As I was searching through files and demos of older songs for the ‘From The Vault’ series, I came across this version we did of Social Distortion’s ‘Dear Lover’. This song was from their fifth album ‘White Light, White Heat, White Trash’ which was released in 1996. Social Distortion has been around for quite a while, starting as a punk rock band in 1978 and going through some changes in style over the years. I’ve read that they are working on a new album that may come out this year. It would be their first album of new music since 2011. We’re certainly hoping that they keep going. Long gone are the days when you were considered ‘too old’ to continue playing once you got out of your 30’s.
This was another song that was recorded mostly live as a three piece band. There are some overdubs added. We wanted to document a lot of the originals and some of the covers we were working on since the one thing most bands have in common is the impermanence of their line ups. The good thing about having your own studio to work in is that you can make some pretty decent ‘quick’ recordings of material whenever you want to. For a recording like this we would usually set up in the large room and place the guitar amps in a different room to allow some separation. You also have to be conscious of the direction the vocal mic is pointing so you don’t get too much drum bleed through. As compared to playing on stage the best bet is to have the singer facing the drums and use a mic that won’t pick up any sounds from the back and side. Sometimes we’d have the vocals in another separate room as you’re hearing the playback on headphones anyway. You’d also want to dampen the drum heads a bit by using gel or tape on them to cut down on the ring.
Electrostatic Rhythm Pigs cover Social Distortion’s ‘Dear Lover’:
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