As guitarist Jay Vilardi explains down the line from the US, since making the decision the band hasn’t looked back. “We really couldn’t get the way that the band sounded for real in a studio setting without recording live,” he explains as to what lead the band to approach the recording of Fear Inside Our Bones differently. “The other two records we’ve done we’re happy with and we wouldn’t change anything for the world but the one thing; the one thing was that we sound like a polished version of The Almost and we really wanted to be honest.”
The recording of Fear Inside Our Bones is a throwback to the days when bands would track every song on the record live, in the same room, take by take. Marshall Altman was the man overseeing the recording process and according to Vilardi, his approach was anything but conventional. “We rehearsed for a week in a room together with Marshall standing five seconds from me,” he remembers. “Then we just went and recorded it in the live room which I’ve never seen a producer do, usually they sit behind the desk on the other side of the glass. He was there with us, just rocking and doing his thing. I remember thinking like ‘wow this is different, this record is going to be different’”.
There is no denying the results on The Almost’s latest offering. Full of raw energy and honesty, the recording is perfectly suited to the bands no frills, bluesy, southern rock. Opening track Ghost is a perfect example, where you can hear Aaron’s breathing in between vocals as well as extra little guitar sounds and drum noises throughout. “If we were in the same room I could point stuff out to you, like what you’re really hearing, that would probably blow your mind in the way that it did mine, like wow we’re leaving that? Ok yeah let’s leave it,” says Vilardi. “I mean a lot of the drums you hear are not actually drums, it’s drums coming through my amp because we were standing so close.”
I ask whether the fact that the band recorded the album together in the same room had the same sort of feel as if they were in the rehearsal room and if it took some of the pressure off being in a recording environment. “What you said is true but then there’s also the other point which is if I mess up my take we all have to start over. You don’t want to be that guy that’s like ‘oh ok take 20 because Jay can’t get his crap together’,” he laughs.
The Almost have already indicated that the way they recorded Fear Inside Our Bones, completely live and capturing every last drop of energy and honesty, is the only way they want to record albums in the future. “I know that Aaron has said this and I agree; we should never record any other way,” says Vilardi. “We should totally just record live because we went in there, we did a good job and the finished product; we’re getting the best response that we’ve got in a while on a record.”
Recorded in only five days, the making of Fear Inside Our Bones was extremely fluent and according to Vilardi it was more than enough time for the band to get the outcome that they were after. “Its not that we only had five days, it’s that that’s how long it took. We had a bigger budget, certainly to do a track by track, conventional recording, however it was definitely one of those situations where it was like, I mean if it’s a three minute song and we play it ten times and we only keep one attempt at that song, that’s still only 30 minutes. If anything, five days is a long time if you think about it like that,” he laughs.
“In the studio, for anyone time is money, especially since we’re all part of an industry where we make things that no one wants to buy anymore and they’re free,” he says jokingly. “So for us, if your band can do it and that’s what you want to sound like, everyone should do it.”
BY JAMES NICOLI
