finish.
That some day came when I began noodling on the guitar, again with the capo on the 6th fret, and found a pattern that I just could not stop playing. I loved playing it. Over and over and over. And I realized: This is the chorus/outro/change to Lucid. The one hitch was that there was no click track to the original recording, so I had to match up the tempo of this new part with the early guitar/piano recording. I lined up the metronome on the new part as best I could with the (imperfect) tempo of the original recording. I kept noodling the beats per minute until, darn it, I thought I was as close as I could make it. I then recorded the second part, fading out the original recording and fading in the second part about a minute and a half into the song. Yet we needed drums (and bass, and vocals and more). So . . .
We recorded Jeremy’s drums. He did great work following the close but inconsistent tempo of the original song and then just about seamlessly transitioned into the second part where he then enjoyed the benefit of the metronome in his headphones. With a little tender loving care during mixing, the blend became a joyful intersection of two distinct-yet-now-joined musical parts. We filled out the song with vocals, a smooth bassline from Rudy, and strings. We created what might just be my favorite song on the record. Yes, I enjoy it for the piano sounds; the transition; and the lyrics. Yet I enjoy just as much its evolution, from quiet basement to full studio recording.
