Weight of Wandering. Our debut full length album. An immeasurable
amount of time and love were spent making this record by an array of
wonderful people, beginning sometime in April of 2008. Though some of
the details are predictably fuzzy, and i am sure i will leave some important
twists and turns out, let me try to tell you the story...
The first song we began recording
tracks for is Without
A Trace. We spent a few days
recording at a funky little studio in Hoboken, which ironically, is
named Hoboken Recorders. We were joined by owner/engineer
Alan Hamlet, our good friend and executive producer Bo Bazylevsky,
and another good friend and Bo's cousinTerry Solomone. I insisted
on hanging 4 paper plates on the wall of the studio, with the "rules"
we were supposed to record by: london dub attitude, far away shanty
sound, surf rock vibration, and i can't remember the last one. must
not have been that important. at any rate, it was a groovy start...
The next stop was Angelhouse Studios
in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, home of Alex Wong and a 10 minute walk from
my apartment. Alex and i locked ourselves in for a few days and tracked
drums for the next 5 songs, Picture
Perfect World, St Christopher Candles, Portrait of an
Era, Pretty Faces and Bedroom
Ceiling. Lots of hazelnut
coffee and self-deprecating, sardonic humor. I realized while Alex and
I were tracking this album together that i actually really like that
dude. And its not just because he's another pretty face. I actually
kinda enjoy his company...
This is where the operation goes
a bit guerilla. Next stop is Sanjay's Chelsea apartment where we tracked
bass and keys. No coffee for us though, only wine and whiskey and some
occasional Thai food. Sanj and I worked on bass together, but as far
as the keys went, i left him to his own devices - mad scientist style...
This brings us to guitars. Our dear
friend and amazing artist Mishal Zeera
joined us for a little field trip out to Oyster Bay, Long Island, where
he, Mo and I holed ourselves away for a couple of looooong weekends
at Castle de Bhansali. Yes, the venerable Mama and
Papa Bhansali invited us to take over their basement/discotheque
for what amounts to somewhere around 50-60 hours of guitar tracking.
It was truly an experience - we'd wake up mid-morning, grab a little
bite and a stretch, then start recording by noon. We'd work straight
through till 2 or 3am, with an occasional lunch break at the beach to
keep our sanity. Oh, and Dr Bhansali has a beautiful, fully stocked
bar in the basement/discotheque. During the guitar sessions we finished
an ungodly amount of whiskey - Black Label, Jamesons, Makers, and who
knows what else. Sorry Dr. Bhansali - we promise we'll get you back...
Mishal and I then returned to Angelhouse
to record vocals, and shortly after i was off to Austin, Tx to meet
up with our favorite Swede Lars Goransson to start mixing at
his studio, Sounds Outrageous. Lars, in full purple shorts splendor,
started sprinkling a bit of his magic over the tunes, and re-introduced
me to the game Halo. We were joined by a couple of Liars and Saints
- Johnny Goudie and Casey McPherson - who hung out and
kept things silly. Oh yeah, they also added some noise and love - oohs
and aahs, keys, glockenspiel... it was a ball. Lars made the songs sound
real, real pretty...
By now we are in October, and it
is time to master. Lars flew up to meet us with the 1/4 inch masters
here in New York. We mastered the tunes with Fred Kevorkian,
a handsome French gentleman who works out of Avatar Studios off
west 53rd. After listening to Lars and Fred geek out about audiophile-type
shit for what seemed like hours, Mo and I politely excused ourselves
to let Fred put the finishing touches on the 6 songs.
6 songs? i thought this was a full
length album you are probably thinking. initially, Weight
of Wandering was intended
to be an EP. but after a series of unfortunate events that took place
and threatened to delay the release, and a gentle nudge from our friend
Bo, i suddenly got the brilliant idea to turn the EP into a 10 song
full length album. everybody was all for it. sooo, we started tracking
another 4 songs in mid-November. Brilliant
Broken Glow, All These Beautiful Days (are wasted on me), This Paranoia
Won't Subside and a new version
of Let It
Go were tracked in almost
exactly the same way as the first 6 songs. Subtract Hoboken Recorders
and Castle de Bhansali, and throw in an overnight guitar session at
our friend Sean's fencing club Empire United (yes, fencing as in people
fighting with foils and masks), and there you have it. i returned to
Austin to mix with Lars over Christmas, and we finished the final masters
with Fred in February.... done. finito.
The final touch was of course the
artwork, created by the lovely and talented Mary Benyo. We are
so in love with the album art - it is exactly what we imagined, and
we think you will so dig. you better, or you are not my friend anymore.
just kidding, you probably never were in the first place...
so thats the story of Weight of Wandering. we are proud of our baby and can't wait
to share it with you. its going to be an amazing summer...
we love you.
xoxo,
joseph, mohit, sanjay and alex