First review of new EP
Joseph Reisigl at The Red and Black, the University of Georgia's student newspaper, had some really nice things to say about the new You're Not Alone EP, out on February 3!
Thanks, Joseph!
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Almost there...
We mailed out the You're Not Alone EP to about 250 journalists this week. :) The band signed every letter by hand.
Public release is February 3.
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Upping the ante
I have had a bit of writers' block since we finished tracking what will become the You're Not Alone EP and Under Summer Stars (our next full-length). I just wasn't sure where to go next! I had written one keeper tune and a few duds as of November, which is not a lot for four months.
But last week, I had a bit of an epiphany. While reading Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami, it occurred to me that I had a wealth of untapped material sitting at the ready: my 12-year relationship with my wife!
We've had a ton of great experiences: some downright magical, and some comical, but all particular. I really don't know why I haven't used many of them yet. Maybe I was waiting for my skills to grow. In any case, out at dinner that night, I took a napkin and sketched out 11 song titles comprising the events from our relationship that seemed most song-worthy, in chronological order.
So for the first time, I'm approaching the next record with an overall plan - a concept! And also for the first time, I'm writing lyrics first, which is a big change for me. I've historically been a mood, then chords and melody kind of guy. Lyrics always came last. So this new approach is very disruptive and is affecting the results. What's also great about having a concept is I can arrange the entire album as an album, since I know what's coming and in what order!
This is all very top-down and strategic, and I'm still not sure it'll work. Watch this space. ;)
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We're not dead yet!
:)
I've been slow on the blog, but much is afoot! We are mixing a new EP for winter release, and a full-length for the spring. We're in discussions with our director, Zac Eubank, about a new music video!
We are also playing shows regularly in Kansas City and surrounds, though we'll be taking a bit of a break in December and January.
Oh, a bit of procedural news. From now on, we will not be sending out email messages for our monthly gigs. That information can be found on our show calendar and on Facebook!
Instead, we will use our email newsletter only for major announcements (tours, new recordings, etc.!) We're just trying to keep it simple, and a lot of our email list is out of town folks.
Anyway, hope you're well. Happy fall!
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Album 4: day 10
I am still writing from my phone, because the computer represents a return to the world of the day job, bills and headlines. I dropped steve off at the airport this morning and have spent the day lounging around in various stages of unclothedness watching music documentaries and eating raj mah.
We did it! Yesterday we wrapped up the last of the vocals for under summer stars, what we'd do and the new version of I'm just trying to help me like you that camry sings. We also completed the few remaining guitar dubs and daniel used my son's floor tom to add pseudo-timpani to I guess I'll never know and played turbo shaker on you're the reason why!
We finished around 9 and camry, steve and I went out for a celebratory meal. Then steve and I returned to the studio to load out, make backups of all the files and most importantly, to mess around playing back the tracks! Now the ball is in steve's court as we move on to the mix.
This has been the best recording experience of my life, and i'm tremendously excited about the new tunes. The band played beautifully and the vocal takes are full of heart. Expect an ep in february and the full length in april!
Many people deserve thanks at this stage in the project, but I'll save that for the liner notes. :) rest assured that I'm keeping a list. I am an excellent project manager after all. :)
And with that, it's time for a walk. Seize the day, friends!
Album 4: day 9
Hah! I blog about the day on the day. Deal with it!
It's funny. I thought 5 days was more then we needed. The critical miscalculation was forgetting that camry sings on these songs almost as much as I do. In effect, instead of having thirteen songs to sing, we have twenty three. Apparently I am more of a lead vocalist than project manager after all!
Today was hard work but gratifying as always. We sang vocals on you're the reason why, did some guitar overdubs and then moved on to vocals for the two completely different versions of you're not alone. The electric version was sung in the usual fashion: lead followed by backing. But for the acoustic version, camry and I went old school and sang together into one mic! I have to say that it was probably the highlight of the session for me. Singing in the middle of the room with my bandmate through a lush, perfectly balanced mic (I stood behind camry's shoulder because I am a bit louder :) conjured memories of evenings at prospero's books. We locked in almost perfectly right away. It was like an arrival: the end of a two year journey of countless nights spent singing and relentlessly working things out. It was kind of magic.
We did some other fun things, like a mini guitar loop interlude that conjures a bit of sleight of hand. And lunch at fud was hard to beat, even with dinner at thai place! And tomorrow daniel will use my son's floor tom like a timpani. :)
But for now, time to sleep. Wish us luck on our last day! There are three songs left to sing, and we will do our best. It's what we do!
Album 4: day 8
So I'm writing this halfway through day 9, which is making it a bit difficult to reconstruct the exact chronology. But despite the sage advice of homer simpson, I will try!
I know for sure that I sang the lead vocal for you don't exist. Camry assures me that we also sang both sets of vocals for monica. I trust camry implicitly, as should you.
I also recall doing some acoustic harmonic capo mumbo jumbo in all surface, as well as retracking the main electric guitar part.
Camry also predominantly triumphed over all surface, a song that we love dearly but if you see it walking around maybe you should tell it that it is being a bit... needy, maybe? Camry will most likely finish the job today.
But the jewel on the sprinkles on the root beer float of the day had to be russell thorpe's sax playing on monica. Dude threw down like donkey kong. Four times. With your mom!
And with that I will finish my lunch, dear reader, which is as lovely and succulent as thou art.
Album 4: day 7
Another mobile update! Steve is using my computer to write some stuff on horror movie sound design for the experience music project. :) yesterday was another highly productive run.
We spent most of the day piling on a sequence of somewhat absurd and entirely awesome overdubs on love doesn't get old, a song that apparently I have never been able to sing. After a few hours of battle with the lead vocal, camry sailed in on a cloud of nonplus and summarily dispatched the backing vocals. At this time, realizing that I am more of a project manager than lead vocalist, I retreated to the depths of my reverb tank and unleashed some tasty licks on all surface redux.
The night concluded with me accidentally destroying the electrical system in my wife's car. For an encore, mike (new bass player) and I visited an oft far away and slightly beyond tipsy friend and her friends in mission and discussed the technical definitions of various human sex acts whilst camry and steve continued to exceed expectations.
This morning it has been oatmeal and tea and be/non for steve and I. Soon we shall sally forth into this wild world of auto parts and indie pop! We at the sexy accident salute you.
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