We have now completed all 5 days and have no recordings to show for it! Who would have guessed that the first time we heavily advertise our recording experience and invited you all to join us it would end in complete disarray. Even the first and only song we worked on while in the studio for a day and a half became the theme song for the whole experience. (You can hear a preview of that rough demo in a video on our home page called “Falling Skies – The Drive DAY 1 of 5″. We filmed this on the way to Atlanta with no idea of what was about to happen!) Nothing went as planned this week but something has begun. We saw the end of some things but also feel something just beginning. It feels like The Enemy Lovers (as in just Steven and I) is no more and The Enemy Lovers (as in the whole band) has emerged out of this disaster. We went into the studio in Atlanta as Tim and Steven recording music with Dan Hannon for The Enemy Lovers to us coming home to a band made up of more than just two brothers. Although we have been playing live as The Enemy Lovers for almost a year now it has always been vague as to who we were. A band or just two brothers? We’ve not known what plans to make or not make trying to find our way through a music industry of mines. We have tried to stay “flexible” in hopes of I don’t know what. But a band had developed over this past year and now we see that we didn’t see it until the abrupt end in our professional relationship with our producer. When we lost that safety net we began to see what had been developing here the whole time. It’s our house now. The Enemy Lovers house! This is the band. We make music. We are now recording new demos and meeting with new producers. Much is to come of this dreadfully beautiful week!
Thanks for coming with us. Welcome to our house.
*FULL BAND BIO COMING SOON. Also look for blogs from every member of The Enemy Lovers. Follow each of us on twitter.
**We have a NEW MUSIC VIDEO coming out very soon for ‘Coming Down’! (I just saw the first edit and it is shocking how cool it looks.) Look for more info on that premier.
Today was Day 4 in our “5 Days. 5 Songs.” venture and we have been recording new music as planned, kind of…
As you have probably read in our blog we are no longer in Atlanta recording with Dan Hannon. We came home late Tuesday night after a bittersweet symphony of events. It’s hard to explain what really happened, and a different story could probably be told from each perspective. After a day reflecting on the situation all I can conclude is that everything got to a point where it could not be resolved. A decision was made and things changed. We are now home in Asheville, NC recording new music in The Enemy Lovers house. This week is very different than you or I had imagined. It’s been a revolutionary four days.
Steven and I spent this morning setting up our rehearsal space to record. Being in the studio in Atlanta and then having it end so abruptly misplaced all of these creative juices that got stirred up in us. We were having all of these ideas that needed a place to go. So at around 12:30 we started tracking ‘Falling Skies’, again. Ironically we still spent the day recording but in a completely different space and it’s actually turning out amazing. We are very excited about how it is feeling and for me, how it is singing. And fyi, Steven played some ridiculous guitar parts that I cannot wait for you to hear!
Sometimes I wonder if I knew exactly how an event would turn out would I even chose to still go through it. Maybe it’s our not knowing that keeps us hoping. These unavoidable personal/business conflicts make us decide who we are or who we want to be. We make decisions and change things but things ultimately work out. We’re all humans in between. Despite all that has happened this week Steven and I are feeling good about where we are now as compared to where we were last week at this time. Very good. But still a little sad.
So it is Wednesday… yes we are supposed to be in the studio for another two days as well as today but we are not. Unfortunately we had some issues that arose with our producer and evidently they were not able to be worked out. This is a sad but exciting turn of events after the initial shock. We arrived home this morning around 12:30 with a mix of emotions swirling around in our hearts. To think of not using our producer anymore is really sad due to a relationship that we had built from the last EP and B-sides as well as Light Up. As goes with any true relationships there are things that will not be fully agreed upon which I believe is not a bad thing, actually I think it is the complete opposite. I think a true relationship should have disagreements and if there are none than maybe it is more of an acquaintance than a relationship. Either way there were evidently irreconcilable issues that he had with us therefore leading him to withdraw from being our producer anymore. So Day 3 resulted in losing our producer.
But when hard times come I think we have an opportunity to continue down a path that we did not know was there and see where it leads. I, for one, am extremely excited about this. We obviously are still a band, we still write music, we still play shows, and we’ll still record. It will just be different than the last time, which can be a breeding place for creativity. If there is one thing I love it’s creativity. We are looking now for a new producer and we still plan on taking this band and doing great things. I have no idea what the end of this path will be, but I do believe it is where we are supposed to be. There is a push that needs to happen when you get too comfortable in the way you “always” do it, and a lot of times without this push you can end up with the same result as all the other times. That is why I am excited. This whole thing came as a “shock” that is pushing us out of our comfort zone. ALWAYS a good thing!
I hope all of you are as excited as we are? If you aren’t, then get excited!
It’s 2:48 in the morning and we have just wrapped up Day 1. Honestly it did not go according to plan. And since we’re being honest and I’m tired and feeling a little over dramatic, let me explain it like this. The feeling here tonight (this morning) is revolutionary. I came here with this whole idea of how it would pan out and I spent the whole day trying to get that only to realize the idea had been changed before we got here. Everything is different. It’s ironic to me that 12 inches of snow fell right before we were supposed to come here. And that we had to physically dig ourselves out only to see that snow had also metaphorically fallen on this experience and now we have to dig ourselves out, again. This is why you should never blog this late at night when you’re this tired. Everything seems like a mess. All the ducks that we had in a neat row are now smashed to bits. But I’m one to believe that our (meaning all of humanity’s) days are not lived by chance but where ever we find yourself is where we are meant to be…for some reason. This is a great adventure for me and I’m on the edge of my seat. What ever it is has got my attention now. This is the first time we have ever been here. The plans are changing and not only are we fine with it but we are insistent on finding what we came here for, even though what we came here for is different then what we originally thought. It’s hard to get accustomed to change at first but once you see that the change HAS happened you dig deeper. Tomorrow is a new day. There is music to be made.
Speaking of tomorrow we’ve got a 3 person film crew coming in to film us in the studio and put a documentary of it together. It’s the same crew that shot our music video a couple weeks ago and they are also bringing a copy of the new music video!!
This is a sneak preview of a rough demo of the song “Falling Skies” (recorded on our video camera via tour van radio.) This is the song we decided to start our 5 day adventure with.
Two days before we are supposed to leave for Atlanta and 12 inches of snow falls! Can you believe that? We’ve been snowed in for a day and a half here in Asheville NC. The temperature today is over 40% and it’s beginning to melt but the forecast for tonight is calling for 16% temperatures! Of course it’s all going to freeze over again so we’re getting the van loaded with all our gear today and then tomorrow we’re going to play by ear. We might be facing a 2 hr delay but we’ll get there! The irony of when and how things happen in this life is unreal sometimes. Now we have to dig our way out! Here’s our tour van under snow…
The hardest part of the recording process for an artist to go through is all the talking. We write, sing and perform well but when it comes to breaking everything down to logistics it feels like a threat to our existence. Unfortunately, in the modern age of music an artist has to be both creative and business minded as well, two minds that often are at war with each other because one mind is thinking about the bottom line while the other is searching for a voice no matter what the cost. This is the part where we hold our breath until we actually start recording music and can breath again. It’s just talk, talk, talk, right now.
Yesterday and today we have had two conference calls. The first with Jamie Cerreta at Chrysalis Publishing Group (our publisher who is funding this project) and he pretty much dominated the discussion with zeal and excitement for what he hopes these next 5 days are going bring. He’s crazy about all our new demo songs but had 3 in particular that he said we should put at the top of the pile as the best. I could tell the song titles but you would only recognize Light Up Pt. 1 which he is flipping out about. That’s the song that we have already partially recorded and have played a few times at our last few shows. (You can see a live performance of this song here CLICK HERE TO WATCH) His excitement for this song made us especially excited because it has been one of our favorites too! This being said, expect a 100% completed version of this song Light Up Pt. 1 in the very near future!
The second call was with Dan Hannon (our producer). He was on that first call but in light of Jamie’s excitement only actually said about 3 sentences. So we scheduled another call with just him to catch up on everything that Jamie had said on the first call. Things are changing and will continue to change. This is as much of an adventure for us as it is for you. Needless to say we think we have a plan of attack for next week. We have the songs picked out as well as the vision for the production style and dynamics of each. It sounds like we have our ducks in a row but as creativity goes we will most likely knock all these ducks into a mess on Monday morning. Our goal is to come out with something that’s not contrived or premeditated. Something great that wasn’t just recorded to make money, although that would be nice.
The bottom line remains the same, we’re still taking this wherever it goes. Come with us.
Today we had our first conference call, and when I say conference call I mean Steven and I were huddled over one outdated cellphone on speaker phone talking with Dave Rossi (our manager) and Dan Hannon (the producer) about the plan for The Enemy Lovers’ 5 days in the studio.
So what’s the plan? Take 5 days and turn them into 5 songs.
For the first part of the call everyone was talking over each other then pausing for awkward silences but then once we got the rhythm of a conversation we started talking about the studio. We will be among the first artists to record in Dan Hannon’s newly designed and outfitted studio in Atlanta GA. He and Brad Fisher (the engineer) spared no expense in building a state of the art space with all the best equipment all with names that I’ve never heard of, except Neve Preamps. We are excited to break it in or at least warm it up for five days. From what I hear the vibe is happening.
Why the 5 days?
Besides it making more sense with finances, the idea came to us while in the studio at the end of last year. When we accidentally recorded “Light Up Pt.1″. (A limited release that we gave away as a free download for Christmas. You can see the video on our home page.) We only went with the intention of quickly recording rough demos of some new song ideas. But we realized after hearing the feedback for Light Up Pt.1 that we stumbled upon an approach to recording that worked for us. Simplify and record one song in one day. Let it happen.
Then the question came up, what 5 songs?
Now this is the hard part when you’re going into it with 9 or 10 brand new songs. How do you choose? As always an artist is most excited about there most recent work and since all of these songs are so new it’s very hard for us to make that decision. Our plan is to not over think it or add to many tracks to the songs. Give the songs only what they need. Keep it simple. Focus on vocals, lead and backing. Write less parts but make them the best parts.
At the end of the call we were all jazzed about this new thing. It’s uncharted waters for us. We’re recording new songs with new music in a new studio in a new way for a new year. So there in lies the plan. We’re just going to go with it. We have plenty of time and the right songs will surface. Go with us.
We hope to release a new full length record in the spring. It will have the best songs of the EP and 5 brand new songs. Plus we will be releasing a new music video for Coming Down!
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Welcome to this blog roll where we will attempt to document 5 days, recording one song per day starting February 1st. We will be recording again with Dan Hannon in Atlanta GA. Our hope to provide you with a way to see inside the creative mind of a musical artist when creating new music. We will be uploading videos, pictures, and song outtakes from the studio and writing the story down in this blog every day. We will also be using twitter to keep you updated on a more instant basis. Welcome to this exciting time for us and we are glad that you have joined us.
