Cherry Beat - Recording Sessions (Part Eighteen - The Band's Fourteenth Album)

November 2004
The band had played two large successful concerts at the City Field Stadium of New York City in the last five years. One in 2000 and one in 2004. The band had also written several new songs during the sessions where they rehearsed the songs that they would play for their concert in 2004. And now that the big day of the concert was past, the band decided that it was now time to start recording songs for what would become their fourteenth studio album.

It would be the first studio album to feature Torquil Dohrn since his departure from the band in 1982, the second album by the band since their reunion starting in 1999, and the first studio album to feature Wilbur Milardo as a band member who wasn't in the band when they had recorded their previous album.

It would also be the first album to be recorded at Eastern Sound Recorders and issued under the Starboard Music Records label since the band had defected from their longtime recording studio Moonlight Bay Studios, and their longtime music label Moonlight Bay Records.

Unlike their previous album "Paintball Arena" where the songs were co-produced by Gregory Dogan, and featured the participation of numerous session musicians, this album would be produced entirely the band, and feature minimal participation from session musicians.

16th November 2004
This was the band's first official recording session for their fourteenth album. On this day the band recorded a new composition "The Dream is Over" which was written primarily by Sam Whitby, with input from Peter McDonald. The song was inspired by and adapted from a similar song which Sam had written shortly after the band's breakup in 1982. Although Peter would serve as the song's co-producer, he did actively participate in the recording of the track.

This was because the song only featured Sam Whitby on keyboard and vocals, and Torquil Dohrn playing the alto-saxophone. The song would be recorded at Eastern Sound Theatres instead of Eastern Sound Recorders, because the theatre was more suited to recording a song to make it sound like it was recorded live.

As with "Savant Supreme" and "Fiery Fossil", "The Dream is Over" shows Sam Whitby trying to capture the musical style of Supertramp and the vocal style of Roger Hodgson. Although other band members Peter McDonald, Devon O'Connell, Milford Ekdahl, and Wilbur Milardo did not actively participate in the recording, they were present when the recording took place.

As Peter later said "It was astonishing how they recorded the song at that level of perfection with only three ingredients - Sam's vocal, his keyboard playing, and Torquil's saxophone playing, which we don't actually hear until 1 minute and 45 seconds into the song. I may have felt a bit resentful that I hadn't been on stage playing with them, but I understood that Sam and Torquil were at the top of their game and didn't need my help".

18th December 2004
Peter McDonald started work on a new composition on this day. "Romance is My Life" which was written primarily by Peter McDonald, with input from Torquil Dohrn. Peter recorded himself playing the song on the Ukulele. Though the recording was 4 minutes and 1 second in length, only the first minute and 20 seconds would make the final pressing.

Peter would rerecord the song with the rest of the band later on, and the last 2 minutes and 41 seconds of that recording would be used for the released version of the song instead. Both versions were recorded instrumentally, and Peter McDonald, Sam Whitby, Torquil Dohrn, and Devon O'Connell would dub their vocals onto the finished recording.

19th January 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Romance Blossoms" which was written primarily by Peter McDonald, with input from Sam Whitby. The title of the song would be changed however to "Blossom of Romance" prior to release. Peter explained that he had an idea to write an acoustic ballad in the style of several songs by The Beatles that were primarily or solely written by Paul McCartney.

"And I Love Her", "Blackbird", "I Will", and "Two of Us" were all written in that style, and although Cherry Beat had previously recorded a few songs in that style, he wanted write another song like that for the band to record. "Till There Was You" which had been covered by The Beatles was also a notable example of this style.

"I began to write the song and when I'd written about two thirds of it, I took it to Sam to finish, and he said that he also had an idea for a song in this style, and wanted me to finish a song of his once he'd written most the lyrics" said Peter "Turns out we both had ideas for writing a song of this style, and although the lyrics aren't related, we both described these songs of ours as twins".

3rd February 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Blissful Night" which was written primarily by Sam Whitby, with input from Peter McDonald. Sam explained that he had an idea to write an acoustic ballad in the style of several songs written or recorded by The Beatles either individually or as a group.

"Till There Was You", "And I Love Her", "Blackbird", "I Will", "Julia", "Two of Us", and "Oh My Love" (the last of which wasn't acoustic but had that same feel to it) were all written in that style, and although Cherry Beat had previously recorded a few songs in that style, Sam wanted write another song like that for the band to record.

"Then Peter came up to me, and asked me to finish another song which he'd written in that same style" said Sam "And I was surprised because I also had an idea for a song in that style, and I wanted to write it, but I also wanted him to finish it. Turns out we both had ideas for writing a song of this style, and although the lyrics aren't related, we both described these songs of ours as twins".

Recording for Peter's song began in January, and recording for Sam's song began in February. However the acoustic guitars would not be immediately recorded because Sam and Torquil weren't satisfied with the way they sounded and felt they needed more time to figure out how to play them so they'd blend in with the rest of the song.

14th February 2005
Peter McDonald, Sam Whitby, Torquil Dohrn, Devon O'Connell, Milford Ekdahl, and Wilbur Milardo were in the studio again on this day, recording a second version of "Romance is My Life".

The intention was to take the first minute and 20 seconds of version 1, and the last 2 minutes and 41 seconds of version 2 and edit the selected parts of the two versions together to make one.

Once again, no vocals would be recorded during this session to ensure that the basic track would be mastered before they troubled with recording the vocals.

Peter, Sam, Torquil, Devon, Milford, and Wilbur respectively played the Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass Guitar, Acoustic Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Ludwig Drum Kit, Grand Piano, and Lowrey Organ in the second version, whereas the first version only featured Peter playing the Ukulele.

The start of the first version would serve as an introduction to the middle and end of the second version.

20th February 2005
Devon O'Connell records ludwig drum kit overdubs for "Blossom of Romance" and "Blissful Night" on this day. Though the drumming would be restrained on both songs because Peter and Sam felt that having the ludwig drum kit as the main drumming instrument would spoil the mild nature of the two ballads.

It was during this same session that Sam and Torquil recorded acoustic guitar overdubs for "Blissful Night" though none of the takes recorded on this day were deemed satisfactory by Sam. Session musician Margarito Donahoe contributed a didgeridoo overdub for "Blossom of Romance" on this day, but it would eventually be mixed out and replaced with a duduk overdub.

The didgeridoo and the ludwig drum kit were recorded in the same take, and although the didgeridoo was subsequently mixed out, there were faint traces left that hadn't been mixed out completely, though they were obscured by the dubbing of the duduk.

5th March 2005
Peter McDonald, Sam Whitby, Torquil Dohrn, and Devon O'Connell record vocals for "Romance is My Life" on this day. The latter three on backing vocals, and the former on lead vocals.

14th March 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Would You Forgive Me?" which was written primarily by Torquil Dohrn, with input from Sam Whitby.

8th April 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Bored to Death" which was written primarily by Peter McDonald, with input from Devon O'Connell.

12th April 2005
Peter McDonald and Sam Whitby record cello overdubs for "Romance is My Life" on this day. They are joined by session musicians Leticia Angert, Eleonore Hinojos, and Katy Taranto who contributed violin overdubs, and Jeremiah Dibernardo who contributed viola overdubs. With that, the recording of the song was complete.

Also present during the recording session on this day, but not an active participant in the actual recording was Patrice McDonald, the 12 year old daughter of Peter and Elodia McDonald, who would frequently visit the studio on her way back from school during these recording sessions.

25th May 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Tough Climbing" which was written primarily by Devon O'Connell, with input from Milford Ekdahl.

6th June 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Light the Fire" which was written primarily by Sam Whitby, with input from Peter McDonald. The song combined styles of hard rock and pop rock.

16th June 2005
Milford Ekdahl records a synthesizer overdub for "Tough Climbing" on this day. The song was now completed.

23rd June 2005
Devon O'Connell and Wilbur Milardo respectively record tambourine and xylophone overdubs on this day to finish work on "Would You Forgive Me?".

30th June 2005
Peter McDonald and Sam Whitby respectively record grand piano and keyboard overdubs for "Bored to Death" on this day.

It was during this same session that Sam Whitby and Torquil Dohrn recorded another series of takes on lead acoustic and acoustic rhythm guitars respectively, hoping to finish work on "Blissful Night".

While most of these takes were remarkable, Sam still wasn't happy with them, and felt that they needed to spend more time to perfect the playing of the acoustic guitars to achieve even more remarkable results.

5th July 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "French Vanilla Sky" which was written primarily by Peter McDonald, with input from Sam Whitby. The song was inspired by the Paul McCartney song "Vanilla Sky".

13th July 2005
Peter McDonald and Sam Whitby record cello overdubs for "Bored to Death" on this day. They are joined by session musicians Leticia Angert, Eleonore Hinojos, and Katy Taranto who contributed violin overdubs, and Jeremiah Dibernardo who contributed viola overdubs. With that, the recording of the song was complete.

22nd July 2005
Peter McDonald records a flute overdub for "French Vanilla Sky" on this day. The song was now finished.

28th July 2005
Sam Whitby records a grand piano overdub for "Light the Fire" on this day. The song was now completed.

10th August 2005
The final recording session for "Blissful Night". At the last session, Sam Whitby decided to switch from acoustic to electric to see if playing on electric guitars would yield better results, though they weren't expecting the results to be any better, as the acoustic guitar was the ideal lead instrument for this style of song.

Sam Whitby and Torquil Dohrn respectively played on the lead electric and electric rhythm guitars on this day. The sound of the guitars were tucked in since electric guitars were generally louder and more vibrant than acoustic guitars, and they wanted to make the electric guitars sound as close to an acoustic guitar as possible.

Distortion was obviously a big no-no there, and always had been. Sam and Torquil played around with the electric guitar settings. Obviously they wanted clean settings since the acoustic style ballads they'd played on before that actually featured acoustic guitars as lead instruments had clean sounds.

Years later, when Sam looked back on the efforts he and Torquil put into playing the electric guitars, he said "Our electric guitar playing definitely sounded acoustic in some fonts, but the amplifiers were definitely on, and we were definitely playing on electric guitars".

"Had you not known that we were playing on electric guitars, you might initially have mistaken the guitars to be acoustic" he continued. "I don't think we've ever played electric guitars quite like that before, since this is probably the first time we'd explicitly been trying to make the electric guitars sound acoustic".

19th August 2005
Session musician Margarito Donahoe recorded a duduk overdub for "Blossom of Romance" on this day, to replace the didgeridoo overdub that was recorded in February. Although the didgeridoo was subsequently mixed out, there were faint traces left that hadn't been mixed out completely, though they were obscured by the dubbing of the duduk.

Looking back on the recording, Peter said "Not sure if I can pick out the remains of the didgeridoo underneath that duduk. I could vaguely hear the remains of the didgeridoo that hadn't been mixed out properly beforehand, at least until the duduk was dubbed onto the finished recording, over the top of what was left of the didgeridoo".

28th August 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Golden Firewhisky" which was written primarily by Sam Whitby, with input from Peter McDonald.

3rd September 2005
Peter McDonald and Sam Whitby respectively record electric guitar and grand piano overdubs for "Golden Firewhisky" on this day. At the same time Torquil Dohrn, Devon O'Connell, Milford Ekdahl, and Wilbur Milardo recorded percussion overdubs. The recording of the song was complete.

8th September 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Night Life" which was written primarily by Peter McDonald, with input from Sam Whitby.

16th September 2005
Peter McDonald, Sam Whitby, and Torquil Dohrn respectively record trumpet, keyboard, and alto-saxophone overdubs for "Night Life" on this day.

23rd September 2005
Torquil Dohrn and session musician Clotilde Whiddon respectively record trombone and alto-saxophone overdubs for "Night Life" on this day. The song was now finished.

4th October 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Boutique Shop" which was written primarily by Torquil Dohrn, with input from Devon O'Connell. The song features a Mandolin played by Peter McDonald as the lead instrument.

19th October 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Dessert Plains" which was written primarily by Sam Whitby, with input from Torquil Dohrn.

1st November 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Life-Guard" which was written primarily by Torquil Dohrn, with input from Wilbur Milardo. This made "Life-Guard" the first composition to feature Wilbur as a co-writer.

16th November 2005
Torquil Dohrn records an overdub guitar solo for "Life-Guard" on this day. Various pieces of the overdub guitar solo were mixed in, and various pieces of the original guitar solo were mixed out.

23rd November 2005
Torquil Dohrn records a second overdub guitar solo for "Life-Guard" on this day, though it was mixed very low in comparison to the first overdub guitar solo.

18th December 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Downtown Boy" which was written primarily by Devon O'Connell, with input from Wilbur Milardo.

21st December 2005
The band recorded a new composition on this day. "Science-Fiction" which was written primarily by Torquil Dohrn, with input from Milford Ekdahl. Despite helping Torquil to finish writing the song, as well as co-producing it, Milford did not actively participate in the song's recording.

23rd December 2005
Peter McDonald and Torquil Dohrn recorded trumpet overdubs for "Life-Guard" on this day.

27th December 2005
Torquil Dohrn and session musician Wilburn Charboneau record trombone overdubs for "Life-Guard" on this day. Peter McDonald also completed work on "Boutique Shop" by adding a Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass Guitar overdub.

29th December 2005
Sam Whitby, Torquil Dohrn, Wilbur Milardo respectively contributed cello, alto-saxophone, and maracas overdubs for "Life-Guard" on this day. They were joined by Peter McDonald's teenage daughter Patrice McDonald on backing vocals, marking the first time she actively participated in a Cherry Beat recording. The song was now completed.

17th January 2006
Single release — Blissful Night / The Dream is Over

6th February 2006
Single release — Blossom of Romance / Romance is My Life

Album release — Bucket Full of Cherries