Location Scouting
mix notes & photo shoots
Just a quick hello today, as I write to you from West Texas where I have spent the last week deep in mix notes land. I’ve been listening carefully on my noise canceling headphones, noticing the tiniest little weird breath or misplaced “s”, asking to bring up the harmonies or to delete things or bring them in later. It’s kind of scary because it is all so permanent. Whatever we decide on these mixes is what is going to live on this album forever.
I remember when I was making my album Sorceress, the drummer on that record Josh Jaeger pointed out how we listen so closely in the studio to every little thing super loud, obsessing over the minutia, when in reality people don’t listen to music that way. A lot of people listen to music from YouTube on their phone speakers!
Similarly, I was having a phone call with a close friend the other day who relayed something wise he’d recently heard: when you’re trying to choose between two options and you’re having a really hard time making a decision, it means they’re both good, so just make a choice and go for it.
With mixes, it’s so true. There’s no right or wrong here. The mixes I have sound incredible and regardless of how loud the harmonies are or if we take the piano out of an intro or not, it’s going to be great either way. I finally got to a place today where I realized I have no more notes. So we are really close!
It’s hard for me to not obsess about this stuff, and the best advice I have for anyone going through it is when you’re making a mix decision, sleep on it and listen with fresh ears in the morning. Obsessively a/b-ing will just drive you insane. I was doing that yesterday, then I put it down. I listened again today and the choice was obvious. And by the way, it ended up being the option that the mixing engineer preferred (they usually know best).
In other news, this week I am shooting the photos for my new album. I’ve spent the last few days location scouting around Marfa. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll share some places that are super beautiful out here but that I’ve decided not to use.
Last week, I drove down to Shafter. It’s technically a ghost town, and its about 30 minutes south of Marfa. I love it there. They have a really cool old church, some beautiful buildings, and even a creek - which is rare out here. Looking at it again I’m like… maybe we should shoot here? ha. it’s so cool down there.
I also went over to the Bull Room, where I saw the play last weekend, and took some photos around the outside. It’s such a cool space. I don’t think we will end up shooting there for the photos, but I’m really curious about doing something there because its super special, especially inside.
I am really inspired by this one image I screenshotted from the Ballroom Marfa instagram. I’m loving the idea of an all black look with big white puffy clouds and blue sky:
Earlier today, I drove ten miles or so down a dirt road not far from town and found some beautiful locations for the shoot. Tomorrow, I’m going to a friend’s ranch for some scouting (there are baby lambs there!!), and we have a few other locations already secured. But like I said, I don’t want to give too much away yet.
So that’s all from me for today. Just a quick hello because it’s busy busy over here. All good things though! Below, I’ve got a special playlist for my paid subscribers of some of the songs I’ve been listening to since I’ve been out here. Some of these songs are inspo for the new album, some were just recently shown to me and I like them, some popped up on the radio and reminded me they existed. Music, its a wonderful thing.
Until next week,
Jess
