Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in New York, NY. Weezer recorded its debut album there from August to September of 1993. The band returned in August 1995 to work on songs that would eventually develop into Pinkerton. Pat Wilson recorded some of his solo material concurrent to this session.
1993
Blue Album producer Ric Ocasek and Weezer prepared for the formal Blue recording sessions at S.I.R. Studios starting on August 8, 1993[1]. On August 12, the band moved their instruments and other recording gear into Electric Lady.[2]. Recording began on August 16[3]. Rivers Cuomo spent 12 hours a day in the studio while the band was recording.[4].
- See The Story of Making the Blue Album
Studio work commenced in the giant size Studio A, where the band ran through all their songs, getting about 5-8 good takes of each one on tape. Then a take was chosen that had the best drum performance...
The nights were long down in "B", as Rivers beat his head against the wall trying to come up with just the right solo lines on his guitar. Some came easy, others seemed impossible. At one point, 6 hours into trying to nail the "
World Has Turned" solo, Rivers was laying on his back in the tiny 12" space between the 2 soundproof doors between the live room and the control room, with his guitar perched on his chest, his legs squished up the walls. About 100 tries into it, he had given up, when Ric hummed a little melody over the talkback mic. "How about something like da-dada-dee-dee-dee?" Bam! In 5 minutes the guitars were finished and we were walking back to the Gramercy on near deserted 5 A.M. Manhattan street... Then came the vocals, in B and up in C, an even smaller studio on the 3rd floor, where the album was to be mixed.
- Karl Koch
Pat Wilson created the Bokkus character at Electric Lady. Matt Sharp wrote the song "Frisbee Days" about his experiences in New York City recording at Electric Lady.
1995
- See Recording History - Page 8|Recording History - Page 8#8/27/95 1st Pinkerton recording sessions - New York City, Elecrtic Lady Studios|Recording History - Page 8
A lot of stuff was happening all at once.
The Blue Album touring had finally been wrapped up.
Rivers had gotten himself accepted at Harvard for the upcoming fall semester, and was looking forward to escaping the limelight for a while. The band was up for 5 different Mtv Video awards and the awards show was coming up on the 7th in NYC. I was to help the still leg-braced Rivers move to Boston immediately after the awards (which he ironically ended up not attending.) Studio time was booked, in order to get a head start on the new album, which was only partly written at this point.
Rivers was still holding out a torch for his Black Hole idea, but as recording got underway, the songs were laid down as before, one at a time- no story, no theatrics, no characters. This reality would later couple with a whole new set of emotions and ideas, spawned over his school year at Harvard, to forge a whole new idea for what was to be called Pinkerton.
Meanwhile
Pat was starting to pursue his own independent musical vision, having seen how
Matt got himself his own record deal and noting a large block of "non-weezer" time coming up, courtesy of Rivers's newfound school schedule. Simultaneous to weezer's recording, he booked his own time at Electric Lady, and laid down some fairly slick demos... All this whenever his presence wasn't required down the hall in the other studio room. Phew!
- Karl Koch
The band recorded additional material for "Susanne" during this session, which would see release on the Mallrats soundtrack. Chris Shaw oversaw that recording.[5]
See also
References
