We’re about halfway through the year, and I’m happy to say we have six of the 12 or 13 songs for the album recorded. I have done my “final” mixes on them, and they sound good — I’m not ashamed of them, we’ve nitpicked a few things and corrected them — but I am starting to wonder what they would sound like if someone with more experience mixing on modern equipment gave it a shot. Keep in mind that my audio degree is now about 20 years old, and I got it on the last gasp of all-analog signal paths; digital recording was coming in as I was going out. I also never pursued a career in audio recording and engineering as I’d intended, so I’m more than a bit dusty and rusty. Getting a professional, modern set of ears may cost money, so we’ll see how that works out. (We still plan to release this for free.)
That said, both Jude and I really like what we’ve got recorded. It’s kind of weird to listen to our current MP3 mixes and have them inspire us to keep going, but that’s exactly what’s happening — “Wow, that sounds good, we can’t screw up these other tracks, they all have to be aces!” Now that we have a half-dozen songs in, at the very least, advanced demo stage, we are going to approach more partners who might be able to amplify what we’re doing. I really think that’s worth it, and I’m willing to delay the release if it means getting a good partnership from, say, someone who could make quality videos for some of the songs. That will ultimately determine the final release date.
The second half of the year looks very busy so we’ll be recording as we can, but the results are speaking for themselves.
–Dan