Carbon Leaf's Blog

Heat & Feet

Weather.com says that it is only 90 degrees here in Richmond, but it sure feels a lot hotter than that. Of course, that might be because the air conditioning is broken here at the studio. At least I wore shorts today… Carter made the mistake of wearing corduroys. He looks like he is slowly roasting away over there – as he said, "cooking in my own juices". Between takes Jason is fanning himself with a 10" rack tom head – he says that it is very effective. There is a guy frantically working on the HVAC system, so hopefully it will start cooling down in here soon.

After tracking a few songs last week, Bryan (our engineer) realized that I was tapping (stomping) my foot a little hard while we are playing the songs. What that translates into is the sound of Godzilla crushing buildings recorded on the room microphone tracks. Not a great thing, unless you happen to be Blue Oyster Cult. In order to combat this, Bryan got me a big piece of acoustic foam to stomp on. Acoustic foam is kind of like an egg-crate mattress pad, but way more expensive. There's a picture at the bottom that shows what I'm talking about.

Other than the slight heat problem, things are going great. Jordan is overdubbing a bass track on the tune that we just finished, which brings us to 13 tunes so far with finished drums and bass. We probably have 4 or 5 more songs to record and then it will be time for Carter and I to do guitar overdubs.

In big celebrity sighting news, Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) stopped by the studio today.

Hope everybody is doing well and that you are surviving the heat, floods, fires, tornados, and other adverse weather that seems to be plaguing our country right now. Something's definitely messed up if we can smell the fire in NC here in Richmond!

Rock On,
Terry

Jason's Blog 6-14-08

Hello everyone!

Jason here reporting live from Sound of Music studios in Richmond, VA. So, I'm gonna talk to y'all about something very important to me....FOOD! I've only been to a handful of eateries around town and let me tell ya, I've found one that suits ALL my needs!

Let me start this by saying that I should just pack a lunch everyday and save my money...yeah, not happening! The guys told me of a little place across the street that had some of the best sandwiches in town. Like I said, I've only been to a handful of places so my opinion might change one day...but for the time being Nicks on West Broad is a kick ass little place. When you walk in the door it feels like a regular old food mart that you'd find in any business district of any town. But, when you walk a little further you realize you've found THE place!

It's a little Italian joint that has anything from authentic pasta to true Italian junk food (sweets that is!) Keep going through the little aisle and you come to the diner-style counter fully equipped with the old school menu hanging above. I think I've eaten there everyday since we've been in the studio (which is now 5 days) The only 2 sandwiches I've had are the Tuna sandwich and the Ham, Turkey, Bacon Club sandwich. Absolutely the best Tuna sandwich I've ever had. I know it's not too hard to make 'em but they make just right. The club sandwich is like any other club but better! If you've never been there, GO! If you don't like it, I guess my taste buds are just not working right! Ok, I think I've blown enough smoke for Nicks! Please let me know of any good places around town . Oh yeah, the new record is gonna be badass!!!!

-Jason

Studio - Day 5

Hmmm...what's rattling around in my head?  Well, actually as we start day 5 of the studio the incredible comeback by the Celtics last night is rattling around in my head!  I can't believe I turned the game off at halftime!  'Tis true, I am a poor excuse for Celtics fan...  But in my defense it had been a long day in the studio and there were still two long studio days left before we take Sunday off.  And as a longtime Boston sports fan used to disappointment I just didn't know if I was up for more heartbreak...  I can't believe I turned off the game at halftime! 'Tis true, I am a poor excuse for a Celtics fan...

Okay, back to the studio...  I love being in the studio.  Don't get me wrong.  I love to tour and play live shows but this is where we get to lock ourselves up and create art.  Granted, it's not always that glamorous and it's not always art but it's what I enjoy most about being a musician, seeing a song come from a simple riff to a well thought out composition or watch a song start out as a spark of brilliance only to spiral downward into the abyss of songs that just didn't work and end up in a crate in some warehouse like in Indiana Jones (what a disappointing movie...aliens? aliens?  I mean seriously...).  Luckily no songs yet have taken that trip to the abyss... 

So far every thing's been running really smooth.  We did a lot of work before coming into the studio which has made a world of difference. It's always nice to go into the studio and at least have an idea of what you're gonna do.  Pretty much this first week or so is to try and get good drum and bass tracks.  Jason's been nailing his drum parts and we've been moving at a nice pace which keeps us from getting bogged down and losing focus.  It also keeps me from eating too many goldfish, pretzels, organic animal crackers, mixed nuts and various cookies from Costco that Terry and his wife generously donated for recording. Although, I've always thought that large bass players were the best (Chris Chew, Keith Horne, Duck Dunn, Bob Babbitt for example and I mean no disrespect, these are truly some of the best bass players and happen to be larger than my 5' 9" 165 lb frame). I could use the extra calories and hydrogenatedness to help my playing.

Hmmm...what else...let's see, for the bass players out there here's what I've been using in the studio...
- Lakland Skyline 55-02 5 String Bass strung with D'addario XLs
- First Act Delgada Bass strung with D'addario Flatwounds
- First Act Acoustic Bass Guitar strung with LaBella Nylon Tapewounds
- GK 800RB Bass Head (there's a reason they haven't changed this amp in 26 years!)
- Eden 210XLT Cabinet (in my opinion, the best single cabinet out there, actually this one is Carters, I sold mine a few years ago to buy an engagement ring for my wife...definitely a good decision!)
- Peavey Classic 50 All Tube Head (for a little grit)
- Avalon U5 DI
- Planet Waves Medium Picks (I'm usually a finger player but I've been experimenting with picks for a different sound and as a challenge to my playing)
(don't worry, fans of the upright, it'll make it on this album, it just happens that the songs we've worked on so far are all electric)

Well, it's time to get back to work and start on another song tentatively titled "Seed", I think it's about Barry's attempt at Impact Gardening in the small backyard of his downtown apartment...

Join me again next week when I'll be discussing the effects of a disco ball while recording a rock song...

- Jordan

Carter and The Chocolate Factory

Carter and the Chocolate Factory.... well, sort of. It has been great having some time off, but you know what they say about idle hands....

Warning - if you are not interested in guitar talk, turn back now!

I like to build most of my electric guitars up from parts that I select individually. But all of the hardware (metal and plastic parts) come from Bill Callaham, and the pickups are from Lindy Fralin. Now you might not see where this is heading, but let me assure you that my bank account won't like it... Both of these guys live here in Va!! So what would you do? Go visit, of course!! So on a sunny, I set out to visit Mr. Callaham!

I was introduced to Mr. Callaham by a friend of mine named Mike Durham, who is the best electric guitar player I have known. He has played with everyone from Dave Mathews on down. He is really something. He always told me to go up and visit. So, with this "foot in the door" I walk in and we exchange "hello's" and he sits me down and tells me to play something. I would say that this was about as easy as doing the back stroke through a pool of jello. My fingers turned into really big cinderblocks. After this, we dive into some serious gear talk... so here goes.

These are the knobs that I use on my telecasters, and I love them! I had the urge to dive into a huge pile of them like the kid that jumped into the chocolate river, only these are machined metal parts and I doubt that it would have been very refreshing. I would look like someone had put me in a metal garbage can with a belt sander and thrown me off Everest.


So, there is a waiting list (around 2-3 years) for one of Bill's guitars! But I am now on "the list" for one or two! I love my job! Somewhere in this stack of wood, lives my guitar and no, it's not going to be square.





This is Abe, who is the only other person who works on the guitars. Super nice and talented guy who never complained that I had an amp cranked in the same room that he was working in...



This is the culprit! This amp sounded fantastic! I need one of these too...


Now, don't you mandolin fans worry. Here is my mandolin with THE mandolin. A real Gibson Loyd Loar signed near Bill Monroe's! It sounded amazing! It's the real deal....



Well, I hope you guys enjoy the photos. I have to get back to work now, but I'll check in again soon! Later........


Carter

"Nothing Rhymes With Orange" -by barry

Hello everyone,
I'm sitting here at 9pm on the dot during our first day of recording. We loaded in at 10am to set up and are getting sounds and things mic'd. I'm sure Terry's all excited to fill you in on all of the technical gear, so i'd best leave that to him.

It's now Day 2...sorry I got distracted....

It's great to be recording again with our old friend and former producer, John Morand, with Bryan Hoffa in the engineer's seat, at Sound Of Music Studios, here in Richmond. John and Bryan helmed the Echo Echo and Indian Summer albums. So right now, last i checked, which was about an hour ago, we have about 22 songs written with about another 7 that need to be completed in the next week or so. Those would be up to me i guess to complete, as the lryics and melodies are not what I would call discernible. The Unmagnificent 7. It is tricky to focus on finishing songs when you start recording others, just because there's no time to write; there is a few hours in the morning and a few hours at night. So the plan is: write from 7-9am, Studio from 10am-8pm, write from 8-9:30pm and then eat and fall asleep.

If the Unmag 7 don't get finished it's not the end of the world, we have 22 great songs to choose from, but i want to finish them. Sometimes really good stuff pops out when in the studio. Life Less Ordinary came about in-studio. What are some others? Terry said What About Everything, but that was pretty done before we hit the studio...I know Troubles was a work in progress, and recall it was originally about 4 minutes longer than it is now (which is still pretty long) and had a 90-second cello thing out front, but we snipped it cuz it was self-indulgent. I remember Shine was kind of in-studio. There are others but i don't have them in front of me and can't think of them.

It's been hot in-studio with the extreme external temps, so i've dusted off my shorts, which i'm not prone to wear. I pulled the pair out i had used years ago the week we set up our first Endless Summer Luau...cutting bamboo, making a beach in front of the stage...I put my cell phone in it's pocket and fished it out later in the day and it was covered in fine-white sand. Sand does not wash out of pockets, you have to dump it out.

There is a lot of work to do, so I best go do it. Be on the lookout for daily blogs of our Studio progress.

Barry

Happy Valentine's Day

Spread The Carbon Leaf Love With iLike

In honor of Valentine’s Day, Carbon Leaf would like to share the love with you. On February 14, for one day only, we will be offering up 10 of our most requested songs for FREE download from iLike.com.

Just go to: iLike

We only ask that you help “spread the Carbon Leaf love” by forwarding this on and letting your friends know. By the end of the day hopefully we will have spread so much love that we’ll all need a shot of penicillin.

Love,
Carbon Leaf

PS – Click HERE to see Carbon Leaf’s Valentine’s Video on YouTube

Carter's Ships & Dip Report

So, the "leaf guy's" (not us) finally came by and my house no longer resembles a garbage bag igloo. My house seems to be at some sort of "Bermuda Triangle" point that draws all of the leaves from surrounding areas into my yard, typically the day after I rake them up. Ahhh, the joy of owning a home! It has been really great to have some time off to reflect (intellectual term for sleep, watch tv, other unproductive things....) for the last few months.... but we have also been busy, so do not fear. Writing a ton of music, revisiting some old stuff, some interesting projects have come our way, and getting ready for the shows that we have on the calendar! Which brings us to...

Ships 'n Dip...
I have to say that it was a blast! I had a great time! A big "Thanks!!" to the BNL guys for having us! I met Ed and he was a riot and really nice too. It was fun seeing him run up on stage a sing a verse of a song with Guster, Sarah Harmer, etc... you just never knew when he might show up. Not to mention that their shows were great! I thought that the Guster shows were really good too.... in fact they were amazing, considering the Brian wasn't even there! Tyler did a fantastic job on drums. Joe was great as well, great guitar (and everything else) player.
It was fun to reunite with the guys from Great Big Sea and Gaelic Storm as well... it's been too long. Great friends and fantastic music. We spent the better part of our time with Steve, Patrick, Sean and Allen.... lets see, collaborations include...
Steve and Patrick + us on Come Together (first show)
Sean + us on Hanging Johnny (second show) i love this tune.
us + Gaelic Storm + Jack Daniel's (GS show 2)
us + GBS + Griffin House on General Taylor (GBS show 3)
us + Gaelic Storm + GBS (= Great Big Gaelic Leaf) on Tell Me Ma (GS last show) this was the best, hope some of you guys were there!!
Also, getting together with Sean and Allen to write a song together. Maybe someday you guys will hear it! This was really fun for us, as we have never tried to write with anyone else.

Our shows... We were really lucky to get to play all of our shows outside (2 night, 1 day). I think that my favorite was the second, don't know why... just felt great! This was the show where Barry decided that he would come over as the mood struck him and tell me to play parts of random songs that i didn't know... over chord changes that didn't fit. Barry - "hey, play that Los Lonely Boy's song"... me "uhhh, err" ... Barry "hey, play twinkle, twinkle little star"... me "uhhh, errr". I guess I need to work on that! I did forget to mention that the heavy winds during our first show made it look like a Bon Jovi video, also turning my coat into more of a cape and giving me a real superhero kind of vibe! They were all fun and we were always amazed at how many people would come out. It was so nice to see so many familiar faces! Thanks to all of you guys who came on the boat and helped spread the word!!! You guys are the best! Sorry we missed bingo, we'll get it next time.

Other fun boat stuff.... I have figured out the secret to gambling, use someone else's money... that way you don't lose anything! It's simple, just wait until Terry isn't really paying attention and ask for 20 bucks! The only thing that I can bet on and be sure to win is that I will lose all of my money.
My Jamaican tour with Terry "Bob Marley" Clark. Having risen a bit too late to make it to the artist party, I set out to take in all that Jamaica had to offer with Terry, Jason and our respective others. Terry had been out late the previous night and consumed a fair amount of various fruity drinks and a bottle of rum that had been liberated from GBS's manager.... in fact, he very much resembled that wonderful character Jack Sparrow... all that he needed was the hat. So, off we go. We catch a cab to a local shopping area. The first place that we go, the owner suggests that Terry sample some of his best rum's.... shazam! Captain Jack is back!! As we start walking around, we notice that Terry is attracting a LOT of attention.... and the indigenous folks all call him Bob Marley...ahh, the hair. The "hair braiders" are chasing him everywhere... i believe that it would cost @ 1 trillion dollars to give Terry braids and would take longer than it would to walk to Mars. We hit the "market" and grab a beer, at which point I notice that Terry seems to now have a Jamaican accent, and is heading deeper into the tarp village and bartering for a carved wooden fish about the size of a VW Bug. After buying 6 bracelet's, 2 necklace's, a Tshirt, a wooden turtle, more beer, and more bracelet's we drag Bob away and on down the road. At this point Captain Bob has figured out how to deal with the people who keep asking him if he wants to buy stuff, he starts trying to sell the things that he has bought back to them... which is fairly amusing to watch. After meeting a ton of interesting people, we call it a day and start to walk back to the boat. A fun stop!

That night we decided to go out to the open mic night! After waiting for @ 2 1/2 hours we hit the stage... Jason, Jordan, Rianna (Jason's girlfriend, hope that i spelled that right), Geoff (our friend from Rainmarket, etc), and me bringing up the rear. We are going to attempt "What's going on?" (4 non Blondes)... which Jordan and I have never played. They give Geoff a guitar that sounds like it was last tuned before we were born by dropping it down a mountain... he gives it a quick tune and off we go! Believe it or not, we get it right and Rianna sings her butt off!! The crowd cheers for an encore! We proceed to play a Meter's tune, and a sax player comes out of the woodwork... i had forgotten that the guitar amp was invented so that you could hear us over the sax, i will not forget this again! it was fun and descended into chaos and we called it quits. Thanks to the guys from Oakhurst for hosting the jam!

Debarkation (getting off the boat to us).....
Always one of the most exciting times! I have to say that I don't travel light on band trips, my gear is not light... that said, i imagine i resemble a Sherpa packed to head to the summit of Everest with Barry as my Sir Edmond Hillary. So, standing in a line is not a good thing.... so there is a snag with "artist" debarkation, so we end up in line with everyone else to pass through customs. This is fine, unless like me, your are hauling roughly the weight a 3 refrigerators. So, I pick my line and watch as everyone in the other lines pass my like I'm standing still (oh wait, i am!).. Terry ( who is wearing sunglasses, as he stayed up all night and looks like someone hit him in the face with a frying pan), is moving like he is on one of those conveyor belts at the airport... and gloating accordingly! But as fate would have it, the Customs officer took one look at him and sent him to the land of the rubber gloves and microscopes! Goodbye old friend, you will never walk the same again. I breeze through with little trouble and get to go outside and put my gear down! After about another 30 minutes Jordan and I notice that no one else has made it out (Buford, Barry or Terry)... it would seem that due to a glitch in the system, Buford is now in the back too! We finally get everyone to the bus and head out.... whew, what a trip! Hope to see you soon...

-Carter

An Important Announcement From Carbon Leaf

Hey Everyone,
It is with a sad and heavy heart that we are announcing the band's extremely difficult decision to part ways with our longtime percussionist, and founding member of Carbon Leaf, Scott Milstead.

It has been a long, rewarding road full of memorable shows and great times making music together, but the time has come for some changes that we're confident will lead to greater happiness and fulfillment for all 5 of us going forward.

Scott is our brother and we love him dearly. He is forever a spiritual member of Carbon Leaf who has devoted his life and passion for music to the cause, and we are thankful for an unforgettable era.

We know this is a shock to the people that make Carbon Leaf possible - the fans - and we ask for your continued support and enthusiasm for the band as we look forward to envisioning Carbon Leaf for the road ahead.

Sincerely,
Barry, Terry, Carter and Jordan

road trip

So I decided that I have been sitting around long enough.... time for a road trip. I got in touch with one of my favorite mandolin players (Matt Flinner), and he had some free time.... so it's off to Nashville for me. Now, with the amount of traveling that I do you would think that I would remember that Nashville is no where near Richmond... not so. I set out on a sunny monday afternoon for my solo adventure and the 10 hour drive that I had ahead of me. It was pretty uneventful until the sun went down.... I guess somewhere in eastern Tenn. I was unfortunate enough to get caught in an unexplained firefly migration.... for about thirty miles (that is a lot of bugs)! It was pretty fun, I kind of felt like I was in Star Wars and was attacking the death star. Shortly after this I had to stop for gas, as I got out of my truck I noticed a strange glow.... the corpses of 1,000,000,000 fireflies had given my truck an interesting green hue... if anyone heard of UFO siting on 40 west on Memorial Day, it was just me screaming along.
So, I finally get there. One of the great things about being in a band, is the crew! I show up and Cliff had booked my hotel.... time to find a Mexican restaurant.

I wake up early, eager to get started. Being self-taught is alright, as you get to take credit for your hard work... HOWEVER, if someone points out a flaw.... your best comeback is something along the lines of "oh yeah, well... those sandals make your butt look big!" I am about to sit down with one of my heroes, and I have never had a mandolin lesson, or any real contact with other mandolin players.... this had never really occurred to me.... and now I'm a nervous wreck. I stop and get some high power coffee (to ease my nerves) and a muffin from the hip coffee shop down the street. You know that you are eating something good for you when you can feel the earth and tree bark in every bite. Time to head over to Matt's house! As I am getting close, I realize that I have timed it perf..... wait a second.... what was in that muffin... oh, dear. Have you ever seen Dumb an Dumber (Jim Carrey, etc)? The "I hope that you're not using the toilet, it's broken" scene comes to mind.... but fear not, it was a false alarm.
I knock on the door and am greeted by Matt ( a real shock there), and the best I can manage is "drrrr... you play mandolin gudd...drr" undeterred by my lack of people skills he invites me in and it's time to play.
We had a blast and played for about 4 hours a day for the next few days. It was a ton of fun to get back to playing the mandolin again! I'm hoping to get back down there this summer and record a few tunes with Matt, I think that you guys would dig it.

If you are a mandolin fan, you have to check out Matt's stuff (this is instrumental music)!!
Some of my suggestions...
Matt Flinner - A View From Hear, or Latitude
Phillips, Grier, and Flinner - Looking Back, or Phillips, Grier, and Flinner
also, www.myspace.com/mattflinner

If you have any suggestions of fiddle tunes (bluegrass, old-time), or anything you would like to hear us play.... let me know and we'll consider it.... if Matt is into it.... this might be a bad idea.

Hope that you are having a great summer! Best....
carter

Bugs, Dancing Kids, Va Tech, Writing, Writing and Arithmatic (sp)

It goes down in my Top 10 experiences onstage to perform with the band at the 19th Annual Sudflood at Va Tech within two weeks of the massacre. The 4th song in, Tom, who's with us playing some keys on the last few tours, was off to the side of the stage sitting the song out while Carter soloed, sitting there all scratchy eyed. "Tom you're drunk" i shouted. After the show we compared notes and he said it was hard, those first four songs of the set (changeless, wae, comfort, opo) were hard getting through with all the viscery going about the place. I agreed and told him the sunglasses helped. But even after awhile, it's time to take the sunglasses off and look people in the eye. A show like that.

I find myself mostly thinking of the parents in the aftermath, and all of the gorgeous spring days that were unfolding from that windy, snowy day. And how those beautiful days of spring would now become a part of their annual grieving cycle. I can hear them whispering to themselves, 'so close...so close...'.

The only thing linear about life is the time itself. Everything else is a chaotic mess...or beauty. I watched an interview the day after the massacre and Larry King asked a parent, who was lending himself to interviews there on campus within 36 hours of his daughter's untimely death, why he was there doing these interviews, and the parent's simple reply was, "I am here as an advocate for my daughter." What a powerful message; to displace your grief long enough to be an ambassador for someone. To make sure their spirit is exalted amidst the chaos, and transitioned with grace. Backbone and Grace. What a true example of a selfless father. This example would typify the Tech community in the days and weeks to come.

**

The shows, all of them, have been very rewarding for us this Winter and Spring. It was nice to eat a bug or two at Friday Cheers as Spring slobbers all over everything. It's nice to have the soundman's kids jump onstage with an unplugged microphone and display their fearless skilz. Nice to see people out in general and giving up their time, money and options to be a part of our thing.

Now the focus is on writing and there's alot going on. It was a year ago now when we were writing and recording LLHR. I think everyone is enjoying spending some time back in VA to focus on the fun, joy, excitement of writing and not really stressing about tours and album cycles and singles and 'getting it done' under time and under budget etc. It's really about getting back to hearing our voices bouncing around the room again, so to speak. We're very excited for the new cd, whenever that's released. It won't be released until she's done.

**

So we're doing some creative Arithmetic in the meantime, staying off the road except for some select shows, so catch em while you can. Spread the word to your friends and get the music around. Check back with us on our sites each week, as things heat up, we will post stuff for you to see and hear on our STUDIO page (in the 'extras' tab of our carbonleaf.com site

**

Have a nice time then,
barry