backstory

 

this album was just an idea taking a vacation in my head for several years until the end of 2010 when i picked up a realistic concertmate mg-1 off craigslist.  i immediately started having crazy thoughts.  right about the same time i met steve and we started talking about recording.

i rented a small practice studio in huntington beach  for a few months in the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011, scalped nba tickets on craigslist, scrimped and saved and prepared acoustic versions of about 40 songs which we whittled down to 11 (didn’t become nine until later).   finally in february everything was ready and we started recording.

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the studio was a small room in the back corner of a strip mall, and it was definitely not sound-proofed, so our recording schedule depended somewhat on when other bands were practicing.  but we got down to business as best we could…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5-41cLloLM

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the first song we worked on was “lonely moon”, and after spending a week to complete it we realized we’d have to work smarter.  the goal was to finish in a month!  so we would meet in the evening, lay down the framework of a song, and i would stay after coming up with parts on the synths for the next day’s recording session.

httpv://youtu.be/sm-M1yK_Rac

httpv://youtu.be/L2NxZ0m5QvM

somehow or other, by the end of that february we had the framework of the album in place.  then i left the studio, steve and i became roommates, and the next stage of the album process began…

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i had no idea how much work was left.  the vocals were redone in the kitchen of our new place during lunch breaks from work.  new synth lines needed to be recorded, other synth lines taken away, and in general i learned how to mix from scratch.  the process became a journey.

more synths were added to the collection and used on the album during this time – now proudly lining the walls of my “studio”.  i swear they all do different things!  below are the images of the synths i used on this album.

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once the album was mixed, it still needed to be mastered.  i asked around for advice on who to give it to, tried some mastering plugins, and finally found brent clawson, who did a great job.  better than i imagined, actually.and now, after almost two years of working and waiting and thinking and planning and figuring things out and starting over all over again, this album is done.  i hope you enjoy it!

p.s.  there’s lots of people i want to thank, so i made a separate page to do it in style…

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