Play one song many times.

Analyze. Dialog. Tune up.

Repeat.

Next song.

Repeat.

Midnight.

Go home. See you next week.


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Not since we recorded our first three song demo with our good friend Aaron Niequist have we had an outside producer -- someone to push us around, er... I mean kindly suggest things such as song arrangements, instrumentation, sounds, etc...  After producing the first two CD's on our own, I can tell you having a fifth person that we can trust to provide feedback in all aspects of the songs, and push/pull us into new territory, is a relief.  Already Joel has pointed out certain things in a number of the songs that we hadn't considered which have resulted in major improvements. Besides his skills on the production end, we're also getting someone who is an experienced and professional songwriter to help guide every song.

Besides playing all of the songs for Joel last night and getting his feedback, we also talked through the approach we're going to take to record the songs.  For the next few days Ethan will be working on the scratch tracks that Todd will play to when recording the first two songs -- "Tiger Beat" and "Behind The Eyes".  He'll get those to Joel who will get the busy work of setting up the DAW out of the way before we show up to critique Todd's every note.  Doesn't that sound like fun?  Then we'll start tracking the other instruments for those two songs before bringing Todd in to record more drums.

We have ALWAYS made Todd record every song in one day -- (even on Metropolis which had 13 songs on it!) -- in the interest of efficiency.  It's about time he's allowed a little more space.

OK, I've rambled on enough for now.  We'll post more as the process rolls on.  Stay tuned.

Greg
for ~The Mines


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As you may or may not know, we're starting the process for recording our third CD. (No, there's not a title yet, but the track list is coming together. I'll share that in the coming weeks).

As an independent band, we choose to make our next cd’s when we've made enough money to cover the recording and other production expenses.  Of course the only way to make that money is to play shows and have people buy the music.  Because we're a part-time band (ie. This is not our full-time job), we can only play so many shows, and to be honest, the vast majority of the shows we play pay less than $50 (that’s not $50 per person either!). 

Really you ask? Really!! 

So that means we need to sell our merchandise – cd's, shirts, etc... – in order to make money to keep the releases coming.

To sell merchandise, people need to know about us, and to know about us we need to have appeared on their radar somehow.  And even then, if they've heard of us they're probably going to test us out in some way before they buy anything... listen to some of the music, browse the recent blog posts etc...

That's why this question is so important.  The internet provides an amazing vehicle for getting the word out about The Mines, but with limited time and money, we’d like some help determining what about the band, people want to know about.

We definitely don't want to constantly be saying "go buy our cd" as our only blog post or update. That’s lame!

So with that in mind, please consider these questions and let us know what you're looking for, so that as we begin this new cd cycle of creation, promotion & performance, we're maximizing the insight into the band that will ultimately (hopefully) expand the number of people who know about us so that we can continue to do what we love to do: create and record music that we're excited about.

Here are some things to think about (feel free to respond in the comments, send an email to band@theminesonline.net or send us a message via our comment form).

We had been playing together since March of 2004 -- jamming, writing songs, playing a few shows under a different name, and with original guitarist Josh Mikrut -- but Josh had moved on and we were recording our debut full-length CD, so we needed a name, and an identity.

Ethan had been kicking the name around for awhile, I think.  We were for a long time trying to find a replacement for our first name. (If you know the original name, good for you.  We probably won't publish it anywhere.)

Looking back "The Mines" name has served us well, and continues to serve us well four years later.  I'm still very excited to say that I'm a part of "The Mines".  Many times a band name wears out over time, but this one continues to feel right.

And now here we are, October 2009. I'm not sure if we'll actually start recording our next CD this month, but we're really close.  The songs are coming together, we have a producer lined up (more on that in a future post), and we have no shows on the calendar which will allow us to focus on recording.

It's a good time to be in "The Mines".

Greg


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