It Helps To Know a Rock Star

A few weeks ago I got to do one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

At my church, I sing on a praise team that leads worship with a talented group of instrumentalists. One of those guys is not only a fantastic electric guitar player, but he also works at some recording studios in the area and is super nice.

I was at work one Friday afternoon and I got an email from him, asking if I would be interested in helping out his studio by doing the vocals for a demo that they needed ASAP. I said I’d listen to the song and see what I thought, wondering what type of song it would be. I heard the song for the first time a little before 5:00, and thought that I actually might possibly be able to pull it off.

Since I had never done anything like that, I didn’t want to claim that it would be something I could handle if I wasn’t good enough. So, I sang a sample of the song to Mark, and made him promise to tell me honestly if I would be embarrassing myself by saying it was something I could sing. Mark sweetly listened and told me he legitimately thought I could do it. So, I responded to the inquiry by saying I would give it a shot, but was still hesitant about being able to do it well. We agreed that I would go to the studio at 8:00 and audition the song.

So, I went home, and started learning the song. I had a little over two hours to get it down pretty solidly. Mark was the kindest of audiences and was so encouraging. Finally, it was time to go, and we headed to the studio.

Our friend was super welcoming, and had me sing along with the recording first to see if he thought I would be suited for the demo. After singing along for a few minutes, he told me to get comfortable, and started getting the recording studio ready!

So, I got to go into a real live studio, like you see on TV, with the big microphone with the pop screen in front of it, with the headphones, and the glass part where you can look through and see people working on the digital recording and mixing stuff. It was SO COOL. I sang through the song several times and worked through a few rough patches, and then they had enough to piece together a decent sounding demo.

I went home and learned the harmony parts, and came back the next day and recorded those as well.

If you click on the link that's at the bottom of this post and open it in a new window if possible, hopefully you should be able to hear the song. I had a nightmare time trying to embed it, and I never figured it out, so I had to revert to a file hosting site. (Sorry - tips on how to do that are being accepted.)

This is not actually mixed yet, so it’s a rough cut, but you get the idea and can hear me singing. Oh, and to top it all off, I got paid to sing the demo! How cool is THAT?!! It was a really great experience, super fun, and now my mom has a song of me singing that she can play continuously. (-: Thanks, Pat, for letting me do something so cool!

I hope you like it!

~Kathryn

http://www.supload.com/listen?s=GcOLjQ