engineers. . .

Ryan:
During the engineering times of the new recordings for both Peña and our new stuff, I took some time to get ahold of yet another amazing band I've been a big fan of for quite some time. . . that being the "engineers". I figured I'd see if they'd be down to co-produce some tracks with us since we have such a similar mood, and I've gotten response! Nothing solid, but I will for sure let you know if I hear anything more.

Engineers - "Forgiveness":

intermissionary

So we are pausing for a brief moment to dial in our live sound/record. We have been working with Sean Merrell from tintin/ian cooke (who is brilliant by the way). He has been a great friend from the drop the fear days, and it's great to have him drumming for us now. We're getting ready to play a few shows in February, and also working on new material. I am actually also helping out Peña record some new tracks here at Shoreline Studios.

For those who may be interested, Shoreline Studios/My House has been a self-proving ground, where I have spent way too many hours working late at night on mixes and overall production. My late friend Scot Gordon of Scary Valentine and Randall Frazier from Orbit Service both helped along the way with the basic understanding of overall production. I couldn't even come close to the masters I'm making now if it wasn't for a few very important tricks from Scot, so wherever you are, thanks man! Randall really helped in the EQ and mic'ing department, and for sure stepped my game up in the knowledge of room mic'ing.

So now I'm stepping out of my own element to help out friends who make music I love, and what better way than working with Peña, who are absolutely stunning live. Tomorrow night we record drums with Mike Scarano. Looking forward to it. . .

Seattle

Ryan:
It's interesting to look back at the year and dig up old recordings of tracks you worked on early in the process. We had been playing this new track "Seattle" live for about a year now and have had some great response. This along with "New York", we knew we had to get them recorded. So we hooked up with Mike Scarano and laid them down one afternoon. Everything seriously went over like butter that day. Was an amazing experience!

Well, we produced it for about a week, and I tweaked with the EQ and layering for a few more weeks and put it to rest. Now after all the new recordings and excitement of the Ulrich news, I came back to this song as I always felt it was an amazing tune. Well, let me say, we have a pretty kick ass track so far! We even turned on my old temp vox (it was originally an instrumental tune) and they fit in perfecto. Or at least that's how it sounds like tonight (change mind so often due to mass loads of ADD). Anyways, I'm really excited about it and can't wait to have a final version to spread your way. May just have to release this as a single with the Ulrich tune. . .

tribes of the city

Ryan:
So a few quick updates:

First of all, have the next week and a half free to record! Looking forward to that. Been jamming a bunch with PEÑA's very own Mike Scarano, and getting the chops up to do some experimenting these following days.

Also, been talking with "tribes of the city", a band from latvia who is simply amazing. Same caliber as "the gathering", but with a twist. They have there own vibe for sure, and a few tracks of theirs, especially "a day in the city" are jaw droppingly good. Well, anyways, we are trying to coordinate possibly doing a tour with them in the baltic states. Would be amazing. Right now shooting for September. We'll see what happens. Make sure to watch their video above for "a day in the city"

Ulrich Schnauss got back in touch the other day and we are still good to go. He said he'd love to do the second track as well, but we'll for sure see if he has enough time. He's in such demand these days, and rightfully so. His new album is absolutely gorgeous. If you haven't picked it up yet, please do so by clicking here.

vox this eve

Ryan:
Wrote a new batch of winter blues vox this eve to go along with "The Mid Decembers". This time of year always seems to bring out the darker side. I'm not saying they are death metal or anything like that, just bleak. Have had a rough couple months and this was a good way of getting it out. I recorded them up in my attic/living area, and though I'm not feeling they are final, they are for sure a good start. Big thing for me is always trying to find that sound that compliments the overall vibe. I seem to mix on the fly quite a bit to find that element. I think with some fine tuning it could be a good track. but who knows, it may also become a scrapper, or a remix. The future is always so muddy.

Bass is funtown.

Ryan:
Enoc headed over for a good time of recording bass for "The Mid Decembers". We used live mics as well as a direct feed from the U5. Sounding super full and lush. Can't wait to figure out some vox for this one. Almost feel Ulrich could do some cool stuff to this as well. May have to hit him up!

"The Mid Decembers"

Ryan:
Woke up with a wicked hangover today and instead of spending the day sleeping, wound up writing a new song titled "The Mid Decembers" with Enoc. We jammed it out to a structure I put together right before he got here with some drum loops. So far so good!

Note: Really digging the new production style of using multiple amps on the same take. The room itself sounds stellar, and to get both the Fender Deluxe and Twin Reverb in the mix for sure gives it that much more depth.

btw - for those interested in knowing, I have been listening to Carcass - "Heartwork" a lot lately. Some of the best death metal production ever. Very inspiring!

"Breakup Breaker"

Ryan:
Opened up the project Erik started up on Sunday to start up some vocals. Have been needing to unload some stuff related to some of the changes going on. Plus it's freezing and for sure the time of year to record. Winter always seems to bring it out of us. Not sure why. But it does. . .

The song is currently titled "Breakup Breaker". Kinda an interesting play on words that goes along with a theme of confusion. Will be posting a sample for Erik to check out in a few.

Co-Producing with Ulrich, continued. . .

Ryan:
So have been talking with Ulrich and also passed "NeverChanger" over to him to preview and all is now solid. We will be co-producing the track with him! Very excited to say the least. Personally, my next step is to get some solid vocal lines put in place before sending him files to work with. Keeping the whole thing very loose and open. More details to come. . .

"NeverChanger" structuring

Ryan:
Started layering in some guitar parts this evening with Erik. We recorded in the main room downstairs, with my new Explorer and Erik's Les Paul. I tried adding in the Tube Tape as well. Song has been stuck in my mind for the past 3 days straight. The main melody line is playing over and over. It's a crazy sounding bass synth sorta thing. It burns a hole in your head. Gotta remember to give it room to breathe. The melody can almost live on it's own and I'm hoping with some magic from Ulrich we'll have something quite solid here. Very much digging where it's going.

Lots of songs in the hopper. "Seattle", "Portland", "Santa Monica", and the list goes on. Lots of work to come!

"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. . .