OK...

I am beginning to realize that it may be impossible for me to report on things the night they happen! So...now is now and day 5 is whenever it was, so whatever!

Yesterday was extremely encouraging. Dave Z came in and be blasted through 9 songs. It sounded so frickin heavy. The night ended with some pizza, a vocal workout and some lyrical organization. All part of my new master plan, whatever that is.

Needless to say, I added 10 times the amount of work to my schedule and I don't care. I have a lot to say on this CD and one way or another you will get to hear it! Confused yet? Good! Imagine being me! Producer, singer, songwriter, guitarist, arranger, lyricist, businessman and cat owner!

Jeff headed back home for the weekend. I am going to clean the house and re-organize everything here musically. I have a few songs to doctor up lyrically. I also want to re-write another 2 or 3 to make them flow differently. Confused yet? Good!

Working on the release date for my CD. I am trying to get it on or as close as possible to my birthday! I should be announcing some kind of live activity soon.

The big game is tomorrow. I am standing firm...Carolina 17 - Pats 16!!!

If I am very wrong...fire away! I am not from Carolina or New England so I am purely guessing here!

We should arrange a Super Bowl post game chat so you can blast me if I am wrong! Just a thought. Our own post game show!

I am off to the gym....

Cheers,
Chris

	The perfect pose for playing "Evil Is As Evil Does" NOT! Skippy's first day at rehearsal...

Wow!

Well, we had the defensive struglle....for a while!

Almost a time when Carolina could have won by one point too!

I was waiting for Kemp to arrive from the airport, which happened at 6:15...so we caught the first half here. Missed the half time breast shot...

Second half was fun. Actually watched it at a Chinese buffet. The employees were hardcore Panther fans. It was so funny to listen to them yell at the TV in Chinese!

Igor called from Oliva's, he was having fun...

Jeff returns tonite...lots to do here. Vocal lesson this evening...lyric re-writes all day! I will explain soon...not major changes, just working on the flow of the songs...

I am awake early doing biz...going back to bed!

Goodnight

Hi,

I am confusing myself here. If it is not really a work day and I am not in the studio....should it be considered a diary entry? That was my issue with Sunday and Monday. Although I worked on the CD, was it Studio Diary worthy? Who the fuck knows? Oops...I meant frick. I forgot, this is America and horrific deplorable violence is OK as long as there are no dirty words or Janet Jackson's nipples.

Jeff and I have blasted through another batch of songs. Today we ran through "Remember", "Fright Knights", "God Damn War", "Life, Crazy Life" and an instrumental thingy I have. Plus we re-played the stuff we already worked out. I know there are some different songs than what I have mentioned, however I am going to work up a bunch just in case I decide to record ones that were previously being left off the CD. I was looking over my list again tonite. I had 52 songs written and completed with lyrics. In addition 5 instrumentals and 10 songs of just music(lyrics weren't written yet). All together around 67 songs that I wrote in the last 14 months. That does not include the new material I have submitted to Zak. I think he is using 5 or 6 of my songs on his new CD. I feel like I am giving birth to a frickin baby elephant here!

It is OK because I have until May 1st to finish recording and mixing this thing. But...the work has just begun. I wrote a cool new intro to the song "Abandoned". It has an interesting guitar solo at the beginning. The song now hits the 10 minute mark.

Tomorrow we will work again with Dave, here I believe. I can record things better through my Pro-tools. I am going to upgrade my studio after the drum work is done. I think I may do some guitar solos and idiot work here. Like the editing and vocal comping. This is where you listen to the same vocal line 8 times and decide which one is better. Very time consuming, but someone has to do it!

Surprisingly enough I was able to hit a high G in my real voice yesterday doing vocal workouts. Not the third fret G...the 15th fret G!!! Singing is pretty cool. I wish I had another year to get the voice together, but I think it should be fun to sing in the studio. My vocal teacher sez I try to hard. It is actually easier to sing when you relax and don't push the notes too hard!

Dough, ray, f'in me I guess!!!!!

Jeff is doing an amazing job with the drums on this stuff. It is really starting to come alive!!!

I am goin' to bed...I am toast...my cat is my sanity...pretty scary!!!!

Chris

Good Evening,

I have a feeling this studio diary will be a complete mess in the end!

I suffered a bad case of insomnia last night. Set an alarm to wake up by noon. Pretty pathetic. Of course Dave Z got lost on his way to my house and we did not start 'til 1:30.

Dave is a pleasure to work with in the studio. Not only is he a great player, but...he still has most of his brain cells! So...it is easy to teach him even the most difficult riffs.

We played through a bunch of stuff toady and recorded it here. "The Dream", "Fright Knights", "Beat Me, You'll Never Beat Me", "The Fall", "Never", "Jealousy", "Remember", "Abandoned"...with its new intro. All in all, it was a very productive day.

Haley would not leave anyone alone today. Dave is allergic to cats and she would not stay out of the room. She has to be right in the middle of everything. i was happy to see her active because she had a bit of a stomache thing going on the past 3 days.

We wrapped things up at about 7PM. Dave got lost again on the way home. Jeff and I went back to try to get the Chicken Pot Pie. They were all out! Bummer! Decided to settle on the roasted chicken. Wah!!!!

I returned home and watched the frickin' Rangers lose on Mike Richter night. They are a joke. Then I decided to head to the gym.

Now I sit and see that it is almost 3AM. I am not tired. I think I will work on more lyrics and production notes. I may stay up til it is light out. I am going to call Kemp at 7AM and wake her up. She has 2 photo shoots during the day before she flies to Brasil tomorrow evening. Summer in Brasil whilst I brave Winter here in NY. Not fair! Actually, I like the fact that my CD is getting recorded in the bitter weather and cold steel of the city. It should make the mood that much more aggressive. Not that this CD needs more aggression, I just have a cold, industrial vision for a certain part. This does not hurt! Tomorrow Jeff and I will finish running through the remaining songs. Then we will head to the studio to begin setting up his drums!!!!

Only 5 days until we roll tape officially! Start your engines. The work has just begun.

Talk to you tomorrow, or later today!

Chris

	Haley was exhilarated by my book of lyrics!

Hello once again...

Really quick...

Fell asleep at 7AM...woke up and dealt with business. Worked on more songs with Jeff. Got to "Fool, Fool", "Tired(It's The Last Time)", "Bag Of Bones", "I miss you(Sometimes)" and "Piece Be With You".

Only 2 more to go over. Tomorrow we jam again with Z. Tonite we hit guitar Center and grabbed supplies. Jeff's drums are up and we start getting sounds on Saturday.

Monday we will try to get to the first 5 songs! Cover us....we are going in!

Goodnight!

What a stressful Day!

CCC

Hi!

This seems to be the question I get asked the most lately!
Hmmm...
"I don't know!"
I like that Mr. Spicoli....

The chat was fun tonite! Thanks!

Rehearsal was amazing today. Well, other than the fact that Dave Z was sick. Sneezy Z...

We ran through most of the songs...I really have lost count of how many I am goin to record. More than 1, that is all I can say for sure!

Dave Z will be too busy to be present for the drum recording. It may better this way. We are confused enough here! The song "Piece Be With You" was played again, really interesting. It is a song about everyone being armed. It is the eyes of a dying/dead soldier. Questioning his death when he views his own family at his funeral.

I decided today to record the whole CD into the computer. I was fighting the battle of..."Should I go to tape...Should I not go to tape?"

I figured if Led Zeppelin or The Beatles were doing a CD in 2004, they would use every ounce of technology available...so why deny it! In the end, if it sux....it is my fault! I like the role of producer. Still kinda bizarre when I have to watch the budget! Umm...we need 2 Fire Wire drives...drum heads...a Focusrite EQ....and one large cake with dancing girls please!!!!!!

I never said things would not be fun!

Goodnight!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow....yadda, yadda...HELP!

Chris