http://coincidencemaybe.com/whatwillremain.cfm Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:45:01 GMT http://bandzoogle.com http://coincidencemaybe.com/whatwillremain.cfm?feature=575135&postid=45326      One of my favorite moments when recording is when a risk turns out well.  When I write a song, it's usually just on a guitar, so it's a one-dimentional version of what people hear in concert or recorded.  That's exactly what this song was.  It was part of demo I had recorded with several songs.  Some of the songs ended up on my solo album, but other ones are making a reappearance in these sessions.        "Fight to Lose" was one of my favorite songs to play when I did solo acoustic shows.  It reminds me specifically of when I used to open up for LESTER FINN.  It just had a "right" feel about it in that setting.  But for some reason, I just couldn't get it to have the right feel whenever I tried working it out with full instrumentation.  So I shelved it on the solo album after some failed tries, and in the early stages of picking out songs for this project, I never seriously considered it and thought that with the time constraints we're under, we don't really have room for a song that could slow us down.  On the last night we were picking out the final list of songs to record, "Fight to Lose" came up again and got voted into the list.  I'll admit though, that even then I would've picked it as the first song or two to get cut.      Last night was the fated night to start work on the song.  We had started working on it on Weds, and we started to make more progress on it that night than I ever had before.  The most likely reason is that instead of focusing the arrangement around the guitar, I played a bass guitar line that I hadn't tried before, and it moved the song in a much, much different direction, although we weren't exactly sure what direction that was.      Because we were only scratching at the surface of where this song was taking us, it was a frustrating time of trying to get tuned into it, and I don't use that metaphor lightly.  When you're playing and trying to find the heart of a song but dancing all around it, it can be as frustrating as trying to listen to your favorite song on a radio station as you're driving just out of it's range.  That's how we spent most all of our Friday night session.  It really was the first session we've had like this, so we've been sort of lucky in that regards, but it doesn't make you feel any better when you've just wrapped up a four hour session with nothing to show for it.  So did this song beat me twice?   After Denver and Seth left, I grabbed some dinner then sat back down in the console room and listened again to the scratch tracks we had done.  About halfway through listening, I had an idea for a chorus based on the simplest of piano parts I had put into the chorus.  It was musical opposite of peeling layers off an onion at that point.  Before I could finish one idea the next one was starting in my head for the next track and within about two hours the NEW version of this song came to be.  I'm glad this song was stubborn enough to wait until now.  I don't think it could've been anything near this if it wasn't for D's drum part on the verse and the way we kept at it.      "Fight to Lose" was one of my favorite songs to play when I did solo acoustic shows.  It reminds me specifically of when I used to open up for LESTER FINN.  It just had a "right" feel about it in that setting.  But for some reason, I just couldn't get it to have the right feel whenever I tried working it out with full instrumentation.  So I shelved it on the solo album after some failed tries, and in the early stages of picking out songs for this project, I never seriously considered it and thought that with the time constraints we're under, we don't really have room for a song that could slow us down.  On the last night we were picking out the final list of songs to record, "Fight to Lose" came up again and got voted into the list.  I'll admit though, that even then I would've picked it as the first song or two to get cut.
     Last night was the fated night to start work on the song.  We had started working on it on Weds, and we started to make more progress on it that night than I ever had before.  The most likely reason is that instead of focusing the arrangement around the guitar, I played a bass guitar line that I hadn't tried before, and it moved the song in a much, much different direction, although we weren't exactly sure what direction that was.
     Because we were only scratching at the surface of where this song was taking us, it was a frustrating time of trying to get tuned into it, and I don't use that metaphor lightly.  When you're playing and trying to find the heart of a song but dancing all around it, it can be as frustrating as trying to listen to your favorite song on a radio station as you're driving just out of it's range.  That's how we spent most all of our Friday night session.  It really was the first session we've had like this, so we've been sort of lucky in that regards, but it doesn't make you feel any better when you've just wrapped up a four hour session with nothing to show for it. 

So did this song beat me twice?  

After Denver and Seth left, I grabbed some dinner then sat back down in the console room and listened again to the scratch tracks we had done.  About halfway through listening, I had an idea for a chorus based on the simplest of piano parts I had put into the chorus.  It was musical opposite of peeling layers off an onion at that point.  Before I could finish one idea the next one was starting in my head for the next track and within about two hours the NEW version of this song came to be.  I'm glad this song was stubborn enough to wait until now.  I don't think it could've been anything near this if it wasn't for D's drum part on the verse and the way we kept at it.

]]> Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:45:01 GMT 57F13EE8BA43EADA05A31262D8640FDF http://coincidencemaybe.com/whatwillremain.cfm?feature=575135&postid=42554 We had one of those "moments" last night.  We're spending May doing rewrites on the remaining songs that are in the running to be album cuts, and one of those songs is "Whithered Tree".  However, there's just a couple parts of the song that I've never liked as much as others, so it's been on the outside looking in as a final cut.  But while I was listening to some of the other songs we're looking at, an idea came to combine it with another unfinished piece of music I was working on, and before I knew it, Seth and I were working out a full work up of what the two songs would sound like as one.  I'm not much of a studio rat.  I love playing live, but the studio work is a whole different animal.  It's so meticulous and precise and there's an art to that, but I'm much more comfortable in a live setting where each song is living, breathing and evolving with each beat.  These type of experiences however, where something new comes out of nowhere, that's the closest thing to the live experience, but it's captured in it's emergence.  Micheal Card likens it to David's call to "Sing a NEW song to the Lord".  I love the new song.  No promises on it making the final cut, but it's an early favorite of mine.   
I'm not much of a studio rat.  I love playing live, but the studio work is a whole different animal.  It's so meticulous and precise and there's an art to that, but I'm much more comfortable in a live setting where each song is living, breathing and evolving with each beat.  These type of experiences however, where something new comes out of nowhere, that's the closest thing to the live experience, but it's captured in it's emergence.  Micheal Card likens it to David's call to "Sing a NEW song to the Lord".  I love the new song.  No promises on it making the final cut, but it's an early favorite of mine.   ]]> Fri, 15 May 2009 11:35:00 GMT 073964D57C71D383CA52DE55AD133A7F http://coincidencemaybe.com/whatwillremain.cfm?feature=575135&postid=37499 Over the last two weeks we've been working on moving into our new studio home in Nashville formerly known as Purple Haze Studios.  (You'll notice the purple theme in some of the new pictures posted above)  The studio already had a drum booth, vocal booth, and an expansive control room built into foundation of the house so all we've really needed to do was some clean up and update the rooms a little.  We've just finished the painting and cleaning portion of the project (you can see some of the progress in the new gallery) but we're just beginning installing our recording equipment and furniture.  We're expecting to begin laying down new tracks in the finished studio in about 2-3 weeks.  The new location also has a rehearsal area that is located between the booths and control room.  We'll be able to set up all of our live equipment and still refine our live shows as we're working on the album, which is an incredibly efficient way to work on new material and a blessing to have available to us!  We've been very, very fortunate to have this opportunity open up to us and we would like to make special mention of appreciation to the Hazelbakers for helping us making this a reality and working with us as we move into our new Nashville home.  Despite this incredible turn of events, we did have some set backs in February.  We had a total computer failure due to a faulty motherboard (this is a curse that has followed me with nearly every computer I've owned!) that took weeks to troubleshoot and by the time the new replacement computer arrived, we had lost nearly the entire month of production.  So we are a little behind where we wanted to be at this point, in the long run, we probably saved ourselves a few weeks of recording time by replacing the computer and moving at the same time instead of doing them seperately.  Also, the equipment was still under warranty, so we avoided a financial set back which is probably our biggest constraining factor with this project and we're very relieved to know we didn't lose anything there. Thank you for everyone who has been thinking of us and praying for us.  We've seen quite a bit of Providence in the events of the last six weeks and it's a humbling thing when you get to see God working right before your eyes.  Lastly, we do understand that it's a lot more fun to see the progress of an album and we promise to have more media showing this progress here soon.  We will have some pictures of the finished studio set up around the middle of April, and we hope to have a new Audio Sampler to post within a week or two after that.   But for now, check out the new pictures above of the studio before we started working on it, and some of the results that we have so far. Over the last two weeks we've been working on moving into our new studio home in Nashville formerly known as Purple Haze Studios.  (You'll notice the purple theme in some of the new pictures posted above)  The studio already had a drum booth, vocal booth, and an expansive control room built into foundation of the house so all we've really needed to do was some clean up and update the rooms a little.  We've just finished the painting and cleaning portion of the project (you can see some of the progress in the new gallery) but we're just beginning installing our recording equipment and furniture.  We're expecting to begin laying down new tracks in the finished studio in about 2-3 weeks. 

The new location also has a rehearsal area that is located between the booths and control room.  We'll be able to set up all of our live equipment and still refine our live shows as we're working on the album, which is an incredibly efficient way to work on new material and a blessing to have available to us!  We've been very, very fortunate to have this opportunity open up to us and we would like to make special mention of appreciation to the Hazelbakers for helping us making this a reality and working with us as we move into our new Nashville home. 

Despite this incredible turn of events, we did have some set backs in February.  We had a total computer failure due to a faulty motherboard (this is a curse that has followed me with nearly every computer I've owned!) that took weeks to troubleshoot and by the time the new replacement computer arrived, we had lost nearly the entire month of production.  So we are a little behind where we wanted to be at this point, in the long run, we probably saved ourselves a few weeks of recording time by replacing the computer and moving at the same time instead of doing them seperately.  Also, the equipment was still under warranty, so we avoided a financial set back which is probably our biggest constraining factor with this project and we're very relieved to know we didn't lose anything there.

Thank you for everyone who has been thinking of us and praying for us.  We've seen quite a bit of Providence in the events of the last six weeks and it's a humbling thing when you get to see God working right before your eyes. 

Lastly, we do understand that it's a lot more fun to see the progress of an album and we promise to have more media showing this progress here soon.  We will have some pictures of the finished studio set up around the middle of April, and we hope to have a new Audio Sampler to post within a week or two after that.   But for now, check out the new pictures above of the studio before we started working on it, and some of the results that we have so far.

]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:08:46 GMT 75233082B66D4CB665FD353335067E2B http://coincidencemaybe.com/whatwillremain.cfm?feature=575135&postid=34148      If you’ve ever gone to church, I’m sure you’ve been told something that you’re not supposed to do. It’s not a knock on the Church; it is the Church’s job to warn you of the dangers of this life. But it does get a bit confusing sometimes when after being told that you are not supposed to do something, you are then told that you’re a sinner and you are going to sin (which is doing those things you’re not supposed to do). So what happens when you’ve done one of those things that you’re not supposed to? Nobody talks about that.       For me, I had done enough of those “not supposed to’s” that it weighed me down with so much guilt that I didn’t know what to do next. Even though I was going to church, I couldn’t find a straight answer on what you are supposed to do AFTER you’ve done what you’re not supposed to.       It turns out that there’s a lot of people like me, who after so many years of having these things add up (or just one big one that’s too much to bear) that eventually you have the choice to give up trying to be like Christ because the failures hurt worse than not trying, or you find a way to be renewed and begin again, no matter how many backwards steps you’ve taken.       The latter is where this album’s concept was inspired from. When listened to as a whole, we’re hoping that this album is an encouragement to pick yourself back up from under whatever it is that’s weighing you down, and then press on towards the ultimate goal of being Christ-like. I don’t believe that we ever reach that goal, as near as I can tell it’s next to impossible on this Earth. But we are commanded to try. And then try again… and then try again… I can attest to the weariness that comes with not being a good person, even though you want nothing more than to be a good person.  I've also learned that your worst hour is not your only hour, nor is it the one you are to be defined by. You have the entire scope of your life for that.       I was relieved to find that this idea was very personal to the other guys in the band as well. It was the kinship around this theme that turned the idea of recording again into a passion and not just a concept. So each song that we are working on has a part to play in the story of getting back up, finding your direction and praying for the strength that was never yours to begin with. There will be some sad songs, some happy ones. But the last moments of this album are ones I’ve been dreaming about for months now. What does moving towards God with momentum sound like??? I don’t know yet!!! But we’re working on our version of it!!!       For me, I had done enough of those “not supposed to’s” that it weighed me down with so much guilt that I didn’t know what to do next. Even though I was going to church, I couldn’t find a straight answer on what you are supposed to do AFTER you’ve done what you’re not supposed to.
      It turns out that there’s a lot of people like me, who after so many years of having these things add up (or just one big one that’s too much to bear) that eventually you have the choice to give up trying to be like Christ because the failures hurt worse than not trying, or you find a way to be renewed and begin again, no matter how many backwards steps you’ve taken.
      The latter is where this album’s concept was inspired from. When listened to as a whole, we’re hoping that this album is an encouragement to pick yourself back up from under whatever it is that’s weighing you down, and then press on towards the ultimate goal of being Christ-like. I don’t believe that we ever reach that goal, as near as I can tell it’s next to impossible on this Earth. But we are commanded to try. And then try again… and then try again… I can attest to the weariness that comes with not being a good person, even though you want nothing more than to be a good person.  I've also learned that your worst hour is not your only hour, nor is it the one you are to be defined by. You have the entire scope of your life for that.
      I was relieved to find that this idea was very personal to the other guys in the band as well. It was the kinship around this theme that turned the idea of recording again into a passion and not just a concept. So each song that we are working on has a part to play in the story of getting back up, finding your direction and praying for the strength that was never yours to begin with. There will be some sad songs, some happy ones. But the last moments of this album are ones I’ve been dreaming about for months now. What does moving towards God with momentum sound like??? I don’t know yet!!! But we’re working on our version of it!!!

]]> Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:35:00 GMT D50EC50FFF6195E711248BF4A710A473 http://coincidencemaybe.com/whatwillremain.cfm?feature=575135&postid=33837 For those of you familiar with the band, you might be surprised or curious to see this song title on the page for this album… yes this is the same song as the one we’ve closed out our concerts with since…ever. And yes this is the same one that’s on The Fall of October. Well…sort of. Let me explain… Every album C?M has done has been recorded on the tightest of budgets ( of time and money). And as a result, not everything that we’ve always wanted to do had been able to be done. That still is true today, but it’s not quite as constraining as it used to be. Before, we’ve never been able to adequately record the full ending to “Don’t Fade Away” as it was played in concert. We kind of go crazy at the end of that song, and there was nothing but problems when we tried to put that down in a recording session. On top of the technical problems, we made a decision to keep the version of the song as recorded on The Fall of October similar in style and speed to a version I had recorded for a solo EP. Because of that, the song is slower and has a more singer/songwriter feel to it. I like that version a lot for its simplicity and its tone and it’s a very honest representation of what I wrote it to be. But one of the beautiful things about being in a band is the way a song takes on a new life once other quality musicians get their hands on it. This song was transformed into something completely different on stage. I do think it’s the best version of the song and when everyone is on their game, I’d get chills. So we’re recording the consummate version of “Don’t Fade Away”. One that includes the feeling of the live show, the honestly of the original version, and then some new additions to it that had only previously lived in my head. (there’s plenty of things that live only in my head, but that’s a whole different topic…). For those who’ve seen us live before I hope you have an idea of what to expect and why it was so exciting to choose this song as the first song to record in these new sessions. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the song, I can’t wait to be able to show it to you. Every album C?M has done has been recorded on the tightest of budgets ( of time and money). And as a result, not everything that we’ve always wanted to do had been able to be done. That still is true today, but it’s not quite as constraining as it used to be. Before, we’ve never been able to adequately record the full ending to “Don’t Fade Away” as it was played in concert. We kind of go crazy at the end of that song, and there was nothing but problems when we tried to put that down in a recording session.
On top of the technical problems, we made a decision to keep the version of the song as recorded on The Fall of October similar in style and speed to a version I had recorded for a solo EP. Because of that, the song is slower and has a more singer/songwriter feel to it. I like that version a lot for its simplicity and its tone and it’s a very honest representation of what I wrote it to be. But one of the beautiful things about being in a band is the way a song takes on a new life once other quality musicians get their hands on it. This song was transformed into something completely different on stage. I do think it’s the best version of the song and when everyone is on their game, I’d get chills.
So we’re recording the consummate version of “Don’t Fade Away”. One that includes the feeling of the live show, the honestly of the original version, and then some new additions to it that had only previously lived in my head. (there’s plenty of things that live only in my head, but that’s a whole different topic…). For those who’ve seen us live before I hope you have an idea of what to expect and why it was so exciting to choose this song as the first song to record in these new sessions. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the song, I can’t wait to be able to show it to you.

]]> Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:50:00 GMT 3F488F4CDA0087910BF9FF396648203C http://coincidencemaybe.com/whatwillremain.cfm?feature=575135&postid=33836 I-40 Sessions: The Beginning Thoughts       A number of considerations have gone into the planning for recording again. The most encouraging reasons to record now instead of waiting a little longer is that we already have enough songs to choose from to fill multiple records. We’ve actually been finding it more difficult to choose which ones to work on now, and which ones we can handle saving for later projects. We’ve narrowed our list down to 24 songs. Our intentions are to record rough versions of all of them and then finish the ones that seem to have the most potential after the early renditions are laid down.       Another piece to this that has me excited is the songs that got reworked during rehearsals. I’m very excited to get studio quality versions of these songs out for everyone to hear. Some of the absolute best work that we’ve done together has been our most recent and there’s no reason to think that’s not going to continue.       So what makes me anxious about this? Well… we’re doing this album ourselves again, but even more so than we have in the past. Dustin, our engineer on our previous projects, married and moved to Ohio. You just can’t replace a guy like that, so we’ve taken on the responsibilities ourselves. I was able to learn quite a lot from him, so hopefully that will show up in these sessions as well. But we’re also supplemented by the improvement in recording equipment and software that is more intuitive and user friendly which helps an out of practice engineer make up the lost ground a lot faster. Even with all of that, it all does seem a bit overwhelming at times and engineering and mixing on top of the arranging, writing and playing on a project this size in addition to balancing a fledgling family…well…this may just be my “Everest”.       Even with all of that… I’ve never been more excited about a project. I’ve heard the songs that are under considerations right now. I’ve been at the rehearsals and heard songs move from ideas to reality. I’ve also seen the way we’ve been working together and having a blast making music again. I wish I had a tangible way of sharing those experiences with you all…       But I can tell you that the number one reason I believe in this project is the theme that we’ve all discussed as being the reason and meaning behind this album. Once we established this central focus, we knew it was the right time and the right way to make a new album, and we haven’t looked back since. Unfortunately… that’s what I’ll be writing about in my next entry. ? Until then…
      A number of considerations have gone into the planning for recording again. The most encouraging reasons to record now instead of waiting a little longer is that we already have enough songs to choose from to fill multiple records. We’ve actually been finding it more difficult to choose which ones to work on now, and which ones we can handle saving for later projects. We’ve narrowed our list down to 24 songs. Our intentions are to record rough versions of all of them and then finish the ones that seem to have the most potential after the early renditions are laid down.
      Another piece to this that has me excited is the songs that got reworked during rehearsals. I’m very excited to get studio quality versions of these songs out for everyone to hear. Some of the absolute best work that we’ve done together has been our most recent and there’s no reason to think that’s not going to continue.
      So what makes me anxious about this? Well… we’re doing this album ourselves again, but even more so than we have in the past. Dustin, our engineer on our previous projects, married and moved to Ohio. You just can’t replace a guy like that, so we’ve taken on the responsibilities ourselves. I was able to learn quite a lot from him, so hopefully that will show up in these sessions as well. But we’re also supplemented by the improvement in recording equipment and software that is more intuitive and user friendly which helps an out of practice engineer make up the lost ground a lot faster. Even with all of that, it all does seem a bit overwhelming at times and engineering and mixing on top of the arranging, writing and playing on a project this size in addition to balancing a fledgling family…well…this may just be my “Everest”.
      Even with all of that… I’ve never been more excited about a project. I’ve heard the songs that are under considerations right now. I’ve been at the rehearsals and heard songs move from ideas to reality. I’ve also seen the way we’ve been working together and having a blast making music again. I wish I had a tangible way of sharing those experiences with you all…
      But I can tell you that the number one reason I believe in this project is the theme that we’ve all discussed as being the reason and meaning behind this album. Once we established this central focus, we knew it was the right time and the right way to make a new album, and we haven’t looked back since. Unfortunately… that’s what I’ll be writing about in my next entry. ? Until then…

]]> Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:45:00 GMT 93F9352653015DD19D78786F2B27CDFE