It's been almost have a year since we started production on a new album and I'm really frustrated I didn't start this sooner. Because we've never really sat down to consciously start a long-term project we've never really had a good opportunity to maintain a journal like this with some regularity. Maybe we STILL won't be able to keep up with this at least on a weekly basis. Maybe we will do like every other band ever and post so sporadically and with so few details that it will always seem like a waste of time to everyone involved. But maybe, hopefully, this will be different. Anyway, let's catch up with the highlights from Day 1 all the way to now, quickly and efficiently, and without me writing 19 pages as I am wont to do:
Day 1 (04/30/2012):
Scurvy D proposes to the group in a Facebook message that we should start working on a new full-length album with all new songs, which may or may not also include two tracks that were on the "best-of" album released in March, 2012, 40PF. Also he suggested that maybe we combine this album with one of our running projects called Sample Pages and release the two together as a double album. This album set would be released on March 19th, 2013, to mark Forty Psychic Frames' 10 year anniversary.
I believe this idea and proposal was created by Scurvy D and Anthony Jackson on a phone call on or around April 29th where they discussed three main points:
1. March 19th, 2003 - Through extensive research over the years this is the date that Anthony Jackson has verified as the starting point of Forty Psychic Frames. He always reminds us on the day, every year, but it never really sticks with me for some reason, at least until now. The idea of this coming year being our 10 year anniversary is mind blowing and all that shit that people say.
2. Momentum generated by the best-of album 40PF release - This compilation album was also sort of started by Scurvy D and Anthony Jackson I believe and we worked on it for several months, pouring over track list selections, what should be included, what shouldn't be, and how it should be sequenced. In the end I think Anthony did most of the work as he designed the art, and remixed/remastered everything for this release. If you haven't already it's worth checking out.
3. Momentum produced by development of new beats - On April 8th, 2012 I had released a new beat to the group that got a fair bit of attention that we'll call "BIT." You have to understand that we haven't worked on any new, non-wedding related material in quite some time, so to have this new beat was immediately exciting. And maybe I'm extrapolating a bit too far but I think that given how long it had been since we had all worked on something that maybe we were inclined to ask where and how this new song would be used, as if to give it more of a purpose. The idea being, "If we're going to record something, lets make it fucking count."
Day 4 (05/03/2012):
New song "Money In The Bank" is released to the group. It is amazing. This song was recorded almost entirely during our first Reclamation Weekend group-get-together in October of 2010 (?). It was never edited, mixed, and mastered until early this year by Anthony Jackson.
Also, I released to the group two new beats: one we'll call here, "PWD" which was originally recorded in 2008 or 2009 (can't remember). I even recorded a verse with room for others, however the drums were not properly aligned so the beat has been sort of unuseable. I redid the beat in GarageBand and this time the problem is how shitty the guitar sounds. I have to re-do this shit soon. The other new beat released to group, we'll call "B2B" (not the band). I was really really happy with this beat, but I still want to keep my hopes at bay for fear it doesn't work out or end up on the album.
Day 6 (05/05/2012)
New beat released to the group we'll call "IFO." I think.
Day 12 (05/11/2012):
"Money In The Bank" video posted to 40PF YouTube Channel (link). Anthony not only produced the song, and created the artwork, but he made a fucking video. And it's fucking awesome.
Day 13 (05/12/2012):
New website goes live. Until there's more discussion (and time) the website will feature one screen plainly promoting "Money In The Bank" video, with a background of the single cover, and links to our bandcamp and Facebook and forum pages. Simple. Easy. Also all done by Anthony. (Note to self: we should be paying this guy, you know, money?)
Day 47 (06/15/2012:
New beat released to group, we'll call "(YN)CD" (EDITORS NOTE: This track will not be considered for the new beat and I totally agree. It doesn't fit the style or direction the album is going in.)
Day 82 (07/20/2012):
Reclamation Weekend begins at Scurvy D's house. Basically we all got together, got drunk and worked on new material.
Day 95 (08/02/02012):
New beat released to group we'll call "RWB." This beat was started during Reclamation Weekend and is deemed to be incomplete
Day 122 (08/29/2012):
One of the beats we've been working on, "PWD" has been tracked and edited in full by Anthony Jackson. All that is left is for me to redo live guitar parts and resequence the final beat.
Day 126 (09/03/2012):
I recorded my takes to "Sleep" which is a track that will be included on Sample Pages. (Later it will be decided that these takes will be re-recorded at a later date ie Reclamation Weekend Part II)
Day 130 (09/06/2012):
Album title ideas compiled for band only. You can follow these ideas live on Twitter too though.
Day 136 (09/12/2012):
New beat submitted to group we'll call "M." First new one in a while.
Day 145 (09/21/2012):
New beat uploaded with no title and in two variations. The idea of them is that they will ending up being track 01 crossing over immediately into "M," which would be track 02. "M"
Day 147 (09/23/2012):
Anthony posted an all-acapella demo of an idea he had for the sequence of the beat "BIT." It sounds great and it's a great idea. Collaboration is great and all that shit!
Day 149 (09/25/2012):
Anthony caught up with sequencing "BIT." We're trying this chorus idea that Anthony came up with and wrote and we all recorded our takes, but the recordings are so disparate they're not going to work. We'll add this to the list of things needing to be done during our next get together: Reclamation Weekend Part II.
Day 152 (09/28/2012):
New beat released to the group, we'll call "DS." This beat is unique to me in that I hardly worked on it at all. I almost wasn't going to upload because of how simple it was and was to make. I went into it only trying to achieve this one hip-hop trope in beat making, and I actually kind of pulled it off. My concern is that the beat is too bare and will sound empty with vocals set to it, but I'm worried I'm too close to it to achieve a true objective opinion. So, I refuse to listen to this thing for as long as I can.
Day 155 (10/01/2012):
Anthony posts a track we're calling "IFO" he has mixed and sequenced in the members-only forum.
Day 157 (10/03/2012):
Reclamation Weekend date set for November. Should be fun!
That pretty much catches us up to now. I've glossed over lots and lots and lots of small details that sometimes rewarding, sometimes pragmatic and some times debilitating In general I feel like we're about a month behind on everything, though Scurvy D has argued that we're maybe a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. We haven't worked on Sample Pages enough (partly my fault, mostly the samples fault!), I have written anything to hardly anything (all my fault), and we haven't decided on a title for the album. To me there's a ton of shit we need to get done but I know we'll get there. If I stop and think about it, like I'm doing now, I'll just overthink it, like I'm doing now, when really I should just relax. (NOTE TO SELF: I'm too hard on myself.)
Hopefully now we can capture some of these details that I've skipped over as we move forward. I definitely want to talk more about how we're directing this album and the direction it's going in but I don't want to reveal too much either. So, there's that. Anyway, enjoy and stay tuned and all that other salutary bull shit!!
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