A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MARC (kd's sound engineer, Marc Ramaer)
"Althought it may not seem like the most origianl start, my day, as most mortals, begins with a very annoying BBLLEEPP..maybe someday we'll invest in a clock radio! It's 8:30am, my wife, and I murmour to one another that it's their turn to make the coffee. She isn't riding (horses) or working today so I get up first as the method-actress in her does best portrayl of a newborn kitten. Her eyesight returns somewhat as she first sips my strong brew. 'Bags of Joy' our baby 90lb Rottweiller, convinced that's she's a poodle, jumps on us just to show her love and appreciation that we are awake.
Once showered and exercised by taking the pooch for a cruise in the woods, I grab my case, jump in the car and make a few quick calls on my way to the studio. I chat to Ben on the way about the million things on our plate and how we are going to tackle them. By the time I park the car, it is 10:30. The first hour is quiet. I look over some paperwork and listen to yesterday's work. Jason, my trusty second engineer and I then have an in depth discussion in technical jargon that would be tough to follow. Example: "Did you do the backup of the submix that we did of the comped guitars on NT-C?" Even I get confused sometimes.
Around 11.30am things suddenly happen. Ben and k.d. appear from thin air, look over the console and within a few minutes we all have our hands on the faders. We start off on the same song we ended up on yesterday. k.d. feels excited about the way the song is sounding and wants to try out some new lyrics. As soon as we sey up the mic, Edith, our new friend the pidgeon, calmly walks inside ready for the show and some breakfast. She is particularly fond of k.d.'s voice and the bass guitar. I feverishly start to twiddle knobs, as people of our kind are known to do, and within a few run-throughs, k.d.'s voice comes alive and we all listen in excitement as the song really starts to come together. Before we know it, it's 3:30pm. As we all have so much to do, we discuss what is planned for the near future and go our own ways. Ben leaves to play guitar at his home studio and k.d. stays and writes some new lyrics.
Songs and arrangements can change hourly. My job is to stay on top of what they do together and given a few hours, it can be a lot! The remainder of the afternoon is spent editing performances of Teddy (piano) and Dave (bass) who recently spent a week in the studio. At 7pm things slow down somewhat and I have time to think. The phone has slowed down to a trickle and I can reflect on the day. I try to organise as much as possible and sort out the tracks that we put down. After that I make my way home.
After homecoming cuddles from both Louise and Joy, I vanish for an hour to straighten out some album paperwork. We cook dinner and discuss our day. Before we know it, it's midnight and we're both yawning. The next thing I hear is that stupid BBLLEEPP again. We've got to buy a clock radio soon..."
