Liner Notes- Recording the Modern Illusion by Paul Curtiz - CH2

Join us each week as we release exclusive, never-before-seen chapters from Paul Curtiz's latest book, "Liner Notes- Recording the Modern Illusion", the companion to the highly-anticipated album release of "Modern Illusion". Be sure to listen to the first single "Nothing Like California" from the album available on Apple Music or Spotify, and you can also follow Paul on Facebook or Bandcamp for more updates.

Chapter 2: A Line in the Sand

Last week we had to have a bit of a chat with the nuclear physicists over at the record label. We drove down there together, stopping on the way to their swanky open-space offices to grab some quinoa at the Health Factory —I had to double-park and let the engine run, the parking officers are ruthless in these waters. We were slightly ruffled when we arrived for the meeting. So much for a warm welcome —no more croissants in the meeting rooms and the decaf was definitely below par. But back to business: it appears our expenses for the acquisition of “redundant recording equipment” will no longer be covered by these bronco marketing types. How on earth a couple of spare Klons 1 and a neatly racked set of vintage 1073’s could be considered “redundant” is a bit of a mystery to us but this is a generation that was brought up on mp3’s.

There were a few other minor points on the gang’s agenda about which we knew we would have to stand our ground. See, it’s fair for them to try to run a tight ship, but shaving half a dozen points off of our royalty deal does not sit well with us, and there was no way in hell we were going to let them squeeze us.

Apparently —don’t ask me why— they are now firm buddies with the accounting dept. whom we lovingly refer to as “the basement vultures” (back in the day we’d only see these pale nerds at the label’s Christmas party, and we’d chuckle at their sad attempts to chat up the promo girls). This pathetic alliance of fresh-out-of-school marketeers and beancounters has recently been looking at “our numbers” during one of their bi-weekly cult gatherings. Based on their calculations, it seems our break-even plan (remember when we used to say “recoup”?) with the label would need to be extended a further ten years. Well, tough luck, kiddos. Eat this, and yo Mama in shorts in front of the supermarket, if you catch my drift. That’s just the kind of guys we are, we didn’t get here by letting a bunch of tenderfoot label execs walk all over us —and our royalties.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we drew a line in the deep carpeting and managed to lose no more than 5 points (unless sales continue to dwindle and our appeal as recording artistes becomes more “selective” but that is some fine print we weren’t entirely able to decode without our reading glasses). In any case I don’t reckon this should impact our livelihoods.

For those interested, we have a couple Klons and a rack of Neve 1073s that we would be prepared to let go to a good home —make us an offer, losers and welfare-types not welcome.

1 I hate to say this but if I need to explain what a Klon and a 1073 are, you’re probably not the target audience. Oh, alright: the Klon Centaur is the most overrated hand-built boutique overdrive guitar pedal ever (so, obviously, everyone wants one, and that includes us). Originally priced at around $200 in the early 90’s, it now fetches 5K —easily. The 1073 is a highly desirable vintage pre-amp and equaliser unit manufactured by Neve Electronics in the 70’s. Each unit retails for around 3K these days. You’d need at least a couple to start you off. Possibly a rack of 8, or 16 to be on the safe side.