"NeverChanger"

Today is the first posting of what's sure to become a barrage of postings of us, a shoreline dream, recording our new album. We've basically decided to document it all not only for our future enjoyment, but also to show our fans the process behind what goes on while we record our layers of sound. Hope you enjoy, and we for sure can't wait to explain more as it all goes down.

Ryan:
Since it's only days after "pilgrim day", and only one day after "Black Friday" (Isn't it funny how we name something that has been setup to be the day we are lured into spending all our money on xmas gifts as something dark and ominous?!), we have jumped into a new track titled "NeverChanger". I basically started it up as an experiment. I wanted to try some new approaches to recording with our new 16 track setup. Since most don't know, we recorded with 8 tracks here at "shoreline studios" for "avoiding the consequences", which was cool for sure, but limiting on the drums. We basically had to track all that separate to get the right sound, but now we don't have to anymore. We can record everyone all at once if we want to. This is a huge breakthrough, and for sure a dream I've had for years. I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

Technology was a big hurdle to overcome getting it all setup, and I for sure had to invest quite a bit to make it happen, but it's worth it. The house/barn which contains this new "studio" is basically just that. I have a bed upstairs, a kitchen, a bath, and nearly every other room has been setup to either record in, or control the recordings.

The day before taking a trip up to my brothers cabin I started up the idea of what was to come with the song. I figured out some sounds on my micron and with my new tube tape echo, and started producing some shyt. It wasn't perfect, but for sure an inspiration point. And speaking of inspiration points, the cabin is just that. The mountains always have a tendency to get my musical mind prepped and ready for whatever happens next.

The day I came back, I sat down and started up what I felt was one of my best melody lines in over a year. Starting like I used to in Pure Drama, first came the synth, and then came the analog instruments. What was key for me was arranging not only based on the synth line, but also the drums I programmed. I always miss the days when I composed entirely on the Roland 303 and 505, which forced me to concentrate entirely on structure and timing. So this for sure brought me back to that feeling, which I love having. I dropped it all down in a few hours, recorded a few vocal ideas, starting with the second verse to leave the beginning open for now, and left it alone till the morning when Erik and Enoc came over to jam/record.

We all seemed way into it and started immediately working on it. Erik came up with a cool sound to compliment it all, and Enoc had some really good lines to work in for bass. I really feel it's coming together nicely! The best stuff generally flows out fast, as is the case here.

Now, if we could only get Ulrich Schnauss to sprinkle in some love and collaborate on it. I emailed him today to see if he'd be interested. Fingers crossed. . .