been a while...

Ryan:
It's been a while since I've gotten a bit personal. Guess tonight is as good as ever. It's been a crazy 2010. Huge life changes involving my day to day, and big changes for the band as well. It's almost complete chaos in the old noggin, and I'm still letting the dust settle where it may. But while it ever so slowly floats to the surface I plan to collect as much of it as I can and translate it into music, art and photography. I guess much like most of us, this is what balances me, and lately I've let it sway a bit as I try to figure out wtf is going around all around me. I'm learning that no matter what, you just gotta do what you love, love who you are, and love those around you as much as possible. Also, I've learned that you never should back down to anything, even if it seems impossible. The last few years were on the brink of impossible, and now I'm really being put to the test. I figure it will come out in the new album, which yes, is long overdue, if not for all the amazing fans, but also for my own sanity. I hope you stay in touch and keep listening. A Shoreline Dream and Brim Liski will soon reveal the inner workings of the mayhem. I promise!

Mixing "Manhattan Beach" tonight

Ryan:
After some fine tuning of "Hypermode" it's now time to move on to "Manhattan Beach" for some adjustments. It's a process I generally go through every time I produce a record. I spend a few days mixing, listen to everything in context, get feedback from everyone, and go back for a second run through. After that I'll usually let all the songs sit and do the same process again a month or so later. This allows for a good detachment time period. Detachment is key after recording. If you spend too much time working on something it will be good in your eyes no matter what. This approach let's me come back into it and determine if the songs are working. Sometimes we'll realize a particular track has much more potential and needs more work, where other times we'll realize that we hit the mix dead on and can release it to the wolves.

So far I'm very optimistic about this record. The tracks are right where I was hoping they'd be sonically and emotionally. They have a really nice flow, and once dialed this could be our best effort yet.

ulrich schnauss & experimental aircraft collaborations

So we're getting close on finishing up the album version of "neverChanger" which is basically gonna be the same version as what we played live with Ulrich Schnauss. We've started some rough tracks and I've sent it off to Ulrich for him to add his love.

Also spoke with Rachel of Experimental Aircraft today and we've decided to work on a track together as well! Should be quite an amazing recording. Absolutely adore the Monster Movie album she's on, and it's quite a dream come true to be able to dive into the depths of vox with such a legend. Looking forward to that.