if you rebuild it, they will forget

So. The new bassist Claude Prince is working out very well. He is a fast study and is learning song after song. He is a very welcome addition to the band, so much so that we have re-evaluated some of the tunes we tracked before he joined and have decided to re-track them with him on bass. Originally we were either going to use David's bass parts on some tunes, and replace the existing bass parts Gary and David had done on other tunes. Now we figure we'll re-record the whole epic song again, and replace the bass on the songs we feel are sitting well as is.

That obviously puts a serious dent in our schedule and we look like we aren't going to make our June release anymore. Pity. The amount of work David has put into the songs since they were tracked is HUGE, but even still, we all feel it is a better idea just to re-do the majority of them and miss our deadline.

On the plus side, at least half of the Cd is VERY close to being done. We have divided it up with the songy songs on the first half and the epic tune for the last. The first half is almost finished. All we have to do is re-track a bass-line, redo a vocal and track vocals for one other tunes. Oh, and add a keyboard solo from Guy Leblanc. And a fretless solo from Guy Dagenais. And...well, judging from the current addendums and add-ons: who knows? Still the album has a definitive shape and the last batch of mixes are very close to being final.

We hope to be done tracking and mixing by August and have the mastering done by September. This is taking a whole lot of time (more than any thing I have ever done before, and I typically grind out at least a 1/2 hour of finished, broadcast ready music a month).

No matter, the band is gearing up and the music is tighter and cleaner than before and that is very exciting!

A new wheel

In January charter member Gary Lauzon left the band and we have been auditioning bassists since. Last week we had out last audition and we are excited to announce bassist Claude Prince will be the newest wheel. Claude has immaculate prog credentials having been a member for Nathan Mahl for their arguably most popular albums "Clever Use of Shadows" and "Heretic". As well he was the bassist for their now famous live gig at Nearfest, back in 2002, when they blew away many prog fans.

We had auditioned quite a few players, both formally and informally and were getting a little worried that we mightn't find the right fit. Quite a few had expressed interest but most of them balked when they realized both the work involved playing the tunes, and the distances needed to travel to rehearsals, (while we are basically an Ottawa-based band, we rehearse outside of the city). No matter, as it turns out, Claude came along and blew us all away with his chops and his personality. Not only had he learned the requiste tunes (pretty tricky ones at that), but he had also taken a trial drive by our rehearsal spot just so that he would know the way on the day of the actual audition.

Given his lineage, all of us felt that his audition was more a matter of finding whether the personalities were a fit. Nevertheless he played the pieces with such aplomb that even if they weren't, we would still have been eager to have him join. As it turns out though Claude fit right in regardless, so the band is now poised to enter what all of us feel as being our strongest phase yet.

In other news, we are still tracking parts for our new CD, as well as another tune for a 10T complilation of twisted cover tunes called Undercover. The idea here is for every band on 10T to submit a re-worked version of an influential tune. We have chosen Cross-Eyed Mary and have almost finished it. Quite fun that.

So here are some pictures of various recording sessions we have done lately. We have used Shattered Wings, my studio and our rehearsal spot for the various tracking sessions. The mix is to be done in my studio (as before) and the mastering is tentatively set to be done at Raven.