Downhere

New Video Posted

2007-10-16T09:50:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update to let you all know that we've posted a new video from on the road in Mount Rushmore.

Click here to watch from our website. (Highest quality)

Click here to watch or subscribe on YouTube. (YouTube quality)

Click here to subscribe to all our videos on iTunes. (Best quality and you can watch them over and over again and share them with everyone you love!)

New Video Series On The Way

2007-09-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well I've been working on a video for quite some time from a trip we did back in February and March. It was a long trip with a lot of footage. The resulting rough cut video was over an hour!! So I just get to it now and then in little pieces.

As I was working on it recently I decided I needed to figure out how far we traveled during that trip. Take a look at this map to see the results. You'll need to click on it to see a bigger version. Crazy!!

So the video will be released in parts hopefully within a couple of weeks. Each segment will last under 10 minutes. Look for it to show up on our web site, our new YouTube page, YouTube.com/TheBandDownhere and in our podcast on iTunes.

Glenn

Time to move!

2006-08-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

We have started blogging over at myspace now too and soon when you click on the link from our web site you will be directed there. So it looks like our days on blogger will be coming to a close. It may not be as pretty to look at but many more people will read it which is great. So come visit us on myspace and check out our blog there.

If you happen to be one of the very nice people who links to our blog please change the link to this:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=23104425&MyToken=c031e01f-805d-4c4f-b5b6-908f05108554ML

Thanks!!!!!

Glenn

Weekend Of Travel

2006-08-07T16:16:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Hope you're doing well... I just wanted to drop you a quick line and let you know what's going on with us. We're currently in Concord, NH where we are playing at the Inside Out Soul Festival - it's a great festival (one of our favorite) and we had a great time yesterday playing twice - once at the top of a ski hill (we actually had to take the guitars up on a ski lift!) and once on a late-night stage. Today we play on the mainstage early afternoon (although it's looking pretty wet right outside right now - I feel bad for those sleeping in tents!) before racing off to the airport to fly out to San Jose, CA to play at Spirit West Coast Monterey tomorrow.

Speaking of airports... we had a rough start to our crazy-travel weekend when we were delayed for 4 hours in Chicago (we sat on the tarmac in the plane for 3 of those hours) for lightening storms. We were supposed to arrive at our hotel at midnight - instead, we pulled up around 5:30am... it definitely made for a rough start.

So that's us, and that's what's going on - we'll get caught up with you more next week AFTER we get home on Sunday. Later - thanks for checking in!

Jeremy

A Blog From Jessica

2006-07-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

This is my first chance to blog for downhere! Oh the stories I could tell... I could be here all day. So let me just keep it to the past few weeks! Since the videoshoot, we've had some time off the road to do --- off the road stuff. (You know, the usual stuff you do when you have time off.) Our first show after a week and a half off was July 14th at the Nashville Sounds baseball game. We played for about 45 minutes before the game and had a pretty good crowd, despite the HOT and HUMID Tennessee weather. With the heat index of at least 105, we were all soaked in sweat about 10 minutes after we began setting up for the show. After the show, we were treated to skybox seating (with air conditioning!) and baseball food: hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner. Apparently "Sara Lee" was a sponsor for the game, and as people were leaving, volunteers passed out hundreds of loaves of whole wheat bread. We all cashed in on the goodness; we could take as many loaves as we wanted. Some people were taking whole pallets. Jason kept handing Heather more and more packages of bread... I think they'll have enough bread for sandwiches and toast for the next few months. On a side note: as I'm writing this, my husband Dave just walked in the room eating 2 plain pieces of Sara Lee bread... weird.

The next day (after the Sounds game) we left for Dayton, Ohio. We loaded in and sound checked on Saturday night - and lead worship for two Sunday morning services at Far Hills Church. This was especially exciting for me, as I was in familiar territory; I used to go to college around there - and my brother and sister-in-law live in the area. It's always fun to see family when we're on the road. The people at Far Hills were so great to work with; we had such a great time worshiping with their church. They responded well to "A Better Way" "Little is Much" and "Surrender."

After church, our friends from Far Hills took us to PF Changs for lunch. It ended up being an afternoon event rather than just lunch (meaning it took all afternoon to get our food!). But we enjoyed the conversation and time spent with our new friends. As we finished our meal, one of the waitresses informed us that someone had ordered and paid for dessert for all of us! A note accompanied the kind gesture; it was a "thank you" from an anonymous family who attends Far Hills church and enjoyed the music from downhere that morning.

Sunday evening we drove to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. On Monday morning, we visited Star 88.3 WLAB where we did a little mini concert for their staff. We then drove back to Ohio for another radio interview in Mansfield at WVMC where the guys did an on-air interview and played some new music. We then drove to Mt. Vernon to interview at WNZR, where Josh Peterson, our record label marketing guy attended college. Josh then took us out to eat at one of the best pizza places in Ohio - Elm's Pizza (owned & operated by his family... and seriously, the best pizza....)

Dave just came back eating another piece of bread...

For Tuesday, we had more radio stations to visit. WAKW in Cincinnati had us for the morning show... We did another quick interview in Hamilton at WZFR, then grabbed lunch at Red Lobster with Tony Smith, a Berean music buyer, and ended the day at WJIE in Louisville, KY.

Next week we will be in West Palm Beach, Florida - leading evening worship for a week long camp. It's then on to Soul Fest in New Hampshire and Spirit West Coast in Monterey, CA! There are lots of things coming up - so keep checking back for more stories of what happens next!

It's been a pleasure informing you.

jessica (road manager)

Video Shoot

2006-06-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

I'm typing this at 1:47pm CST after waking up about 30 minutes ago. And I'm still feeling pretty tired.

Yesterday's music video shoot turned into an all-night affair. Our producer/director Andy flew in from NYC yesterday morning and started shooting around noon. We finished sometime around 5:30AM I think!!

If you are out of the loop about this first go to www.downhere.com. Then go back there once a day so it never happens again. So, we just filmed a video for our song "The More" which is the first track on our new album "Wide-Eyed and Mystified". It's the first music video we've ever done so we are really excited to see the end result.

I'm not sure how long it will be till it's completed now but we will let you know as soon as we do!

My highlights from the video: since you have to exaggereate everything on film, everyone was pretty entertaining to watch. Jer was flailing quite a bit and Marc was . . . well, himself. He's a natural. That guy was born for this. Andy got some really great shots of Marc's performances. A shot of Jay singing in the bridge looked really cool, hope it gets used. And though I never got to see my own footage I look forward to seeing that. I kind of felt like a monkey in a cage doing tricks for everyone. It's actually a little scary. But, once I decided not to care it was not big deal.

So there you go, some thoughts on the music video. Here's a couple of pics too. There are more pics at our website too.

Our road manager and make-up artist for the shoot, Jessica, also posted about the shoot on her blog. So check that out too!!

Glenn

Long Overdue Update

2006-06-09T17:32:00.000-07:00

Well we are back from . . . . . . . . it seems like everywhere, but most recently Denmark. The last couple of weeks went great. To those of you who purchased our CD the week it came out, thank you!! That first week is so important to a band. And for those of you who still don't have it . . . what are you waiting for???

We had a lot of fun on the west coast during release week. We rented an RV for a bunch of it and got to travel along the coastal highway between San Luis Obispo and Santa Clarita twice, which was beautiful. If you ever get the chance to drive out there do it. I can't wait to bring my family some day.

We have really been enjoying playing the new songs. It's great to add some freshness to our set. While on the west coast we visited and played at a bunch of different radio stations and stores ending up at Spirit West Coast - Del Mar. Del Mar is just outside of San Diego. So while we were there Marc, Dave and I got the opportunity to do some surfing. That was my second time and man is it fun . . . and tiring. Especially when the undertow is so strong.

Actually the day we surfed was the same day we played at a church in Carlsbad. The interesting thing about this church is that the father of two Switchfoot members pastors it. So while we were there they were of course advertising a Switchfoot show coming up. It would be pretty cool to be in the youth group at that church I bet! We had a great time there. We played the Saturday night service and two services on Sunday morning. Our host families were wonderful!!

Man, there's a lot to catch up on. Sorry we've been so long in posting here.

After that we took off to Alabama for a Student Life camp. This isn't the kind of 'camp' that you would normally think of. This one had over 1000 people there and the living conditions are pretty good for the week. We led worship all week, once in a while interjecting some of our songs. We love playing these camps and had fun getting to know the students while we were there.

From Alabama we drove to Atlanta then flew to Denmark. Those European crowds sure know how to rock. We need them to come here to give us some lessons. We played a two-hour show for between 2000 and 3000 people and had so much fun. The sun only goes down for a few hours at night this time of year there so the whole experience of being messed up for sleep, not knowing the language, and night never really coming really made it all feel pretty surreal.

So now we are home. A short break before a few more shows. We will soon be recording a music video for "The More". So we will try to keep you in the loop with that too.

Until next time . . .

Glenn

Post-Morocco Update

2006-05-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

Well, when they say "Don't drink the water," I guess they REALLY mean it. Aside from memories of it's beautiful scenery and unmeasured hospitality, Morocco left us another memorable parting gift. E. coli. Yep, the whipping child of gastro-intestinal illnesses. I contracted it, and so did Glenn and Dave, our prodution manager. Jason was very ill for 2 days after we got back, but we're pretty sure it was something different than what the rest of us got. But now at least I can say that I survived E. coli. I'm putting up a picture of me drinking the water that I believe gave me the bacteria. It was a tap-water refill, and I shouldn't have drank it. Someone handed it to me as I stepped off stage after our Sunday night performance. I'm almost all better now after an entire week of eating bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast -- so are Glenn and Dave. It's a boring diet, but it works. Once I've completely recovered from this I'm sure I'll look very fondly on my first time in Africa once again. I took about 800 pictures, so the trip is very well documented.

On a higher note, our second and final performance at the Friendship Festival was a blast. I admit, I was a little intimidated by the idea of communicating to the crowd in French (since I've never done that before), before our Friday night performance. But by the second one, I was pretty confident, and we all felt like the second concert went even better than the first one. We were the only straight-up rock band of the entire festival, so that definitely worked to our advantage. And the French-speaking really endeared us to the crowd, I think, so that was fun. And we've never played for a crowd of 60,000 before -- that was fun too. We made some new friends overseas, and hope to see them all again, maybe next year.

Now on to the next thing... the album release tour on the West Coast! I can't tell you how stoked were are about the new songs. Plus, we miss California... it's been too long. Later!

Marc

A quick update from Morocco

2006-05-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

Well this is our third full day in Morocco. Already we have gone for a carriage ride through the Medina (downtown, kind of), rode camels, made a trecherous trip to visit a Berber village and had supper with the regional president. Here are a few pictures to help tell the story. Today the festival starts. We play tonight and on Sunday.

GL

Invisible Children

2006-04-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, I actually took time out of my day to sit down and watch the Oprah Winfrey show. I never watch Oprah, but I had to yesterday because of the guests she had on. No it wasn’t Tom and Katie. She was focusing her entire live show on the unbelievable events that are happening in Africa right now. In particular she helped shine a spotlight on a group of 3 guys from Southern California who are really making an impact in Uganda.

About 2 months ago we were at a youth conference and I was able for the first time to see an independent documentary short film called Invisible Children. The film was created by 3 college students who had no real plan other than to go to Africa and try to see what they could see. When they finally made it to northern Uganda they found their story. They found thousands of children who were forced to walk up to 10 miles every night into town to find a safe place to sleep. If they stayed at home in the country they would be abducted by a radical militant group and be forced to kill their own neighbors and sometimes their own family. If they resisted at all they would be killed or brutally maimed. The little girls have also been used as sex slaves. Over 20,000 children have been abducted so far. This film is incredibly powerful and very well done. It tells a story that must be told. These 3 guys upon returning home decided that they needed to get the word out and take action. They quickly created an incredible campaign and loaded up 7 rv’s with their friends to go spread the word across North America. They have been stopping at hundreds of locations and showing the film then asking people to act in whichever way they can. We actually just 2 days ago randomly ran in to one of the groups while we were waiting in a parking lot in downtown Atlanta. They were a great group and are really working hard to make a difference over there.

This Saturday in over 130 cities thousands of people will be gathering in their downtown to sleep there just as these children in Uganda do every night. I personally feel and I know the rest of the guys do, that this is a very worthy cause to align ourselves with. If you want to find out more about this group and how to get involved please visit www.invisiblechildren.com This is something that God’s people need to be involved in. We can’t ignore these problems anymore. I hope that the next time I actually sit down to watch Oprah it will be to see how much has changed for the good over there and how much God’s people have been a part of it.

Dave

I Love Nashville!

2006-04-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

Sitting at one of my favorite offices this morning, I was struck by how much I enjoy living in Nashville. The community of artists (see Jason's entry below) is so tight-knit... at least in my small world. As I sat plugging away at various online tasks, who should walk in but the members of the band Starfield, fellow Canadian rockers who are preparing to release a new record on May 16th (the current single "My Generation" is a killer tune - make sure you check it out!).
As they were headed out, the boys from The Swift walked in for lunch and a band meeting of their own (we did some dates with The Swift in the fall and had a blast together). Two great bands - two great groups of guys - one great morning at the office. I love this city!

Jeremy

I like GMA week (finally)

2006-04-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

The sweetest part of GMA week is the community of artists, support staff, radio, magazine, promoters, managers who sincerely cheer on each others efforts to reach the world. I was struck with just how much, at least from my vantage point, that this was true. Maybe it was because I was feeling supportive and like a cheerleader myself. So many amazing things happening in our extended community of artists and music ministry initiatives.

It was fun as well to share some fresh songs, and vision with everyone as well....as it has been a long time coming. Jeremy was having so much fun connecting with people he actually got a blister on his hand from shaking hands.

There where so many amazing bands this year! It was encouraging that the bands I enjoyed the most, where also fans of us. It's hard to pull out the highlights from this past week, other than the encouraging words so many people had for us. We now have a little bit of time off, which I'm going to help my wife plant our container garden, do some chores around the house, and write some music.

Jason

Stories from St. John, NB

2006-03-25T20:22:00.000-08:00

We played in Saint John, New Brunswick last night and had a great time with the folks there. I'm the "trailer guy", which means I'm in the trailer coordinating the unloading when we arrive and the loading when we tear down... and we had a stellar load-out crew last night! Many thanks to you guys for all your help.

Here's my fun story from Friday night: we're traveling with a band called "The Silent" - they're from eastern Canada so we're in their "home and native land". Well, because we drove through the night after our Montreal show, we headed straight to the hotel for a quick shower before going to the venue to start loading in. One of the Silent guys (who will remain nameless) told us that the church was really close to the hotel - "just around the corner". So I thought, cool - I'll leave my suitcase here and come back to get changed into my "rockstar clothes" (i.e. put on a clean t-shirt and clean pants).

Well, as Murphy would have it, the "local" boy was loco - the church was a good 15 minutes away from the hotel, and most definitely NOT a straight shot (I believe St. John may be the most confusing city I've ever been in as far as getting from Point A to Point B!). So I had to find a ride back to the hotel after dinner to grab some clothes before the show started... and the only ride available was on the back of a BMW motorbike. Now remember, we're in Canada in March - there's still piles of snow where parking lots were cleared - most of it is gone from the roads and ground, but it is still quite chilly - especially to be riding around on a motorbike! But we did it - Chris and I - and had a great time too (although the helmet he had for me was quite tight - it squeezed my ears so tightly I had a hard time having a conversation with him!). I was definitely the envy of the crew when I got back. It got me thinking about buying a motorbike again - what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon (after a nap, of course!) than driving on back country roads with the love of your life squeezing you from behind enjoying the scenery and the company? And they're GREAT on gas... Hmm - maybe we'll try the moped first and see how things go...

Jeremy

from the road in Quebec

2006-03-23T14:25:00.000-08:00

I am typing this blog at a coffee shop in Montreal just down the street from our venue. And nobody around me is speaking english. I love that for some reason. I suppose I may not love it if nobody spoke english anywhere but it's nice to be in foreign environments once in a while. Plus with our trip to Morocco coming up I'm trying to relearn the French that I once learned in school. French is the second language there so at least we have one guy who will be able to communicate with them!

Tonight we are at a club here in Montreal with The Silent (great guys, great band) and Onlyforward. Another great band which is fronted by Marc's brother Dave. It's not the usual church gig which is nice for a change, however, the smokey room is not a nice change. I forgot about that part of the deal. Oh well.

All night drive to New Brunswick tonight. Yippee! I was hoping to recover from a sore throat. Guess that won't be happening.

Anyway, there's a quick update. We will check in with you later!!

Glenn

The Amazing Race

2006-03-01T08:55:00.000-08:00

Today is another beautiful day here in Kansas City. Yesterday was also beautiful and nearly perfect. Then suddenly, without warning myself, my wife and several others were thrown into what I would like to describe as The Amazing Race. No we weren't on the cool T.V. show or anything but our day definitely took a turn for the surreal very quickly. Myself, Jess and Glenn had been having a great day with the morning off to relax and go for a good long run. We didn't have to be at the venue for our show that night until 5pm. It was about 30 minutes away so we had lots of free time which was great. It was also and incredibly beautiful day at about 70 degrees outside. The three of us decided to go down into the city so Glenn could get his computer fixed. we then would have just enough time to come back, pick the rest of the gang up and be on our way. We would get to the venue, load in, have supper and have a couple of hours to hang out with some friends. That was the plan until 3:30 rolled around. On the way into the city the van was making some strange noises but we figured it was nothing serious. We got into the city and walked around and Glenn got his computer taken care of. Everything was great and we were on time to get back to pick everyone up.

We got in the van and started to make our way up the road to leave. We got about a 1/4 mile from where we were and as we were going up the hill our transmission decided to commit suicide, leaving us in a very bad situation, with traffic behind us as we began slipping backwards. We managed with much effort to get the van parked on the side of the road and then the insanity began. We immediately called Jeremy and informed him we would not be picking them up and to get the ball rolling on how to get the van to the shop and our trailer to the show as well as the 7 of us. So after about 45 minutes and many phone calls the tow truck came to pick up the van. Glenn went with the van to the shop leaving me and jess behind to stay with the trailer.

The plan was for a guy named Chad to come pick the trailer up with his truck and tow it with us to the show and the rest of the guys would borrow a car to get there. So, after more than an hour of waiting on the side of the road with our trailer my bladder was in a bad way. After being denied at the only possible bathroom facility close by, I was forced to take drastic measures. I'm not ashamed to admit that for a very brief moment our trailier was transformed into an emergency bathroom or washroom for you canadians. After that emergency was taken care of, our new friend chad arrived with his truck. We got the trailer hooked up quickly and were on our way. At this point we would only be about 30 minutes late so not too bad. We were moving along just fine and enjoying a beautiful sunset until we noticed a huge cloud of white smoke pouring out the back of his new truck. We immediately pulled over on the side of the highway, got out and watched the transmission fluid pour out of his truck. So now our trailer has claimed the lives of 2 transmissions within two hours and we are still 20 minutes from where the show is.

But wait, the grace and providence of God is way bigger than any stupid transmissions. The craziest thing is the spot we broke down at just "happened" to be at the exact exit where his inlaws lived less than a mile from. Chad quickly called his father in law and found out that he had just pulled in the driveway and was free that evening to come help us out. They were there in less than 15 minutes, that's faster than AAA. He had a Chevy Envoy with a tow hitch that would do the trick. So once again we took the trailer off Chad's truck and put it on his father in laws envoy. Now quick visual here, our trailer is massive. It is 14 feet long and about 9 foot tall and it is now hooked to a chevy envoy, which although it is classified as an SUV it's pretty small. I was worried the whole time that our trailer was going to tear off the back bumper of this poor car and claim the life of a 3rd vehicle. Thankfully it held up rather well. At this point we are now about 2 and a half hours behind schedule from what we were planning. While we were changing the trailer on the side of the highway the car with Jeremy, Marc, Jason and Erin caught up with us and would follow us in the rest of the way. Glenn had already been picked up by one of the people who we had stayed with the night before and been brought to the venue. So, we took it nice and slow and limped the trailer on into Lawrence, KS and on to the KU campus where we were to lead worship for some college students. We arrived in one piece minus a van and truck. We frantically unloaded the trailer and got everything set up in record time thanks to some great volunteers.

By the time the show started no one would have known that any of this had even happened. The worship was great and we even had a few world vision kids get sponsored. If all of this craziness to get there was just so those kids would get sponsored, I think we all would say it was well worth it and we would do it again. The thing that was so cool to see was how awesome everyone was who stepped up to help us get there and to get back to KC which was a task as well. It really showed us how God's church really works and how great it is to be a part of it and be blessed by it. We sincerely thank everyone who helped us out then and in the past as well. So today we will finally be on our way back to Nashville, a day late and an expensive new transmission later. We will be enjoying a good weeklong break once we get home and then we hit the road pretty hard so check out the touring section to see if we will be coming near you. Please pray that we make it home ok today and continue to pray for safety on the road. We are very blessed despite these minor setbacks. It could have been a lot worse, we didn't have to cancel any shows and we really haven't been that inconvenienced. We all have positive attitudes still and thank God for what he's doing with this band and what he is about to do. Thanks for reading if you've made it this far. Stay tuned for more adventures from Downhere.

Dave

Getting busy

2006-02-22T07:19:00.000-08:00

With our new album done things are starting to get busy again for downhere. On Monday morning we met with a bio writer who will write a brand new bio for us which we are in desperate need of. Monday afternoon we were at a television studio to record a couple of songs and an interview for a show called '1 cubed'. This show plays in more than 35 countries and is available in many different languages. It sounds like it's a show that is really taking off right now. Then Monday night we stopped in at the national radio show Total Axxess. We had a lot of fun there. We did the world premier of two of our new songs, The More and A Better Way. Thanks to our fans for being all over their message-board!!

At 5AM Tuesday morning we were on the road for a full day of driving. We arrived in Minnesota around 10PM, but we did manage to get one more interview in while we drove. So tonight we play at Crown College in Minnesota then right after the show we drive through the night to Chicago where we'll do another radio stop and a visit with Christianity Today.

Can you tell there's a new album coming? We sure can and we can't wait!

GL

Congrats Greg!!

2006-02-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

I missed it! You'd think a musician would want to watch the Grammys. Oh well. Here's the good news, one of my favorite bands U2 cleaned up. Here's what they won.
*Album of the Year
*Best Rock Album
*Song of the Year for "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own"
*Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own"
*Best Rock Song for "City Of Blinding Lights"

The reason I mention all of this is because Greg Collins, who produced six songs for our next album worked with U2 on the album that won them all 5 Grammys. Congratulations Greg!!
Greg is the guy on the far left in the picture.

GL

Answers to questions

2006-01-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

You've got questions, downhere has answers. Well, at least answers to these questions.

"Nice to read a new downhere blog post today. So which songs again were produced by Mark, Greg, and just the band? Decide on that first single yet? So we might be hearing something on the radio next month?

Oh, and how is that website design coming along? Get what your looking for yet?

So many questions!"

So to start, we had six songs produced by Greg Collins who came in to Nashville from LA in December. We have another six songs being produced by Mark Heimermann here in Nashville and we produced four songs on our own here too. As far as titles go I won't go into that because I'm not even sure if I'd have all the final title names correct.

We're not sure what's going to happen for our first radio single. We feel like we have more options than we originally thought which is great. This is a decision that has to go through many people though and we won't be able to begin that until we have all the songs mixed. We're just a couple of weeks away from that. We expect to release our first single sometime in February though.

The progress on our new website has been a little slower than we anticipated but it takes time to get what you want. We expect to have the main page and theme approved within the week. After that the other pages can all be built. We have a good idea of what we want to see so applying the design to the functionality we'd like to see should happen over the next 4 to 6 weeks. I know I know, we hoped to have it ready this month too but we are moving as fast as we can.

I hope that gives you some more information as to where we are at!!

GL

Mixing

2006-01-19T08:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy couple of months for us. We've played two shows in last month but we've been in the studio almost every day. For the next week we're bouncing back and forth between two studios every day! We are in singing land right now which means Jason and Marc are keeping extra busy. Bewteen singing and listening to mixes their days have been quite full.

For those of you who don't know much about the recording process let me take a minute to talk about mixing. Mixing is one of the most satisfying parts of recording. Basically you spend a year or more writing songs you want to record, then you decide which ones you actually will record. Then you spend a few weeks recording those songs. While you record, you have an idea of what it is going to sound like but it's sometimes hard to know exactly how everything will fit together, until mixing that is. When you are at the mixing stage that means everything is recorded. It's time to sit back and enjoy the work your mixer will be doing. The simplified explanation of what a mixer does is turn up parts and turn down parts until everything is balanced and mixed well enough to hear everything.

As of this morning we still have 12 mixes to listen to, 6 of which aren't fully recorded yet. 3 of the mixes will be sent to us from L.A. and another 3 we'll listen to here in Franklin, TN this week. Then the last 6 we'll hear in the next two weeks. So we are in the home stretch for sure. We'll try and get a few more pictures up here so you can see what we're up to!

Glenn

Get What You Pray For

2006-01-07T15:53:00.000-08:00

I'll admit that leading up to this recording time I was getting concerned that we were running out of time to get this new album done. If you're counting, you know that it's been 2 and a half years since the release of "So Much For Substitutes". It feels like we've been writing for this new record for almost 2 years... um, maybe because we really have. So the last thing I wanted was to rush the recording process. I like to take my time in the studio and not have to worry about time constraints. I think I speak not only for the band here, but the entire artist community: there's nothing more inhibiting to creativity than knowing you have to meet a deadline.

Well as God, who supplies for all of our needs, would have it, this experience has felt anything but rushed. So far we've had all the time we've needed to really scope out the songs and make them as great-sounding as we can. I think working with 2 producers instead of one also has a lot to do with that. It almost feels like we're working on 2 records at once! I can honestly say that I'm really looking forward to being done with this album, although working in the studio is one of my favorite things in the world. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, but it's often hard work too. The songs are all sounding even better than we'd hoped. But the crazy thing is, when you put all of the days we've spent in the studio so far, it really doesn't add up to that many.

I was sitting next to Mark Heimermann (who is producing 6 of the songs) at Dark Horse Recording earlier this week while Jason was laying down a piano track for a song called "The Real Jesus". I said to Mark in awesome disbelief, "Man, this has been by far the most nonchalant recording process I've ever been a part of. Everything has been going so well." And his response was, I believe, what summarizes this whole experience. He said, "I think that's called 'getting what you prayed for.'" Little did he know that that particular song is one that I've specifically prayed for. I knew right away that he'd completely nailed it on the head.

Sometimes we get what we pray for. God gives good gifts. And it's especially amazing when those gifts are actually the thing that we want. I remember being out walking at night, over a year ago, on more than one occasion, asking God to give us songs. Songs that would speak to the needs of people around us, near and far. Songs that we would be proud to sing every night in front of all of you who come see our concerts. Songs that are unique. Songs that would speak to people in their times of joy, their times of need, and their times of intimacy with God. Songs that would help people speak to God, and hear from Him. As well as the patience to wait for God's timing on all of this. I believe we're getting all of that. And I can't wait for all of you to hear what's coming next from downhere. Thanks for staying with us, although it's been a long time coming for the new songs. We're working hard to make it worth your wait. And most of all, thanks for praying for us.

Here are some pictures from this past week!

Marc

Last day with Greg

2005-12-22T20:38:00.000-08:00

Hello all! We are a frenzy of final touches finishing up these six songs. Marc's in the vocal booth right now doing some back grounds and touch ups on a song.

I spent the day in the dentist chair getting a root canal. A root canal is not half as bad as having an aching tooth while recording. All is well that ends well.

Today is the last day of this stint here at Platinum Lab with Greg Collins producing. He did a great jarb. He'll take the hard drives back to his home in L.A. and edit all our tracks, then do rough mixes then take it to a mixing room and mix it...then send it our way to listen too.

Ray (our manager) came in and listened to the songs this evening and really enjoyed what he heard. It's ten o'clock and it will be one likely before we are completely finished. We'll make sure we get a group picture before we do. I'm going to go pack up my guitars.

This will probably be the last post until after Christmas, so Merry Christmas to you and yours from the downhere team. Looking forward to seeing you in the new year.

Jason

Some studio pics

2005-12-17T12:20:00.000-08:00

Glenn and producer Greg Collins.

Disco Marc.

Jason playing Marc's Epiphone Wildcat.

Jason playing B3.

Jason playing the Wurlitzer.

Studio dog: Tucker

Producer extrodinaire greg Collins.

Engineer extrodinaire Mark Dobson

Many times, one song.

2005-12-16T17:37:00.000-08:00

It's just after 7:30pm as I type this and we have been playing one song since about noon. It's crazy but I'm not sick of it yet. Being in the studio somehow makes it easier to listen to a single song many times over. I'm guessing it's because the song constantly changes and you never really hear the same song twice although it may feel like it. However, when listening to the radio and you hear the same song three times in one day for five days in a row, that starts to drive me nuts!

The song we have been working on is called 1000 miles and I think it may be one of my favorites of all the songs we have recorded. It's a different sounding song for us but still very much Downhere. Jeremy played his lap for this song as well as a small cardboard gift box filled with Montreal Steak Spice. It's pretty crazy what you can get away with when you start tweaking sounds. Put it through this unit then add that effect then reverse it and add some reverb and delay and you get something cool. Or really crappy! This time it turned out really cool. I can't wait to hear the end result of our work whenever we get there.

So anyway, until next time.

GL

Pre-Production

2005-12-11T06:54:00.000-08:00

Pre-Production is what we’ve been doing for the last two days with our new producer Greg Collins. All this basically means is that we have a rented rehearsal space with some time to get the songs we are going to record to a place where we are actually ready to record them. Out of the six songs we are recording with Greg we haven’t really had a chance to play any of them live. In fact, we haven’t really played most of them at all until this past Friday! This is actually a good thing. It keeps the songs really fresh and exciting while we are working on them.

We have Sunday off, then we’re in the studio from Monday until the 22nd of December. It will be a long haul but we have some great songs and I can’t wait for you to hear them!

Oh yeah, we just found out yesterday that our producer Greg Collins has been nominated for two Grammies! Both nominations are in the same category: best album of the year for U2 and Gwen Stefani. Greg is from LA and has had some great experiences and worked with many great artists. We are truly blessed to be able to work with him. Here are a few pics from the last couple of days.

Glenn

From L-R: Producer Greg Collins and from Centricity Records, John Mays.

Our rehearsal space with a blurry Jason standing in the middle.

Glenn having a laugh at something.

From L-R: Glenn and Jeremy, Downhere's extrodinary rhythm section!