Las Vegas hard rockers Jeff Carlson Band have recently released their debut album, Yesterday’s Gone. Focusing on reflection, empathy, and experiencing the overall chaos from the COVID-19 pandemic, we asked the group to share five things they learned recording new music during a time of uncertainty.
01) When we decided to record our new album “Yesterday’s Gone” I made sure that I recorded all of our ideas vocally as well as riff ideas, that way we wouldn’t forget anything, Robbie Wolfe and I sat down and ran vocal melody ideas over different chord variations and I recorded them so I could go back and refine what I liked to use for the new songs. We all really added our ideas to make it our own sound by really detailing the songs.
02) We also were open to adding different ideas to make each song as good as we possibly could make it and really put trust into each other as far as the writing process goes, as well as structuring the songs. We had Brandon Wolfe produce and record it as his brother Jeremy-(Robbie Wolfe’s sons) record some different backup harmony vocal ideas to make not only the production sound updated, but add a new dimension to some of the choruses that we thought needed work. The end result came out really great, and because of them we all agreed that they breathed new life into some of the songs, because some of the album we’ve had demos for years for these songs, and they just needed to be updated with a killer production and maybe a tweak here and there to make them what they eventually became.
03) We learned to really work together as a band with more focus on making the songs as great as we always wanted them to be. It was nice to actually have the time to really put into detailing every song without feeling the pressure of a time limit due to gigs being booked, although we did miss playing out, we were really glad we weren’t under any stress to finish the album by a certain date. That really allowed us to really give our best thought process and time to devote to making every song as great as they possibly could be.
04) When we did all the vocals, I really liked having Cory and Robbie give their input as far as vocal performances go. We’re all from the 70’s and 80’s era of big vocal arena style rock bands that had really great singers fronting these rock acts, so we all gave our input when I laid down all the lead vocal tracks. We all agreed to have the vocals be as emotional and with as much feeling as possible, because if you don’t convey your emotion vocally, then it won’t translate as well to the audience.
05) We all really are happy with the end result, and it was a great learning curve to learn from so that by the time we do our next record, we already have a template to start with. This is really truly a family, and we’re all brothers, so that being said we really know what works well and what doesn’t. I think also, that it’s great that we had this time that the Covid pandemic afforded us to be able to know just how important it is to use ideas to make the songs as great as they could be without a deadline of any stress. One of the things I remember in an early interview that Jon Bon Jovi said that is very true, is you have your whole life to write your first album, and then you have 2 months to write your second album, so by the Covid pandemic happening, it gave us an opportunity to create a template that works for us so we can write our second album without as much pressure. Thanks so much for your time and we hope to see you guys out on the road!
~ JCB
