Garbage Studio Diary #26 September 20-October 2nd 2004.

I can't stop eating.It's really freaking me out.I can't concentrate on anything either.I'm just sort of jumping from project to project without actually getting anything accomplished.I've never been this untogether in my life! What on earth is going on in my head?!?!?!?
We're rough mixing twelve tracks over the next two days for our (new) record company to check out.As a result I'm finally beginning to understand the nature of this record and get a sense of it as a whole which is indeed a strange feeling to have after all this time.Is this record really coming to an end? Finally?!??!? After ALL this time!?! I can hardly believe it to be true and yet it does seem as though we have at last come upon the final stretch to the finish line.
Shoved a gorgeous "choir" down at the end of Bleed Like Me and I'm really pleased with it.It makes me sound really innocent and other wordly.
This is the time I like the best during the making of a record.It suits my personality so much better than the slog and grind of the day to day stuff.I like it when quick decisions have to be made and there is a mad kind of energy as everyone in the band starts to scramble to get all their ideas down and guitars and vocals finally get recorded in one take.It's fucking EXCITING like that.That's how I wish it was for us ALL the time.That said....... I suppose if the truth be told.......we only really started recording this album in March of this year.The rest of the time was spent fighting or being passive aggressive so I suppose when I take all that into account this record hasn't really taken all that long afterall!!!!
Got a hilarious e-mail from a girlfriend back in Edinburgh this morning.Apparently my bifocal issue has hit the tabloids in Scotland.Ha ha ha haaa........that is fucking hilarious! It really is.How on earth someone could consider my eyesight to be news worthy is quite beyond me.
I'm getting rather nervous about leaving for LA this weekend.I can't believe I'm going to be onstage singing with Blondie!!!! It's so fucking surreal I can hardly get my head around it.What if I fuck up and forget all the words of the song? Oh god.......that would be awful.The idea is enough to give me the cold sweats.
Some of our crew arrived in today for the "hack 'n slash" weekend.The Hack 'n Slash being a big charity golf tournament that is held annually here in Madison and which is really just a brazen excuse to get uproariously drunk before driving wildly around in a golf cart taking the odd swing at a ball between slugs from the beer keg.
The crew are all hounding us to get the record finished and get back out on the road as soon as possible and of course have lots of incredible ideas to incorporate into our tech set up in order to facilitate the loudest guitar sound on a european festival line-up. Ha ha ha haaaa.........watch out!!!!
Okay.......well I've now arrived in LA and I'm shitting myself.I have a rehearsal tomorrow morning so that should put my worries aside but in the meantime I'm going to have a bath, order room service,watch a movie and go to bed as early as possible.It feels like forever since I last had an early night.
Rehearsal went spectacularly well and I am much relieved.It was pretty cool meeting Chris Stein again after all these years.The first time I met him was on tour in the UK when my band "Goodbye Mr MAckenzie" opened for Blondie on their reunion tour sometime in the late 80's.I was just a kid back then and I was so in awe of them that I could barely speak whenever I was addressed! The very first time I met Debbie Harry was in a hotel elevator in Liverpool.When she walked into the lift I nearly fainted with fright.She smiled her big cheshire grin and said "hi" and I couldn't even catch my tongue. Man..........she must have thought I was a complete freak.
Anyway.........it was lovely to see her again.She's so fucking cool and funny and sharp as a tack.Nothing........and I do mean NOTHING gets by her.And what's so great about her is she is totally down to earth.No starry bullshit or attitude and yet she has this incredible aura about her that is completely intimidating and bewitching.You just can't keep your eyes off that incredible face of hers.I was looking at her at times and I got bowled over by just how much she still looks like Debbie HARRY!!!! ha ha ha haa.........
I couldn't believe it when we started to rehearse and I proceeded to sing along with her.It just gave me the out and out chills.I swear to god that the hair on my arms stood on end and all the while I'm thinking to myself "Holy fucking shit I'm harmonizing with her.I'm harmonizing with her".
We're doing two songs..........one reggae song by someone called Wayne Wonder and then at the very end of the show we're doing "Call Me" which ironically is the song I sang with No Doubt at the end of their tour a few years ago.I'm singing the same verse I sang with Gwen except it's a tad more embarassing and nerve wracking to sing it infront of the original singer of the song.I just had to block the very idea out of my head and just go for it.Eeeeeccccch.......it was excrutiating.Thank god I've been going to therapy for all these years.I had to employ a whole variety of techniques to get through the experience without having a confidence crisis!!!!
As it turns out,the show we're doing is for Breast Cancer Awareness which is a cause that is extremely close to my heart considering my own mother is a breast cancer survivor and so all in all I think this is going to be a very memorable experience all round.
Sophie read my Tarot cards this evening and they were absolutely AMAZING.I am SO into Tarot readings I can't begin to tell you but tonight my socks got blown off!!! Ha ha ah ahaaa........that said I do believe that Sophie might have been deliberately filtering out all the negative stuff as she does like to call herself Optimistic Meg whenever she does a reading but nevertheless......my reading was FANTASTIC.
Just got back from the show at the Wiltern and I am drained and ready for complete collapse.I became nearly sick with nerves before going on stage but managed to get through the entire thing without losing my shit.Debbie was an adorable doll........calling a tad worried from her dressing room wondering if there was anything she could do to make me feel more comfortable (How fucking adorable is that!??!?!?!) but mercifully I collected myself and the show went without a hitch.
It really was a great honour for me tonight and something I can tell my grandchildren when I am rocking my pink perm and smoking my old pipe.
"Oh yes my little guttersnipes......granny did rock on stage with that band Blondie.....yes she did."
My parents are arriving in LA tomorrow for a few days so I'm off to bed so I can be fresh as a daisy in readiness to entertain them as best I can.My OG's have a remarkable energy that can wear me out if I'm not careful.I can hardly keep up!!!!
Hooked up with Brody last night.It was wonderful to see her and she was as sparky and entertaining as ever.I can't wait for her to make a new record as there is so much untapped talent inside her. She's like a little cauldron waiting to bubble over,full of piss and vinegar and passion from inside her big beating heart.