Yup...

It is what we see on TV...it is what I am editing...it is what I feel like starting against computers sometimes!

All is well, just every once in a while the computer likes to make me a nervous wreck. We are recording lots of things to make the WAR CD way different than Faces...The editing process is taking extra time. This should shorten the mix time a bit....or at least make it more fun! BUT...sometimes discs will fragment and the computer gets confused...so you have to clean the fragments and this takes time...so I sit and twirl my thumbs...

Luckily Kemp was around for a bit of the time. I really missed my friend. She has to work very early tomorrow, so I was stuck with Nick in the computer War 'til about 30 minutes ago.

Fright Knights is ready to go...We have a bit of recording to do on WARPED and ERASE...this will hopefully happen first thing tomorrow...then then only songs left to edit are...Pisses Me Off...Beat ME...Saddamize.....friendly stuff huh? and Forever We'll Be...

I am going to re-sing the chorus to The Mold....cuz I can!!!
Tomorrow is another short 8 hour day in Nick's editing room. Tomorrow night Kemp and I are going to play around in my studio and make some cool WAR noises and sounds from samples. She has to leave for Tokyo in a few days...one of these days I will get to spend some time with my friend...one of these days I will get out of the studio!

Short note...the gun shots worked amazingly well...and for things I never imagined...

You will hear it in the end!!!!

I just drove back from the studio....I almost needed an ARK to get to my house from the car!!!! Nice weather!

Goodnight,
Chris

Closing in on GDWAR mixing....

The GD Computer was acting up again...but...luckily we know how to trick them!

We finished editing "Erase" and "Warped". Well...it became more than editing. I added 32 more tracks of background vocals to the choirs on Erase. The voice is so well rested...The song happens when the Trade Centers are hit. I wanted more dead people singing.

I was very warmed up and went to fix the 3 lines I needed in Warped. I wound up singing the whole song again in 2 takes. I destroyed the old vocal. I wrote the song and sang it a week later...this vocal sounded like I actually knew the song!

The last thing today was a song from "Faces". I was not happy with the chorus in the Mold. So...I re-wrote lyrics and made an evil congregation. This is something I started in my demos at home. Very odd and evil harmonies and background vocals. Finally the chorus has risen up to the rest of the music. It is the one song on Faces that is as dark as GDWAR now. I like the mood. Abandoned is dark...but a bit more desperate...Faces is dark, but very up and musically active. "The Mold" is a bit horror-like now. This is what most of GDWAR sounds like. After all it is about the end of the world! I introduce WAR...WAR begins...Mother Earth eventually wipes out humanity...Fun huh? Lots of stuff in between...but that is the general idea...

I am going to rest for a bit...Kemp is still working...I have some time before we try to assemble chaos for WAR.

The ARK is almost built...

Talk to you soon...

Noah

First off...

Happy Birthday to Nik....

It was my engineer's birthday today! I took him to Bartolino's....my favorite Italian restaurant in America! My friend Bobby owns it. Nik was amazed at the food! It is on Broadway in Astoria...34th St to be exact!

Today we worked on "Beat Me, You'll Never Beat ME" and Pisses Me Off".

They both were a lot of fun...for different reasons. I had to do the solo for Beat Me...never had one!!! It flew out of me! Cool vibe....lots of different sounds on the lead stuff for both CD's. A very angry song...quite angry...

Pisses Me Off is angry too, but fucking hysterical! I love this song....it cracks me up. The production is a bit more WAR like than the other Faces stuff...very Loopy all around!!!!!!!

Last night I got a lot of cool WAR noise recorded...but Kemp did not arrive til really late...so I did it alone...we just listened to the mixes and caught up on our crazy lives. She leaves for Tokyo tomorrow...

Tomorrow Paul Morris shows back up to do some more keys...a bonus instrumental and some stuff for Saddamize...
I am having lots of weird instruments on Saddamize...it has a very distinct Middle Eastern feel....

By Friday night I want to have Saddamize ready...Pisses Me Off is almost ready...Forever We'll be needs editing and a few vocal parts and the instrumental needs to be edited and prepared for mix. Should be fine...

I think I will finish the other 2 bonus tracks in May after I take a break to hunt. I fly to Greece to master the CD's the 3rd week of May...

Everything is coming together so well...I am very excited. The 2 CD's are distinctly different...I am so anxious for you to hear them. They are unlike anything I have ever done in so many ways.

Monday begins the GDWAR mix...I will have a journalist in from Europe to write a studio report...a very good friend for years...more details will follow when he arrives...

That is about it for now...happy tax day!

Chris

Very tired here...

Going to be quick...I think!

We finished 99% of the keybord work today...I leave the 1% open cuz you never know!

Paul is such an amazing player! We worked on Saddamize and the instrumental bonus track...Small hint...I believe TSO fans will love this one...

Tomorrow we have to finish the editing on Saddamize...I may re-sing it...I know I can destroy what I heard today. Then we will finish PMO and Forever We'll Be...then it is a weekend of WAR noises and story work...Monday begins mixing insanity part 2!!!

Raymie is back at the house...we went out to eat at McCann's...Morris, Nick, Raymie and I...I played Raymie the Faces CD...very positive reaction...I finally got a new sub-woofer for my home studio...all Genelec stuff...the CD sounded great here tonite! I was very excited...

The exhaustion is becoming very apparent to me here now. Every day gets more difficult to fall asleep and 10 times more difficult to wake up. I am so excited about the results...I am just frickin fried!

Goodnight!

Chris

OK...

Here is the deal...
I am going to have a few crowd scenes and conversations on the WAR CD.
If you speak alternate languages it would be fun.
I am going to run around the streets with a DAT player next week and ask people questions to get answers and reactions in many languages.

But...if you have the capabilities...record yourself saying...
"I hate this God Damned War"...or something similar....
I am going to place them all together to create a large market place talking...so the lines can very.

Most of you know how to record on your cell phones...cameras...video players...make the sound a wave file or MP3...e-mail it to me...the link is on the menu page of the site. If you don't know how or can't find someone to do it...it is ok...I just thought it would be fun!

You may not distinguish yourself on the actual CD...but..if you do it well...it will be on the CD.

I will be assembling this stuff at home over the course of the next 8 days.

Good luck...and have fun with it...

Happy Friday!

I am so excited! I have the frickin weekend off...
Well...I am going to clean my house...spring clean my back yard...not much here in the city...but it looks awful!
I have a few WAR sounds and things to record...
Other than that it is Baseball, basketball, relaxing and awaiting GOD DAMN WAR!

I am so excited for this mix...

Today was incredible! I had the pleasure and privilege of having Dave Eggar play strings on 2 of my songs! I do not know if you are all familiar with him...he is a very well known cello player. He is a good friend of Nick's. He has also worked with TSO members Mark Wood, Dina Finai and Danielle Landher on projects.

He first played on "Saddamize". We arranged an 8 part string section. This song is so different! Very sexy and heavy Middle Eastern mayhem!

The next song is a bonus track...I am kinda calling it "Merry Chris-Mess" until I get a better name...It is an instrumental. We did the same kind of arrangement for this. I was blown away. It adds such an amazing dimension to the song.

Living in NYCity is so cool. The world's most amazing musicians are all over...lots are friends...or friends of friends! I want to thank Dave for coming in on virtually no notice!

Saddamize is ready to go...We listened to Forever....it is really close...I have a few vocal harmonies to add...we will do this during mix...

So...Monday begins WAR!!!!! I am psyched...God Damn War is going to kick your frickin ass...trust me when I say...you have never heard anything like it...from me, someone I have played with or anyone else for that matter!

I believe I may be adding Brasil to my press trip this summer...more details on this very soon!

I am going to try to catch up on the evenings sports scores and get to bed!

Talk to you over the weekend if anything exciting happens!

Chris

Hello...

Once I fully accepted that the Yankees SUCK!!! I went back to work.....

I did a re-mix at home of the Silk-n-Steel thingy on the site intro...

I may re-name this and put it on the WAR CD....

I also recorded another song....It is actually a re-record...

I had a song called "Then She's Gone". I demo'd it last year...cool tune, just me and an acoustic...I won't go into it too much, but I was inspired to record it this weekend. I learned a lot about Pro-Tools and real recording into the computer the past 2 months...sO I decided to do something for real here at my house.

I just finished re-mixing it...I am going to try to fit it after "Abandoned" on Faces...the song "Last Time" may be getting left off for bonus land. It is a very heavy tune...kinda Butchery in a way...but I dont thnk it is saying anything that I havent said already on the CD. The message of the song is delivered through the other songs on both CD's...there is really no reason to sing it. I will throw it out somewhere as a bonus track...cool tune...just not completing my Faces...Besides, God Damn War is so fucking heavy that I can do whatever I want to with Faces. That was the whole idea anyway...I think the diversity in the music and my voice will be what surprises you all most....

I am going to attempt to sleep now!

C