Recording: Cory Woodward

In February I got a call from my friend Matt Rogers, an accomplished producer/composer/arranger here in Vancouver. He was producing an album for a singer-songwriter named Cory Woodward at Baker St. Studios in North Vancouver, B.C.

Maybe this says a little something about how "picky" I am about projects I work on, but I hadn't even heard any of Cory's previous work when I replied to Matt with an immediate "Yes please." I was at UBC in the music program at the same time as Matt. We spent some time in the Jazz Band together there and he pulled me to play bass on an album he produced a couple years ago. The stuff Matt works on ranges from music for TV and film to demos to full albums of all different genres. That said, if he's stoked about a project it usually means that he's going for something original and something that maybe people haven't really heard before. Even better. Not only am I "in" but now I'm excited about it, too.



After a couple rehearsals, a personnel change in the drum department resulted in Ryan Stewart coming in at the last minute to learn 10 tunes in one night. If you had to have a drummer learn 10 tunes in a night you would probably want it to be Ryan. These days Ryan has his producer hat on more than anything. Among other things, last year he co-wrote and produced the debut album for Canadian Idol finalist Carly Rae Jepsen which had a couple hits on radio. Having someone like Ryan who is listening and thinking like a producer to the entire sound of each song and not just hyper-focused on drum parts is a major bonus.



The tunes? For lack of a better description I'll just repeat was said to me: Arcade Fire-meets-Born In The USA-era-Springstein. Cory is a great songwriter with a really awesome voice like Springstein and maybe a bit of early Tom Waits in there too. Make no mistake - this isn't a retro act. The songs are modern and quirky and original. Even if they borrow from classic rock paradigms, something always gets turned on its head.

I got to play the studio's bass: a 1960-something Hofner violin bass (AKA, a "Beatle bass") with strung with flatwounds that are older than I am. Sustain was almost non-existent, which was perfect. It sounded rad, finger-style and especially with a pick, which is not something I play with very often.

Matt and Cory are likely still working hard on finishing the record. There was talk of a horn section, big synths, guitars, string arrangements -- I don't exactly know what they will be layering on top of our bass and drums, but I can't wait to hear it.

Check out more photos of the recording sessions on my Flickr page.

I also have some video that I will put up here when the songs are finished. Stay tuned!

Comments

[Adrian Haggis]

Enjoyed the story and the photos.