LA Recording complete

People actually thought I was kidding about surviving asteroid 2012 DA14. I was not. We will survive, at least this pass; The next one could be a different story. The hacks at MIT say we are safe, but who knows the randomness of deep space and the objects which could affect its trajectory. It is not always possible to predict how random events which will affect an object's trajectory. The inertial path is always easy to predict, but that is no fun. I think that has become the beauty of this album. We have allowed life, energy, each other, all of you, all of everything to affect the path of this album.
We never set anything in stone, everything changed constantly up to the last minute of tracking.
Entourage Studio was amazing; we fought through a few technical issues, but we managed to get a great classic sound with their room and the `73 Harrison board.

Entourage Studio '73 Harrison

 We had an amazing team, all the way down to the techs & assistants - even the guy that made my salad at Big Mama's pizza did a pretty damn good job.

The Team

There is something to be said about tracking 11 songs of Drums and Bass, basic piano and basic rhythm guitar in 3 days. We spent 42 hours in the studio between Friday at 11am and Sunday late night at 12:30am. We finished a good portion of the album, re-wrote parts, and changed things after listening and discussing, That goes back to preparation; the ability to write in the studio and change our path as we go comes with confidence in the team around us. Ken and Blake changed the direction of this album by adding creativity personality and outside influences that helped put some of our craziness into perspective.




We started pre-production on this album in September 2012 with 15 songs, 6 of them were over 8 minutes, 3 of them were over 10 minutes. I had bass solos in the middle of songs ala Cliff Burton. (fingers in the air, bang your head); I would have conversations with Grant in the middle of Daniel's guitar solos. The path of the album was changed by hard work, listening to our favorite bands and producers. Being our own harshest critic. Not being afraid of saying something sucked. Fighting for what we believed was the best possible thing - not for our ego, but being a slave to the song.  What can we do, or not do, what can we play, or who should play less or more to make this song come alive!

1966 Jazz c/o Brett Allen

Tecci w !966 Fender Jazz

Speaking of random things that affect the path - I met a random old Englishmen living in NoHo who deals in Vintage Gear for studios.  I called him last minute in the middle of the weekend evening because we could not get the bass tone we needed. 20 minutes later, I was at his place with only a driver's license. I walked out with a 1966 Cherry Red Fender Jazz bass. I returned it a few hours later and paid him cash, but still, he gave me a 1966 Cherry Red Fender Jazz bass basically on my Good Looks and word. (Ok, just my word). So, Very special thanks to Brett Allen.

The Asteroid will fly by the Earth in a few hours time, 17,200 miles away, which is nothing in terms of the vast universe. The Earth's gravity will change its trajectory. And so I sit and think, what will be the next push or pull that changes our path?

Talk soon,
Stephen

Daniel Weber

Wallace, Weber, Tecci, Paulson

Grant Loosvelt

Stephen Tecci

The Process

Sometimes the making of an album reminds me of writing a paper in high-school or college. You sit there, stare blankly for 20 minutes, find 20 other things you "forgot to do" or "have to get done right now", clean your room, then realize, oh shit! I need to do this now! You sit down, you work feverishly, just letting all hell break loose in your mind, try to get your hands to keep up with your mind - next thing you know you look back and you have some creation that you have no idea where it came from, but its there, its you, it real, and take it or leave it, you are turning it in.

Or, maybe this is more like a group project, and everyones personality pulls it a little different direction.
You have me who believes in recording everything. Listening back, zooming into 1/1000th of a second, layering 5 tracks to get the word "The" perfect. Layering everything, panning everything, filling up the entire sound sphere, more guitars, more piano, hit one more note & lets put a delay on it and pan it 75% to the left speaker, then play the 5th root and pan it 90% to the right speaker - Im sure I drive them nuts - buts its fun, creative and I am the mad scientist of the band.

Then theres Daniel, very free, very open, let things happen, don't overthink it, work hard, study hard, and the pieces will fall into place; don't fret the little stuff, everything is ready to play and ready to go.
If I had my way, some songs would never be ready to play live, Daniel thinks songs that aren't even written yet are ready to be played live - not as being un-prepared, but having confidence will will find the way, we will figure it out and get thru it and that is the fun part - getting lost to find the way.

Grant, well, Grant is Grant. If you know him you get it, if you don't, you don't. He balances the band by keeping us from going to far in any one direction. He makes us laugh when we fight, comes up with the perfect part when we are at a total loss, knows music theory (Daniel and I don't know crap about chords, scales, reading, or anything. The only music theory I know is "If it sounds good keep it, if it sounds bad, do something else").

I also need to mention Blake Paulson who has come in to play drums and has provided a solid backbone, creative input, professional attitude - I cannot say enough great things about him, working with him and the positive effect he has had on this project.

The album is a little bit of all of us, a little bit of all the people in our lives, a little bit of everything around us. I guess that's what happens when you put everything into a project, you start seeing the personalities, the pains & trouble, the good times, the bad, the people that help you, and those that try to hurt you. It all comes out when you pour your heart and soul into something. It's not easy getting to this point; Its been 3 years in the making.

This album is about us, and everyone and everything around us. If you are reading this or support us, or have influenced any of our lives in anyway, good or bad, then you are part this album. Part of you is part of this process, and part of this album.

We will be streaming and posting videos of the studio. Entourage Studios in North Hollywood Feb. 8-10, and Ian London Studios in New York Feb. 22-24.  Feel free to send us questions or comments here:
The Disparrows FB or if you dont have a FB, Band@TheDisparrows.com.

We play music because we love it, its what we do; its what we know - we hope you will come along for the ride with us.

Stephen.

Album #2 - The Disparrows

It's a New Year - we all survived the most epic, disastrous Armageddon in all history with the Mayan Apocalypse; We do have to worry about Asteroid 2012 DA14 which will sweep the Earth at a mere 21,000 miles on Feb. 15 2013 - however - the good news is that The Disparrows go into the studio Feb 8-10!
So, even if those hack MIT mathematicians  screwed up a few calculations and 2012 DA14 does crush the Earth and all of Humanity; The Disparrows tracks will still be recorded and preserved for future generations.
We are very excited to be working with Blake Paulson on drums. We will have Ken Wallace on the board and producing. Needless to say, we have built a strong team, put in every ounce of energy available - as of today we are still doing last minute pre-production, and will continue thru Feb. 4 working on loose ends.
 
The Band @ work - The Disparrows - Daniel Weber, Stephen Tecci, Grant Loosvelt w/ Blake Paulson

@ work

Me after a long nights work

We have hooked up every available piece of Equipment on many occasions trying different sounds.

Rehearsal Room 12/2012

Stay tuned for Vids, pics, maybe a few rough tracks and definitely 100% of our Energy getting pumped into our work!

Stephen

Very special thanks:

The Disparrows

 Stephen Tecci

American Made Outlaw

The Disparrows - 2012.

Ok. I'm back. Schwarzenegger style, from the original Terminator. Its been a long year, and The Disparrows are showing it. We got a new album written & mostly arranged. We have already jammed with Blake Paulson as a possible for the drums (awesome drummer - very highly recommended) and we got one more drummer we will check out - the one and only Dave Krusen.  He will be jamming with us in late November.
We will pick a drummer, at this point it is not a talent question, the quality of guys coming in are beyond good, beyond question; they are great, phenomenal drummers. At this point it is a question of chemistry with three guys that are very good friends, very close musicians, and have been around each other for many hours in the studio and days on the road.  It is tough for a drummer to walk into a room with a band that has inside jokes, been playing the same songs for many months, worked out small quirky parts of the songs - crazy thing, these guys are so good, they pull it off with a surprising degree of success!

More on this as it goes on, we are very excited to jam with Dave - he is an epic drummer with an amazing, great reputation.

We are also going to start a Web series, filming the whole process of recording the album and releasing it weekly on Youtube - The Disparrows.

We are working hard on endorsements for the band. We just picked up American Made Outlaw, and are working a few more, stay posted!

We have alot going on, we are excited to move forward; we are excited to get this album recorded - It is a great style of American Rock n Roll!

Stay Tuned,
We promise to be here more talking about what is going on!
Feel free to email or contact us with any questions, we love to hear from you!
Stephen
The Disparrows
American Made Outlaw

Fans

        In the whole mix & craziness of writing music, playing music,
recording and releasing albums, traveling & touring, it is often forgotten why we do it.
Well, I digress, as a musician and artist, we do it because we love it. We in the Disparrows can truly claim that show or no show, band or no band, each of us would sit home and play music. I know a lot of musicians with this same attitude, I am proud to know these guys (and girls) - people that do it for the love of art and sound. I was once told that I have a disease called Rock n' Roll because hell or high-water I always would play my guitar at least once a day - I'd walk by pick it up, play for a bit, then move on or sit and play for hours while others watched TV.

Enough rambling! So - you wonder - what was my point?
(and I often wonder this myself, as done my band). My point was that the fans are the reason we do what we do.
Without fans, there are no shows, there are no tours, there are no album sales, and all we are is a bunch of guys playing music in our studio.

     The Disparrows, all though in the bigger picture, a small, new band with great aspirations (which we will achieve) has been blessed with some great fans. I see bands take fans for granted all the time. Bands forget without the fans they are home playing for themself. Without the fans they are nothing as a band. Without the fans telling a friend, playing a song for a buddy, making your music their sex music, or party song, or driving music, we are nothing as a commercial product.

That being said, with all the support we have received, the comments, posting our links and videos and photos on other sites and blogs and helping us share our music with the world, Thank you.
We cannot get where we want to go with out our fans and friends, and some very dedicated ones at that!

One day when we are out on the road, all of you that are here now, you will be remembered,
and, to the best of our ability, thanked in whatever way we can!

So thank you, and please keep posting our links and photos and songs and videos wherever you can.
Keep sharing our music with everyone you can. And we will keep pouring our heart and soul into creating great music.
We currently have a second album in pre-production with a lot of great new ideas coming from Mike, Grant, Dirrty & myself.

We are very excited to get this music out and make audio love to all of you (in the platonic sense)!

Stephen

Hello World!

The Disparrows are joining the World of blogging and going to fill you in on our world, the second album which is in very infantile stages, what its like in the band, our creative processes, and a few stories from out on the road.
Stephen
thedisparrow photos
the disparrows web
Stephen images