It was the first time I was playing upright bass on a recording, really the first time I was playing it outside of a lesson. Maybe I could have nailed it in a couple of takes if I wasn't writing the parts as I was playing them, but I was unsure of myself, easily intimidated by a non-threatening Jack and Nataly, and exhausted.
Jack conducted me from the control room, and I must have done twenty or more takes of every song. My fingers had blisters, and I was a mess when it came to bowing. Intonation had to be shoddy, there's no doubt that Jack had to really clean up my parts for that album.
Everyone in the control room, Jack, Nataly, Julia, and Zach, must have been able to sense that I was getting tired. When we made it through the song with something we liked, I put down the bass and sort of sat down on an ottoman near me. Everyone moved slowly into the space and surrounded me, with serious looks on their faces. Then they all lunged at me, screamed and tickled me into a pig pile.
Relative strangers. I wish I knew whose idea it was. It's 3 AM and this floated through my head and I didn't want to lose it.