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....

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).