Finally the recognition I deserve: A KYS blog!!111
So on Tuesday we entered Sing Sing Studios in Richmond to record our follow up to A Revelation For Despair. It’s been 2 years since we were in the studio last. 2 years!! Fuck, where did all that time go? I can only surmise that a good part was spent boozing in various cities around Australia and New Zealand,and although my memories are vague, they have shaped the songs for the next generation BCE. Gone are the sing/scream formulas of the past and the bitter and bleak lyrical scenarios, revealing a more sincere outlook of personal reflections and positive attitudes. Although you may be thinking that removing such a ‘defining’ attribute such as screaming from our repertoire will leave the band diluted and flat, it has given us a sound reminiscent of our early demos with much greater musical prowess and a much more cohesive package of songs. We have incorporated the bad ass guitar solos of the 80s with our punk roots of the 90s. It’s still edgy enough to console fans of ARFD, with moments of contempt for the society that surrounds us. But it also has promise to older BCE fans and new fans alike, with some massive sing along choruses, stories of love and regret and the token Az guitar riffage!
Hmm so that sounded like a sales pitch if I’ve ever heard one hahaha. Bottom line is, we love it. We hope you will love it too; but it has been an enduring song writing process of around 6 months to get to a point where everyone in the band is happy, so it is only a consolation if anyone else likes it. As always we have done things how we want to. Not how the record company, or management or anybody else wants it. It’s funny even now when I think back to the kids that said we had “sold out” on the last record. Sold out?? Hahaha. How can you “sell out” by writing a record that was so inaccessible and abrasive such as ARFD? No radio station would touch us (except for a brief stint on JJJ). I know we will be met with the same hostility, most likely from the same people, as last time. But I can assure you, no one outside of the band has influenced this process. If we wrote a love song it was because we wanted to write one. If we wrote a song about the delusion of Fame it is because we wanted to voice our opinion. Nothing more.
So with that all said (maybe a bit unnecessary,but I’m just writing as it comes), we begun this month long recording process on Tuesday with Drums. The first day Cam didn’t play a single drum. It was spent with Shane “Wacka” (Body Jar) setting up, tuning, and basically getting the drums to sound ‘right’. Cam had something like 8 snares, 3 kick drums and a myriad of other drum paraphernalia (ill have to track down a list of equipment he had for you tech heads). The next three days Cam, like a well oiled machine, smashed his way through 13 songs! He is incredible to watch. As most drummers will tell you, playing to a click track can be a massive mind fuck. Cam on the other hand is like Neo! He is at one with the matrix. From what I witnessed the other day the process went something like this: Cam would play each part (verse, chorus, etc) separately 3 or 4 times till both him and Richard Stolz (producer) were happy with the performance. He would then “drop in” (meaning record a part anywhere in the song) any fills or grooves that went quite money. This is difficult because it means he has to not only know the song very well but also be so precise with the click track so that all the parts flow together seamlessly. I think in time he will be one of the greatest Australian rock drummers around.
So as it stands today, drums are completed and inunder than the allocated time; a first for any of our recordings! We still have a good 3 weeks left of recording and then a couple weeks mixing. We will be mixing one of our tracks with legendary mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge (Green Day, My Chemical Romance, AFI, The Used, Underoath, Bad Religion, Rise Against etc etc). Unfortunately we can only afford to mix one track with him(big bucks!!!), but the rest will be mixed by Richard Stolz here in Melbourne (who is still amazing!). It seems like ages away still. I wish it was done already and we could be touring!
Right now I’m going to get some rest. I’ve been sick as a dog for the last week. I hate winter so much! Anyone got a place I could stay at in a warmer climate?? Ahhh! Shit.
Current Track Listing For Album #2 (in no particular order):
-Death From Above
-Addicted To Fame
-My Love
-Rock Ballad *
-Hard Candy
-Coming Home *
-Godzilla *
-This Is Who We Are
-I Never Wanted This
-Losing Control
-Miss Heartbreaker
-Hellbound
-Az16 *
* denotes temporary song names.
Dates To Keep In Mind:
-July 23rd Snow Show in Jindabyne
-August 1st Single Released
-September National Tour (yes yes including Perth!!! Dates announced soon)
-October 11th Sounds Of Spring Festival
-October Album released!
-December 25th Christmas ….wooo presents
