Oxbow Studios: The Demo Session
Oxbow Studios was an analog recording studio in Wayland, Massachusetts. My friend Dave McNally worked there with his friend, the owner, Damon. Dave had engineered sessions for Ataraxis at Oxbow about six months earlier. To my 18 year-old mind that felt like a lifetime. It felt like I was overdo to get back in the studio, and Ataraxis was no where near ready.
With no real plan, or band, I booked an evening session for late December.
Throughout the fall I'd been making demos, often with the help of Brian Decoteaux on drums, and occasionally with Jim Beaulieu on bass guitar. As previously mentioned the three of us, with the addition of Sarah Macreading, formed a short lived group (Freezer Burn) that was in some ways a proto-type of Short Wave. However, when winter break came around my long-time collaborator and friend Neil (Seagull Sensory Overdrive) was in town for the holiday. I took the opportunity to scoop him up for drum details on the session.
From the batch of songs I'd been working on that fall, the three I felt most excited about were code-named "Rabbit," Badger" and "The Light One."
On a chilly, clear December night, sometime in that time-less gap between Christmas and New Year, Neil, Jim and I got together for one rehearsal. It was the night before the recording session, though which day exactly, escapes me.
The next day we drove up to Wayland with our instruments. Neil opted to use the studios in-house kit, a clear plastic 70s ludwig 'John Bonham' style kit.
The session was probably less than five hours. Dave McNally and Damon Burke engineered and by the end of the night we had a rough mix of each song (sans vocals). The recording was done to 1/2" 16-track tape.
A few months later I had saved up enough money to return to the studio and finish the demos. I added additional guitar tracks and vocals to the three songs, which now all had names: "Deflowered," "Live Anonymous" and "No Regrets." Deflowered and Live Anonymous would be 'officially' released the following fall, however "No Regrets," which, ironically, I was deeply embarassed about, was left on the cutting room floor - it is made available here for the first time.
No Regrets (2004 Oxbow Studios mix)
This is the original mix of No Regrets, including 2004 overdubs, which was never released.