Album Update

I've been getting a lot of work done this week.  "Never And Forever" the album, is almost a reality.  Here is a quick rundown of what is done and what is left to do.  I made some substantial progress on track #6, "Anything At All".  I fixed some issues with the mix, recorded vocals for the ending of the song and now it's pretty much finished.  I also did some EXTREMELY minor tweaks to the mix of the first 3 tracks.  These were small things that I've been meaning to do for a while.

All that remains to completely finish this album:

• Track 4 - "You Can Never Go Home"
• just needs some minor improvements to the mix.  This should't take long
• Track 5 - "Save My Soul"
• this is pretty much done but  could use one more instrument/part/sound to round it out.
• Track 6 - "Anything At All"
• As I mentioned, I just about am finished with this one.  All that remains is to listen to the mix a few more times and make sure it's really done.
• Track 7 - "This Time"
• This song needs a few more sounds, a guitar solo and some final mixing and testing.
• Track 8 - "Time Takes Time"
• Need to record vocals, maybe add some more sounds or instruments...maybe not, we'll see.

At a total of 8 tracks, that's all there is left to do.  That may sound like a lot of things but really this album is over 90% done.  I really can't wait to get it finished as it feels like a major step forward for me.

Subtle Changes in the Night

If any of you have been listening to the new songs on my bandcamp site, you may or may not have noticed that there are subtle changes in the mixes and a song might sound slightly different from one day to another. You see, what you are hearing is not actually the finished product just yet. Those are the "good enough to be heard by others" mixes. Not the"good enough to be on the final album" mixes. So most night I spend listening and tweaking and listening and tweaking again. At the end of the night I post the latest version to bandcamp. This is why I have not enabled downloading from that site yet. I don't want anyone to go and download an incomplete version.

Songs that have been getting this re-mix treatment lately are "Take Our Chances", "The Enemy Is Me", and "Drifting Away". The changes would be most noticeable in those songs. The other songs that I still find myself wanting to mess with are "Comfort Me" and "Castles In the Sand". Once everything is "good enough" it will be time to burn the final disc and get this baby into production.

I've also been working on finalizing the design and artwork. This is one of my favorite parts of the process. I recently added all of the lyrics to the fold out booklet. I'm now in the process of writing the album credits and thank you's and such. There is not a single photograph of myself and I think I will keep it that way. I'm quite sure I used too many on the last album so maybe I'm making up for that.

Vocals Recorded

"Wherever You Go" has vocals! This was the last major missing piece of the Here Nor There puzzle. I recorded and mixed over the weekend but didn't have time to really listen for problems until the bus ride this morning. As is not usually the case after a first mix, it sounded really good with fresh ears this morning. I still may want to go back and do some vocal doubling or create some new harmonies, but it could actually be complete at this point. Like I said, this was the last major task left. From here it's just listening and making minor adjustments until it's as perfect as I am capable of or patient enough to make it.

Once I am fairly certain that I've got an acceptable mix, I'll get this song up on the webs so people can hear it.

All That's Left to Do

Here is my short "to do" list of items remaining to be finished.

• Take Our Chances - Worked on it a bit more last night. It's in a good place right now. This mix might even be finished. Need to listen to it a bit more.
• Castles In the Sand - The mix needs major work. This could take a while or could happen very quickly...you never know with these things.
• Drifting Away - Mix needs work. Again, this could be very difficult or very easy and quick.
• Wherever You Go - Instruments are all mixed and sounding great. Lyrics need to be finalized and vocals recorded.
• Comfort Me - I'm not sure what needs to be done here. Maybe nothing. Maybe something.

And once all of that is done...

• Mastering of all tracks - I need to adjust volume and levels and determine track beginnings and endings and any overlaps of the two and basically lay out the structure of the album before burning a master copy.

And finally...

• Artwork - The artwork is mostly finished. The CD booklet will include all lyrics this time around. I haven't been able to finish laying this out yet since I haven't finalized the lyrics for "Wherever You Go". I also would like to get a recent photo of myself to include somewhere in the packaging. As of now there are no photos of myself, which may be a good thing. I may have Desta take some photos and see what we come up with.

Looking at all of those items it is becoming apparent that I won't be able to get that all done in the 6 days I have left until my self-imposed deadline of September 28th. Even still, I am pleased with the progress in the past few days and feel good about getting everything completed at some point. I really just want to finish this and get it out of the way so I can move on to better things. This has been a 5 year project and much of this album does not represent where I am at now as a songwriter. I can't wait to move on to the next stage of my work. If you're reading this, thanks for sticking around. I have great hope for the future...stay tuned.

James