We have been chipping away at this new album now for a week and things are really starting to come together.

We are still in the early stages of this process, which can be a bit grueling, but we are really having a blast.  Here’s what we’ve been up to:

Friday -

Chris and I went into the studio and tracked “scratch” tracks of acoustic and vocals.  Essentially, I sat down and recorded a basic, acoustic guitar track and then got up and sang it.  I did this for all 10 songs (11 actually as one was supposed to be on the cut list) and with that done, Dana and Chris will be able to record drums and bass with something to go by other than just a metronome.  We spent 4 or 5 hours in the studio laying these down and having Chris there was a big help.  He was able to remind me of things I was forgetting and so I think we laid a solid foundation for the next pieces.

Monday -

Dana, Chris, Tim and I went into the studio and worked out drum parts.  It was a fairly lengthy process in the sense that we went from 10 to 7, but it was way quick considering that tracking 10 drums (actually we did 11 before I realized that 1 was on the cut list) usually takes a couple of days.  We went in with an understanding of how the songs all work, but without specific drum parts laid out.  The process could not have been easier!  Joel (our producer/engineer) had some great ideas and with all of us in the room kicking things around we were able to get some very cool, distinct parts.  Dana deserves most of the credit, however, as he was really able to sit down and make these parts come to life.  Before tracking drums we all had a fear that all of the songs sounded the same and were pretty generic.  That is no longer a worry.  The drums sound great and feel great and lay a really solid foundation for all of the other parts.

Wednesday -

We did bass.  Chris, Tim and I went in and did the bass work.  Chris is flat-out brilliant!  He just has a great ear and understands how to give songs a pulse while staying out of the way for parts that aren’t there yet.  We went in at 6:30 and finished by midnight, which again, makes for a long night, but in comparison is really quick.

The foundation has been laid and now we should really start to see these songs come to life.  After a much needed break (5 days off while Joel does some shows down south and we do services here), we’ll go back in on Tuesday and start doing keys and guitars.  This process will take a few days and then we’ll do vocals.

I’m getting more and more excited about the final product and can’t wait to start sharing some songs with you guys!

Check back here for more updates soon!

On Tuesday of this week Tim, Jill, Chris and I all went over to Dana’s to hash out a few songs and prepare to record some demos.

We worked through 5 songs which was pretty surprising considering they were mostly new to Dana and Chris.  I suppose not having a guitarist in the room made it go quicker as those guitar parts tend to be the driving hook and developing those can take some time.  That can happen a bit later though.

For now, we’re plowing through.  We’ll get together on Sunday and work out the rest and then Tuesday night we’ll start laying down drum and bass tracks.  We’ll continue to build these rough demos of each song so that we have something to play to in the studio in February.

This process, though somewhat laborious (that’s right, I said it) is really fun for me.  I really like getting in a room with other musicians and thinking through where songs can go and what we can do with them.

I’ll try and get some video this week and post it here so that the 5 of you who read this (hi mom) can get a sense of what’s going on.

oh by the way, I think we have a name:

drum roll please…

The Avenue

What do you think?

I’m getting ready to lock in some studio time for June/July and still writing some songs.  I finished one today called “Bigger” that I kind of dig and am excited to go in and fill it out with the guys.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m hoping to have 6-7 songs that I’m really pleased with, though I’d settle for 5.  Look for updates on the project here in the future.

We’re doing the latest song this weekend at Clovis Hills called “Come and See,” and it sounded pretty sweet in rehearsal Thursday!

We hit Dana’s home studio again this week laying down tracks for the new song, “Come and See” which we’ll be playing next week here at Clovis Hills.  I went over to Dana’s on Sunday and recording the acoustic and vocals while cool mo D programmed in the drums using EZ drummer. 

It went smoothly and we laid the framework for Justin, Luke and Paul to come over last night and let it fly.  So the song is ready for distribution to the band, though not quite suitable for public consumption. 

We’re going to be spending the next couple of months hashing some things out getting ready to go into the studio in June/July.  My goal is 7 songs that I’m really pleased with.  I’d love it if it worked out to be a full length, though I’d be happy with as few as 5 or 6.

I’ll be posting more on this as we go.  It’s quite a blast to get to play with these dudes and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes out of it!

My boss has been out of the country lately as well as being involved in a lot of different things that keep her away from here and put the responsibility of the weekend services squarely on my shoulders.  I’ve got to say, I’m getting used to it.  Not that I enjoy when my boss is gone, mind you, a lot of times I think I’m doing it all wrong, but the feeling of knowing that services are impactful and that I’m not burning the place down is pretty great and is also forcing me to develop some organizational muscles that I’d prefer to keep hidden.  I’m being stretched and that’s a good feeling.

Of course, stretching all the time is no fun for anyone, which is why I’ve really loved getting to spend some time with other musicians writing music.  I’ve been going over to Dana and Tim’s pretty regularly for the last few months hashing out some basic ideas and writing some new stuff.  I’ve also been spending some of my down time cranking out songs that I really like and have decided to put together a 6-7 song ep.

Each of the past two weeks I’ve gotten to jam with some great musicians as we’ve been fleshing out some guitar and bass stuff.  We’re doing one of these songs at Clovis Hills in the next couple of weeks and I can’t wait!

I thought I’d share a little link love for two of the guys that I’ve been working with.

 Luke Mundy and Paul Carlson

Okay,

So I have finally gotten around to sharing this song with all of you; sorry it’s taken so long.

This is the song I recorded (with a little help from my friends) for the Southern Baptist’s California Missions Offering video.

I had to edit it down a bit as it maxed out the file size limitations so it fades out at the end.

Enjoy!

I’m back from vacation and let me tell you it was glorious!!

So, upon returning, I find that Daniel over at Avant Garde Faith has finished the promo video that I wrote the song for.  Since all of you have been so patient, I thought I’d Link it.   

It’s not the whole song, it’s cut to fit the promo, but I’m stoked about it.  Let me know what you guys think!

http://avantgardefaith.blogspot.com/2008/06/creative-chaos-film-promo.html

Last week, we went into the studio and finished the song.  Our Engineer/co-producer was Joel Piper and he was awesome!  Because of injuries and scheduling, Joel ended up laying down drums, bass and the leads.  He was great to work with and I’m excited to work with him again.

 I went in by myself all day Tuesday and laid down the acoustic and then we worked out the bass and drums parts.  Jill and Tim came in on Wednesday and did the vocals and strings.

 The song turned out great!  I’ll post it here once I have a final mix down.

This is the last night at Dana’s project studio.

Jill and Tim came in and threw down some Backing vocals and Keys/strings.

Enjoy!

On Tuesday, we went back into Dana’s studio to work on this project.  We had Tim come in and put down a piano hook with some strings and Jill do some background vocals.  It was awesome! 

A lot of great ideas circulating and I think we’ve got some cool stuff.  All that’s left is for Franklin, to put down some bass and guitar and we’ll be good. 

We go into the studio on Tuesday and Wednesday to record the final product and I’m really excited.  This week I’ve been ironing out the logistics and by Thursday of next week, we’ll be in post production. 

Because of the time frame of this project, we’ve had to keep the number of musicians relatively small, but this process has reminded me of just how much talent there is in our ministry.  What a cool thing it is to be able to just hand a song to people and have all of these ideas flying. 

There’s video of this session coming and the final product will be up here as well at the end of the month.