putting down bones

on the way to the studio

Things have been full steam ahead for the past week or so and the tracks are starting to take shape.  Finding the right part for each instrument can be challenging, then suddenly it's quite magical when we find it.  I'm really happy about how things are going so far.  I don't know how much to tell you about the new music... maybe I should keep things under wraps so as not to spoil the surprise!

Yesterday was an especially awesome day, so we decided to take pics holding instruments that none of us had played.

hey

Today, Ken Pendergast was in again to play some way cool bass on two more songs.  Since it was all rainy and misty, it seemed like a good day to find something for Osmosis Song and it was :)  Now we have the bones... drums and bass... for five songs...

magic bass man

drums day 1

We have been doing lots of preproduction for the rest of the songs and now we're finally back recording, yayyyyyy!

Today was all about the big big drums for three different songs that range from jungle-y to jazzy.  We decided to do these three songs first because even though they have different styles they are probably going to share some instruments in common.

First Jeff did that miking magic that he does, to get us a big awesome sound.

overhead mics talking to each other

pillow that Jeff had to deliver out of the bass drum before we started (not out of that string bass, fortunately)

you can see where it came out... its twin is still in there I think

We had to cover a lot of different stylistic ideas in just one session, but Charlie is such a versatile drummer that he gave us lots of cool stuff to choose from.  We only just got started with the third song so we'll come back to that one next time, as well as cutting drums for 2 more songs.  Then we'll be adding other instruments on top of what we got today.

drum gorgeousness

Indian Summer pics at Washington Crossing

Behind-the-scenes at our photoshoot yesterday in Washington Crossing State Park.  It was gorgeous weather, about 70 degrees.  Which was a good thing since at times I was wading in the Delaware (though not all the way across -- I leave that to George Washington) and wearing things that would have been less fun on a crisp autumn day.  But yesterday was more like Indian Summer, perfect weather for the shoot.  We did most of the "real" photos up in the woods but I didn't take many pics there; I left that up to Mark :)

the beautiful Delaware

Bambi?

short bridge across the river -- we have it a bit easier than G. Washington

Kim and her bag of tricks

happy leaf

managed to keep the lashes on

studio update, and more to come soon

This past summer I started recording a new album at Turtle Studios in Philadelphia.

Yeah that's the first song almost finished... nice colors huh?  It's kinda sweet and crunchy.

This fall we're forging ahead with the rest of the tracks, so things should be moving quite a bit faster from here on out.  I'll be posting again soon to show you a little more about what we're doing in there.  Still too early to say when it will all be done but we're aiming for a spring release... fingers crossed.

Peace Prayer

a little something from Bar 82

In spite of the rain, a number of people made it out to our show at Bar 82 NYC earlier this month and it was a really great night.  Hopefully we'll be playing there again before long.  Here's a little something in the meantime:

stu-stu-studioooooo! and Bar 82 NYC

So next week, we are booked for the very first recording session on the new album!  We'll be cutting basic tracks for the first song and I can't wait to start bringing this project to life!  What is not as exciting is that a lovely summer cold has decided this would be a great time to visit me, even though it's 102 degrees outside today.  I hardly ever get a cold but I haven't been able to sing much for the past couple of days and I'm trying to rest up and drink lots of fluids.  We probably won't end up using the vocals from this session on the final recording anyway, but the musicians need them for reference and to get the energy of the song -- and you never know when you're going to get something good.  So I'd rather be able to sing when the musicians are there!  On my first album Lovefeast we had drums, bass, guitars, percussion etc. all in the studio at the same time for "Silverback" and I had a cold then, too, and we couldn't use those vocals.  I'm really hoping that won't be the case this time but we'll work it out one way or another.

Another reason to rest is that in a couple of weeks, I'm playing a 40-minute set with Tim Daoust at one of our favorite spots, the back room of Bar 82 in the East Village of NYC.  We've been playing the way cool open mic there for a few weeks now and on Wednesday, August 3rd we'll be the featured act starting at 9pm right after the mic.  We've been performing all-acoustic so far but are aiming for a mix of acoustic and electric for this show, with lots of songs from Lovefeast plus a few other surprises.  I've really enjoyed exploring acoustic versions of the songs and I'm looking forward to doing more of that, but it's exciting to be moving into a fuller sound that's more like what's on the album.  Don't know how much time there will be for a sound check but we are ready to go with the flow whatever happens.  If you're in NYC stop on by!  There's no cover charge, and you'll get to see this:

Yeah it's a disco skull.  And if you come early, you might also catch some of the wonderful artists who play the open mic here each Wednesday from 7-9pm or maybe even play something yourself (signup is at 6:30).  We'd love to see you if you can make it out!