Well, given that I’ve finished up recording the debut EP and I’m starting to get some small tour plans in the works I thought it prudent to up the ante as far as our web presence is concerned. So this is an attempt at fulfilling that longing from within myself for internet posterity… Or something.
Anyway, back to the aforementioned recording. 8 songs recorded with the ever endearing and always affable Ryan Cox of DARC Productions in his home close to the Eastern boundary of York County. After a number of false starts and abandoned attempts at recording it’s nice to finally have something in the can, as they’re wont to say. Previous forays into the world of studio recordings had been derailed, in large part, by over-ambition on my part and as a result we took a basic, simple-as-a-foot-stomping-on-wood approach this time around. There were no more than 3 takes for any of the songs, which were recorded live-off-the-floor, just the nakedness of the banjo and my vocals. There are mistakes as a result, warts and broken teeth, but we hope they serve to breath life into the record, to give it personality and good moral character so that the listener might enjoy an experience as close to that of a live performance as possible. But we did overdub one guitar track and, more importantly, the stomping of feat:

The songs contained therein deal lyrically with monsters and ghosts and death and trying to breathe life into dead things. Of particular note is a song entitled “Charles Lindbergh, reflecting on the murder of his son from his death bed”. (It’s a long title, I know, but I wanted to give the somewhat oblique lyrics some context.) The song was written three days previous to its recording and was inspired by a book I discovered on the dusty shelves of a storied book store (bad pun) in Kingston, Ontario. It’s called “Kidnap: The Story of the Lindbergh Case” by George Waller and it’s well worth a read if you can track it down, both for its tale of a truly captivating case as well of its depiction of a much more innocent time than now. It’s humbling to see how much the world has changed since the days of Lindy; the story of his life following the kidnapping and death is possibly even more intriguing.
But, I digress, back to the record:
We have some pretty neat and unconventional ideas for the packaging that we’re very excited to share with the world. It requires that we take a class to learn certain aspects of the manufacturing process, but we’re pretty confident it will be worth it when we hold that neat and unconventional design in our cold, gloved hands.
If all goes according to plan the songs will be released, complete with fun and intimate packaging, in the early, cold months of 2013.
There is also some talk of some mini-tours around Ontario in and around February–partially to celebrate the release, partially to get out of town for a bit… get in a dodge to get out of dodge–and a tentative foray to the Eastern provinces is being discussed amongst the kinds of people who discuss such things. And let me assure you, we are these kinds of people.
Well, that’s it for now.
Cheers.