I just read this about the White Stripes and it mystified me

Popinjay · #1 06-23-2007, 04:44 AM

I read an Onion interview with Jack White (?the lead singer) and he said they recorded their last album for 3 weeks straight in the studio. He said the most amount of time was spent writing songs. This is crazy to me because I would imagine they would have all their songs or a good amount of their songs written before heading into studio.

Is this a common artistic practice for bands? What percentage of them and which of them do this? As well, how many and what drugs do they do during this period?

I kind of want to start my own band and do this.

Taso · #2 06-23-2007, 05:32 AM

lol very rare. Most bands (99%) cannot afford to spend that much time in a studio - 95% of these are bands you havn't heard of.

Studio time costs money.

The only similar story I know is that Billy Joel wrote the An Innocent Man album in two weeks.

Edit: Those numbers are completly made up, but reasonable I think.

cianosheehan · #3 06-23-2007, 08:05 AM

I'd imagine that they would have had the bones of a lot of the songs together before going into the studio. Or at least have rifs/lyrics/beats that they had had in their head or been messing around with for the past while, then went in to the studio and pieced it all together. At least I hope so!

At least I hope so. If they literally started right from scratch and 3 weeks later had an album ready for shelf, I doubt he'd be shouting about this in the press.

samjjones · #4 06-23-2007, 10:19 AM

This is how they used to do it back in the day. Most popular bands would write and rehearse in the studio, and then record.

samjjones · #5 06-23-2007, 10:19 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I'd imagine that they would have had the bones of a lot of the songs together before going into the studio. Or at least have rifs/lyrics/beats that they had had in their head or been messing around with for the past while, then went in to the studio and pieced it all together. At least I hope so!

At least I hope so. If they literally started right from scratch and 3 weeks later had an album ready for shelf, I doubt he'd be shouting about this in the press.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure Jack White has some new riffs brewing at all times.

TheMetetron · #6 06-23-2007, 10:20 AM

I wouldn't be surprised to find out Jack White has his own recording studio, even if it is on a smaller scale, that he used to work on everything before recording the real album.

miajag · #7 06-23-2007, 12:15 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I wouldn't be surprised to find out Jack White has his own recording studio, even if it is on a smaller scale, that he used to work on everything before recording the real album.

[/ QUOTE ]

He has a studio in his house, and I believe that's where Get Behind Me Satan was recorded (which would probably explain why it sounds like it was made in a broom closet with a $20 Sony cassette recorder).

turnipmonster · #8 06-23-2007, 01:59 PM

people have been able to make great sounding recordings in their basement since the advent of protools. if it sounds like it was recorded on a boom box then that was his intention for sure. he produces other people's albums also, so he probably has an awesome studio setup at home.

it used to be standard for bands to spend forever in the studio writing and recording (I think def leppard's comeback took them like 3 years lol). of course early on these bands don't have that luxury, they have to get it in one take and the clock is ticking.

a really popular industry story is that "house of the rising sun" was recorded on someone's lunch break, in like 30 minutes. elvis' first stuff, where he was paying for like 15 minutes of studio time himself is awesome.

EvanJC · #9 06-23-2007, 03:50 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'd imagine that they would have had the bones of a lot of the songs together before going into the studio. Or at least have rifs/lyrics/beats that they had had in their head or been messing around with for the past while, then went in to the studio and pieced it all together. At least I hope so!

At least I hope so. If they literally started right from scratch and 3 weeks later had an album ready for shelf, I doubt he'd be shouting about this in the press.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure Jack White has some new riffs brewing at all times.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's the feeling I get as well. With a gun to his head he could probably whip out a respectable sounding white stripsey song in under 5 minutes.

GTL · #10 06-23-2007, 05:17 PM

no musician is every just pulling something completely out of his ass. all the good musicians I know personally are playing all the time, and a by product of practice and rehearsal is tons of song ideas that they can whip out whenever they are feeling creative. getting a whole album done in 3 weeks is still quite an accomplishment. there are plenty of bands that take months and even years to put an album together. Tool is famous for long periods of time between albums. (not all of the time is spend in the studio of course.)