Sam Shinazzi

Stories

‘Less Than Perfect Day’:
The real story by Sam Shinazzi

Making and releasing ‘Less Than Perfect Day’ was a long and difficult, but ultimately rewarding experience so writing about it is kinda hard. Hopefully this will all make sense, but if it doesn’t...just go buy or listen to the album...it says it all much better than I can. Nevertheless...

General Facts

‘LTPD’ was recorded in three different locations around Sydney. Drums and bass were done at Troy Horse, ‘Tiger’s Tale’ and the piano for ‘You Better Stop Breaking My Heart’ were tracked at Wes’ old house in St.Peters and the rest (the bulk) was completed in Konrad’s studio in Dulwich Hill. The actual recording took over a year to complete. At the time it depressed and frustrated me but looking back on it...it adds up. I was at university fulltime, working part-time, playing shows, in a relationship and trying to remain social. On top of this, I was paying Konrad on a regular but nowhere near fulltime basis which meant he was working other jobs as well. My decision of getting guests to play also, in a major way, prolonged things. I had to work out where people were going to play, give them the songs, get them to write some ideas, rehearse with them, work around everyone’s schedule (including mine), on occasions transport them and them finally record their contributions…and it was a pleasure to do so.

I AM NOT COMPLAINING AND IN MANY WAYS VERY HAPPY I DID IT THIS WAY. I AM JUST KINDA SAYING THIS WAS TIME CONSUMING!

I could have covered most guitar parts, drums, vocals and some keys. But I thought if I got others to play they could certainly add things I couldn’t. Or they’d be different at the very least. I knew I could record a solo record anytime; why not get my talented mates involved now before they all got busy with their own things.

It took another year to get released locally. The two independent (but professional) labels I really wanted to be on both enjoyed their advance copies but stalled when it came to an actual release. With the exception of Steady Cam, no other indies really got back to me at all which surprised me at the time. So months went by and admittedly I had neither the confidence nor ego to chase these things up, and there was nothing going on. Nothing. I don’t know what was worse: the silence after so much blood, sweat and tears or people asking me about it because I was saying that it was finally finished and that it would be out soon.

Months later, a major label became interested which was both great and confusing. I make music the way I like to hear it and I happen to believe that much of it is accessible, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t surprised at the label’s interest. And I am not an indie kid that thinks all majors are evil because the simple truth is that some indies are more corrupt than the majority of majors. Only my closest crew knew about this new twist yet it did get out amongst others and suddenly I was “signing” to a major. After some reasonably strong interest it never did eventuate and as disappointing as that was...it was such a confidence boost that I became focussed again. Believe it or not another major showed some interest after this (to a much lesser extent) which I didn’t tell anyone about (due to the first experience) but that fizzled out (from my point of view) pretty quick.

Cameron Webb from Steady Cam was still keen and Chris Wu was starting Gifted Records so they decided to split the costs and make it a joint release. Further delays were caused by a distributor who led us on and then abruptly ended our plans, and then the CD manufacturers who promised a 4 -5 week turnaround (a lengthy time in itself). Unfortunately, they were 100% unprofessional and took 15 weeks (almost four months) to return our CD’s. We couldn’t even sell the album at our supposed Sydney launch and a subsequent well attended Melbourne show; estimated at a loss of at least 60 sales from two shows alone which adds up to $1200…and that's a minimal estimate.

As Autumn 2003 began, so did a new life for the album. I mentioned the recording / mixing process took a while. For all the frustration it caused me though, I must also point out that I pretty much had a lot of FUN…I learnt an invaluable amount about recording an album from the first day until the last…developed relationships (musically and personally) with some great people and created something I am very proud of.
There were so many moments worth documenting and hopefully they not only come across on the album but in some of the stories I am going to tell you about. In hindsight I should have gotten Matthew Hancock to film it all…then again is there enough film in the world for such a thing?

Some random memories of the recording process for 'Less Than Perfect Day'.
- The last track on the album is 'Tiger's Tale' which was actually recorded first. It is written by Brad Herdson (Little Sky). He and Elizabeth Payne were living in Tasmania but were up for a holiday and it just made sense to get them to be my band for the song. Adam 'Wes' Gregorace did the engineering at their old place in St.Peter's on the eight track. It was unrehearsed and only took about ninety minutes to do it all including the vocals.

I remember it being one of the hottest days of the year which didn't help matters and I was the last to arrive. Naomi Payne and Kristy were there as well. The recorder was in Wes' room with most of the gear out in the loungeroom. My god that was a messy house and I am not even talking about that day in particular! I tracked the acoustic and then did vocals which took a few takes. Brad played the electric guitar which sounded awesome and then did some backing vocals. Liz sang like the angel she is one take and it sounded very special already. She then insisted on playing some cymbal which actually sounds perfect. And that was that. I mean…Tom Hartney added his piano part and Konrad cleaned it up a little but it was a lovely beginning. It proved that we could make some top recordings…unfortunately they would take a little longer.

- I had so much nervous energy for the second day of recording I threw up that morning…and that isn't normal for me. We had set one day aside to record the drums and bass for six songs at Troy Horse in Alexandria. My equal best friend Graeme Trewin and my good friend Ben Chamie were playing bass. They are Peabody's rhythm section so we were all pretty familiar with one another musically speaking. I went to Ben's in Angel Street to pick him up and he wasn't there! I waited about twenty minutes thinking he had gone to work instead when I see him running down the lane nearby holding a piece of paper from the medical centre saying he was allowed a day off. This was also Konrad's first day on the job so it was all enjoyable in that sense.

Upon arrival Graeme had already set up his kit and Konrad was also well into it too, although recording gear does take hours to set up so…it looked impressive anyway! I was singing guide vocals and playing electric guitar which was mostly guide although we did end up keeping some parts. Most of it was relatively easy. We did songs like 'Moving Along' , 'The Moon and the Stars' and 'Goofy' in about four takes which is pretty good. For 'Town Where You Were Born' we did a faster swinging version and a mopey slower one as well so we could decide later on and see which sounded more appropriate (faster swinging won).

'Lainie K' was a little troublesome for Grae in the sense that he hadn't decided what to do with his right hand (hats? / percussion? ?) so we fooled around a bit with that. I loved the rim shot notes and he took some persuading but that's the sweet sound you can hear on track two.

Everyone had been working hard and it was time for a late lunch. I had brought my own but the boys all went down to Chicken Express for a feed. While they were gone I fooled around on the drums because we still had 'House Near Bridge' to record and I had some ideas for Grae. I notice that time is passing…half an hour lunch turns into an hour. I am tempted to go get the fellas but figure they must be on their way back up, right? Wrong! I swear they had an hour and a half lunch whilst I was panicking about recording the trickiest song of them all. We had to be out by 6pm but finish around 5pm because of all the gear we had set up. I think at about 3:45pm the boys came back into the room and I cannot remember if I yelled at them but afterwards Ben and Grae reckon Konrad was telling old-school recording stories! I actually think all three of them talked tall over lunch and although I was worried about time getting away, I was secretly jealous I had missed out on all the fun.

We rehearsed 'House Near Bridge' a few times and it wasn't great which had me a little concerned because it was one of the two main songs we were doing (if one can say such a thing). About 4:40pm we nailed a take and the disturbing part of it all is that when Konrad played me back all the takes a week later…there was only one take of 'House Near Bridge'. I mean, it turned out great but jeez…talk about cutting it close.

When you record you tend to make mental notes of what was perfect and what you could do better…in my mind I knew we could get 'Goofy' a touch better…so we did one last take and it was the one we kept. The funny thing about that was our friend Tanith who works at Troy Horse opened the door during the song and I was facing her playing guitar and singing and just shook my head with that look that says "WE ARE RECORDING RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND!!!" which she would know because she is a talented recording artist in her own right. We kept it going but Ben's bass did drop out for a second which I am pretty sure we kept for a long time during mixing because it didn't sound bad at all. (Maybe Konrad filled in the two notes…I cannot remember and am not going to listen to it now! Have a listen for yourself…it is coming out of the bridge).

That was the first of MANY eight hour days but I could not have picked a finer crew to hang with.

-The first time I went to Konrad's studio Audio Darnok in Dulwich Hill it was the end of Summer but it sure was hot. He had told me it was an intimate set up and when I saw it I could see what he meant. It was like a large main room with tonnes of gear and then the mixing console and computers facing some of the biggest speakers I have ever seen. So essentially, behind that there was maybe 1.5m by 4m of space to sit, play and hang out. There was a small vocal room and a small recording room attached. It was intimate but at the start of the process I actually found it pretty comfortable and encouraging to record in. As time went by, (I might go into more detail somewhere below) I did get the feeling that the place was closing in on me but I put that down more to feeling the pressure of getting the album finished. I might also add that Konrad was in the process of changing the studio around and that any solo artist or band that needs somewhere to track non-drum instruments would do themselves a favour by working in such an environment.

A regularity of recording for Konrad and I was eating and drinking. We had the luxury of a small convenience store 50m down the road and also the main drag of Marrickville to choose from. This leads me to one of my first memories which I just shudder at…I was enjoying the first of many Coke's and my cup was sitting on the main desk. I am a clumsy person but you'd think being in a recording environment with such valuable gear I'd take extra care…Within the first hour of recording on the first day in Audio Darnok I knock over a full glass of Coke all over Konrad's gear! I am ashamed. Keep in mind we hadn't really become great mates yet…I knew him okay but…He cleans it up pretty quick and laughs it off whilst also announcing no drinks shall be left on the main desk. I agree.

This leads me to perhaps my second memory which I shudder even greater at. It was a really hot day still…you know…almost unbearable. I am sitting at the desk in the middle of the room and Konrad is on the ground underneath patching something or other. He will be the first to admit that he isn't a goth or anything but you know…he wears black six out of seven days…that kinda guy. I am reading or daydreaming or something when I look over at the front door. I see the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life. The biggest. I HATE spiders. For some reason though I don't panic in the slightest. Maybe I went into shock…but I casually turn and ask Konrad "Is that a toy spider on the door?". He looks up at me blankly and then…to this day…he says he saw the fear in my eyes. And then I saw the fear in his! I calmly moved over near him because…you know…it was his studio and he is the older and bigger and he'd be my protector. But there we were…two grown up badass men on one side of the studio and the biggest spider we have seen on the other. The worst thing about it all was that it was right over the crack in the door so if we opened it to push him out he would just fall on the ground in the room and run into a corner. And believe me, if you'd seen this thing you wouldn't want him hanging out in the corner! I kid you not…for two hours we stood there frozen not knowing what to do. From the outset I told Konrad he'd have to kill it because I wasn't going near the thing.

Finally, with his big shoe, 100 rehearsals and a loud curse word he squashed that bastard all the way to hell. In all seriousness…it might have been an innocent huntsman but it did look slightly exotic and we thought it might have jumped so to speak if we had fooled around at all with it…Between the spilled Coke and the spider it had been an eventful time. We had bonded and it was now time record.

- Like I mentioned above, scheduling for everyone was difficult and that included the two constant people in the whole process...Konrad and myself. Sometimes we would do full days and nights; sometimes we would do afternoons and / or evenings; sometimes just two hours...sometimes twelve. It was all over the place due to our different lives.

One week in particular sticks out when we actually couldn't find a block of time to record. I had exams or Konrad had a bunch of separate work he had to…for whatever reason we had to find time that week otherwise we wouldn't get a chance for another two weeks. I remember it involved me tracking electric guitar. The only time we could find…and it was Konrad's suggestion…was an early morning start. Believe it or not we began at 6am! It was unbelievable at the time but it actually ended up being a really productive session. I am famous for not being a morning person…between 8am and 12pm bums me out. I feel so mopey and dumb during the mid-late morning. It was pitch black as I drove even beating peak hour traffic…very strange. We had some coffee and then got into it. I spent the morning in the small recording room out the back with Konrad in the main room. I used my Squire Telecaster and Bruno's SG through Konrad's fender amplifier. We tracked most of the electric rhythm guitar that day. Obviously if I was singing or doing something else at that time of the day it would have been horrible but for whatever reason the guitar parts seemed to come naturally. I think that day we went from 6am to 1pm. It was one of those occasions where you think you are doing something that isn't going to work (record at 6am) but it actually turns out to be one of the most successful tracking days we did.

- I became a regular at the corner store near Konrad's. I was the shopper because Konrad was setting up things or mixing some new tracks for me to hear. Usually we both would be coming from somewhere
else…I'd be coming from university or work and he'd be coming from another sound job so we often started a session with dinner or afternoon tea…any excuse for a bite. There were a few albums on my behalf that I played in the studio for reference and inspiration including R.E.M.'s 'Automatic For The People'. The vocals on that just kill me. I turned Konrad onto Elliott Smith and Scud Mountain Boys. I guess other than that we mainly were listening to takes and parts of the album.

- I spoke with a few engineers before I began the album. I didn't have a label behind me so it was 100% self financed and I wanted to use someone that was going to be as into recording these 12 songs as I was. I had a well-known Sydney engineer in mind but couldn't afford him…I mean I could, but not for as long as I wanted. The others I spoke to wanted to be producers as well and were not particularly qualified in my opinion. I called Konrad up because I had worked with him before in the old band. He recorded the 'Rub It In' single. Not only did I think he was nice and friendly (a prerequisite) but he was really helpful in the studio.

At that time I was barely a singer and he helped me through the vocals like John Lang would of coached the Sharks in 2001. We had stayed in touch here and there until we had some phone discussions and then he listened to my acoustic demos. He was pretty keen and sorta said everything I wanted an engineer to say. Now as experienced and great as Konrad was, he wasn't a known name by any means in the circles I hung in so people were pretty cautious of what we were doing right up until they heard something. This didn't bother me in the slightest and my faith in him was rewarded (in the personal sense) session after session, and then later when people told me how much they dug the album.

As far as producing…on this album I see it being as both of us. I mean, bottom line was they were my songs and I performed on them and I was financing it…if I didn't like something it didn't make it. I am into the idea of having a producer but not just for the sake of having one. Just because someone is engineering doesn't mean they are producing. If I could record with someone I trust and admire in that sense…you know…someone like the Fort Apache guys or Dylan at Badman Recording Co or the Robb Brothers etc…or a musician I loved…then that would be great. Also, with this album and to a degree whenever the next one happens…some of the songs have been with me for a long time. I have a certain history with them and if I know how I want them to sound then that is pretty much that. I am certainly always open to hearing other's opinions and nothing is ever set in stone. But I do think I know how I want things to be so as long as I have the final say then I am open to collaborations. I think when the day comes that I have caught up on all my songs and over one season or two I just write a new album…I would probably need that production help!

So I produced a lot of the album in the sense of I knew what I wanted and in many instances how to get it. And to be honest if I had produced it on my own it would have been a little more bare boned. I am not saying that's how I wanted it to be…but I think that's how it would have ended up. Konrad encouraged more of the layering sound…on 'House Near Bridge' there are some keys that really thicken the sound. I knew I wanted cello but he played a large part (along with Oliver Heimbach) in how it ended up which I totally love. On 'Up and Over There' it was just an acoustic song with some E-Bow but then Konrad added a lot of the atmospherics that sound incredible. I can talk about it glowingly because it was all him and none me! And things like that took time. I had to approve them. That took time as well. We would often have friendly disagreements about the addition of reverb to the vocals and just how much we should use. Usually I won that one because the guy (along with Wes) loves reverb! But occasionally it suited perfect. And I would not have (at the time) used it to that degree.

Konrad is really good at getting great vocal takes. Recording this album, I was the most comfortable I have ever been doing vocals…infact I can safely say it was the most enjoyable thing to do. The vocal room is pretty small in Audio Darnok but it worked to my benefit I think. It kept me focussed on the task at hand. He didn't punish me by any means but he knew when I had more takes in me or not. He pretty much blacked it all out with a light in there so I didn't have to close my eyes or anything to visualize what or whom I was singing about. On the really hot days sometimes I needed a break from the booth but other than that it was fine. We did a LOT of vocal takes for most of the songs, which I think, helped at the time. It also was a reason for the extension of the time it took to complete but for me…the vocals were the vital key to the album. Some that stick out in my memory are 'Up and Over There', 'You Better Stop Breaking My Heart' and '747'. 'Up and Over There' was such an emotional thing to sing and it only took a few takes to nail. Other songs like 'House Near Bridge' took a few more takes because we tried different things. Also, we tried a lot of harmonies that just didn't work or sound natural which in hindsight wasted a bit of time too. I love harmonies but you know, it's no use having them just for the sake of it. There was often a lot of silence after doing a successful vocal take…particularly on the more intense songs. Konrad would say encouraging things that meant he thought it was a take and I'd listen back to them either in the booth or in the main room at the desk to approve them. But it is an emotional thing to record something so personally and then deliver it the best you can…so I would kind of need a moment or two to keep it together. But yeah, that was my favorite thing to do…vocals.

The other two people that had a role in production to a degree were Beau Cassidy and Robert Cranny. With Beau, he pretty much had free reign for backing vocals to which we'd say yay or nay. He played some killer lead electric guitar too. This guy is a freak in the studio…one-take king. Robert did most of the keys/piano and his touch is evident on 'The Moon and the Stars'. That last freakout on the keyboard was just something he came up with. We didn't really have anything in that spot aside from a solo guitar line.

- The cover artwork and all illustrations were done by one of my best friends Leah Dunstone. She knows me more than most and I know her like few do. Again, I gave her some specific ideas for the cover and then she kind of gave her opinions and other ideas which usually were perfect. I knew I didn't want to do the singer-songwriter on the front cover thing for my first album. It is so expected and the thing about this album was I didn't want the music to be typical of what people were expecting and the same for the whole package. I am not saying my next one won't feature a photo of me looking pensive on the cover…I just didn't want this one to be like that. Originally it was going to be a blue background to the painting of Leah's but she suggested the orange tinge. I thought I would hate it but there was something very cool about it that it ended up being the one. I think because Leah knows me as a somewhat indecisive person and the fact that I kept asking her to change tiny little things about the cover, she thought I'd hate it but as soon as I saw it I knew it was a keeper for me. The other smaller drawings I am pretty sure came to her after listening to some of the specific songs…and are way too good! I get a lot of the praise for the art but obviously anyone that has seen my stick figure drawings will know I am not even close to being remotely passable as an artist of that kind!
Tom Hartney set up all the design and that kinda thing with my ideas and suggestions matching his ideas and suggestions and again, praise must go to him. That reminds me, if you want to get in touch with anyone involved check out the list of who did what and their contacts on this site or get in touch with me and I will hook you up. Leigh Tran took the photos. I adore the back cover.

- I am sure I will think of more stories. Check back from time to time.

Sam 2003 xx