King's Row - Sketches (2019)

We started working on this album back in 2016, although many of the songs have their origins all the way back to 1996. I've written a lot of songs about dealing with the different tragedies of my life and we decided to put some of those songs together with newer pieces to make an autobiographical concept album.

After our EP "Superheroes," singer Jim Brown let us know that he wanted to concentrate on performing full time and try to make a living at music. While we support him in this endeavor, we also weren't sure what to do for a singer. I tried singing on things but it just wasn't very good. We took some time to record a few covers and play around with several new ideas, then decided to just move forward making a new album and hope that things would work out.

The music on this album is our strongest attempt at creating progressive music. We are by no means virtuoso musicians, so every bit of this was done through struggle and hard work. Almost everything on the album was recorded more than once with changes in arrangements and sounds as things evolved. Every time I would get a new piece of gear or software I would want to do everything over again.

Over the years, Chris and I have both played in bands at local churches. While neither of us are very religious, it was a good opportunity to play live in a controlled setting and to meet other musicians. Which is where I met Kyle. After talking to him a few times, he seemed interested in being involved in a recording project. We invited him out and things worked out from the very start. He had the daunting task of trying to sing lyrics and melodies that he didn't write, all while I'm there telling him exactly how I want it done! Not easy at all, but he did a tremendous job!

The last major hurdle is that, despite doing it for years, I am not any sort of natural recording engineer. Mixing for me has always been an elusive mystery born out of trial and error more than knowing what I'm doing. In preparation, I watched a number of tutorials, tried several different techniques, and bought a new suite of Waves plugins to help. I took off of work for two weeks just so I could dedicate time to finishing the backing vocals, recording any other last minute fixes, and then mixing and mastering. Luckily, I got it done just in time!

During the time it took to finish this album, Chris got married, I moved (twice), and I changed jobs (only once). I have to say that, unless this album is met with unbridled success that thrusts upon us international fame and immense fortune, it's likely to be the last big production album like this that we do. But who knows? Maybe we'll change our minds (again).