“Still Got Game”

John Korbel performs “Still Got Game”

Keyan Williams Gallery

gschmitt album: The Year in Pictures

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The Year in Pictures - gschmitt discusses creating The Year in Pictures

“This is my first album. It’s filled with anticipation, aggravation and ambivalence. Some of it is due to the actual content of the songs; some of it is due to the grueling process of getting a record finished. Even today as I type this and listen to the music in the background, I’m still only half-believing that it’s actually done and so many of the emotions that I went through over the 2+ years of making it are coming back.

It’s funny to think back on how wrong I was in my perceptions of how to make a record before I actually sat down to do it. My whole process was out of whack. The work involved was beyond anything I had ever imagined it would be and I still marvel at the idea of how off I actually was about making a CD. A lot is left to chance and planning can suck the life out of a project. I’m a guy who likes to have things planned and it was difficult to let go of my idea of “what I’m going to get done today” and just let the process’s own life take control. When I think back on it, I see that the whole album happened organically and couldn’t have been planned.

It all started with a demo that I made; I recorded the drums, bass and guitar parts live for about 8 songs and gave a copy to my good friends Isaak Sakko and Carlos Cintron at Redemption Studios. I wasn’t really anticipating anything more than completing something on a CD and giving it to my friends to hear. Sakko’s a fellow musician who’s among the best rock bass players I’ve ever heard and Carlos is a growing force in Latin Christian music who got me started gigging in Puerto Rico as his guitarist. They never really had the chance to hear my songwriting and singing, so it was only natural that I wanted to have their input on it. Sakko called me back the next day and said “we’re recording this in my studio; I’m your bassist.” From then on it was good to go and the two of them were 100% into making MY record for me. Carlos volunteered his time to engineer 90% of my recordings. I couldn’t believe it.

I got in contact with Ariel Cedeno (one of my favorite drummers on earth) to drum the whole record but afterward when Rai Torres checked out the demo, he made it clear he wanted some tracks on it, too. It was beyond flattering. Rai pretty much owns most of the rock drumming scene here in Puerto Rico and other parts of Latin America and he doesn’t exactly have an empty dance card. He made the time to rehearse and record because he dug what he heard. That was cool. To this day, I think one of the things I’m proudest of on this album is the drumming. The two of them made it so I can never listen to my drumming on my shitty little demo ever again. The coolest part is that their styles are both so different and they really are drumming the “correct songs” for what they do.

I can’t keep going on about this record without mentioning Maraliza. My wife is a HUGE part of this. She was my sounding board for everything. Every bit of my frustration and stress landed on that girl’s shoulders. Every take in the studio was given to her to listen to. (She’s got inhuman ears.) Even when she knew my delicate ass couldn’t take it, she was never afraid to tell me what I needed to hear. She never is. Simply put, this project wouldn’t have come out as well as it did if I were married to another girl. Period.

Musically, I guess you could say the album’s as confused as I am. One day, I’m all rock. Another, I’m a jazz guitarist. Put me in Latin America and things just get all mixed up. I didn’t sit down and plan to write any of the songs or any of the styles that came about here. They just came through playing. I just sat down to play the guitar for every tune and on different days, I’d come up with different feels and melodies that inspired me to develop the idea. That’s why Muddy Water has a jazz/groove element to it while It’s Alright; A Passing has a strong forward-moving rock thing going on and This Imperfect World has a Rumba clave driving it. In Castles, I jump ship on the jazz feel in the bridge! Confused.

This record taught me so much about myself as a musician and a songwriter. It taught me what to do and what NOT to do. It taught me exactly how I’m going to make my next record….I think.”

- gschmitt

gschmitt song: It’s Alright; A Passing

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It’s Alright; A Passing (lyrics) - gschmitt discusses this song from The Year in Pictures

“This was the hardest song to track vocals for on the album. It’s not really about hitting the notes, but getting the appropriate feel out. If not my personal favorite of the record, it’s definitely the one I’m proudest of. It’s also by far the heaviest subject matter.

It was written about watching a dearly loved one die and the irony that’s part of the scene where all of the family members and friends who love her are inconsolably sad while the person ready to check out is calm and at peace.

I also had a bit of an obsession with the expression “survived by” that we use in English when someone passes away, i.e. “she is survived by her loving husband and children.” I find it to be one of the few little eloquences we can find in English. We ARE survived by our legacies and our loved ones carry them with them through their lives. That’s what I was speaking to when I wrote “flesh is but impermanent; life extends beyond it.”

- gschmitt

gschmitt song: Old Love

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Old Love (lyrics) - gschmitt discusses this song from The Year in Pictures

“This is another tune that Quique totally helped develop for me. His percussionist ear immediately perked up during the chorus and he pushed me to record it even more samba/bossa nova than it was originally. I had a somewhat similar pattern to the samba in there already, but he went in and recorded that part as a genuine samba and it made all the difference.

The three guitar solo is probably my favorite guitar solo I’ve ever recorded. I got the idea from Trey Anastacio’s guitar solo on Phish’s “Weigh.” (Yeah . . . I went through a REAL phish-head phase in college.) This tune is a “feel-anomaly.” If you told me about a song with a laid-back ghost note drum groove in the verse with the [on top of the beat] samba/rock feeling drum beat in the chorus, I would have said it’ll never work, but I didn’t count on Ariel Cedeno. Freak.

Lyrically, it’s pretty literal. It was based on a poem I wrote years before and adapted only a few months before I got the chance to record this record. Pretty standard young relationship confusion stuff, when I look back.”

- gschmitt

gschmitt song: This Imperfect World

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This Imperfect World (lyrics) - gschmitt discusses this song from The Year in Pictures

“I love the groove on this song. It’s a great example of how enchanted I am with the rumba clave and the tumbao of latin music. I originally recorded it myself with a HEAVY cascara drum pattern taken right out of a Robby Ameen drum book. When I showed it to Enrique the percussionist, he flipped. (Funny sidenote: I had to look up his name to see what it was for my album credits . . . to me and everyone else he works with, he’s not “Enrique.” He’s “Quique [pronounced “kee-kay”] Conga.”) I think Rai Torres showed what a monster he is on this song, too. Besides recording it in one take (again), he did a beautiful job of mixing the latin bass beat in the kick drum with the rock backbeat. He let Quique take the clave and it came out so much better than my original idea because of those two. This song was fun to record.

Lyrically, I was writing to the idea that very few things in life are really that controllable. In fact, the only thing you can control is yourself and the quality of the commitments you make. This song is me committing.”

- gschmitt

gschmitt song: Madison

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Madison (lyrics) - gschmitt discusses this song from The Year in Pictures

“I get a lot of people asking me what this song is about. They know death is in there somewhere, but they want more of the story. It was a suicide. …and the original [fictional] name for the tune was “Alison,” but my wife said “that’s already an Elvis Costello song” and she suggested the change. It fits better. She was right….again.

Rai Torres played drums on this song, and honestly: this song wouldn’t be half of what it turned out to be if it weren’t for his drumming and his ideas. He made the song with the brushes. The transition to the hard snare groove in the second verse was something that he was adamant about from the start and once we tracked it, it was obvious why. It was like an underscore.”

- gschmitt

gschmitt song: I Know

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I Know (lyrics) - gschmitt discusses this song from The Year in Pictures

“This tune was probably the oldest one on the record. I wrote it sometime in college about an impending break-up of a relatively short, insignificant relationship. It was pretty much my case study in dating shallow women. I think of myself in that relationship more like an accessory to her social wardrobe than a boyfriend. That shit was doomed from day 1.

The only part of the song that was new by the time I got it over to the studio for recording was the bridge and I thought it added a new, scathing element. Good times.”

- gschmitt

gschmitt song: Blood from a Stone

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Blood from a Stone (lyrics) - gschmitt discusses this song from The Year in Pictures

The groove is really the heart of this song. I wanted an almost hip-hop feel in the rhythm section and I had Sakko lock up the bass with the drums.

I was playing with two intertwining guitar parts on this one. The guitars are panned from ear to ear and I was pretty insistent on that in order for the interplay to stand out.

Carlos Cintron engineered this recording and he had, “But you might be fine”, stuck in his ear for weeks. He tells me, “…guess I did something right.”

- gschmitt

gschmitt song: Without Your Love

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Without Your Love (lyrics) - gschmitt discusses this song from The Year in Pictures

“This is a simple song with simple lyrics and a slow, tight reggae groove.

The original plan was to have a big guitar solo come in at the break and grow through the end chorus. The more I thought about it, though, I kept hearing a horn instead of my guitar….thought about a trumpet. I got in contact with Mac McDonald and asked him if he’d be willing to blow on it. He lived with the idea for a while and decided it was a flugelhorn solo this tune needed and put it together. I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t sure what I wanted and I pretty much gave him artistic license; he blew me away.

Another important part of the performance and recording of this one was in Ariel’s drum part. I insisted he tap out the snare drum ghost notes with his fingertips while he played the cross stick groove. He laughed at me, muttered “you’re making me WORK” in Spanish, went home, hit the woodshed and came back to the studio a couple days later and just killed the tune in one take. Nasty, man. Nasty.”

- gschmitt

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