October 1, 2016 — Last Monday I had to drive to the Los Angeles County recorder’s office in Van Nuys to record the deed to my new land. I took surface streets while listening to a morning radio show guest talk about the individual tracks to the Alice in Chains song Man in the Box.

The guest had the tracks individually broken out, the drums, the bass line, the guitar, the vocals, the vocals with the vocals. I searched for the recording for the last hour because it was one of the best descriptions of the different tracks of a song I’ve ever heard, really sort of a how it’s done lesson. Regardless of whether you all will or do like that band, I wanted to post that piece because it was educational about how the tracks are recorded. But the forces that control what I can find aren’t with me this week. Likewise, I also lost this really cool Steven Tyler concert with Nuno Bettencourt guesting at the end. I found the individual track, but that’s not what I was after.

What I was after, and lost, was Steven Tyler’s constant talking in the songs. Collectively, I bet there was ten percent of that show featuring his thought processes for the songs. Between the Alice in Chains piece and Steven Tyler’s talking bits, I felt a real connection to the writing process, and more than that, a connection to the recording process. These were wonderful lessons for this particularly particular person.

Seriously, I’ve always wondered about the recording process. Is it different, always the same, never the same? I know they record tracks separately, but how? How does each musician hear the track separately to make it one whole organic piece of music? And with perfect timing? As for the Alice in Chains song, there was intricate timing on every element of the tracks, something I never noticed until I listened to that radio show. The vocals interplayed back and forth, same with the guitar and bass lines. How did they get that perfectly timed on these individual tracks? The Alice in Chains song started with the drum track, then the bass track (spending a great deal of time on that track), then the guitars, then the vocals. I am uncertain whether that’s the order of recording, always. I guess so because I found another Alice in Chains video where, over a 14 minute span of almost-boringness, that’s the order presented. This video is nowhere near the cool that was the bit I heard on the radio, but it’s the best I can find.

I also found a video of the making of the first record by one of my favs, The Pretty Reckless. Basically, Taylor Momsen says they just keep going until everyone likes the song from start to finish. She says their writing process is never the same. But is that – the writing process — the same as the recording process? Is the recording process never the same too?

How about this? Is it possible these people can be clear? (All sarcasm intended.) Clear enough for this particularly particular person? What is the answer? How do these individual tracks in recording sessions become songs, or are they songs that become individual tracks? How do the musicians do the tracks separately? Or do they have the rest of the song as feed in headphones while they record their particular tracks? I can only picture the song as a whole, not as parts. I want some story to give me that answer. Indeed, perhaps someday some blog writing rock star will answer these questions good enough for a particularly particular person, someday when he’s not worried about crazy stalker women. But until then, I guess I have to assume there is no answer, no one formula. It’s always different, this mystery of the recording process.