31 July, 2011

Further Journeys Into the North Sea....


Spent a very long and rewarding day yesterday wrapping up the instrumental portion of our album. The morning started with Jared laying down some percussion overdubs. Then our friend Christopher Schudde of Mazzaroth stopped in to grace us with some guest guitar work on "The Dismal Tide". He knew what to play to fill in the cracks that Ryan left behind.

Onward into the completion of the bass re-amping, which sounds so far beyond driven... I mean massive, heavy, low-end that can loosen teeth... you get the idea. This time we used the North Sea's '69 Ampeg SVT, which finally got us the bass tone we (and especially Sean) have been hearing in our heads all along. Couldn't be happier with the way it pulled the overall sonic picture together. At times, it was like hearing the bass lines for the first time. The nuance you don't pick up on in the practice environment, or on stage. Very exciting to hear the bass-lines so clearly.

Ryan spent the remainder of the day reworking a guitar solo, and adding some overdubs here and there. Huge thanks to Eric Halder of Charmboy for loaning us his rad Telecaster with the Bigsby Tremolo, which got put to good use many times over to invoke the spirit of the surf and the old west.

We can't wait for everyone to hear this album. Couldn't be more proud of the what we've achieved thus-far. It's Mike's turn to take this thing to the next level, and there is no doubt, that he will go above and beyond what we already know he is capable of.

Until next time....