Makin' Records!

As things come to a close with the creation of the record, we still have a few more things to take care of before we mail this thing out on Monday!

While Travis works on mastering the record we needed to take photos for our album art! Turns out that not only does the CD have to look cool (even though everyone will just dump the songs onto their Ipods) but we have to look cool in it!

We really wanted to have a band picture inside the booklet, but didn't want to go the traditional route. So to fit with the rest of our design concept (which we're loving!) we decided to build a green screen in our living room so that our designer, Amanda, could take the background out of the photos and put us wherever she pleased.
So when it came time to build a green screen, what more do you need than green poster board and green duct tape?

Here are some photos from the night that I captured on my phone. They're low quality, but it's better than nothing, right?

I will try to get pics of interesting events more often!


First, we attempt to build the green screen:




Bert tests the lighting and searches for his shadow:


Bert is the guinea pig.


Doug is the second victim:


JoAnna has a very light instrument:


Now imagine a picture of me right here.
Looks like you'll have to wait to have the CD in your hands to see how the pictures of me came out!

This should be some proof that this record is indeed happening.

I heard something about our first single being released on the internet sometime late this week. It could just be a rumor. Who knows.

Details!

I will be doing everything in my power to ensure that our record is headed to the duplication plant this week!

There's one more panel to design for the artwork and then it's done.
There's one more song to fix and then the mix is done.

We should have our first single online in the next week or so. As soon as I have a mastered copy, you'll be able to hear the track anywhere our music is found online.

Here's the tracklisting that we have planned for the release:

Early Next Year
Catch These Words

01. Say Hello
02. Send A Letter
03. Catch These Words
04. Lifeless
05. Plan B
06. They Always Say
07. Right Here (With Me)
08. Never Saw it Coming
09. One Down, Two to Go
10. The Sick Charade
11. All Your Advice
12. Something That I Miss

For those of you wondering... will we have the new CD for our show on June 23rd?
We sure hope so.

4 of our songs made their way out into the world as we were passing out sampler CDs to both friends and important folks at Florida Music Fest last weekend. Hopefully no one will leak the tracks!

I thought the actual recording process was the hardest part of making a CD. Turns out the hardest part is hanging onto the songs and keeping them secret until the time is right!

Who knew?

Wasbenhapnin'

I believe the expression goes something like this: "No news is good news."

In our situation it goes: "Lots of news and not very much time to write about it on the internet."

In case you just can't live without an update, here's what's been going on...

Most importantly, we named the record! We finally decided on something that wasn't taken by other bands, and still makes sense and has meaning to our CD. We'll be calling the album "Catch These Words".

Secondly, we have the tracklisting together and the first "single" is ready to invade the internet very soon.

The album artwork is near completion. Just a few more panels need designed and finished.

The mix has shaped up nicely and we only have one major change to make before the Master is complete.

We're hoping to send this thing off to the duplication plant next week.
Let me reiterate that in case you missed it...
Sending. Duplication plant. Next week.

That means the record will soon be complete.

Awesome.

Promises Made

By this time next week I hope to have announced the following:

The Title of our record

The tracklisting

The name of the first single

The cover art (possibly, but don't get too excited)

The release date (again, don't get too excited)

We're getting closer by the day.

We've been soaking up the latest mix and have run across just a few more changes that made. We hope to turn a master copy quite soon.

More news to come!

News on (the) Record

Last night involved a trip over the House of Travis for a full band listen to the songs in their (near) final form.

We listened through everything front to back and tossed in our two cents. Changes were made, ego's were stroked, battles were won and lost. In the end, I think the songs are right where we want them to be.

It was awesome to finally hear our record in an almost completed form. This made me even more excited. I just want to get it out there and into people's ears so badly. I can totally relate to other bands now who record an album in January and can't release it until July. It sucks. We don't want to be holding onto this thing for months and months after it is finished, but there is still a ton of work that needs done in all phases of the record making process. We're still aiming for a late June/early July release, but we cannot even book our CD release show until we are ready to send this thing off to duplication. Wouldn't want to be stuck with a CD release gig and no CD, right?

In other major news, we finally settled on a title for the record. After many months of sharing ideas, arguments, and finding out that every other album name we wanted to use was taken multiple times, we finally found something that is unique and fitting to this project. We'll reveal it soon enough!

Also, before too long we'll have some new music for you to sink your teeth into.
Yes. That's right. NEW MUSIC.

Even I'm looking forward to that.

Tonight is Spider-Man 3 at Midnight.
I'm so excited.
And I just can't hide it.

Excitementism

I'm just going to go ahead and destroy my image right here and now...

I am so excited for Spider-Man 3 to open in theaters that I can barely sleep at night. I saw the first two films on opening night and even revisited the theater 4 more times when the second was released. I have decided to take it a step further and get tickets for a midnight showing this time around. I want this movie in my eyeballs ASAP. I grew up a huge comic book nerd and collected hundreds of issues of Spider-Man. Were I to sell them all, I could probably cover the entire pricetag for our record. But I won't do that. I still maintain that reading Spider-Man comics made me who I am today. I had to pick up my acerbic wit somewhere. If I happen to appear a bit more giddy than usual for the next few days, please forgive me. I will be back to my cynical self in just a few days. Bear with me.

Go see this movie.
I'm basically throwing all this information out there so that people will read it and when they come to see us at shows they can bring me Spider-Man memorabilia instead of cookies. I do love the cookies, please don't get me wrong.

If I disappear for random 2 hour blocks Thursday through Sunday, don't worry, I'll be at the movie theater.

Oh yeah...uh ...record. Sounds good. Out some day.