Holy Crap - that's finally it! After 19 days of work shopping and arranging and 37 days of recording, we're finished the heavy lifting on this, the 12th Studio Album from Barenaked Ladies. It's been both challenging and incredibly rewarding over the past three and a half months. We've undertaken our first recording as a 4pc, changed up our management, and we even got out to play a bunch of rock shows for y'all. As of today, the super-genius Mix God who is Bob Clearmountain has completed 12 songs out of the 18 we recorded and we absolutely love the way they're sounding. It's actually kind of Bittersweet right now, as we wrap up things at Jimmy C's and get ready for a few weeks of R&R ('cept Kev, who never stops). I'll miss the collaboration and the joyous unity of these sessions.

I'll also miss cooking for my band and MPW, Keith and Kenny - our awesome assistant engineer. I kinda approached the last few meals of Tychow like they were feasts of accomplishment. Yesterday was slow - smoked BBQ Brisket with sides of Tangy Pit beans, Braised Collard Greens, and Crunchy 'slaw. Wednesday I did Tandoori BBQ's Chicken with Turmeric Rice, Gently Stewed Beets and Spinach with Ginger and Green Chillies. I think we may have started a tradition with this cooking thing. It's great to have everyone around the table, enjoying home-made food after toiling in the Music Mine all day!

What sweet slavery though, cause this has been the best workplace environment ever for this band. Uncle Tyler highly recommends doing a job you love, with dynamic and exciting people who are committed to each other and to creating great things. That's what this process has been like and as my main man George Gershwin once said, It's nice work if you can get it...

Though all that work sure made me tired:

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 Who says Keyboardists can't dance?  Kev has found the way.  There is no stopping him.  Believe or not, he's walking on air.  

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 It's a cloudy afternoon here in Toronto, and we're still plugging away on... as yet untitled.  That's not what it's called though.  We just did some killer clapping on "Golden Boy".  Any day you invoke the Bay City Rollers is a good day.  I'm setting up to play some guitar on "The Love We're In".  That song is struggling to find itself.  I think we're on the right track now.  I've tried several approaches to the vocal... I think what we ended up with is good, but it's a lot more fragile than I'm used to hearing my vocal.  I was considering flying myself to the couple of gigs we have this weekend... but I'm kind of looking forward to the hang on the bus with the guys, so I think I'll leave the plane here, and go old-school!  It's really nice to be back in the cockpit again (or as a Canadian Forces female fighter pilot referred to it "The Box Office").  After my crash, I felt a huge loss of that part of my identity.  It was a crazy time... Steve's Drug bust, my plane crash.  It seemed like the world was conspiring to take everything I held important away from me.  Happy to have that behind me.  Feeling REALLY good in this space now.  Flying again.  Making a killer record.  This was supposed to be a quick little studio update, cause Tyler bugged me about not blogging.  So, there ya go.  More than I intended to say, as there is more on my mind, I guess.  Time to play some more guitar.

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One of the hardest parts of recording for the drummer is the over-dub process.  All the drums are done and, aside from the occasional tambourine or shaker, there's not much else to do.  Luckily, two factors contributed to me having more to do this time around. First of all, I get to sing a little more these days and I'm loving it! Secondly, JIM BOUGHT A BIG GREEN EGG so I became the session Chef! It was great to cook for my boys while we polished up the tunes.  Maybe I should do it on the road?? Special shout out to the Lempka Family in Chicago who totally hooked me up with a box of delicious rubs and spices at the Taste of Chicago.  You can bet they'll be put to good use this summer and beyond. Bon Apetit, my Peoples.

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