My very first studio recording, World Expo, Shake it!

This was my very first studio recording. The year was 1986. I was in sixth grade. The town where I lived, Vancouver BC, was hosting the World Exposition: EXPO 86. It was on the site where the Vancouver Science World and Olympic Village are today. In it's Plaza of Nations, there was Studio 86, one of the more popular attractions at Expo 86. Basically, it was an interactive installation that was set up to look like a "professional" recording studio. It was complete with sound-proofed vocal booths and microphones all wired into what I would later realize was an audio mixer.

It costed $20 to record one song. Which was a lot of money for a 6th grader at the time. But we all had paper routes so we each decided to chip in and make this cassette.

The line up for for this attraction was looooong. They told us it would be a 90 minute wait before our session. But we waited and joked around as kids do. 

When we finally got to the front of the line we were brought into one of the sound-proofed vocal booths. It was a dimly lit booth with headphones on the wall and a music stand near the center of the floor. On the music stand sat a binder containing a list of the available songs and lyric sheets.

We picked "Twist and Shout" as it was a song that all of us had heard. But having heard it before didn't mean we knew how to sing it. As is clearly documented in this recording. 

The sound engineer, who I don't recall ever seeing, spoke to us over the talkback microphone from the control room. 

He asked what the name of our "group" so that they could print it on the final cassette. We decided to go with "Excuse Us" since we were all non singers and were well aware that we were about to stink up the joint.

We were given a "practice" take to run through the song. After that, the tape would start  rolling, and the 2nd take would end up being our recording. 

I recorded it with my friends Denis, Rod and Kingsley. They were my buddies in elementary school and I still consider them among my closest friends. I've known Denis since I was 0 years old and the others since Kindergarten. They're my "Stand By Me" crew for those of you who get Rob Reiner film references. We would eventually grow up to work in different disciplines an engineer/inventor, a teacher, a commercial airline pilot and a scratch DJ living in different cities. But I'm glad have a document of this moment in time.

We finished the 2nd take and were quickly ushered out of the vocal booth so the next group could go in and record. 15 minutes later, we received our cassette complete with J card and our group name professionally written on it! I would later realize it was just a computer label maker that they would put on one side of a bulk cassette. But at the time (1986), it was magic, and well worth the 20 buckeroos!

I left the silence from the cassette leader tape in the file for authenticity's sake. 

Things I like about this recording:

at 0:18, we miss the start of the first verse and clip "Well" from "Well, Shake It Up Baby" part.

at 0:40 sec mark, the sound abruptly gets louder and brighter. As if the engineer just suddenly engaged the EQ or bumped the fader.  I just noticed this now after all these years. 

at 0:50, we miss the start of the second verse. We didn't know how to tie the "Oooohs" into the next line smoothly.

at 1:33, I start singing the "Aaaahs" too early and pretty much ruin the entire take for everyone.

the subsequent giggle is me and no, it has not been sped up to chipmunk speed. It would be another year before my voice broke. 

at 1:49, we miss the start of the third verse. 

at 2:24 I decide to try singing both the (call) lead vocal "Shake it Baby" and (response) back up vocal "Shake it Baby" immediately after it. I quickly realized that I would run out of air and decided against singing both parts. If you listen closely/quickly, you can hear the gears turning in my head. 

We somehow managed to sing consistently out of tune with each other for the entire song. In our defense, I'm not sure Denis and Kingsley had headphones on. 

My voice is probably the clearest on the recording. This was because I was the shortest so they had me stand closest to the mic. Also, my headphones were really loud and I couldn't really hear myself so I just belted it out with reckless 6th grade Karaoke abandon. 

Enjoy!

I'm keeping this one stream only and not DL because this post is just for laughs and you don't really need this on your hard drive. I'm also keeping this post public so my mom can read it because I miss her and she's not (yet) a patron. Although, 3 years after this recording, she would drive me from DC to NY to help me pick up my first "professional" turntable (which I would also pay for from my paper route/lawn mowing money) but she would cover the gas and doesn't even like driving on highways... So if that's not support, I don't know what is! Hi mom! Love You!

Okay, back to working on the new album.  I'll have updates on the new stuff soon!

Thank you for listening/reading, and thank you patrons for your continued support!

e