Debut Album Out Now!

A bit late checking in here in this new year and new decade but "Happy New Year" all the same.  The holidays were great but right after Christmas the snow started falling here and hasn' t stopped since.  Kind of nice in a way but it has made getting around a bit difficult and caused some real traffic problems in other parts of the country - and Europe for that matter.  On top of that it has been fairly cold and grey here, not exactly a great start to the new year but what can you expect when you live in the northern regions.  And then there's global warming...ummm...whatever...

But except for the weather things have been off to a good start here.  Spent a lot of last week freshening up the web presence and added some new sites to get the music out there which has already produced some positive results.  This will continue for a few more weeks with more songs from the debut album popping up here and there but then it will be time to focus more on the real life aspects of the "band" and actually get the live show sorted out once and for all.  This will probably take quite a few months and during that time I will be working more on new material for the next album but another surprise which will be anounced soon will actually take top priority for a while.  The groundwork for this is being laid right now and will be ready very soon.  More on all that coming in the next post.

All for now.  Have a great year/decade!

Looking at the calendar it is hard to believe that 2009 is almost over and looking back I can see that I have been a bit lazy in the blogging department.  This has not been for lack of something to say, but between recording and releasing the debut album, launching 5th Estate Music - essentially my own "record label" - and getting things ready for a new side project (details of that coming very soon) there has not been much time to organize my thoughts into blog entries.  But the holidays are upon us and things are slowing down for a few weeks until we enter the next decade so I feel I can take a step back and a deep breath and evaluate how things have gone over the past year.
As 2009 began it was my goal to get the Fine Print Pariah debut album recorded and released.  Even though all the songs had already been demoed it took a while to establish a game plan and a production strategy and real recording didn't begin until around March and it wasn't until the end of April that real usable tracks were being put down.  Progress was good but a lot of backtracking and redos were necessary, especially with the drums which were recorded in less than optimal circumstances.  Things picked up speed in May and June and by the beginning of July all the tracks were down and mixing began.  The mixing took longer than expected but by the beginning of August all the songs were ready for mastering and the final product was basically ready at the end of August.  There was still a lot to do to get the release ready - CD artwork and pressing, distribution to iTunes etc. - and that is the reason I put the release date off until Nov.2 in order to ensure that everything was in place on the actual day.
Through this whole process a lot of other stuff was going on behind the scenes which led to the creation of 5th Estate Music, my own "label" that would release the album and probably all future albums as well.  So not only was I preparing Fine Print Pariah and the debut album but also the label which took some time as well and finally went online at the beginning of September.  All of this was a lot of work and that combined with other presonal obligations forced a restructuring of priorities leading to the one disappointment this year which was the lack of a live presence for the band.  Some contact was made with interested musicians but scheduling conflicts, other commitments and personal issues got in the way and it was clear at the beginning of November that Fine Print Pariah would not be performing live in 2009.  I am not giving up on this however and the quest for the right live lineup will continue but I refuse to rush it or force it.  When the time is right Fine Print Pariah will hit the stages and that might even be by the summer of 2010.
So I can honestly say that it has been a great year even though all the goals were not met but this leaves a very clear goal for 2010, namely the formation of an actual band to perform this music.  Some preliminary work has begun for a follow-up album but whether it makes sense to finish and release that in 2010 is not yet clear.  Besides, 5th Estate Music will be busy enough with my side project anyway and at least for the first half of 2010 this will be my priority also.  So I can say that I will try to keep up with the blogging a bit better but chances are most of that won't be happening here in the next six months or so.  And where will it be then?  Patience, patience...when the time is right, all will be revealed!

Happy Holidays and have a great "slide" into the New Year as they say here!

The day I thought would never come is finally here and it feels good even without a lot of pomp and cirumstance.  It's basically business as usual here but there will be a little celebrating this evening, nothing big, just a few supermodels and some cases of champagne...
Yeah, right!  The reality will be a quiet evening with some friends and maybe some sushi.  Would have been nice to do the "Release Party" thing, but hey, it's a Monday anyway.  Who parties on a Monday?  Real rock stars maybe if there are any of those left.
It has taken a lot to get to this point but it is really only a starting point and there is much more to come.  The live shows will happen eventually, just need to get the band properly in shape, and new songs are already in the works for the next release some time in 2010.
2009 has been a great year and a lot has been achieved but I have a feeling that 2010 is the year that things will really start to happen.  But who knows?  Still two months to go this year so maybe there will be a few surprises!

With the release date only a few weeks away and the promotion effort in full swing I have been thinking quite a bit about what exactly it is that is being promoted and released.  I spent a good portion of this year working on this thing and that does not include the actual writing of the songs and the early demo process which took place well before all that so there is a whole lot of me in it.  Putting it out there is a pretty big step, especially sending it to reviewers never knowing if they will actually "get it" or if they are in the right mood for music like this at the time they choose to listen to it.  Makes me a bit nervous at times but I have to remind myself that all that really matters is that I am proud of it and for an extremely self-critical person like me, that is a really good sign.

I suppose the first thing I can say about the album is that it is just that, an album.  It is not a random collection of songs recorded at different times and different circumstances and thrown together for the sake of having a full-scale release.  The songs were all carefully chosen to fit a particular mood and asthetic and were arranged and recorded in a particular manner to achieve a kind of unity that would define the whole album.  I wouldn't go as far as to call it a "concept album" but it is not far off.  In order to achieve the asthetic I was looking for there were certain decisions made about the production style that were a bit risky but I stand by them and the result is what I was looking for.

The first choice that was made was to limit the amount of instrumental variation and develop a unfiied sonic "signature".  In some cases this was taken to drastic levels with only one guitar sound being used for the entire album with the dynamic being achieved through the arrangements rather than the actual sound itself.  The bass was not varied much either, only between a slightly rounder, fuller sound for the "ballads" and for the harder songs a slightly distorted sound with a lot of edge was used.  The drums were all recorded on the same kit in the same room over a a period of 4 days, so the sound is pretty consistent.  The interesting development here was how the arranging process led to a very primitive sound, very tom-oriented with a dry snare and absolutely no hi-hat.  This was not originally planned, it just kind of happened as I found myself constantly steering clear of conventional rock rhythms and moving towards something that was, in my opinion, more powerful and raw.  There was a fair bit of experimentation with keyboard sounds but in the end I narrowed it down to piano, a heavily reverbed piano/strings combination and an analog sequencer sound that lent a slightly "industrial" sound to some of the heavier songs.

Probably the riskiest move was the production on the vocals which are set deeply into the mix as opposed to being pushed up front which is typical on most contemporary commercial rock and pop recordings.  I did this simply because it is a style that I like and emphasizes that the vocals are only a part of the whole and not much more important than everything else that is going on.  It was still important to maintain the vocals as the centerpiece of the mix and I consider the lyrics to be very important to the overall listening experience so a lot - and I mean a LOT - of effort was put into finding exactly the right level to keep the lyrics comprehensible without letting the vocal line overpower the instruments in the mix.  All in all, I think I achieved this quite well but I am quite sure that anybody who is used to listening to Top 40 radio crap will not appreciate it.

Another thing I refused to do is use any Autotuning on the vocals.  This is a practice I do not agree with at all and would rather here someone sing a little off once in a while than here that faked perfection that is so common these days.  There are probably a few points on the album where my voice hits the borderline of going a bit off-key but I was careful to listen hard for this and redo anything that needed it but I purposely left a few takes that most producers wouldn't have simply because I liked the rawness and the authenticity of it.  In my opinion it fits the angsty mood of the album to have the vocals pushing the limit just a bit.

I could probably go on for a few more pages talking about this but I will leave off this entry with a few words about the running order of the album, another risky choice but the right one.  As I mentioned before, this is almost a concept album so I wanted the opening to be a bit dramatic, like the first scene in a clandestine film that would slowly suck the listeners in and then bash them on the head with a big chorus which is what Stealing form Graves does.  But it takes patience to get to that point.  After the big, demanding opening I wanted to allow the listener a bit of a breath with something a bit less dramatic which is why I chose Found and Lost as track two.  After that it gets a bit heavy but in a melodic way with the piano ballad Disillusioned and then back up into rock mode with Name in Vain.   And the album continues like this with constant ups and downs until the somewhat triumphal finish of For Dear Life, probably the most optimistic song on the album.  This album is meant to be a voyage for the listener, but to take that voyage you have to really listen, not just play the album as background music while you type a blog or wash the dishes or whatever, but really listen to the lyrics and look for the story line.   Anyone who can do that might just "get it" after all.

So, here we are in the new internet digs and things are going fine.  Really excited to announce the release date for the debut album - Nov.2, 2009.  It's a weird and wonderful feeling to be at this point and I have to admit that there were points along the way when I really thought it might not get this far.  It was an arduous task, full of good times and bad, but that is all part of the creative process I guess and when I listen to what came out of all that I am very, very pleased.

There is still a lot to do before the big day and we are working hard to get the live show ready but time is working against us.  The goal is still to hit the stage by November but there are no guarantees at this point.  Too many variables to calcuate...

I will be revealing more details about the album and the individual tracks bit by bit over the next few weeks so stay tuned!