Fire

I had barely finished unboxing all of my new studio equipment when I started recording “Fire.”

Of all the songs played in all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, why I chose this to be my first recording, I have no idea. I think the song had just been going through my head, and I thought I could probably play it.

Bruce Springsteen wrote and recorded the original, but the more popular version was recorded by the Pointer Sisters and released in 1978. My version is in Springsteen’s key (G), but mostly follows the Pointer Sisters arrangement, with a few changes that I made just because.

In a future post, I will cover the recording process I follow. For now, however, I will give an overview: I use the GarageBand app on an iPad as my digital audio workstation (DAW) software. The drums were tapped out by yours truly in GarageBand. Everything else is live (me playing it), including tambourine, organ, piano, bass, guitars, and vocals. The guitars and keys were fed directly into the iPad (no amp) using a technique I’ll cover in that more detailed recording process post. The Rickenbacker tracks use a Brit Pop profile in GarageBand (which is a Vox amp emulator) with modest changes, including the addition of a flange pedal, which is how the guitars in the Pointer Sisters version are treated.

Having been away from the home studio experience for so long, recording this was a blast. Hearing it all come together was very satisfying, although I wasn’t thrilled with the production of the early drafts I played for family and friends. Turns out I still had a lot to learn about mixing and mastering in GarageBand, which is why I remastered it a few weeks later, and that remastered version is the one I posted.