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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 1966 Jazz c/o Brett Allen |
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| 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
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| Daniel Weber |
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| Wallace, Weber, Tecci, Paulson |
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| Grant Loosvelt |
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| Stephen Tecci |
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