Greetings folks. Well we are in full swing with recording. As I've mentioned before - one of my favorite things to do. So far it's been, by far, the most relaxed and natural-feeling recording experience we've had together. I guess it comes with experience, and also due to the fact that we've been preparing for this for over a year, it seems. Not to mention that the people we're working with are so professional and easy-going. We've had a great time with Mark Heimmerman so far, who is producing 6 of the songs. Over the last two weeks we've recorded the drums, bass guitar, and piano for 8 songs. But don't think that means we're almost done! By the time we're all done in the studio, we'll have recorded about 16 songs. So we'll have lots to choose from as far as which actually make it onto the final CD. Here are a few pics from our 3 days in Tom Laune's studio this week.


The computer monitor we stare at for hours every day.















Jeremy hammering out a new one called "I Miss You Here"








Of course you need a little R&R when you're working hard recording your life's work. Tom's studio has a nifty ping pong table that you can even play against yoursefl on. No joke. Well Glenn and I have to get in there and work out a couple of bass lines. Chatch you all later.

Marc

More Pics

The Evening of the Day, After Day Two

Well we set out to record the bass and drums and some piano on four songs and we accomplished it. The two days in the studio were pretty long but we didn’t mind since it has been such a long time since the last recording. Mark and Todd (our producer and engineer) did a great job at getting some incredible sounds from us. I’ve never heard my bass sound so good! Thanks guys! And the songs we recorded sound even better than we imagined so we’re all quite excited about them now. I can’t wait till we can have them on a disc and ready to go for all of you to hear!

So after a photo shoot on Tuesday, pre production on Wednesday, recording on Thursday and Friday, and meeting with our new internet marketing company today we finally have a bit of time to ourselves again this week. I’m back in Canada, Jeremy and his new bride are taking a short holiday, Jason is finishing off moving into his house and Marc . . . well, I’m not really sure what he does. I guess he’ll be writing more hit songs for everyone to enjoy.

We’ll have a few more pics from the studio up here tomorrow. So until then . . .

GL

Day One - 3:30pm

Here is Jeremy tracking drums for the first song we're doing, "Surrender".


Here is our producer Mark Heimermann (middle) and his trusty engineer Todd Robbins (left) making sure Jeremy's drums are all where they should be.


Here is Glenn laying down the bass licks for "Surrender".

Good times!

Jeremy

Day One in the Studio

Welcome to Day One of the downhere recording process - hard to believe this is album #3 already! We'll be posting updates throughout the next couple of days here while we track drums and some bass guitar as well.
Today we are at a studio called Dark Horse. We recorded a bunch of the last album here and a little of the first one too. It's a beautiful place, cabin like buildings, lots of wood, and very pretty.

Jeremy is in the process of getting drum sounds which often takes a long time. To get an idea of what this looks like start by imagining a drum kit surrounded by microphones. Now picture Jeremy sitting there hitting the high tom for about 10-20 minutes. Then the the middle tom, then the low tom. Then there's the kick drum, snare drum, cymbals, routing off the audio signal through all sorts of processing, cables running everywhere, the rest of the band standing around drinking hot drinks and having a good laugh about whatever story happens to be being told at that particular moment. Then I'm sitting there on a computer writing to you, trying to catch whatever conversation I can.

Once Jer is ready the rest of us will plug in and we'll try to figure out how we'll play these songs since we haven't played most of them live too often. The hope is to get drums for four songs as well as bass and maybe even some piano too. We will keep you updated!!

GL

Dave's First Blog

Hola blogaroos. This is Dave, I'm the band's sound dude. The guys have asked if I would like to join in on the blogging good times and of course i said sure. My blogging skills are a bit rusty so bear with me. I guess the idea is to give you peeps another perspective on life out here on this crazy road. Lately, as you may know, we've been on tour with the super stinkin cool band called The Swift. The tour has been moving along quite nicely. The Swift guys, along with their lovely wives, have been a joy to work with. Currently we are all involved in a cut throat competition we are calling the biggest loser, inspired by the wildy popular t.v. show. However, myself and brit from the swift are competing in a slightly diferent version, the biggest gainer, for if we lose anymore weight we may cease to exist. I'm happy to announce that the Downhere crew is in a solid first place and plan to take home that blue ribbon. Today is a welcomed day off in which we plan to go to the mall of america which i think is it's own continent. Malls are fun for about 45 minutes until you remember that you can't afford to buy anything there anyways which is really just as well. We've been spending a good deal of time on this trip in the twin cities area of minnesota and have enjoyed it. The weather has been unusually spectacular and the people have been great too. We have 2 more shows left on this tour and then we head home for yet another 14 hour drive in the van. So goes life on the road. We're all really looking forward to going home this time for many reasons. The guys are finally going to be getting into the studio to start the new album. I know you guys have all been waiting along time for a new one and trust me, we have too. The guys probably would never say this but I can, the new album will not disapoint. Get excited, get your friends excited, and get ready, cuz it's gonna be great. Well i think i'm all blogged out now and we are ready to leave for the mall. So for myself and the guys, thanks for staying interested in what we do.

Dave