Making a record is not easy, it can be intense, fun, challenging and rewarding; everything you want from a good creative journey.

For Jammer and I, first comes the private song writing, with sessions, sometimes in the park with all the tree fairies and shadows and light, sometimes in the hallway of one of our dog walking/house sitting clients where the acoustics are stunning and inspiring and it conjures up visions of the magic evening when “Moonlight Mile” bubbled up out of the ether at Stargroves, or even in or cramped little kitchen that we sometimes convert into a little make-shift studio.

Then the collective work with the band as they embellish and paint the sonic flesh onto the bones of each song. There’s recording challenges too, the hope and aspiration of catching the butterfly. And the train is still not in the station, there’s working on the mixing and listening, listening, listening and if you get all that, the mastering is the cherry on top.

Each part is a link in the chain and you hope that it ultimately becomes a complete circle, you’ve corralled the beast, set the jewel, it’s a golden thread with the ends tied together to form a continuous revolution.

Jammer and I have different listening processes and we each have our strengths (for better and for worse), they do compliment one another, and we are ultimately above all else aligned creatively.

My thing is these ears!!!! They hear sooooo much!!! Everything! I mean Everything!!!!! Like for instance, when a breath or string noise is a feature or a flaw in a song!!! Sometimes I am like pleeeeeeease for the love of Mary! Make! It! Stop!!!!!!! Talk me down!!!!!!

I can let go though. I do know when we’ve gotten the project as good as we can. And I’ve gotten little insights along the way. Messages from the universe that say: “It’s going good girl, keep on truckin’…” Like the first day of recording, it was really intense and when I got home it felt like one of my debilitating migraines was coming on, they take me out for days, but thankfully I fell asleep, and Jeff Tweedy appeared in a dream and said “It’s all about the process,” and when we were getting close to finishing the mixes, I woke up one morning, reached for my phone on the bedside table, and a video of Rick Rubin was the first thing that came up, he was saying something like “Do your best, it’s not about what anyone else says, make the work as good as it can be, then you give the work to god.”

Good to get some outside guidance to help us with our la folie à deux. Which is what Jammer and I say to one another once in a while.

Anyway, we’ve been using Nina Nastisia’s “The Blackened Air,” (2002) as our guide and inspiration for this new project. We sent the first tracks to the Mastering Engineer Maria Triana in the far off land of The Netherlands and it was so wonderful to get this note back from Maria:

“Attached is the master of the (WWSP) track ‘Love Without Fear.’ From Nina’s track I loved the openness and intimacy, the air in the room. Even-though your track is more dynamic and has a different intensity, I wanted to look for the same elements. An intimate vocal, warm, open and also a tight clean low end. I wanted also for it to sound big. It kind of reminded me a bit of “Raising Sand” (2007) by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.” – Maria Triana

Very sweet reference, “Raising Sand” is one OF OUR ALL-TIME FAVORITES! – Carla