Page 151 of The Drummer

He and Julian got in a huge fight over some technical glitch I don’t even remember. Words were exchanged, threats made.

It’s why “Catastrophe” is still just a jumble of unfinished tracks instead of a chart-topping single.

Julian knows what happened later that night after their argument. And if I know human nature, like the rest of us, he probably errantly blames himself to some extent.

Tragedy casts a huge debris field.

I introduce Callie before things go down the wrong path and derail the day.

Pleasantries complete, Julian leads us to the control room, and the good news continues when we learn we’ll be working with Jon because Michel is “overseas.” I can’t help but wonder if this change was less about Michel’s travel plans and more about keeping the engineer involved in the blowup out of today’s session.

We only worked with Jon once that I can remember, but he did a solid job. I’ll take solid over volatile any day.

Callie’s expression of wide-eyed wonder goes a long way in soothing any lingering tension. Even Luke seems amused by her fascination with everything from the artist lounge, to the diffusers, to the pristine wood of the tracking room. To be fair Jackson Street is an elite studio, so it’s a dream even for jaded artists. We did most of our recording here prior to the “Catastrophe” catastrophe. After that we didnorecording, so I suppose it’s fitting we mount our comeback in the place we broke apart.

“Why are there other rooms?” Callie asks as she peers through the window of the control room into the tracking room.

“Well, that’s the main tracking room there, and then those are iso booths,” I explain.

“Iso booths?” she asks.

I love how hungry she is to understand my world. I will never get tired of sharing it with her.

“Yeah, so people like Sweeny can lock themselves in with their cabs and blow their eardrums out without killing anyone,” I joke.

“I heard that!” Sweeny calls.

“Am I wrong?” I fire back.

“And what are those little walls? They look portable,” Callie asks.

“Those are baffles. They’re on wheels and help absorb the sound,” Jon explains. “Hey, guys. Good to see you again.”

After we exchange greetings and meet Jon’s assistant for the day, I give him a quick rundown of the plan. Luke and I already decided the two of us would do a keys and vocal reference track, so we head into the tracking room to set up.

Callie wants to watch from the control room with Jon, and her excitement over the process amplifies my own. I still can’t get a read on Luke, though.

“You good, dude?” I ask as I do some test runs of the keyboard to get a feel for it.

Luke adjusts the mic to a comfortable level.

“Fine. It’s just the scratch, right?”

“That’s not what I meant,” I return in a wry tone.

He shoots a smile back at me, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

The assistant engineer’s attention rests on us from a few feet away, so I give up and pull on my headphones. It’s not like we’re going to have a serious discussion with an entire studio listening in on our conversation.

Literally.

“How’s it going?” Jon says through the talkback mic.

We give him the thumbs up to confirm we’re ready.

After a quick soundcheck and adjustments, I turn off my left brain and let my right take over.

The click track jumps to life in our ears, and I launch into a piano version of the song.

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