Creep

by Cash
At anchor, French Lagoon, St. Martin

Being always on the move, it can be tough for me to have opportunities to play music with other people. I have had a few of those opportunities, namely playing with Colin in the DR, and with Kate at the bar Lagoonies, not once but twice. I just recently had another chance, this time recording a song with Kate (from Discovery) and Emma (from Day Dreamer).

We didn't focus much on neatening the cables

We were allowed to use an upstairs office in the Port de Plaisance Marina, and this is where we lugged all of our gear including three guitars (two acoustics and an electric), a bass guitar, a couple of ukuleles, a couple of keyboards, three mics, a couple mic stands, a computer, an audio mixing board, a couple of amps, a speaker, a couple cameras, and lots and lots of cables. This was the combined gear of three boats.

Keyboard stands included plastic boxes, chairs, and big Styrofoam blocks

Apart from for the mics and the speaker, we had no stands. But being the resourceful cruisers we are, we found a solution. Kate's family was in the process of moving off of their boat, so they had a lot of boxes full of stuff. We took several of these boxes and used them, along with some chairs, to prop up our gear.

Then we got straight to recording. We ended up doing a cover of "Creep", by Radiohead. I played guitar and bass guitar, Kate did the lead vocals, and Emma played the piano and did backup vocals. The drums were added in on the computer.

We also did a one-track recording of Hero, by Bonnie Tyler. We hadn't practiced this song at all. Kate spontaneously began to play it on the piano, Emma and I joined it, and we recorded it right there. Emma played the ukulele, I played the bass, and Kate sang and played the piano.

We set up two stationary cameras to capture us playing, one attached to a ceiling beam.

This recording studio almost became a second home for the five days we were in it. We (as well as my sister and Anna and Sara from Day Dreamer), were in it for most of each day, messing around, drawing, talking, playing different songs, or recording. We even had dinner in it!

...and even had  dinner

Not only did we play music, we hung out, drew...

We had a blast doing this, and I'm sure we'd all do it again. Thanks to Kate and Emma for playing with me, and thanks for Anna, Sara, and Nicole for supporting us.

Now, without further ado, the finished product: Creep!

More great pics below!

The Musicians:

So much stuff!

To stop the mic for the guitar amplifier from picking up other noise, I stuck it in the moldy bathroom: