Road Trip to Santa Fe!

Abed and I had managed to get everything in gear to get from Tularosa to Santa Fe. Cid, my friend from college, given pretty detailed instructions on how to get to their house. When we arrived, she came out and greeted us. I hadn't seen her since 1988 at ENMU. She had shaved her head completely bald in the manner of Sinead O'Connor. It surprisingly looked good on her. We also met her significant other, Ochd. He was in his 40s, wore glasses and had long hair. She took us on a tour of the house where they lived, which included a separate guest house with two bedrooms (where we would stay) and an indoor swimming pool.

We all had lunch. Cid had some leftover pasta with shrimp that she served. During the first part of our visit, we discussed Luis Donaldo Colosio. He was supposed to be the next Presidente of Mexico, but was assassinated a few months prior in Tijuana, so I knew all about it. Cid said they actually knew him and they were shocked at what happened. She said that everyone was looking forward to the changes to the government he was expected to make in order for Mexico to become a better place to live and work. She didn't trust his replacement for the election, Ernesto Zedillo. She said that man scared her.

After we finished eating, Ochd showed us the recording studio they had built in the garage, while Cid attended to some business. The studio was very impressive as it had both analog and digital technology. We sat down for a little bit and discussed what we planned to do with the song. Abed and I more or less had the production planned out. Before we started recording, Abed played some of his material (not the song we were planning to record) on his guitar. Ochd picked up his guitar and mimicked what Abed was playing, practically note for note. I was astonished. Ochd was a lot more gifted musically than I realized.

The first part was going to be Abed singing the acapella intro, followed by us singing with the sequencer track. We didn't think it was going to take very long. In our minds, we were producing it and Ochd was just going to be the engineer.

But that didn't exactly happen. Abed started singing and Ochd would keep making him redo the intro, telling him how he needed to sing it. And then we never got to the point where we recorded the sequencer track. Ochd had some other stuff to do. He had friends who were going to stay there and they were supposed to do some recording. (I guess Cid didn't know ahead of time about them when she invited us.) When Abed and I discussed the experience later, we got the idea that Ochd was under the impression that he was producing the song and this was why he was giving direction on how Abed could sing the song better. I guess he figured that if his name was going on this, he didn't want it to sound like it was below his high standards. But we didn't ask him to produce it. We just needed him to set up the mic, check the levels and hit the record button.

Ochd's friends arrived at the house. We all went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. We met some of Cid's and Ochd's other friends there. We sat at a large table. And the restaurant was on the upper middle class end of the price scale. I found a burrito I was able to afford. Abed had the tortilla soup, which was the least expensive thing on the menu. At the end of the meal, we started to pay, but Cid said they were taking care of it. Both Abed and I wished we had known that ahead of time. We would have ordered something more expensive.

Abed and I thought we would get to do some recording after we returned from dinner. However, everyone at the restaurant was coming over to the house for an impromptu party. Outside the restaurant, Cid ran into this woman with long dark hair she knew. She invited her to come to the house.

We all arrived and most of us went to the swimming pool. Some people started smoking marijuana. Abed came in later wearing only his boxers and jumped into the pool. He swam for a bit. Then, he got out and went into the hot tub. A few minutes later, the woman with the long dark hair walked into the pool house, AND SHE WAS NAKED! (And no, I don't have photographs!) My first thought was, "Okay, if this is one of these parties where everyone starts taking their clothes off, I'm going to the bedroom and I'm not coming out!" She got into the hot tub with Abed and talked to him for a bit. He was just as stunned as I was, but went with the flow. Apparently, she just went around and had casual conversations with everyone at the party. One of Ochd's friends kept averting his eyes while he was talking to her.

As it turned out, she was the only naked person running round. I was relieved at that, but everyone was still smoking pot. I went into the studio. Cid and Ochd were in there talking to people. I remember one young woman talking to Cid very excitedly about wanting to record. Cid acted like she was going to try to accommodate at some point in the future. If you ever wondered what it was like in Brian Wilson's house during the "Smile" era, this probably came close, with everyone trying to get Cid and Ochd to help them achieve their dreams at someone else's expense. This all went on until 3am. Both Abed and I conked out before then. We had to sleep in the same bed because Ochd's friend were in the other bedroom in the guest house.

The next day, we found out that Ochd had planned to do recording with his friends and wouldn't have time for us. We decided to drive to Albuquerque to see a mutual friend of ours named Howd who used to live in San Diego. We hung out most of the day. While we were at his apartment, I had tried to get some sleep because I was still worn out from the night before.

Both Abed and Howd are big Frank Zappa fans. Howd started talking about an upcoming posthumous release. "You know, we're supposed to get 'Civilization' next month!" In my fatigued stupor, I commented, "That's great. We've needed civilization for a long time."

Since Howd was also a performer, we invited him to go with us to meet Cid and Ochd. When we arrivied, we found that Ochd and his friends were still recording. Howd did get to meet Cid, and performed a couple of his songs for her. Then, we had to drive him back home. After we returned, I realized I had spent four hours driving that day.

The next morning, we were able to get some time in the studio. Since we only had a couple of hours before we needed to leave, I recorded one of my songs. I had previously produced the track with vocals at a studio in San Diego, but hadn't saved it on a digital source, which was needed for an official cassette release of my material. I quickly recorded the vocal in a couple of takes over the pre-recorded track. Ochd did not attempt to "produce." He just did what he was supposed to: Set the mic, check the levels and hit the record button.

Abed and I left, not knowing what to make of the experience. It was exciting, but we didn't accomplish all that we had set out to do or what we were promised. We both got the idea that Ochd didn't like us, but we didn't know why. But I did somewhat figure it out when I went back about four months later.

As usual, that will be the topic of an upcoming post. In the mean time, our road trip continued. More on Monday.