I can hardly believe that I've spent six 13 hour days in the studio so far this week. Probably because all I can remember doing is sitting in my cozy little isolation booth, singing and playing into two expensive microphones, staring through the thick glass at Bob Glaub and Joey Waronker in the big room, and Ross Hogarth overseeing it all from the control room. Cameron is in a booth next to me, but we can't see each other. We all wear headphones and communicate very effectively through them. In fact it's a feeling much more intimate than a stage. It feels sort of like being in a cockpit, with your squadron around you. I guess that makes me Goose. Cameron's gotta be Maverick. Or maybe he'd be Kenny Loggins. I will say it feels like the 'big time' being here. We are working with SERIOUS record makers. Guys who...

>>>>RECORDING STUDIO VOL. I (CH) I'm sitting on a black couch, with our producer Ross in front of me. Ryan is to my left in an ergonomically perfect studio chair, and our bass player, Bob Glaub sits between him and Ross. We're listening to drum and bass tracks for the updated, re-felt version of Helpless Hopeless. It feels really really good. To be honest, I was pretty much against it even being on this record. I was wary, because we've changed the arrangement of it, which means that weve changed aspects of the song in relation to the order of verses and choruses as well as the instrumentation. The intro to the song is different, one small half-verse is gone, and we now go straight from the 'wrapped myself around mama's feet' lyric into another chorus. So some things are missing. It's true. And I was worried that this newer version...

It's been stormy and rainy and windy and lightningish outside for the past three Tucson days. So beautiful. Most places I've been to or lived in like the rain less than Tucson does. But I'm going to wager half of my M&Ms and guess that it's because Tucson has well over 300 sunny days a year. So, here, a cloudy day is a scarce resource. And what is scarce is usually very valuable. Tomorrow we return to Los Angeles. Monday we set up. Tuesday, we begin, finally begin, cutting a record. I don't say 'making a record,' because Ryan and I have been 'making this record' for a long time. Insomuch as weve been writing these songs and testing them out live, and then going into Woolly Mammoth Studios in Boston to record 30 demos, and then going to LA to play them for our producer (Grammy winner Ross Hogarth (can...