A few months ago, Ray Gagliardino (who owns/operates Studio 825 in Wilmington) hired us to create and lay down some backing vocals for Brene Wilson’s current studio project. Matt and I have worked as on-call studio musicians before, so we were happy that Ray thought of us when Brene needed some extra voices. As payment, Ray offered to record a few of our acoustic songs, and we asked if we could “upgrade” by paying him to record full-band versions of a few tunes instead. He said yes, so our new album picked up instant momentum.
Here’s what we’re thiiiiinking about for the new album which is still untitled. The list below is not the order, and we’re not even sure we’ll be including all of these songs… this list just shows the songs that are in the running. We welcome your comments– please feel free to reply below (as opposed to emailing).
- It Only Takes Two to Rock— We’ll likely just remaster the version we already have on the EP because we’re really happy with it.
- Defender— We’ve re-recorded this at Studio 825, and this time it’s a rockin’ full band arrangement featuring The Joe Trainor Trio’s Jeff Dement and Kevin Niemi on drums and bass respectively, and Joe Testa on electric/lead guitar. Joe Testa plays in Noelle Picara’s band, and also played bass in the JT3 when Kevin broke his finger last year. Joe also plays lead guitar when Joe Trainor wrangles TheCompany to do our big live version of The Wall.)
- Hole in Your Pants— We’ve re-recorded this at Studio 825, mostly because the version on the EP sounds kinda muffled.
- You Were a Spider— We’ll re-record this at Knappshack Studios now that Matt has a new guitar! Yay!
- Major Tom— If we decide to include a cover song, we’ll probably just remaster the EP version of this tune instead of re-recording it. We’re pretty pleased with it.
- Run — We have the backing tracks mostly done on this; Jill needs to lay down vocals. We’ll do this one at Knappshack Studios.
- Maybe You Saw it Too— We’ll record this at Knappshack Studios.
- Act Surprised— This one also is a full-band song with Joe Testa and Kevin Niemi, but it features Ritchie Rubini on drums and percussion. It’s all done; just needs to be mixed. We recorded it at Studio 825.
- Gravity— The beauty of this song is in its simple arrangement. We’ve got a good take of this song already recorded from Studio 825, but I want to try re-doing the vocals at Knappshack.
- The Island of Bad Metaphors — We’re trying to arrange this in the most cheeezy 60s psychedelic folky way possible. Think Jethro Tull at the Renaissance Faire. We’ve recorded some the tracks at Knappshack already, and they sound great so far.
- 39 Summers— This one also is a full-band song with Joe Testa and Kevin Niemi, but it features Ritchie Rubini on drums and percussion. It’s all done; just needs to be mixed. We recorded this at Studio 825.
- Things— this is a brand-new tune, and we’ll record it at Knappshack.
So that’s the update so far! We’ll keep you posted as things progress.
Your pal,
Ji11
ps: also, stay tuned for more information about upcoming shows, too! In the meantime, the calendar on the right has all the info you’ll need for now.