Tales of the Treadmill
Tales of the Treadmill
Tony Gets His Blog On
Friday, February 29, 2008
Feelling Lucky - an entry by Tony
Calling Les Hall’s cell phone will inevitably result in hearing a digitized voicemail message saying, “Leave a message and I’ll call you back…if you’re lucky.” Man, that damn thing could not be more true! I must have called and e-mailed Les at least 30 times in the span of about 10 days attempting to arrange a time for us to sit down together and listen to a collection of possible songs for the next Treadmill CD. We already had a few scheduled times postponed or cancelled and I was getting a little antsy. I was definitely not feeling lucky.
So, I get an email on Monday, February 18th, that he’s got some time Wednesday. “Great…let’s do it that night,” I reply. Les is pretty much a vampire. He’s definitely nocturnal and spends the night sometimes just playing guitar or keyboards or writing music until the sun comes up. We scheduled it for 8:30. I finish teaching lessons at 7:30. I would then pick us up some food and meet him at my studio on Devine Street. I call Les at about 7:35. He picks up and sounds like he just woke up…because he had just woke up! He got up earlier and didn’t feel well, so went back to bed. I sensed a possible cancellation, but he was cool. I told him I would pick us up some Rosewood Dairy Bar cheeseburger baskets and the world would be right. His only request was “meat, cheese and bread with the ketchup on the side, please.” Done…
I arrive at the studio and he’s waiting…awesome.
We greet each other warmly, and then go inside to dine on our tasty cheeseburgers. After some light conversation centered around the choices of protective covering for our iPhones and their respective pluses and minuses, Les wants a post-meal smoke. Once outside, we both realize that a full lunar eclipse is in its first stages. The moon is slowly turning red. This coincidence seems appropriate to me somehow.
We head back in and pull up a couple of chairs in strategic listening positions in front of the sound system. I start the CD. Les is semi-hunched over and begins to nod his head in time to the first song. He maintains this methodical motion throughout the entire tune. The versions of most of these tunes are demos that Angelo has completely composed and orchestrated in his home studio. The arrangements are dark and textural, which is right up Les’s alley. I’m enjoying the shared experience of unveiling these babies of Angelo’s (and now Treadmill’s) to him. I’m finding myself hearing the arrangements more thoroughly as well as being inspired to add creative ideas to them.
Most songs are followed by “that’s a great song.” A few songs are followed by “that’s a great song, but not really my thing,” meaning mostly that it’s “pop” sounding and doesn’t share the dark texture of most of the other songs. This difference has never been more evident to me than listening to them in this situation. Some songs are followed by a brief discussion of arrangement ideas. Even if Les never does another thing with this recording, he’s already shaped it with his objectivity.
After another short break and some more eclipse viewing, we continued the listening and finished the list of 13 songs. Based on initial reactions to overall feel and continuity, we settled on 10 songs that would fit well together. Les reiterated that he has to hear the potential for him to bring something to the song as opposed to just going through the motions…yet another example of his professionalism.
We finish the night by discussing all the logistics involved in this type of undertaking: coordinating schedules, recording location, budget, etc. Les is forthright in saying that he can’t commit to us just yet, but that he’s genuinely interested in the project. There are certainly a lot of challenges to putting this recording together, but I have faith that it will work out. Let’s just say that I’m feeling lucky.
To Make or View Comments, Click Below