Vine House

We Mic'd the Bathrooms at Shelter Island Sound

2007-02-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

Good news! The songs have made significant progress since my last posting in mid December. I can't believe it's been that long ... time sure can fly. The holiday's ended up being a good time and it was always nice to spend time with my family since I don't get to see them too often. The new year rolled in and we solidified January 13th, 14th and 27th as the beginning session dates to record rhythm, electric guitars. We ended up recording at Shelter Island Sound on 27th street in Manhattan. In fact when Ross and I went to check out the studio - Moby was working in the control room listening down to some tracks. The studio was great. It has a very cool, intimate vibe and the old vintage gear is fantastic.

We made much progress on the 13th, and 14th. Steve Addabbo, the owner, gave us the run of the place as we went crazy setting up microphones in the hallways and bathrooms. I've got more pix to upload. Thanks Steve for making us feel very welcomed and allowing us to indulge in being ridiculously loud. We recorded all the foundational rhythm guitars for all songs but one. We came back on the 27th to finish the one song we never got to and then proceeded to work on some other overdub parts for the tune 'Mrs. Wallington' and 'End of the line.' Each day was packed with 10 hours of work and all in all the guitars came out quite excellent. I'm really happy with how they're sounding - very classic rock sounding. We spent a lot of time honing in on the tone of the electrics making sure we were keeping a consistent sound and creating a personality for the record. We didn't want to record guitars that a had modern rock sound. The songs are really coming along.. ;)

In other news we're starting to work with a graphic designer for the CD cover. We started out by sending over some examples of cover art from bands like The Clash, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, and Tom Petty to give him an idea of the direction we're heading. Oh yea, we also decided to re-do the website. Version 1.0 is just not cutting it.

Thanks for stopping by...

-m

Happy Holiday's

2006-12-16T11:07:00.000-08:00

Eight days to Christmas, as I write this, and unfortunately I'm not really feeling in the Christmas spirit. I say unfortunately because I have traditionally always loved the Christmas time of year. It's the one holiday I've constantly enjoyed ever since I can remember. Perhaps I'm not feeling as festive because the weather has been unseasonably warm or maybe it's the ...... Hmm, I really don't know. Can't really think of second excuse. I did watch part of 'It's A Wonderful Life' yesterday and started feeling a little bit cheerier. What a great movie that has stood the test of time. The story is just fantastic. At any rate Christmas is right around the corner along with a brand new year and I'd like to say Happy Holiday's. I am looking forward to winding down 2006 and getting ready for a banner year in '07. I already like the ring of it. It's gonna be big year (positive thinking)!! By the time mid 2007 rolls around the record will be out and hopefully gaining momentum. I'll more than likely have another batch of new songs in the can but will be holding on to them as we work and promote the current record.

Speaking of record... we made a little more headway lately. Ross is really going the extra mile on cleaning up/editing the drums & bass to get every song sitting really tight. The extra work he has put in has made a significant difference. The tracks are sounding great. I went in a few days back and starting laying down scratch vocals. We're looking at tracking a bulk of the electric and acoustic guitars on two weekends in January. We've tentatively set aside the 6th, 7th, 13th and 14th. After that we'll see how the songs are shaping up and start preparing for tracking the main vocals. I still haven't decided on where we're going to track guitars, however Ross and I are going to look at a couple of studios this coming Tuesday. Funny thing is that both studios we're looking at are in the same building on the same floor. It's a pretty strange coincidence given the fact that Ross found one (Spin Studios) and I found one and they both ended up right next to each other. Maybe it's some kind of sign.

Gig Update

2006-11-30T11:08:00.000-08:00

So what's the deal with playing out? Well, the short answer is right now we're not. As I mentioned previously we're making this record and I'm mainly concentrating on getting it completed. In addition, Vine House is currently sans a permanent bass player. It's been kind of tough lately finding a replacement bass player even though we're situated in New York City and one would think the pool of talented/interested bass players would be available. The hard part is that I don't have any completed tunes to send to potential bass players. Sending acoustic demos or ruff pre-production tracks is possible but not recommended. Most people don't get what you're trying to do unless you hand them the completed master. That goes for musicians as well. The bottom line is it's always hard to find good bass players. If you're thinking of learning an instrument so you can play in a rock band - learn to play bass. You'll have plenty of opportunities especially if you're female!

I've also been considering playing some acoustic live shows with Rob, however it's around the holiday season and the music scene is typically slow - so I'd rather wait until after the new year. I'm much more interested in playing full band shows than just acoustic shows. Playing acoustic shows can be cool, however we don't have any music to promote right now so I'm not sure it's the best move. I'm definitely missing playing live though. It's been awhile since I played out and am missing it fiercely.

Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock

2006-11-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling at a low point these days. For the past couple of weeks the record has been on hold 'cause Ross (the engineer) has been working on some label projects and they do pay the bills. I can't blame him - we're all trying to make a little cash to survive. Unfortunately for me it becomes a waiting game that's at times hard to accept. I like making progress and this record being in a state of limbo is making me anxious and easily excitable. I mean what am I doing in my life? Where the hell am I headed? I feel the time passing while I'm patiently sitting on the sideline trying to convince myself all is okay - it's just temporary. Is it?

In addition I'm having one hell of a time trying to find a bass player. This is crazy! I live in and around New York City where you'd think the talent pool would be quite large. However, bass players are slim pickings and that sucks. I've pretty much been running craig's list ads and perusing the site looking for bass players. So far no luck. I mean we did have a couple of possible prospects however it didn't pan out as planned. Right now I'm thinking life is hard and generally it is.

I need to put up some flyers. Rob and I need to play some acoustic shows. I need to lift my spirits and get drunk - I've actually been doing a lot of that lately. I guess the good news is I'm working with Ross tomorrow on bass and Kristin and I are headed to Jamaica this coming Sunday for nine days. So, at least that's something positive.

New Vine House Web Site

2006-10-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

It's been exactly one month since we recorded basic tracks at Avatar. I guess it feels about one month. I've been working with Ross (recording engineer) on comping the drum parts for all eleven tunes. It's pretty tedious work and can be slow going however it's something that we need to take our time in doing. It's key to have a very tight and solid rhythm section to build from. At this point we've pieced together all the various drum takes and have roughly built out our drum pad. Ross still has to do his magic in polishing up the drum edits and then work on getting the bass guitar sitting good. Hopefully this won't take more than a couple of weeks but you never know - the bass really needs some work as well. The other thing is that we're recording this with a very limited budget. That means this project falls behind those label projects that have cash to throw at Ross in getting something done. It sucks but what can you do - money talks.

The other bit of exciting news is Kristin has started to build out the new Vine House website. It looks awesome!! I'm really excited about this new design. The colors are very cool and the design has the web 2.0 look and feel. It's very easy to read and navigate. I'm looking at the template now as I'm typing this and can't wait to put it out there. Seeing the new site is a motivator in keeping things going strong. Everything right now is in such a state of building and creating that things almost don't feel real. But seeing this site brings new found inspiration in the fact that we are creating something very cool.