Space

Someone asked me why I didn’t do the entire recording in one multi-day group, instead of three two-day sessions, each spaced a month apart.

The answer: I could not have maintained my focus and the quality of the performance. I would have lost my objectivity.

Today, 12 days after the last session, I have listened to some of the rough mixes for the first time. Only now can I hear them with a reasonably objective ear. Only now can I hear them like a new listener might. 

It has been a touching experience listening to these mixes in a completely different state of mind. While recording the last takes the adrenaline and exhaustion in my system made me hypersensitive—and hypercritical. Listening today with a relaxed system and a balanced objectivity born of space, the issues that felt large sounded very minor, very human, and actually very interesting.

I’m glad I gave myself the luxury of space.