Radio, Part II

Today I met with Jason Samuel, general manager of the Globe in Goshen, IN (which was, by the way recently honored as the IBS member station of the year). An inside look at how radio works has me rethinking my strategy in this area -- the market is glutted with new music, so much that radio stations are throwing away piles of cds weekly. I don't really want to add to the waste, but I do want to get this music out more widely than I have before.

I'm looking for and thinking about creative, less wasteful, ways to do that.

Thank You, Radio and a Report on the Kickstarter Campaign (which is over)

The Kickstarter campaign ended well and will allow us to get the record out. We doubled our minimum which was great, and a lot of people gave to the project, and made significant contributions.

We're looking at doing a radio campaign, which wasn't in our original budget, so if you missed the chance to support the record but want to help out, track me down or leave a comment and I'll let you know how you could help out.

Thanks again to everyone who gave expert advice, encouragement, skilled labor, money and prayer during the first phase of this record. I wouldn't have made it anywhere with this project alone -- and while that's always true, it's been much more the case this time than with most of the records I've done. It's partly because the scale is much bigger, partly because I have less energy, time and partly, I think, because this project is a watershed -- lots of tributaries are pouring into larger streams and rivers and we'll see what it looks like when it hits the sea.

"Watershed " cut from the Watershed Record

Grant and I met yesterday to make final decisions on the album. We cut one song, ironically the title track, Watershed. We were questioning it since the beginning, but after getting feedback from a number of people we decided to not put it on the album. It will be available as an outtake.

We gave the "almost final mix" to 15 or 20 people with some questions to help us make decisions (favorite songs, least favorite, other comments). Besides deciding to cut one song, we also changed the title of a song from "What the Sun Shows" to "Into the Wilderness" -- a great suggestion from Paul Householder which gets at the heart of the song (and album) better.

"I'll Never," "Carbon Blanket" and "Timepiece" were the favorites so far, with "Stars & Oceans" following closely behind, although that was also several peoples' least favorite. Other least favorites were "When the Enemies Close In" and "I'll Never." Wile taste varied, the feedback was consistent enough to really help us make decisions, and hopefully, a better album.

Guitar Solos and Parachutes

I am wary of guitar solos. Maybe because I grew up through grunge. Maybe because there are a lot of technical players who aren't bringing something fresh to the art. So I went in thinking there would not be guitar solos on the Watershed Project.

And while there aren't really much of what you'd call traditional guitar leads happening here, we ended up giving Chris some space on the record to try stuff within and he pushed the boundaries of the key and timing in such a way that the leads are interesting and energizing -- he's a good enough player to push the edges and still land squarely where and when he needs to (as opposed to some other players, myself included, who can sometimes get the plane off the ground but their landings are spotty, often requiring the use of parachutes and other methods of escape).

Light bright enough to hurt your eyes

Yesterday was quite a day. Chris Freeman drove over three hours to come play guitar on the record -- got there before noon. This was the only day that worked for him. Grant (the producer), however, got called in to jury duty the same day so we didn't know if or when he'd be available. We're on a tight schedule with tour coming up, and Chris was going to play on most of the songs, and was essential on half of them, so this mattered.

Grant got dismissed from the jury around noon (yippee!)and we started tracking guitars. It was amazing. Chris worked almost 12 hours (a couple breaks) and then drove the three hours home after midnight. He was an animal. He was a machine. I'll post a video at some point.

The tracks are, in my opinion, stunning. Serious energy and a precision and level of excellence to his playing that took the record up a level but still fit in with the ragged, raw, all-out feel of the record.

So the day felt like a series of miracles (and I'm only telling a few here). If this album becomes something of value to people, it will be partly because of the musicians who not only invested the fruit of years of playing and practice, but also time, sleep, energy, money and heart into it.

I can't wait to see how people react to these songs. It feels like something is happening with them (and this whole project) that is beyond us which people may pick up on. I hope so.

We're hoping to finalize the order and final set list for the record this weekend (the big question is whether all 12 songs make it or we cut one or two). I'd like to get the record designed and sent off to be replicated by early next month, so that we can have a cd release sometime in May.

I thought I'd post a shot I took from the plane coming back from California -- the way the light was in these clouds was stunning, surprising, glorious, strange and bright enough to hurt a bit, but you just had to keep looking back, it was so beautiful. That's a bit what yesterday was like at Electric Angel Studios.

Today We Go Live

Today at 2:07pm the Watershed Project goes live on Kickstarter. Thanks so much to everyone who has given to it. It's been a lot of fun. If you want to support it now that the deadline is past, you'll have to track me down yourself -- the easy route is over! Now it's time to finish the record, get the books together, plan the tour and get the art and music out that all those people helped make possible.

Chris the guitar guru is driving down from Detroit to record his parts today but Grant (the producer) got called to jury duty. We're hoping he's not there long so we can finish up the guitar parts before he has to drive back to Michigan!

Got a bit of time with some friends from Asia today who are in the states going back to school. We were out talking and grabbing a bite to eat and drink and I heard a number of songs in a row from power trios (bands with bass, drums and guitars for you non music nerds). Man, I'm excited about playing some of this music. Got a call as well from a guy in Alaska -- there's a chance I might get to do some concerts up there. If so it will be 7 years since I did that. I can think of few places I'd rather play a concert during the summer (and few I'd rather NOT play in the winter).

Sorry this is so long -- got to go back and read my writing target post.

Cutting Songs from the Record

We're so close to done with this record now. I've been listening over the tracks, waiting for those last guitars to be added and thinking about possibly cutting a song or two. I'd rather have a great album with ten songs than a good album with 12 songs. We've put so much time and energy and heart and attention into this, really thinking about it as an album not just a collection of songs, that it will be worth being brutal to make it great. We're going to get some feedback from different listeners to help us decide whether to cut songs or not.

Think of us this week as we wrap up.