Twenty-Eleven is Under Way

Another rather enjoyable show at PK's this past Friday night. If you missed it, definitely a sore loss. Owls and Crows opened up the evening with a great set of heavy trance riffs from drums, bass, and two guitars, supported with keys. Cool male/fem vocals melted over it all, and believe me, these peeps were LOUD. I would suggest you catch them soon as I'm sure they're going to be playing all over the place in the near future.

As for our set, we're all in agreement that it was one of our best. I can't explain it --it just...happened. The set was a rearrangement of a previous set with the only cover being "Under Pressure." We didn't cut any songs, as we usually end up doing, and played for a comfortable hour and a half. The transitions between songs seemed so meaningful, even standing out and holding their own against the songs themselves. When that happens, you just feel "on." It's a weird thing that's hard to describe. I also noticed the guys changing up their usual parts, so I kept getting excited hearing those slight twists in the arrangements. That prompted me to stray from some of my typical melodies and phrasings. In other words, impromptu experimentation = fun. Also, I'd like to extend special thanks to Antonio Salazar for driving five hours to make the show. Definitely a surprise! Much love to our other friends who made it out on a such a cold evening. You didn't have to come out, but you did, and we want you to know that you're the best!

The work on the album is drawing to a close. I estimate it will take another 40 hrs to complete it. If all goes well the project will be wrapped up by the end of March, which will mark a year since we started it. We're all excited, as none of us have really heard any completed mix of any of the songs yet. In fact, Joe commented the other day that he hasn't heard any of the tracking yet outside of his own drum parts and whatever he witnessed while working behind the deck during some of my recording sessions.

We may be playing a show with Ravenhill in February at a youth event in West Frankfort, IL. This will be all ages, so if the 21+ thing has thwarted your attempts to see us in the past several years, keep an eye out for additional info on this show. We'll be back at PK's in Carbondale on Friday, March 18th, and then again at the end of April, which may be a CD release party. Trying to get a show at Hangar 9 as well. Let them know that you want to see us play there.

Do you have a Heavy Wishing t-shirt? Well, what are you waiting for? Contact Joe and he'll get ya set up. We'll throw in some stickers with every order, because you need some of those too. Oh, while you're at it, post your favorite HW vid from YouTube on your fb page. There are a ton of them, old and new. Let's get this thing going viral! AND don't forget to "like" us on our facebook page!

Laters,
DGC

Goodbye for Now Mr. Lively

With a heavy heart I must report that Dave has officially parted from Through Dint of Heavy Wishing.  Earlier this summer we spoke, and he was going to give it another go, as he had been on a long hiatus from the band while working on the road for Wal-Mart.  Just recently he was able to rehearse with us for a time, and we had been discussing how best to bring him on board with our recording of our new album.  Unfortunately, Dave was out of town during our show this past Friday, but I was looking forward to the next time he would be able to rejoin us on stage.  He announced his departure to all of us last night and gave very understandable personal reasons.  He expressed his fondness of the memories made with the band, and I can sincerely say that the feeling is whole-heartedly mutual.  I have always loved Dave's rich tones and his clear and solid playing.  Every musician I have played with has influenced my writing and guitar playing, and Dave is no exception.  Dave is also an extremely talented photographer who took all of the photographs that adorned our 2004 release, "The Smartest Wall" which showcased his diversity as an artist.  I really cannot express how talented this man is.  I have enjoyed and loved everything that Dave brought to this band, but more so what he has been to me as a friend.  We have been through many life changes together, and I wish him the best as he starts down a blessed path with his new family.  Peace be with you bro, and God bless.

This is the song "Of Ribbons" by Dave. This was performed at John Brown's back in March '09.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_bzUt0RaiU

Update?

There's not much to post in the way of a studio update, but I'll write something, since a good many of you have asked. To my knowledge, Oliver has been the only one tracking as of late. I've received messages on several occasions from Scott saying that he had recorded more guitar tracks, so that much is encouraging! I personally have been so busy for the past month, I have not been able to get in and do any recording. Now that things are somewhat slowing down for me school-wise, I'll be able to get back to work on the album. Believe me, we don't have much more tracking to do before we start mixing. It's true, we have yet to track "Evenstar" and "Restore", but it will happen. Also, we don't have any shows on the books as of right now, but that will change as well. Don't forget that the single mix of "Tremble Bare" is up on the MySpace page so check that out if you haven't done so already. Just hang in there, enjoy the summer, and the album will be complete before you know it! Hugs, DGC

Mixing "Tremble Bare" tonight

We're going to mix "Tremble Bare" tonight to give away as a single at our show on Friday. I'm going to lay down a couple of backing vocal tracks, and Joe wants to add a bit of percussion, and then we'll mix and master.  The song will have to be remixed for the album, as Oliver said that he has more ideas for guitar, and additional guest vocals have yet to be recorded.  It's still going to be fun to do this tonight, and I have high expectations for how the song is going to turn out.

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.

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.

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.