Merry Christmas....

So here it is... our first christmas EP called Joy Of Every Longing Heart is ready. So again, the story here is that for the last few years as we are learning/writing christmas songs for our christmas eve service at ORB, we've been recording them (rather quickly). So this year we decided to actually finish 3 of them and do a short run of CDs that we can give out and make them available for free download. These were intended to be quick little productions, without super polished performances, weeks worth of mixing and proper mastering, and all that other stuff that is sometimes gone after when making CDs. So anyway, below is the inside story of each tune, open the download page on the ORB site and listen while you read about them.

1) Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.

Most songs we do (as the New Ancients) are old hymns that we rewrite the music to and do our own arrangement. Long Expected was actually more of a "cover" in that the main inspiration for our version came from Bill Mallonee's version of the song. In particular, the main acoustic part in the beginning. The ends of each of the stanzas are all New Ancients of course... but i have to give credit where it's due... this song is a tip of the hat to the great Bill Mallonee. So on this Christian is on the background vocals, Emily and Leah doin the girls parts... Rob and Matt P. on horns, Tim electrics, and i'm playing piano, acoustics, percussion, bass and singing the lead.

2) I Heard The Bells.

The feel of this one is due in large part to Rob's swanky lap steel guitar and hammond organ playing. The guy can play it all. If you listen closely to the track you can hear the organ cracklin here and there. It's in need of serious servicing, but who do i get to come to my place and fix a 50 year old organ? Em and Leah again on all the Oooos, Aaaahs and Haaas. Anthony did some sweet guitars, and I did the bass, more guitars, vocal (done as a scratch vocal over a year ago btw), and drums (using only 2 mics, playing my son sammy's mid 60's ludwig orange sparkle kick drum and a same era rogers snare).

3) Song For a Shepherd.

So this is actually an all original New Ancients song. Words and all. I wrote this based on a sermon that my brother did last year based on the Shepherds and the Christmas story from their point of view. The song is done from a shepherd's point of view... i imagined a young guy sitting on some cold rocks in the hills thinking about how lonely it was, how he had the lowest job you could get, how no one respected the shepherd, etc. But deep down these guys knew that King David was also a shepherd, and that was something to be proud of. Then this one night something wonderful happens... the hope of the world is made known finally to men. But not to the professional wonder teachers and priests in the city below, but to the lowly shepherds. Fascinating. I thought there would be a great song in that. Not sure if this one qualifies as a great song... but it is what it is. I did this one all myself except for the super-spooky guitar line that Tim played. The drums for this were done over a year ago. Everything else was done within this past week. It may seem a bit dark... but think of it as if you are a young shepherd. I was dressed like one when i wrote it. that helped.

Finally, the artwork and layout for the actual CD (which is being manufactured now hopefully!) was done all by hand by Brian Jones. A Big Thanks to him for knocking this out so quickly!

So there it is... maybe next year we'll try this again with another 3.

Merry Christmas!

-pete and The New Ancients

hey, slow updates?

...yes...

because we have decided to put a hold on the next album to record a 3 song Christmas EP.

I have been asked more than a few times about doing a New Ancients Christmas recording, and Tim and I had 6 or so songs scratched out from previous years, so there you go. We picked 3 and decided to get them down quick... no huge enormous productions or anything... leave in the dodgy vocals... fudged guitar parts.... loose drums... do some quick art and have the press plant do a short run so we could give them out this year. So for the last 2 weeks we've been working on that... here are some pictures that Rob took with his fancy iPhone photo app that i can never remember the name of:

Lots of horn work was done by Rob, and Matt P. joined the party as well. Leah and Em were doing vocals last night, as well as Christian (!) who was in during lunch to record a quick background vocal. I'd wager one more session and these songs are done. Which songs? you'll have to wait to find out.

Happy Thanksgiving

yeah -

so no session was done for The New Ancients this past week, instead, Tim and I worked on The Ringout (our other band). We are on our 3rd release and we don't want this one to take 3 years like Wake, Wake Dear! (2nd release) took. Tom and Max were there helping out and laughing at us trying new and potentially unmusical ideas on Jeff's new songs, but..... that's what you get when you live in Brooklyn and let the drummer and guitar player run amuck with your tunes! Here are some photos of the action taken by Brian Jones.

I'll be back next week with New Ancients coverage.

Cheese and Lead Vocals

It was ladies night at the studio yesterday... lead vocals for a couple songs as well as some backups. Emily and Leah did the honors this time.

Tom was there as usual helping test things, giving encouragement to the girls, and providing a general air of feel-goodery to the night's work. The importance of these things to a successful recording can not be underestimated... trust me.

Along those same lines, Max Roberts was there tonight for some guitar work and brought along a fancy plate of assorted cheeses and crackers. This type of thing compliments the decour of this dingy basement studio very well i might add. So while we feasted on gorgonzola and bre, we knocked out a vocal part for Morning Guilds The Skies and Thy Love Bind Us.

After Emily finished her lead part we quickly jumped on

capturing a nifty little lead line Max wrote for Thy Love. Tara was there and added a double on the Juno. You cannot deny how great that synth is. The only downside is that after 5 minutes of slider-noodling to find the right sound (which we did) i am now required to take 5 pictures of the thing so we can re-create the sound if we have to since there is no memory or presets on this beast. Here's a shot of the Tara-Max duo getting it to sound right. Sandy was there as well (the shoulder on the left) making sure we were pronouncing all the words correctly in the lead parts. Again.... Invaluable to a successful recording!

Emily sang a backup to When Will Thou Save The People... firmly planting that song in the "Done Tracking" bin. A few mix tweaks and it's "All Done". We are poised to release an EP if there's enough interest... so again.. please let it be known if this is something you're interested in (thanks to those who have already!)

This past weekend we embarked on one of our Thrift Store Tours, in which 10 of us piled in the van and headed out to Lancaster County, PA to rifle through old used clothing bins and scour the countryside for old paintings and gaggy lamps as we made our way from thrift store to thrift store. I'd wager the Lancaster area has more thrift shops per square mile than any place on the planet. You can experience the first "tour" we did in '07 here in this youtube vid. I got another couple hymnals on this trip, so at this point i have enough material to last us 12 more albums or so. Tom was there of course and came away with many many delightful outfits and clothing articles, one of which was these pants here on the right. Snazzy.

Back From Spain World....

So no update last week because i was away on vacation... just like last album when we went to Italy... remember? only this time it was Spain. Yeah, i'm an important world traveler.

Sandy (my wife) and i went to Madrid finally after years of wishing we could go... she used to live there and hasn't been back for 15 years... so it was wild to see all the changes that have occurred in that time; things like cathedrals in places where there were no cathedrals, the massive bounce-plex in front of the Royal Palace, the outdoor public foot-rub and pina-colada kiosks strewn about, and the city-wide no smoking policy that's been enacted. hahha... i'm totally joking about all that... i got you guys so bad. (except for the cathedral... that was real).

We met up with our good friend Justine who came down from Barcelona to spend the day with us... that was certainly a trip highlight... here she is with Sandy in front of a big iron horse.

Here's a shot of me in the Metro. Look how European i am sitting on that metal pole like Europeans so often do. I told you i'm important!

Anyway - the trip was great and we hope to get back there in a year or two with the pups... but in the meantime i need to finish this album so we can make millions to fund the next romp around the globe.

So last night Tim, myself, and Tom worked on guitars and vocals for Mighty Now to Save, Morning Guilds the Skies, and I'll Sing On. Tim just got a Roland RE-201 Space Echo and brought it along for the night, so it was used on a part for Mighty Now. oh, did i mention we are using a lot of tape echo on this recording?

We also worked on vocals. Now, usually (and i think ideally) a band has one lead singer, and that singer is a large (if not biggest) part of the

"identity" and sound of the band. The New Ancients does not have such a person. We have a bunch of different people who we shuffle in and out of the lead spot... and hopefully it works... so a big part of planning these albums is figuring out who is going to sing what part in what song. The leads are always the hardest to pick. We have to try and find who can sing and sound best on what song... and sometimes it takes a few tries. For example, for Jesus Master on Light For Dark Eyes, we had 2 other versions of the song; one with Michelle Andrews singing the lead, and one with Jeff Ulrich singing. Both sounded good, but Christian just sounded better (probably since he wrote the song) so he ended up on there. For this album, there may be no Christian at all at this rate! He's been pretty busy in meetings, phone calls, babies, wood chopping, and Settlers of Kataning. So as of now, looks like i'm in the hot seat to do vocals... Here's a shot of Tom looking on as Tim works the knobs for my vocal tracking:

Earlier in the day i tracked Sammy doing some bell kit for a tune. Mom shot the video while i sat by and directed. Sammy now gets the "Youngest Recorded New Ancient" award. As i listen to some of these mixes i realize that The New Ancients and The Ringout are starting to converge... this new album sounds pretty darn distant from Light For Dark Eyes and is closing in quickly on Wake, Wake Dear! from the Ringout. But it is what it is and this is where we are.

Hopefully next week we will get some of the girls' vocal parts done and put some more songs in the bag. At this point there are actually 3 songs pretty much wrapped up, which may mean it's time to press a little EP for a pre-buy so we can raise money to fund the pressing of the full length. Anyone interested? let me know if you are.

Screamin AC30's and horns...

Lot's of guitar work done over the last week... mostly for Thy Love Bind Us and Mighty Now To Save. Tim and Rob were here last night and we did some work with Rob (who actually hasn't been here in a while)... at least since we were working on his other band (no defunct) Infinite Detour. It was a fun reggae-rock project to work on... too bad for them we didn't have the tape delay machines then that we have now. Sorry Rob! Here's a little shot of Tim doing his lines for Mighty Now while Rob looks on in approval and waits for an incoming fax.

Rob did some slide guitar work for Thy Ancient Power; a hymn that was actually sent to me by the Great Al Oliver, father of Matt Oliver who played some serious recorder on the last album. I get a lot of suggestions for hymns to do (or re-do) and this was one that made it all the way to completion town.

It's sounding pretty Road House at the moment, in a good way hopefully, so we'll have to add some lalala or dada girlie parts to bring it back to New Ancients territory. Afterwards Rob broke out his sweet little cornet he bought while on a trip to Niagara Falls in the summer to do some lines for Thy Love Bind Us. There are still lots of horns to do for this album, so the next bunch of session should be full of brass work.

When Rob was finished he snapped some artsy shots of Tim and I noodling around with guitar sounds.

Welcome Time Wasters...

...to yet another diary of sorts that will follow the weekly progress of the recording of the 3rd album from The New Ancients at Submergent Recording in Middletown, NJ. Two other blogs which chronicle the making of the first 2 CDs, Light For Dark Eyes and Every Branch a Quill are still up and available for nostalgic look-backery. There used to be lots of great pics and videos on those, but they seem to have been eaten by the internet. This blog is a bit different right off the bat as i am actually starting it not at the outset of writing or tracking any of the songs, but in the middle of the project. So in other words, the thing is about half way done already. (that should be a relief for all you impatient types). These albums have been fun to make as there isn't a set band per se, but rather a constant rotating door policy of people contributing to the recordings. So there are a few new faces here, as well as most of the old crew. With each album we do the sound sound of the "band" keeps developing and changing slightly, hopefully in a way the listener ultimately enjoys and is willing to come along for the ride. This one is no exception; sonically there is a bit more thickness and body to what we are putting together here, due largely to the addition of a few key pieces of gear at the studio which we seem to be using over and over that are almost defining the tone/sound of the album.So this one was started pretty much right after we finished up Every Branch... we already had a handful of songs we had been doing that definitely had to be recorded. As time wore on we wrote more and more and now we're looking at 17 or 18 songs that are currently underway for this project, so expect around 13 or 14 to make the final album. A few of these are actually either done or 1 or 2 vocal tracks away from being done, while others are just in the initial stages of scratch-icity. I wont bother to hazard a guess as to when this will be completed as we all know how schedules go... but let's just say it WONT be another 2 years.

Good enough?

So last night we worked on a brand new song which i wrote based on a hymn i found in an old Methodist hymnal i got this summer while in Maine. Our good friend Dania came in to do some la-la and oo-Ahs. Nice. Tom was there just like old times taking pics and vids, but this time no spraying Tim in the ears with compressed air. I was all out. Here's some pics!

So here are the starting points for most of these songs. On the left is the 150 year old hymnal that is made mostly of dirt and *a bit* of paper molecules, out of which i found a dark and somber little hymn which became "On a Quiet Sea"... the first tune that we finished. Why? because it was only a guitar and one vocal track. Easy. The middle hymnal came from a thrift shop in Maine, and the red one on the end was given to me by Christian. A lot of the songs off Light For Dark Eyes came from this book.

Here's the only shot tom took (of people)... Tim and Emily are reading "Recording The Beatles", a back breaking book lent to me by my friend John Noll at Retromedia Recording in

Red Bank. It contains a staggering amount of information about how their recordings were made. Everything you could possibly imagine, and a lot of stuff you can't (and wouldn't want to) is in here.

Anyway - here are some more pictures of some of the new gear we've been using... it may give you an idea of the shape this album is taking. Then again... maybe it wont...

Tape delays and drum machines from the 80's. I never thought i'd be using these things so much. Don't tell 1991 Pete... he would never believe it.

The mighty Roland Juno 6. No presets, no MIDI, just loads of vintage wonderfulness. It is on a good number of these songs already and is largely responsible for the overall sound of this album.... (i think). Again... i

never thought i'd love working in synthy land as much as i have been.

Mics set up for the vocal work we did and the Vox AC30 that is pumping out most of the guitar tones we're using. The amp is fabulous... it was sort of an "accidental" ebay purchase... but whatever... i'm using it all the time and it's exactly what we needed in the studio (besides the purple color).