Day 10 - Echoes Radio Recording

Day 10- Echoes

So after the Trapdoor-Balmorhea split for the evening, Balmorhea tried to find a hotel that was closer to our next early morning adventure. After driving around for a while and encountering crazy Frank who worked at some hotel that shall remain nameless, we found a hotel for the night and slept well. We woke up slowly...and early and drove a while over to the Echo's studio. We had a radio show taping there. The neighborhood was pretty cool, very old looking. We drove past lots of woodsy areas, filled with thin, tall-standing trees. It was a gorgeous day. The sun misled us into the chilling cold. Weird pockets of snow clumps rested against curbsides and walkways.

The radio show went well. The Echoes show has recorded a bunch of people, and our show will be broadcast over a hundred stations through the US. Pretty cool. Radio shows always get me flustered. We had to play through headphones in order to hear the mix and Rob's piano. I really hate playing through headphones. After hearing the natural acoustic sound of my violin without any modification, without plugging in EVER for 9 years, anything else sounds foreign.



So I'll admit, when we began, I wasn't very jazzed about it...But after the first couple of songs, I got used to hearing the mix in the headphones (which was pretty good) annnd it won me over. We played Lament, Summer, winter, the new song (which we thought we named Cabbagetown, after an area of Atlanta, but now we're thinking of re-naming it), and closed with Baleen Morning.

Then we sat around and had a little interview which went pretty well. I got to speak this time! haha, which was cool I suppose. I consider myself a pretty awkward speaker sometimes. Things usually sound about 10 times better, and make at least twice as much since in my head before my lips start moving. BUT I think this time, all went well.

He asked a lot about the names of the songs, and which came first, the title or the music. He was continually shocked that the names came after the songs. I'd say he was almost in disbelief that the guys didn't write San Solomon with San Solomon springs in mind and the title in the bag. He also asked a bit about how we, as a group of twenty-somethings ended up playing delicate instrumental music. If I'd been doing the interview, I would've explored that angle a little bit. BUT then again, it could be because I'm always more interested in the people and minds behind creative things perhaps, more than the creations themselves.

As a journalist, it was weird to be on the other side of the questions. But as we get more and more experiences with press and reviews, the more I begin to understand why musicians and artists get frustrated with the press. Someone posted our album title as "Rivers to Amrs" and said that Balmorhea was Rob's hometown. That's really wrong. They've butchered our names. People over analyze, jump to conclusions, and are annoyingly lazy with fact checking. Then, you get asked questions that you've answered repeatedly, questions that a google search could probably answer. Being on this side of things either makes me want to keep doing music writing to do it the right way or it nudges me further away from it (not that I needed help).

The studio was located in this pre-civil war neighborhood. All the houses were quaint and old looking. Supposedly the one next to us was one where George washington slept at. The place where we played used to be an infirmary for orphans. The guy that interviewed us said people that lived in the house before casually asked if he had seen the ghosts. He spoke with a comic skepticism about the existence of ghosts, but said that if any place was going to he haunted this would be the place. The setting is so perfect.

After some pictures and a lengthy goodbye, we had lunch and then were on our way to Baltimore, the land of cold wind, no internet and creepy warehouses.