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).