It's a cold and rainy Sunday

Spring has sprung...somewhere I'm told. Yet I'll take this cold rain over the snow that other parts of the country are getting. No matter the sentimental notion of spring though...the way the rain looks skimming the lake in clouds of rolling mist is plain beautiful.

It's been over six years since we began work on The Smartest Wall. So much has changed in our personal lives which has inevitably changed our approaches to our art in general. It's interesting from my vantage point to look at this collection of songs, all of which were written at different times in the last six years, and to now see how they are being treated musically. It stands to reason that if we had recorded in the years that followed our first release, a feeling much similar to The Smartest Wall would have been prevalent. But this...there is a very nice feeling of independence on this so far. Now, it's still too far out to see an end product. Sure, I can envision what it might be like, and so can the other guys, but as much as we have talked about it, we are still different individuals, so none of us have the prescience to truly see the evolution of this work. That is the beauty of collaboration.

Okay, now to bring everybody up to speed. We didn't do as much work yesterday as I had anticipated. I tracked principle guitar on Brasserie and my end guitar on Beg the Past. We moved my half stack from the bathroom into the living room so I could be near the cabinet to get feedback on the latter. It'll probably be the last time I use the live amp for this project. My additional guitar work will be done through the Line 6 pod, which has a great AC30 model, but for my principle guitar parts, I really couldn't suffer not micing the real thing.

We attempted to track Joe's old air organ on Brasserie, as I'm keen to eliminate my core rhythm guitar part altogether. I wan't the chord changes defined, but don't want bass or guitar to be the instruments that do this. That's why the organ seemed the likely candidate, but when we finally got going it was immediately apparent that it was a half cent out of tune. We could of course pitch correct it during post, but I don't want to make the water murky so soon into all of this. So, for now I am still undecided on what voice will hold that song together.

One of the major enjoyments thus far on this project has been working with Joe. In the six years since we recorded The Smartest Wall, Joe has worked on many other projects, even helming most of them. He's also written and recorded many songs on his own, constantly refining his writing techniques. Because of that, he's become quite adept at producing. He's quite reserved and allows me the freedoms that a songwriter hopes for, but at the same time, when he comes at me with an opinion on how I might play a phrase, I have yet to not act on his suggestion. Thus far, his ideas have all benefited the song, making each a tighter piece. Also, his involvement as an engineer has taken a lot of pressure off of Scott.

I hope that Scott will be able to track his bass this week, because I know Oliver is anxious to get started. Once Scott has got his parts down, we can get some rough mixes to Oliver, so he can start thinking about parts. I'll also be able to get some mixes to the other prospective vocalists. There are a couple of other instrumentalists that might be playing on the album as well, but I'll want Oliver's parts recorded before they give any mix a listen in consideration of what to add to the arrangements.

I still have yet to record Restore, and I need to track piano on Evenstar to get that song going for the rest of the guys, as it's still just naked drum tracks. We've yet to discuss artwork/photography and have not even considered what the album might be called. I think the project still needs to mature in color and shape before any of that begins to materialize.

Lastly, picures have been posted on our facebook page from this past weekend, here is a link to a ten minute video clip that samples some of what we did, and finally, here is a clip of 2 a.m. delirium.

More to come

I'm sitting in my car outside of Scott's place tapping into his network, waiting for Joe to arrive with a key. We're going to track more guitar today and hopefully get to some other overdubs. I'd like to work a bit on "Brasserie". Joe has a vintage air organ that I can't wait to try out just for that song. I don't think I'm up for doing any vocals today, unless they're background. My voice is lacking any edge this morning, so we'll probably do some more this coming week.

We got a lot of cool sounding stuff tracked last night though. My principle guitar is now finished on "Luster", "Other Door", "Years", "Beg the Past", "Last Screams", and "Tremble Bare". That leaves tracking the end of "Brasserie", as I want to do some other stuff on the beginning, as I said before. I still have to track "Restore", but that might be on acoustic.

Well, Joe just got here, so I'm off.

Plans within Plans

I wish I could take the time to regurgitate all that Joe and I discussed about the album on my drive home from school today. I love building the production framework that goes into recording an album. I'm also happy to be working with Joe in a greater capacity this time around, because he has many studio experiences under his own belt as both a drummer and a songwriter. Then of course working with Scott for the last 18 years, well, that's kind of priceless. I can give him a look, he raises an eyebrow, I nod, and a thousand unspoken words have passed between us.

So, the plan as it stands now is for Joe and I to track day and night on Friday and Saturday. We'll see what we can get accomplished, and head cold withstanding, I'm going to try and record all of my vocals and principle guitar parts. Later, when Scott and Oliver have tracked, and the songs are beginning to mature, we'll be able to hear what other parts might need to be added to the arrangements. They might be in the form of other guitars, piano, percussion, vocals, etc. Joe and I discussed other instrumentalists as well. For instance, he knows a very seasoned cellist that we might want to use. I'm also in conversation with two female vocalists that I hope to be working with on a couple of the songs. Nothing definite yet, but at least I know that I have other voices to work with if the song calls for it. So, things are starting to take shape in our minds, and this will all need to fall into place quite efficiently for this album to be tracked, mixed, and mastered in the next several weeks. Nothing like a little pressure ;)

Recording vox postponed

I was going to record vocals tomorrow and Tuesday night. However, I have a cold coming on. My throat began to constrict earlier this evening, and now my head is stopped up. I blame Scott :) Hopefully I will beat it this week and shoot for recording this coming weekend. Until then I would assume that Scott will go ahead and record his bass lines. I'll keep you all posted. Oh, and if you haven't seen posted elsewhere, I uploaded a live version of "Evenstar" from '03 to our MySpace page. We were quite a different band then, and it probably goes without saying that the '10 version of "Evenstar" will sound much different. Have a great Monday.

Fourth draft of Last Screams lyrics.

We lose an hour tonight as we spring ahead. I haven't been getting much sleep recently, and tomorrow is a big day all around with much I have to do. Yet, I'm so anxious with how "Last Screams" is developing in this fourth draft. I wrote the first draft a little over a year ago, and it was first person historical fiction. Now it has become something totally different...and I'm really excited. Same vocal line and even the same number of syllables in each stanza, but the subject and context has totally changed. I have several other songs that are going to get revision treatments as well, but not to extent of this one. I have so much else to do, especially for school, but as I will be recording vocals maybe as soon as Monday night, I owe it to these songs to make sure they say what they were always meant to say.

Some photos and video from last night.

I've uploaded two vids on YouTube from last night. They were from the webcam from my laptop. This one is when we tracked "Other Door" and in this one you can hear Joe recording cymbal rolls that I'd like to use at the end of "Beg the Past." Scott took quite a bit of video as well on Joe's camera. I think Joe is going to piece together all of the footage after we finish the album. Also, you can check out all of my phone pics at the HW fb page.

I'm still impressed by Joe tracking "Evenstar" on his own from memory. Even a year ago he was lobbying to do the song again. We haven't played it since Ryan left the band. At the time I just felt that it wasn't representative of the direction in which I felt the band was going. However, Joe has altered the original beat somewhat, and I really think it may fit this album. I'm still undecided though whether or not I'm going to put piano on it or go strictly guitar. If I go the piano route, it'll mostly likely be the only piano track on the whole album.

I hope to begin recording vocals before the weekend is up, but at the latest it'll be around the first of the week. I know Scott will be tracking bass soon as well, if he hasn't started already. Guitars and additional overdubs will then be next.

Last Screams is down.

Joe loves it when I throw him a curve ball. I totally made him create a new beat for a new part on Last Screams. He's used to me doing that to him by now. We rehearsed it for about 15 min while Scott was gone. Then we did a take that was killer, but Joe ended the song only half-way through the final chorus. We tried to punch in, but a kick note was clipped, and I decided that we had another good take in us. Joe was all for doing the song straight from the top, and we killed it. It sounds great. Now only Years and Beg the Past are left.

4 songs down...3 to go.

We're listening to playback on Brasserie and Luster, but I don't foresee any problems with them. We didn't intend for Joe to play all throughout Brasserie, but he played a beat just as a glorified metronome. I still don't know what type of arrangement I want to do on the first part of Brasserie. Hmmm...there is a slight flub on the heavy final chorus of Brasserie. We'll probably punch-in and out of that. We still have to do Years, Last Screams, and Beg the Past. We're laughing, because at some point I messed up and my body language almost signaled to Joe to quit playing, but fortunately his better sense told him to push forward and ignore me! We're still listening to playback on Luster --end of second verse. It's funny me playing Scott's bass-line on guitar just so we can keep track of where we are, since guitars are basically non-existent on most of the verses. I'm starting to get a headache...blah. And poor dearest Elena is asleep. Tracey and Kelly are...well, they're back! They've been in the gym. I'm hungry...that's what it is...the headache, I mean. Oh well...playback is still going. Last chorus, and then out.

Punch In

Ha! We've already had to punch in! We're still on Tremble Bare aaaaand YES! It sounded like a clean punch in after the bridge!!! Woot! If only Joe hadn't flubbed near the ending, and we're doing a fade out even!!!

Setting Up

Joe and Scott are setting up. My babe Elena is with me, and Scott's girls Kelly & Tracey are along for the loooooong ride as well.

SHOW DATE: Friday, April 30, 2010

04/30/10 @ John Brown's on the Square, Marion, IL. Follow our progress here to see if this ends up being our CD release party. Say what you will, but I have hopes greater than anybody else that this will be the case. :)

Pilgrimage to Fairview Hts Best Buy

So Joe decided to try and see if he could use his employee discount at the Fairview Heights Best Buy, since they reportedly had an awesome music store. I'm here to testify that the report was true and understated. You could demo almost anything in the store, including two items on my not-soon-to-be-purchased wish list, the Korg Kaoss pad, and the Korg microKORG XL. This place was just crazy...and in a Best Buy even! Joe was happy to discover that he could in fact use his employee discount and got away with a sick steal on heads and a cymbal. We spent about three hours driving just to only spend about thirty minutes in the store, but it was so worth it --we were like geeks in an Apple store.

Here We Go

Joe is going to track drums this coming week of spring break. As of right now, this may take place in a gymnasium, so it's going to be either really cool, or really problematic. The solid songs that we're shooting for are Luster, Other Door, Years, Beg the Past, Last Screams, Brasserie, and Tremble Bare. There are about eight or nine others that we are trying to cultivate and get worked out, but it's doubtful that they'll get any attention during the first session. We hope to have a final song count on the album of around ten solid songs. Ideas keep pouring in from all members, but the fat will have to be trimmed and set aside for subsequent projects.