OK, so we’re not technically in the studio yet, but for the sake of simplicity anything that has to do with writing, recording, mixing, etc., will be labeled as “Studio Journal”.
For the past couple months we’ve been getting together about 3 times a week and working on new material. We’re at the point now where we have 5-6 songs that are really far along. They’re not necessarily done, but pretty close. Then we have 4-5 other songs that range anywhere from just a few ideas tied together to a somewhat complete arrangement. Sometimes you find yourself up against a wall with a particular song and you just have to let it sit for a while.
A few of the songs came together very quickly. For me those always seem to be the best ones. Sometimes everything just clicks and the song almost seems to write itself. Then there are other times where we try 20 different arrangements and nothing ever seems right. It sucks because we have a lot of really good parts that just never found their way into a finished song. If we somehow could turn each one of those into a song right now, we’d easily have a double album ready to go tomorrow.
We’re all pretty happy with the progress so far, though. I’m just anxious to get to the point where the songs are done and we really start nailing everything down and getting ready to record. That’s always the most exciting part for me. I tend to be pretty spontaneous when we’re writing. I hardly ever play anything the same twice. So when you get to the recording stage, you kind of have to settle on something. It’s interesting to see where everything ends up and it’s just exciting to be able to hear it recorded properly. Drums just don’t ever sound quite as good as when they’re all miked up and recorded on separate tracks. Well, for me at least… the live sound is cool in its own way, but I just really love the way they sound on tape.
We’re also working on a live performance of some songs from the Subdivisions EP. We tried it for the first time on Monday and it actually went pretty well. I think it’s gonna be really cool when we get out and do these songs live. I think some of you who were a little surprised by how different they are might appreciate them more after seeing them performed live. They can tend to sound pretty mellow on the EP, but I think we’ll probably be bringing some more energy to them live.
So, you’re probably wondering where you’ll be able to see this live performance. Well, so are we at this point. We don’t have anything booked as I’m sure most of you are aware, and for the near future we’re probably only looking at doing some local shows. We need to raise some money to pay for this new album, so we’ll probably be doing a bunch of shows over the summer, but they’ll most likely all be in the PA area. And they’re probably gonna be geared more around our lighter stuff so we can get into some smaller places.
We love doing our big, loud show with the 12 foot screen or whatever, but there’s a lot of cool little places in our hometown here (Doylestown, PA) that we just can’t fit that kind of setup into. And besides, I think we’ve always wanted to try doing a more stripped down show. “Sinch Unplugged,” I guess you could call it, although we’ll still be using electric guitars and synths and stuff.
If the shows go well we’ll certainly be considering taking the acoustic show into some other areas, but for right now we’re starting at home. Hopefully some of you will be able to make it out to the shows and let us know what you think. We’ll try to get some decent video recordings as well for everyone that can’t make it.
We’ll have more info on specific dates and stuff over the next couple months.
