It's been a month since I last updated you guys on the album. Since we finished up recording it's been a wild ride the last few weeks. I was in LA working with Andy Zulla on mixing the record, then left for the tour as soon as I got back from that. While on the road I did a little research on who I wanted to master the record and I went with Adam Ayan at Gateway Mastering. I had to have Gateway send the reference master disc to our cozy hotel here in Meadville, PA. So we got that today and the record is pretty much done now! Hurray!
Now the question is... when are YOU going to get to hear this music?? As of right now, I'm planning to release "Brighter Side" in January of 2008. This will give me time to promote it's release properly and really make a splash when it's released. Now, because I'm such a nice guy and I don't want you guys waiting 3 or 4 more months on new music, I'm going to be adding one new track every month until then to my myspace. The first track will be "Overrated" and I hope to have it up by the end of September on the FTA myspace page, followed by a digital single release in iTunes and other digital stores.
When details are confirmed I will post them right here for you, and as we draw closer to it's debut I will post the lyrics for the song here as well.
Tomorrow and Monday I will be hanging out with photographer Mustafah Abdulaziz taking pics for the album artwork.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
closing thoughts, go!
It's been a wild ride. 21 days out of the last month I've made it my business to make the next "Thriller" record. Recording is now complete and it feels good. I'm proud of each song and I can't wait to get them into your ears. I really think you're going to love it.
I should give props to everyone who worked on the record. The following is a list of people you might've seen in videos and people you will hear on "Brighter Side"
Todd Pipes - producer, bass, crumar, and piano bits
Toby Pipes - producer, shakers, tambourine, and background vocals
Ed Toth - drums
Nolan Theis - bass
Josh Goode - keys and piano
Junior Knight - pedal steel
My parts on the record were vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, banjo, xylophone. Yeah there's xylophone on the album, what about it?! Anyway, thanks again to the other players for making the album what it is. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm excited about... and I want you to be too! :)
So the next step is the mixing process and I won't be there for most of it. I'll be heading out to LA in a few weeks to get the final mixes done, but until then Mr. Andy Zulla will be messing about with the sessions and making them pretty. I'll be back to report how my LA trip goes in a few weeks, so for now this is bye bye - thanks for following along on my adventure this month!
I should give props to everyone who worked on the record. The following is a list of people you might've seen in videos and people you will hear on "Brighter Side"
Todd Pipes - producer, bass, crumar, and piano bits
Toby Pipes - producer, shakers, tambourine, and background vocals
Ed Toth - drums
Nolan Theis - bass
Josh Goode - keys and piano
Junior Knight - pedal steel
My parts on the record were vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, banjo, xylophone. Yeah there's xylophone on the album, what about it?! Anyway, thanks again to the other players for making the album what it is. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm excited about... and I want you to be too! :)
So the next step is the mixing process and I won't be there for most of it. I'll be heading out to LA in a few weeks to get the final mixes done, but until then Mr. Andy Zulla will be messing about with the sessions and making them pretty. I'll be back to report how my LA trip goes in a few weeks, so for now this is bye bye - thanks for following along on my adventure this month!
Monday, July 30, 2007
put a bow on it
STUDIO DAY #20
Tomorrow will officially be the last day in the studio, but we're basically done with everything. Soooo... that's all I've gotta say. I will be doing a final studio blog tomorrow and recap all of the greatness that will be this album. Until then...
Tomorrow will officially be the last day in the studio, but we're basically done with everything. Soooo... that's all I've gotta say. I will be doing a final studio blog tomorrow and recap all of the greatness that will be this album. Until then...
Sunday, July 29, 2007
let's tidy up
STUDIO DAY #19
I will be honest and say I don't have much to report. We're just going over the tunes one by one now and adding any little extras we find necessary. There are only a few more days and the adventure is over. It's gone by super fast and it went easier than I ever could have hoped for.
However, for you hardcore FTA fanatics that are dying to know what songs will be on the album I'm going to let you in on what the tracklisting will probably be. Some of you might have heard some these songs on the last tour and you can bet you'll be hearing them on the upcoming tour as well...
Brighter Side tracklisting:
1.) Giving It All To You
2.) The Good Life
3.) Overrated
4.) Surface
5.) Beautiful Girls
6.) Sunrise
7.) Sentimental Spell
8.) Here
9.) One Way Road
10.) Who You Are
11.) The Lighting
12.) It's Not Over
So anyway, of course we're still months away from releasing the album but I don't see anything wrong with sharing some insider info with you now.
No video today, sorry. I'll be making another 2 day montage tomorrow.
I will be honest and say I don't have much to report. We're just going over the tunes one by one now and adding any little extras we find necessary. There are only a few more days and the adventure is over. It's gone by super fast and it went easier than I ever could have hoped for.
However, for you hardcore FTA fanatics that are dying to know what songs will be on the album I'm going to let you in on what the tracklisting will probably be. Some of you might have heard some these songs on the last tour and you can bet you'll be hearing them on the upcoming tour as well...
Brighter Side tracklisting:
1.) Giving It All To You
2.) The Good Life
3.) Overrated
4.) Surface
5.) Beautiful Girls
6.) Sunrise
7.) Sentimental Spell
8.) Here
9.) One Way Road
10.) Who You Are
11.) The Lighting
12.) It's Not Over
So anyway, of course we're still months away from releasing the album but I don't see anything wrong with sharing some insider info with you now.
No video today, sorry. I'll be making another 2 day montage tomorrow.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
counting down from three...
STUDIO DAY #18
Three more days and we are complete with the recording process. Then the songs go out to L.A. to be mixed by Andy Zulla. We completed harmony for all twelve tracks today and tomorrow we start tidying up the tunes. I got home late last night so didn't take the time to make a video, so for today's video will be a two parter from yesterday and today.
I was home late because I went to see The Simpons movie. I'm not going to say anything about the movie for anyone who plans to see it. What I will mention, however, is the fact that I realized I can't go out to see movies anymore. It's annoying. We had the good fortune of sitting next to a couple of sweet 15 year old dudes that decided not to shut off their cell phones and talk on them several times throughout the movie. This should be of common knowledge to everyone now you'd think, but kids these days.. they just don't get it.
So anyway, this will be a short entry today for sake of having time to put together two days worth of clips.
Three more days and we are complete with the recording process. Then the songs go out to L.A. to be mixed by Andy Zulla. We completed harmony for all twelve tracks today and tomorrow we start tidying up the tunes. I got home late last night so didn't take the time to make a video, so for today's video will be a two parter from yesterday and today.
I was home late because I went to see The Simpons movie. I'm not going to say anything about the movie for anyone who plans to see it. What I will mention, however, is the fact that I realized I can't go out to see movies anymore. It's annoying. We had the good fortune of sitting next to a couple of sweet 15 year old dudes that decided not to shut off their cell phones and talk on them several times throughout the movie. This should be of common knowledge to everyone now you'd think, but kids these days.. they just don't get it.
So anyway, this will be a short entry today for sake of having time to put together two days worth of clips.
Friday, July 27, 2007
oh junior!
STUDIO DAY #17
If you've been watching the videos lately you've probably noticed there are a lot of shots of me with the mandolin (that odd shaped guitar looking thing). What's funny about all of these shots is that out of all the days (today) we actually used the mandolin on the album, we did not get any footage of me playing it. However, here is some interesting facts about my mandolin:
1.) I got it for free with a 100 dollar guitar offer from musiciansfriend.com in 2003
2.) it is made by Johnson brand instruments
3.) It doesn't stay in tune very well
We had a nice time trying to get the mandolin to stay in tune for it's minute and a half part in "Giving It All To You" - it was very much a pain. I'm no mandolin player as it is, not only that, Johnson does not make very reliable instruments anyway. Out of frustration with the 'mando,' I came up with a slogan for Johnson instruments today and it goes as follows .... "If it doesn't say Johnson on it, it's probably a better brand."
After working out my wicked mandolin part we had a fellow come in by the name of Junior Knight who plays a mean pedal steel guitar. He was a very nice guy and has been a performing musician for almost 50 years. You will hear his work on "Giving It All To You" - a little bit in "It's Not Over" and he's the starring role in "Who You Are." He really knows his pedal steel.
Afterwards Toby started to track harmony for a few songs. These are what I call "stunt vocals" because I'm too afraid to do them. Not really, but for some reason my voice kept going into falsetto and it did not sound right.
We have 4 more days in the studio and I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but I'm excited about this record.
If you've been watching the videos lately you've probably noticed there are a lot of shots of me with the mandolin (that odd shaped guitar looking thing). What's funny about all of these shots is that out of all the days (today) we actually used the mandolin on the album, we did not get any footage of me playing it. However, here is some interesting facts about my mandolin:
1.) I got it for free with a 100 dollar guitar offer from musiciansfriend.com in 2003
2.) it is made by Johnson brand instruments
3.) It doesn't stay in tune very well
We had a nice time trying to get the mandolin to stay in tune for it's minute and a half part in "Giving It All To You" - it was very much a pain. I'm no mandolin player as it is, not only that, Johnson does not make very reliable instruments anyway. Out of frustration with the 'mando,' I came up with a slogan for Johnson instruments today and it goes as follows .... "If it doesn't say Johnson on it, it's probably a better brand."
After working out my wicked mandolin part we had a fellow come in by the name of Junior Knight who plays a mean pedal steel guitar. He was a very nice guy and has been a performing musician for almost 50 years. You will hear his work on "Giving It All To You" - a little bit in "It's Not Over" and he's the starring role in "Who You Are." He really knows his pedal steel.
Afterwards Toby started to track harmony for a few songs. These are what I call "stunt vocals" because I'm too afraid to do them. Not really, but for some reason my voice kept going into falsetto and it did not sound right.
We have 4 more days in the studio and I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but I'm excited about this record.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
tracing amy
STUDIO DAY #16
Yeah, I'm excited about this record. I'll say it now and I'll say it again later. Today we finished up keys and piano bits with Josh Goode. His work on the record is what I will refer to as 'flare' for the album. These are the bits that the average consumer won't hear until the 7th or 8th listen. You'll listen to it down the road and think "hey, I never heard that, that's kind of cool. no wonder why this song sounds like magic." Of course there are other bits on the keys and piano that are just there as a part of the song. So here is a big THUMBS UP to Josh Goode and his magic fingers for tickling the ivory these last few days. Additional 'flare' was also added by Toby today with his contiuous work on the shakourine.
Side note:
In yesterday's blog I posted a drawing of Amy Winehouse I doodled. Apparently some of you were unhappy with me for 'making fun' of another artist - but I must say that in my defense I did not depict anything in my picture that she doesn't already parade in her own commercial image. I don't have anything against anyone's music, that is, the actual melody and chords put together. However - I do have a problem with her statement (statement being the image she projects and her lyrics). I willingly admit I'm a fan of a good love song, that's why I write them. But it seems to me that this generation isn't growing up with many love songs. I find them more to be 'sex songs' which confuse young adults into thinking that that's what love is. Maybe I'm just some nerdy 'square' that doesn't find it necessary we have another drug abuseing prostitute looking superstar, but I don't agree with it, that's all.
Moving on...
I'm excited about this record.
Yeah, I'm excited about this record. I'll say it now and I'll say it again later. Today we finished up keys and piano bits with Josh Goode. His work on the record is what I will refer to as 'flare' for the album. These are the bits that the average consumer won't hear until the 7th or 8th listen. You'll listen to it down the road and think "hey, I never heard that, that's kind of cool. no wonder why this song sounds like magic." Of course there are other bits on the keys and piano that are just there as a part of the song. So here is a big THUMBS UP to Josh Goode and his magic fingers for tickling the ivory these last few days. Additional 'flare' was also added by Toby today with his contiuous work on the shakourine.
Side note:
In yesterday's blog I posted a drawing of Amy Winehouse I doodled. Apparently some of you were unhappy with me for 'making fun' of another artist - but I must say that in my defense I did not depict anything in my picture that she doesn't already parade in her own commercial image. I don't have anything against anyone's music, that is, the actual melody and chords put together. However - I do have a problem with her statement (statement being the image she projects and her lyrics). I willingly admit I'm a fan of a good love song, that's why I write them. But it seems to me that this generation isn't growing up with many love songs. I find them more to be 'sex songs' which confuse young adults into thinking that that's what love is. Maybe I'm just some nerdy 'square' that doesn't find it necessary we have another drug abuseing prostitute looking superstar, but I don't agree with it, that's all.
Moving on...
I'm excited about this record.
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