Lap steel focused track-by-track of my latest album

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 12 Dec 2014 3:39 am

Hello,

As I am posting a "track-by-track" thing on my facebook page about my latest album "Oil", I thought I'd do a lap steel focused version of this here for those interested.

Starting with Track #1: "Oil"

You can stream "Oil" here: http://fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/track/oil-2

This song came about in isolation out in the Swedish countryside, after winter but before spring, when everything is cold and brown. It is about our human pursuit of love and happiness in life. The title has nothing to do with petroleum. It was the first song we recorded as a band for the album, first take. It felt like it set the tone for the album.

I wrote "Oil" on a 1937 National New Yorker lap steel, but ended up using my 2010 Lap King Rodeo on the recording, with its Lollar Imperial neck pickup, as it sounded the best for this song. I played it through a 1970s Fender Super Reverb 4x10 amp. The reverb is an EMT plate reverb. Recorded to 2" tape.

I used a G-minor tuning on this song - DGDGBbD, low to high.

Here is a video set to an instrumental mix of the track, where you get a close-up view of the beautiful Lap King Rodeo steel, built by Jason DuMont:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSUBuY3lHfY

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 13 Dec 2014 2:59 am

Track #2: "Ought To"

You can stream "Ought To" here: http://fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/track/ought-to

A song about a relationship falling apart. I wrote it in a former pig sty, and at a hipster cafÃ© in Stockholm where everyone has macbooks and look like architects working on something very important (but the coffee is excellent). As this album was recorded all to tape without any computers involved, overdubbing grand piano away from the studio was done in a clever way by co-producer and engineer David Stiby - we recorded the piano onto a portable 1/4" tape machine and he managed to synch this recording to the 2" master tape in the studio. (There is a video of this process HERE.)

As on the previous track "Oil", I played my black Lap King Rodeo in G-minor tuning on this track, but I used the Lollar Supro-style bridge pickup for the main take. The layers of E-bowed lap steel in the outro is also the Lap King (neck humbucker). And the overdubbed arpeggio parts I played on a 1939 Vega Electric Console.

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 15 Dec 2014 10:22 am

(I skipped the two tracks on the album that does not feature lap steel...)

Track #5: "Siena"

You can stream "Siena" here: http://fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/track/siena

I came up with this instrumental when returning from a visit to, well, Siena in Italy. Shortly after that I did a tour where I opened my set with this most nights, and was happily surprised, as a support act which most of the audience did not know, that this instrumental music managed to draw the attention of the crowd. I like making music without words - it can be more direct in a way.

Here is a video of a solo version of "Siena" from said tour, from a show in Nijmegen, The Netherlands:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8UyVWADOFA

I wrote and recorded this instrumental on my other Lap King Rodeo, which is equipped with two Lollar Charlie Christian pickups (both pickups were used on the recording). As on all electric tracks on the album, I played it through a 1970s Fender Super reverb, and the reverb in the mix is the studio EMT plate reverb.

The tuning here is Absus2: Eb-Ab-Eb-Ab-Bb-Eb, low to high. I find this tuning a really interesting variation on the major and minor low-bass tuning format.

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 16 Dec 2014 5:26 am

Track #6: "This Old Machine"

You can stream "This Old Machine" here: http://fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/track ... ld-machine

This song was inspired by a visit to the World War I battlefield at Verdun in France. It's a pretty strange place - with so many young people having died there in vain, and the landscape all shaped by explosions - forest and grass softly growing on jagged, twisted ground full of craters. So the tune came out of thoughts about this, and thoughts about how forgotten our present will be in the future, and thoughts about who might once upon a time have played the 1939 Vega Electric Console steel I wrote and recorded it on.

I used a very odd tuning on this track, one that I discovered by coincidence and for sure is a bit of a one-trick-pony but worked great here:

A-C#-E-A-A#-E (low to high)

So, it is "Dobro tuning" in A, but with the high 3rd lowered to a flat 9th. I had tuned the top two strings like that to record a drone strummed with a toothbrush for another recording. Then I discovered that having the A# string in the A tuning was great for accessing eerie-sounding diminished chords. And this tune came out of that. The tuning is not useful for much else though.

(When playing this song live, where I don't have a high-bass tuned lap steel with me, I amend the low-bass G-minor tuning (D-G-D-G-A#-D) I use in most of the set to a low-bass version of the tuning used on this recording - E-A-C#-E-A#-E - where I can play a low 5th in the "riff" bit, which sounds very fat.)

The Vega Electric Console from 1939 I recorded it on has a great sounding pickup. A sort of humbucker-before-the-humbucker-was-officially-invented. I also used a tube overdrive pedal built by JÃ¶rg Grannemann in DÃ¼sseldorf, Germany. Just with a touch of overdrive, to make the tone a bit thicker and warmer.

(Since then, JÃ¶rg Grannemann has also built me an amazing amp - check out his work at http://handcraftedamps.de/).

Here is a video for "This Old Machine" set to public domain newsreel footage from World War I:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeztYQLCu8Q

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 16 Dec 2014 5:45 am

Fascinating Fred, thanks! I have your album - love the tones you are getting.

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 17 Dec 2014 9:29 am

Thanks Bob!

Track #7: "Cotton Curve"

You can stream "Cotton Curve" here: http://fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/track/cotton-curve

This instrumental had been kicking about for a few years, and when a friend with ears I trust heard it and liked it I decided to dust if off and record it. It was the first recording we made for this album. After I had played the lap steel part, we decided to try a very old (ca. late 1800s) harmonium that was standing in a corner of the studio, and it sounded amazing, rich and organic, so we used it on several other tracks on the album too.

Like on "Siena", I played my Lap King Rodeo with Lollar Charlie Christians on this track (I only used the neck pickup on this recording though).

The tuning here is also the same as on "Siena", Absus2 (Eb-Ab-Eb-Ab-Bb-Eb, low to high). The two instrumentals are kind of siblings - I seem to remember I started writing "Siena" after I made a mistake playing "Cotton Curve", and liked the sound of the mistake.

Just now while writing this post I found a 2009 video of me first trying out the Absus2 tuning and the idea that became "Cotton Curve". A bit rawer tone in this clip. And my playing posture has thankfully since improved, at least a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5gVL3bQSag

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 19 Dec 2014 3:45 am

Track #8: "Love And Luck"

You can stream "Love And Luck" here: http://fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/track/love-and-luck

This was the last song written and recorded for the album. I was visiting Brighton in the UK, where I lived for many years, and walking around that town brought back a lot of memories from different periods of my life. I wrote the song while waiting to soundcheck with my friends Moulettes in Brighton, and recorded it a few days later when I got back to Sweden, doing a live take with me on Weissenborn and my brother Valter Kinbom on percussion.

I played my 2006 Lazy River (spruce/black walnut) Weissenborn acoustic lap steel on this track. In F#-minor tuning (G-minor format, tuned down half a step: C#-F#-C#-F#-A-C#, low to high). We recorded the Weissenborn both with a small diaphragm condenser microphone and the signal from the K&K pickup that is fitted in the guitar.

When we started recording this album, it was an unusually humid and warm (for Stockholm) summer's day in July. On the November day of this session, the weather had cooled down considerably.

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 21 Dec 2014 5:25 pm

Track #9: "Ought To (Reprise)"

You can stream "Ought To (Reprise)" here: http://fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/track ... to-reprise

I overdubbed a lot of Ebow-ed lap steel onto the outro section of "Ought To", and all those lines, combined with the fact that co-producer David Stiby and I really liked the fat grand piano chords, made us try doing a different kind of mix of this part of the song. Hence this reprise.

I guess the lap steel aspects of this track are covered in the "Ought To" entry above. It's all Lap King Rodeo in the section of the song that was used for this reprise. The main plucked steel part is with the Lollar Supro bridge pickup, the Ebowed parts are with the Lollar Imperial neck humbucker.

Here is a photo of both my Lap King Rodeos.

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 3 Jan 2015 4:19 am

Track #10: "Roots And Rubble"

You can stream "Roots And Rubble" here: http://fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/track ... d-rubble-2

This instrumental was written shortly before the album sessions began, and I had demoed it with a friend who played various horns on it - trumpet, flugelhorn and baritone horn. It sounded really cool, kind of like a ship lost in the fog at sea. But then Sarah Blasko sung some beautiful improvised vocals on the recording we made in the studio, and her vocals just sounded so wonderful and eerie on their own that the horns had to stay away from the album version.

On this track I played my Burgin baritone Weissenborn in Eb-minor tuning (G-minor format, tuned down).

The album was recorded and mixed to tape in the all-analog Capstan Studio in Stockholm by David Stiby.

Ken Campbell · Post by **Ken Campbell** » 3 Jan 2015 5:44 am

Awesome Fred. Really dig your work, and thank you so much for this peek inside the process. Very, very cool.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 3 Jan 2015 5:51 am

I am enjoying all the Swedish landscapes painted here; beautiful.

It's especially gratifying to see the recording done in a real studio; the grand piano recording, pretty interesting.

Adrienne Clasky · Post by **Adrienne Clasky** » 3 Jan 2015 7:39 pm

Really impressive, dark, moody, original. Thanks for the great posts.

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 6 Jan 2015 10:34 am

Thanks Ken, Charlie and Adrienne! Glad you enjoyed the sounds and posts.

Cheers,

Fredrik

Adrienne Clasky · Post by **Adrienne Clasky** » 6 Jan 2015 11:11 am

Bought your album, too. It's fantastic.

Fred Kinbom · Post by **Fred Kinbom** » 7 Jan 2015 3:10 pm

Thanks very much Adrienne!

If anyone else would like to buy the album, the cheapest place internationally to get a CD is the label Capstan Records' webshop:

http://capstanrecords.com/capstan_shop.html

There it currently has free shipping anywhere.

For digital downloads, BandCamp is the cheapest:

http://fredrikkinbom.bandcamp.com/album/oil

But there's also iTunes etc. of course for those who prefer that:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/oil/id854996163

http://www.amazon.com/Oil-Fredrik-Kinbom/dp/B00JH8FDGM/

Cheers,

Fredrik