Debut Album Out Now!

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.