Martin Rivas is Making a Record

Our friend Martin Rivas is hard at work on a new album. Martin has been keeping a journal during the mixing of the record, and he's been so kind to share his thoughts with us. We've been posting Martin's musings every Monday throughout February. The finished record, Reliquary, will be released June 5th. (Go to www.martinrivas.net for updates and further information.)

Here's another installment. Enjoy!

Day 3: January 25, 2012

Today we're mixing "Meet Your Father," which features the most lush arrangement I think will ever be on a recording of mine: me on vocal and a little bitty red Gretsch acoustic guitar (which belongs to my wife), Adam Christgau hitting plates and pots and pans with thimbles on his fingers, Rob Schwimmer on theremin, Melissa Tong, Esther Noh, and Caroline Chin on violins, and Dave Eggar and Marika Hughes on cellos. All incredibly talented (and incredibly busy) people whom I feel beyond privileged to have be part of this sonic endeavor.

Having never had strings (or theremin… or thimbles) on any of my songs, I was curious as to whether this would take a very long time to get a mix of, but the text from Eddie came at about 1pm EST, while I was driving up to Boston with Ray Rizzo to play Alicia Witt's show. 10 miles east of Hartford? Moving at 70mph? No problem! Now I was approving a mix while listening through an iPhone app connected to my car stereo. The final mix was approved within 90 minutes, while we were heading east on I-90, about 35 miles from Boston.

Again, I chalk it up to Eddie and Alex's rapport. Having worked together many, many times, Eddie seems to totally have a bead on Alex's producing tendencies and how he likes to hear things. Alex knows exactly what to say, and Eddie knows exactly what he means. It's fascinating to be part of how quickly and seamlessly they work together, 3,000 miles away from each other.