Chapter Two . . .

Getting back in work mode here. Today was spent sort of taking inventory and making to do list', assessing where we're at right now and what's next.

First thing I did was listen to everything we've got recorded so far with fresh ears and a fresh perspective. One of the best reasons for living with these songs and recordings for awhile, is that over time you start to notice things that bug you about something that you may not have noticed before. Or something you were not sure of finally confirms itself to you as better than you thought. Either way, time can be a great ally for the process.

While listening I made some notes of certain things I want to eventually fix or redo on Piano, or guitar. Amazingly, my list wasn't very long. I am getting really nit picky with some of these songs, but it's important.

Another thing I noticed is we need to get the drums and scratch vocals done on everything else, before proceeding with the rest of the guitar work.

So the first things on my personal to do list is to do my scratch vocals on all of the songs that I sing that are recorded so far. I do have to finish up some lyrics and melody lines on a couple first that I left with some loose ends when we initially wrote them.
Next I need to work on the lyrics and melody ideas I have for "Every Breath I Breathe", which I'll finish off with Jimmy when he returns. This is one of those ones that came along during the recording process and where recording has begun on it before finishing writing it.

Then I still need to get all of the other songs started that we haven't begun recording yet, but we've certainly finished writing, so we can build those like we have been the others.

By then, Jimmy should be back to do the rest of his scratch vocals. At that point, once we got the drums down, Jimmy and I can finish off everything else and fix whatever needs fixing.

Then we need to go back into writing mode full time and finish our long list of songs we're in the middle of writing and also come up with another batch of new songs.
Then we need to get those recorded too. lol

After that, We mix the recordings and then it's time to get our producer involved.
From there the game plan for the final record will take shape and we'll spend another few months getting the final record done and hopefully have it out sometime in the first half of next year.

Whew! It seems like a long ways off, but it's really not. There's still a lot of work ahead for sure. It will all be worth it in the end I think.

There's gonna be a lot of work to do on the business end too during this time!

There's also life that keeps happening in between it all. Anything can happen, anything can change on a moments notice. In the meantime, you just try to focus on the task at hand, be the best you can be and stay flexible. Today was the first step of the next phase.

Welcome to chapter two . . .

-Bret.