Making the Album

I had a thought. Most blogs have a theme. Mine has pretty much nothing. What can I do? Let's give it a theme.

Here it is folks, an actual reason to perhaps, maybe, read this blog! I'm going to start posting about the process of getting my debut record make! Well, not MY record exactly, but the record I'm going to be recording with my buddy Brandon Warren.

Some of you may have seen us play in Corning at the Snooty Pig, or in PA, or in NYC at the Back Fence. Most of you have probably never heard us play, but we've been churning out music together since about 2005. Way back then we were two musicians in a college band still learning how to not suck. Without breaking my arm, I will pat myself on the back and say that individually, we all had a good amount of talent; we just kinda had no direction or discipline as a group.

Fast foward a few years, and Brandon and I decide to strike out on our own. The college band breaks up after recording a pretty mediocre CD that we never released, and Brandon moves to NYC. All this time, he's writing up a storm. Song after song (in between Phillies games, of course) and I venture up to the North Country of NY State for a teaching job.

We play together once or twice a month, and communicate often via email. We bounce song ideas off one another for a couple of years. We play a few shows where we include these original tunes, but we mostly do covers 'cause it's easier for people to drink and party to songs they've heard before. But we notice something: When we play our tunes...people actually like them! We get compliments! From strangers! It's awesome! Finally some validation. Then this happens:

"Where can I get your CD?"

....uuuh...we...don't...have one. D'OH! Ok, so admittedly, this is a bad thing. It's hard to promote oneself when one has no merchandise that people can take home and listen to endlessly. So we decided, hell, let's save up some money and make a record. A record record record (That Thing You Do reference for all you uncouth folks).

So we're off. We've somehow managed to narrow a list of 20 tunes down to 5 that we think will best represent what our sound is. We've been talking to recording studios, we've been working on some preproduction, and we are committed to this.

To be conintued.....