Behind the Scenes: Recording in New Yark (Patreon)

Recording in an apartment in New Yark City presents... challenges.

We live directly over a subway line, and every 10-20 minutes there’s a distinct rumbling through our whole apartment. A few weeks after we moved in, we stopped noticing, but if we didn’t time our recordings just right you’d hear it (it makes the furniture vibrate). Occasionally our upstairs neighbor decides to vacuum when we’re in the middle of a recording session, and we have to wait until she’s done before we can finish recording.

By NYC standards, we don’t live in a busy area. But we ARE on an avenue, and there’s nothing like recording audio to make you suddenly aware of every revving engine, honking horn, and siren. We’ve learned not to record on weekdays between 2 and 4, because all the kids and teens are on their way home from school and we can hear pretty much every conversation as they walk past our building.

Normally I laugh this sort of thing off. It’s all part and parcel of living in this city we love. But OCCASIONALLY, I get a little irate. A bit of pedestrian rage at the honking horns. Thom caught such a moment...

They can’t see me, but sometimes you’ve got to vent your frustration.