I recording lighting (or more accurately, thunder) for the first time last night. I had been sound asleep when I awoke to the most incredibly loud ruckus and was disoriented for about 10 seconds before I figured out it was thunder outside, and that the Apocalypse hadn’t come early :p. I’ve never heard it that loud and clear in Arizona, and it was so brilliantly white that it lit up my bedroom. After listening to a few cracks, I realized, hey man, this is a good time to go grab some samples. So at 3:30 AM, I threw on some clothes and slippers, slung my recording equipment over my shoulder, and trudged outside and planted myself under a tree to get some good, clean thunder claps. Scared the hell out of me too. I love thunderstorms, but they frighten me. They always have, so it was quite a rush standing outside in the dark armed only with a microphone as blinding flashes of lightning streaked through the sky no more than a couple of miles in front of me.

After the lightning ended and I had recorded a few minutes of just the rain, I went back inside, cold, wet, and tired. I realized then that I’ve caught the bug. I’m a phonographer. Next time I won’t wait a few minutes before jumping out of bed to record who-knows-what. I record things, and I don’t wait. It’s what I do.