CD's are In!

Yes Yes.... back from the press plant finally. The worst part is that i'm on vacation right now on Cape Cod and have to wait to see them. Oh Well. For you local types, you can grab a copy from Mr. Brian Jones if you're in Red Bank... or on sunday mornings at the Clearview Cinemas in Red Bank where orb meets in the mornings. When i get back (next week) i will have them distributed to all the pre-buyers and we will set up the mail order thingy as well. You out of towners can order using the paypal button in the post below this one. So here's what it looks like! (keep in mind this image is a scene created entirely using cut out paper in 3-D).

Here We Go....

Well, we are at the manufacturing plant with *almost* all the materials, so in a month's time the album we be here for the grabbing. In the mean time, we are going to so a "re-buy" again to help pay for the CD pressing. If you feel so inclined, the easiest way to do this is to send 10 bucks via paypal to me at submergent music and i will get you a CD as soon as it comes in. you can use the button below for that. Want more details on the CD? ok. 

So the album is called Glory & Dismay (that's not the album cover there above... just wait.... it's truly fabulous) and features the following tracks:

1: I Cannot Give An Answer

2: King of Love

3: Thy Love Bind Us

4: Morning Guilds The Skies

5: Mighty Now To Save

6: Redeemer Intro

7: My Redeemer

8: A Pilgrim's Song

9: If On A Quiet Sea

10: He Arose

11: When Will Thou Save The People

12: Thy Touch Still Has It's Ancient Power

13: I'll Sing On

14: We Beseech Thee

15: Interlude

So there you have it. Sit tight... almost here. In the meantime, you can preview some of the tracks over on the New Ancient's FaceBook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Ancients/131945850580

For pre-buyers... use this!

All Done....

yes. no foolin and in all seriouslyness.

Last night marked the end of this 3rd New Ancients album work. I got started early and fought with (and almost lost) one last guitar line for "Thy Ancient Power". The song was initially going to be left off this recording as it was sounding a bit to "country" and not at all like the rest of the album. Max re-recorded a line for the head of the song that seemed to bring it back to New Ancients Land and with that, it makes the cut. Also, Leah came in and sang We Beseech Thee in literally ONE TAKE. So now with 4 lead vocals recorded for this song, the winners are clearly Anthony and Leah... not that emily and i didn't sound good... (actually, i didn't, i can tell you that)... it's just Leah and Anthony sounded "right" for the song.

Soooo... next steps are as follows:

1) on to disc mastering. This will most likely be going down the week after next, as i have a wedding this week and a show with The Ringout out in PA the week after... both events are going to require me to put in some serious work. Once this is mastered, look for 3 songs or so on the New Ancients myspace and facebook pages.

2) Art! Dave Ulrich (did the first 2 CDs) is doing the art for this one again as well. I have no idea what the CD layout will look like at this point, but he says he has ideas.

3) Once 1 and 2 are done, it's off for duplication.. figure a month after that and they will be available. So definitely for the start of this summer.

Whew.. what a relief. That was a hard album to do and i need a break. Rather than starting on the 4th right away (who am i kidding.... it's already kind of started... shhhh) we are going to do another Christmas 3 or 4 songer this year... so get ready for that. Last years' was fun to do and we figured since we have the material, why not.

Tracking almost wrapped

Yes you heard right. We are nearing the end of recording (yet my list of things to do on each tune seems to grow ever bigger and never slim). Last night we had Anthony come in and sing "We Beseech Thee" in 1/3 the time it took me to do my version of it, and it smoked it all night from here till the cows came home. (you heard me). So my track is out and his goes to the big show. Excellent. Tara and Leah also did some background stuff, and Rob played some Hammond on a couple songs. I did handfuls of tamborine and shaker type stuff earlier in the day, so there was actually a lot done (even though it never feels that way). So for the picture-less update here today... Tom was here but didn't shoot anything, and there's just no way i can take pictures of the action and do all the other stuff i'm doing during these sessions (running mic lines, turning knobs, placing mics, getting water for the divas singing, staring at computer monitors, yelling at people to shut up in the background, listening for hiss, crackles, pops, and buzz, answering the phone, tuning things, being jolly, paying attention, and not hitting my head on things.

So that's it for now. Maybe by next week we'll have word on some artwork (or a name?) for this thing. Moving right along....

Mixing, Edits, Overdubs, Zzzzzzz

Well... it's just about done. Now there's lots of really boring work to do that doesn't deserve much updating. It mostly looks like this (from my point of view). Lots of fiddling around on the computer and people staring at my back.

another done....

new song last night. another simple setup... 4 of us in a circle... everything at once. did it work? not sure yet. felt good though. check out the reach on that Latch Lake mic stand...

let's try this again....

this time we got it. one shot live in a circle, Rob, Sole, and myself got the basics for "We Beseech Thee" down. Jay (taking the pics), Tom, and Leah were in attendance giggling and making noises in the room while we made takes. This morning before work i plowed through the upright track all by my lonesome. Only vocal tracks to go and this one is done. we are officially in the home stretch.

simple night

Rob, Sole, myself and Jay Ervin sat around in a circle and did the best we could with getting "We Beseech Thee" down, live in one shot. Much in the same way we did Psalm 116 on the last album, except without the vocals. Tones and arrangement were pretty good... but i discovered 2 things:

1. i need a better banjo that can be better in tune

2. my fingers are too big for the positions i was using.. i.e. sloppy playing.

Eh... i dont know... we may use what we did.... we may not. It was nice having jay there for encouragement. (he took some pics too).

I did a handful of other little tidbits (guitar parts and drum stuff, bass thingies, etc)... just chopping away at the mountains of work still in our way. chop chop.

2 more leads done

real real quick!

- leah finished lead vox for Morning Guilds The Skies

- Anthony Sole does lead for King of Love....

only a couple more lead vocal parts and it's in the socks.

also .... art work is set to get off the ground next month.

more later....

Dave Returns, Emily Sings...

Last night saw Emily finishing her vocals for "He Arose", Brian doing some fine glockenspiel work, as well as the triumphant return of Dave Ulrich to New Ancients Recording. This song was written last year (or was it 2 years ago?) for an Easter service... we did it once and that was it. It's a sweet, dreamy little number that is perfect for Em and Leah's little voices... think "Jesus, Savior of my Soul" or "Chase the Shades" but with girls singing the leads and you've got the idea. Dave (who did the artwork for Light for Dark Eyes and Every Branch) recorded some banjo for us on the first album, and then proceeded to take off on a cross country bike adventure, forcing me to buy a banjo and learn how to play (sort of). So for Every Branch a Quill, me and Christian did all the stuff i'd rather have dave doing.

Onto the pics (taken by Tom)!

Emily applies liberal amounts of lip balm before a take.

Dave got the banjo and fiddled while emily sang. By the time she was done, he had a pretty spankin good line cooked up. Tim sat and ate his dinner out of a tupperware bowl all the while.

Brian knocked out a glock part after dave's banjoing and the night was about over. Tom grabbed a sneaky little video of Emily being annoyed with copious amounts of tap delay during her background vocal work...

Sole Sings

very quick update this morning as we are doing another session tonight....

Anthony Sole came in a knocked out My Redeemer pretty darn quickly. just perfect. Check him about here feeling pretty good about his efforts. Rob took some photos with his fuzz-o-cam. In addition to his vocal work we have finished most of King Of Love, leaving vocals and other extra goodies to still do... i also started assembling some interlude pieces... i'm not off to a great start though, as the first one i did was inadvertently done a whole step below where it should've been (i.e. done in the wrong key). oh well... we'll wedge it in some place.

I also did a bunch of bass and drum work for a few more songs as i had a really happening drum sound going for some RingOut sessions that were going on at the same time. Once something sounds good... i like to leave it and get as much stuff done with it as i can!

Back into the Swing....

Ok - holiday madness behind us, it's time to get back to work. We actually did a session last week where we got started on King of Love, with an acoustic track and some electric work by Max. Rob was there for a bit but was attacked suddenly by a mystery illness and had to bail quick. He pulled through, don't fret. No pics this week.. but here's a video of one of our new songs we did at ORB's Christmas Eve service held in the Two River Theater in Red Bank. The stage was set up for "Your A Good Man, Charlie Brown" and the theater guys shot some stars up on the backdrop for us. It looked real good....