Not recording together

[MAJOR METAL]

Did anyone else pick up in the limited press the band did promoting this album that a lot of interviewers were highlighting the fact that the band was not together in the studio for the making of this album? I don't know if this is an indication that there was a rift or tension so early in their reunion but it certainly seems like it.

[Vaporized]

Ding ding ding, we have a winner.

They wanted nothing to do with one another from the get go. The easiest way to make the record for all parties was to do it apart.

[cagedtiger1640]

I agree Ding ding, we have a winner.  There was nothing organic about this reunion from the begining and thats why we got a half assed STP.  Which I may say is still pretty decent but it is nothing compared to what we recieved from 91' to 2001' live or on record peroid. 

[Les Nessman]

No wonder this album felt different than the rest...

[lowbuz]

I did catch that. Telling perhaps in this situation, but not necessarilly out of the norm, especially in the advent of digital / pro tool recording. Personally I have recorded songs where the band was never in the room togethor. As long as everyone has Pro Tools all you need to do is email off the files. It is a great tool for writing. There are negatives and positives to it.

[Sklashboombash]

...and thats why we got a half assed STP.  Which I may say is still pretty decent ....

Can't argue that. STP in any form is still better than most things out there.

I did catch that. Telling perhaps in this situation, but not necessarilly out of the norm, especially in the advent of digital / pro tool recording. Personally I have recorded songs where the band was never in the room togethor. As long as everyone has Pro Tools all you need to do is email off the files. It is a great tool for writing. There are negatives and positives to it.

Depends on the band.
I don't know how the songs were constructed and how much time was spent together in a room.
But STP is not a one man show, a band like this (my assumption) works best when they are working together.
You want to use 3 separate studios for efficiency? Fine, but don't do it so you don't have to see or deal with each other.

[Pingfah]

Hasn't it always been the case that the Deleos would bring finished music to the table, and then Weiland would add words and melodies to it? I seem to recall that was always their M.O.

The difference this time I feel was that they were all just much lazier and less committed to their individual roles. And too cheap to hire Brendan O'Brien.

[Sklashboombash]

I remember reading that Don Was was going to be there to "regulate" all the transitions from one studio to the next. Did that even happen?
I'm don't hate the album sonically at all...I just think Brendan's input would have benefitted them immensely, like it always does.

Hasn't it always been the case that the Deleos would bring finished music to the table, and then Weiland would add words and melodies to it? I seem to recall that was always their M.O.
The difference this time I feel was that they were all just much lazier and less committed to their individual roles. And too cheap to hire Brendan O'Brien.

For the most part, I believe so, but I think in some cases, melodies (or melodic suggestions) may have been offered by the others too.

[DankoJones]

Think Don Was got them together just to see if the songs worked when they played together but everything was pretty much written in there own studios, meaning the boys did the music in one studio and Scott did his lyrics in anther, and they just emailed shit back n forth, very progressive way of doing a whole album

[cagedtiger1640]

Think Don Was got them together just to see if the songs worked when they played together but everything was pretty much written in there own studios, meaning the boys did the music in one studio and Scott did his lyrics in anther, and they just emailed shit back n forth, very progressive way of doing a whole album

In my opinion a very horrible way to do an album.  Nothing can replace face to face communication and chemistry.  Remember the Shangri La videos that showed them rehearsing songs together and recording them together in the house?  To me it is very apparent that this was how self titled was done and I'm personally not a fan of that method, but thats what they did and too each their own i suppose.

[DankoJones]

Agreed .. seems like the lazy way as well andit took probably the same time to makes all there previous albums combined

[StoneTempleBrett]

They did get together to work out the songs, on the homepage of BelowEmpty one of the rotating pictures is a pic of them in the studio together.  They just weren't together the whole time.  I could give a shit how they record the albums, as long as the ideas/creativity is there (I thought it was still there on self-titled).

[lowbuz]

whether you agree with it or not, it is totally normal for bands to record seperately and at seperate studios. It's standard basic stuff.
Any band you can probablly name does it to one degree or another. There are a million reasons for it, who knows what they are in STP's case.
Also pretty common for a band to come to the table with completed ideas and have a singer work on them from there.  There are negatives and positives for all . If a guitar player or drummer are spending the weekend on tracks, the bass player and/or singer don't necessarilly need to be there. maybe they do. There are tons of scenarios.
Has nothing to do with the band being a one man show. For all we know they wanted to kill each other during the making so the only way to record the album was seperately. Maybe one guy was in Amsterdam and another was in CA. we can only speculate.