I love R.E.M.  One of my favorite songs by them ends the Automatic for the People album. 'Find the River'. Yeah I like pretty songs. I always wanted to have a closer like that. The perfect kind of ending to all the songs that came before it. Now when I wrote this I wasn't thinking of that song and this sounds nothing like that. It never occurred to me to compare. Then when I was getting the artwork done for the record my buddy Todd Moreland told me that he really really loved this song. I always give him…

Funny how time changes your point of view. "Time can heal all wounds", or something like that is the saying right?

My last 3 records were not exactly depressing. Not at all. There were many joyous happy uplifting moments with the sad. Looking back all 3 were me dealing with my mothers death. Could've been a lot darker I guess. Lyrically they were me working shit out. Music has always been that for me. That's why I love it. It can transport you into another world. Make you remember moments. Make you feel…

So confession.

I've never mastered my own album before. Ever.

Why? Mainly cause it's a very specific skill. It's all about very SMALL tweaks to volume, compression and EQ. It takes years to learn how to do it well. I've always gone to Silvertone Mastering before. That was always my most favorite part of releasing a record. They have AMAZING equipment and speakers. Hell the speakers probably cost as much as my Jeep. 

So why am I not doing that now? Well, for one, I have a mastering program I've been…

HEY!

Yeah. Well one of the wonderful things about technology is that it lets someone like me make a record. It's great. 

The worst thing is that there are so many things you can do! Too many! Too many! There are so many toys to play with. If you're not careful you'll start playing just cause you can. And probably start ruining things.

I've been working on all the mixes. And like I said in the last post-one thing to be wary of is the whole "hey it worked on THAT song...why not try it here? And here? And…

What goes on after all the parts are recorded?

Well- funny you should ask.

LOTS

First there're all the mixes. This is where you 'balance' all the sounds against eachother. Not to make sure they're all the same volume, but to make sure they sit in the song where they should be. You don't want an electric guitar that is way louder than every other sound. You want it to sound like an electric guitar playing with all the other instruments.

Now some things are nearly always a bit louder. Vocals, snare drum…