This article was written by Jarrod Taylor, vocalist for progressive indie-rock band In Reverent Fear.
Most groups can get through recording fairly easy.  Write a tune, all approve, record, get high off of the novelty and move on.  This article is for groups for whom the novelty has completely worn off and now you want your best work to shine, and will fight tooth and nail to make that happen.  We’ll take a brief walk through the recording process, followed by great advice to help in all your future recording sessions. And were off.  You write a song.  Bring it to your band, who shit on it, ruin it, then surprise you by making it better.  So now you’re all on the same page.  They love it, you love it, you feel like you’re in unexpected territory, which is always lovely.  So if that song actually survives two weeks worth of rehearsal, then you consider it for recording. 
Now we’re in the studio, you’ve recorded the song, done maybe a scratch vocal, taken it home and given it several listens.  At first, this is exciting hearing a song recorded and then reality sets it.  It’s all bad, you’re washed up, you’re through.  You call the rest of the guys (or girls) and ask their opinion.  One guy loves the parts you hate, the other guy only likes his parts, the other hasn’t listened to it yet, but overall no one really likes it enough to release the song the way you’re doing it now.  You think maybe better tone, or a better vocal performance will fix it, it wont.  So you start over.  New vibe, new parts, maybe a few elements from the last version, a vocal maybe or a bass line, and its getting better.
So this new vibe you’ve come up with, you see it through to its fruition.  You’re all very excited.  For a night.  Then it happens again.
“too much stuff going on,”
“the vocal isn’t good anymore,”
“the old version rocked, whats with this?,”
“the song isn’t doing what its supposed to,”
“not enough stuff going on,”
“you know, i think some keys would work,”
“what if we take out the guitars here,”
“what if we just delete the drum tracks,”
“do you like what you did there?  im not that into it.”
So every single option is exhausted to the nth degree until you are at least 60 percent of where you want to be.  You’re happy for a week maybe, then one person has one very small problem, and the whole process starts over again.  Finally, it’s suggested to strip out everything but the acoustic guitar and that crappy scratch vocal that has “so much soul” happening.  You’ve finally arrived. So my advice on recording?  Don’t complain, don’t be sensitive, and deal with it.  You can’t always paint the “hands of the peasants” on your first try and you’re most likely not going to just jam out
“with or without you.” Great art comes from a place that doesn’t make sense, and often you only discover that place through trial and error.  Good luck and do something beautiful for the world.
(hopefully now our manager can understand why it takes us so long to complete anything)
-Jarrod (In Reverent Fear)
