STUDIO BLOG: Day 9

Well here we are=) Today was the last day in the studio. We started out the day with some starbucks then re-recorded some guitar parts for our last song. Once that was finished we did vocals. Today went by pretty fast. The whole lats two weeks has gone by fast. Its crazy how tight we've become with Ben and Nick and how comfortable we are in the studio now. If I could I would honestly stay for another week to record more songs. I have such a huge passion for recording and taking a song and polishing it to make it album worthy. Im really gonna miss the studio and the guys and all the new friends we made. Ive learned a lot while ive been out here. I've learned more about what it is to live out Gods love and to follow Him in this adventure He's brought us on. This has been a huge step for us as a band and I wanna thank you for reading this blog. I hope its kind of given you an insight to what it takes to make a record. Our fans are everything to us and even though music is our passion its our fans that really keep that going. A band is nothing without its fans. Now im sure you are wondering when you'll be able to hear these songs. I am gonna be honest and tell you I have no idea. The purpose of the production deal that we signed with Skies Fall was to record 2 songs to shop out to record labels. The studio decided to make it a 5 song ep which made us pretty happy. SO with that being said the next step is get this ep into the hands of A&R reps. As to when youll hear it, I hope it will be sooner then later!! Ive never believed in our music as much as I believe in this ep. Its fresh its new and its grown up. We have a lot of work to do though as a band. The next couple months are going to be interesting and if you can I ask that you keep us in your prayers. We are gonna need Gods direction above all else in the near future. So thank you all so much again for your support and love. You all mean so much to us.
God Bless,
-Ronnie

STUDIO BLOG: Day 8

Wow its already thursday. Its hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day here=( Im gonna miss this. I've gotten sad every time we have to stop recording. I love it so much. Today was a good day. We recorded the vocals for Whisper. This song pushes me vocally. We decided on singing the first half of the verses an octave higher then what we wrote them...not only that but I had to sing them softly. For anyone who doesnt know anything about singing...its hard to sing high notes in your range softly without  going into falsetto voice. So im going to be working a lot on my vocal range and capabilities when I get home! Im excited though! This song sounds sick. We did a few different takes of me screaming/growling/sounding more hardcore then I actually am =P Its quick but youll hear it. After that we worked on re-writting some parts of a song that the studio likes a lot but we as a band dont that much haha. While kris was recording harmonies for Whisper I went outside with an acoustic guitar and my macbook to write. We scratched some stuff and changed the chorus a good bit. We pretty much re-wrote the song 3 or 4 times. Its hard to scrap whole sections of lyrics and guitar riffs and re-write them completely. I found that kicking around a soccer ball around helps me write haha. We finally got something that the studio AND kris and I really liked. So thats the last song we have to do and then saturday kris and I are flying back to PA. Pretty stoked to put the finishing touches on everything tomorrow. Enjoy the pics!

Adding in some last minute string parts

oh yah =P

STUDIO BLOG: Day 7

Day 7!! I cant believe its already wednesday! It feels like this has gone by so fast but at the same time it feels like its been forever!! Today we worked on probably my favorite song on this record. We spent a fair amount of the day tracking guitars. We altered some parts and added some parts. For lunch Ben grilled up some Brots (i think thats how you spell that lol). I've never eaten those before so that was kind of yummy...until ben told me what brots were made out of O_O. Then we moved on to vocals and that actually went by pretty fast. Kris sings a lot of great harmonies on this song. We didnt get to many pictures today because we streamed most of the afternoon on ustream. That was pretty fun! Ive never actually been on ustream so we might have to do that again sometime=) We finished the vocals and tomorrow we'll be doing vocals on Whisper. Ill be sure to get some more pics!

STUDIO BLOG: Day 6

Day 6 in the studio!! Today was great! We started out the day by doing more guitar tracking. We spent a lot of time getting the right tones for this song. We tried a few different pedals and and few variations of gain and distortion, we even used a few different guitars to really nail the tone we were looking for. It was awesome messing around with so many different guitars and tones. After we tracked all the rhythm/lead/and bass for this song we moved on to vocals. It was  a lot of fun working on this song. These new songs are so different then "Center Stage Shout Out" and you'll be able to hear that right away. The vocals alone are sung with so much more emotion and passion. Ben and Nick are helping me find my voices character and its really been cool. Ive been taking a lot of influence from Bano and Jared Leto's singing structure. Ben booked me a vocal lesson Brook Barrett Smith. She's done work with Brett Manning and actually made it to hollywood in american idol a few seasons back. It was the season with Daughtry on it and they have been friends ever since...sooo thats pretty cool! We went through some warm ups and we figured out a solid vocal warm up routine for my voice. She gave me some awesome tips and put me on the track to really proper vocal technique but at the same tip keeping my "rock" sound. It was great and im extremely excited to get back into the studio tomorrow to track more guitars and vocals=))
Enjoy the pics!!

My view from the vocal booth

STUDIO BLOG: Day 5

I was really happy to get back into the studio today! Ridge and Josh drove back to PA on friday so its just been Kris and I chilling all weekend. Saturday and sunday were off days and we literally sat in Bens house and watched movies and tv allllll day. Ive never done so little in my life haha. Sunday we went to Bens church and really saw God move and speak. It was cool...then we went back to doing nothing. So needless to say I am REALLY excited to get back into the studio! Today was great. I laid down the acoustic guitar tracks for our first love song ever written! Then we went back in and added some sweet electric guitar tracks.Then we moved on to vocals! We again broke down each small part and focused in on intonation and pronunciation.  I sang the song about a hundred times but it was great! They really pushed me to reach notes that I have never ever hit. It was crazy. Im stoked for the rest of this week (now that I actually get to be productive;)

STUDIO BLOG: Day 4

DAY 4!! Today ridge laid down all of his piano and keyboard tracks! Ill say it again...it was really cool to hear these songs come together layer by layer. Ridge kind of knew what he was doing so Ben took josh, kris, and I out for lunch. The town that this studio is in is really cool. Its a small town but its right beside lake Michigan so its got some cool scenery and some cool places. When we got back ridge and I worked on some final piano and key parts for the 5th song. We actually got done with all that stuff an hour early! Nick stayed in the studio and worked on some bass tracking while ben, ridge, kris, josh, and myself went to play ultimate frisbee with a group of really cool people from bens church. That was a lot of fun to get out of the studio and run around. Sadly Josh and Ridge had to leave after that. Kris and I are now staying at Bens house for the week and focusing in on our song writing and vocals in the studio! Its gonna be a lot of fun and a lot of work. I dont think we've ever put so much thought and focus into our songs as we are now. We're all really excited about whats coming=)
I also just wanna throw in there a HUGE thank you to Anna who has been letting us stay at her house for the past week. She is a friend of Krises family and has been a huge blessing to us while we've been out here. She packed us a lunch for every day we went to the studio and has been our mom away from home! She owns the company RAW Materials and everyone who reads this should go check her stuff out!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Raw-Materials/86791158997

STUDIO BLOG: Day 3

Hey guys! Day 3 in the studio is over! Today really came and went. I learned a lot today. First I learned a little more about working with producers. Its cool that they help develop our songs but when you wrote something a certain way and it gets changed it kinda bums you out. I understand they are trying to get the best out of our songs but I dont know... they know whats best and im trying to see that so I stop getting bummed out. We got a lot of sweet guitar tones though today! The guitars sound huge!! So we are pretty stoked about that. Hearing the songs come together layer by layer is sweet and is definitely exciting! We played out of a sweet vintage marshall head and a mesa head and we did some work out of a vox too. Im stoked about the guitar tones though if you cant tell=) So we re-wrote some guitar riffs and altered some others and got through 2 songs on guitar! Tomorrow ridge is doing all of his piano and keyboard parts. Him and Josh are driving home on saturday morning and kris and I are staying another week to focus on vocals! Im stoked and here are some pictures! See yah tomorrow!

SURPRISE! haha I had to put this on the blog...sorry ben=P