The Singles sessions started in late 2019 as a lark, mainly to test out some new musical equipment and recording techniques. Rather than perform these tests on my own compositions, it was more natural for me to try them out on covers. There was no plan to record more than a couple songs to try these techiques out, however, the decision was made to morph the effort into a whole album's worth of songs once the pandemic occurred.

Like the previous two recordings Low Tide and Love Songs For Cheap Women, the sessions focused on a "classic" rock lineup - two guitars, bass, drums, and vocal - occasionally embellished with additional guitar or percussion to fill out an arrangement or idea.

On nearly all previous recordings, I opted to record electric guitar parts directly into the recorder using a Line6 Pod as a guitar preamp and amp simulator. Guitar effects were generally provided by the Pod or added during recording post processing. On this recording, I changed all that up, mic'ing the guitar through a proper amplifier and using guitar pedals for the majority of the effects, including the overdrive and distortion sounds. Other instruments were recorded as usual - bass direct, Midi drums direct, and acoustic instruments mic'd up as before.

Song selection was based on the whim of the day, though I consciously chose songs that were easily recognizable - sometimes iconic - even though arrangements would intentionally be changed significantly.

Enjoy!