Headstrong

So during 2010 we recorded our first album entitled Headstrong. I thought I'd do a blog post discussing the recording process (such as it was) this'll be fun right?

We started recording the album on May 10th with the intention of doing 1-2 songs a week. Of course seeing as how we only recorded one day out of each week that soon proved to be a monumental challenge. Although we actually did manage to do at least one song a week which was a pretty good turnaround. Steve had recently acquired Pro Tools so of all the stuff we've recorded this is far and away the greatest sounding stuff. There's no fuzzy lo-fi home recordings here.

Technically, of the 24 songs we only had to recorded 22 as the Intro and Outro to the album had been done for a few months before we came to record. Also helping us along was that the music to Addicted To My Imagination, Losing (The Rain Comes Again), Time and Wednesday/Waiting had already been pre-recorded before we came to record the album proper so all we had to do was do the Vocal tracks.

Still it was an arduous process as evidenced by the fact that it took us five months to finish the album (jeez, we really to pick up the pace on the next one). Recording of the album finished on October 30th if I remember correctly. Of course we weren't done yet the next four days were set aside so that production maestro Steve could mix and master the record and we were finally done on November 3rd.

So, I briefly mentioned in a previous blog post that the album is a loose concept album of sorts and that is certainly true. What is it about? It kind of chronicles our lives from the tail end of 2007 until the middle part of 2009. They were pretty eventful times. That's basically from the ages of 19 until 21 so that's a lot of ground to cover. I would go in depth but this is a long enough blog post already.

But the first disc is a very sombre and low key affair with a motley collection of ballads with a couple of higher tempo songs thrown in for good measure (Thinking Too Much). That disc covers events in my life from 2007 until 2008 a very down beat and depressing year it should be noted.

The second disc has it's fair share of ballads too but on the whole seems to be a much more hopeful and uptempo affair. It covers 2008 into 2009 where things picked up (slightly...but not by much) for me which is shown in the most hopeful songs on the record Falling To Climb and Universe Girl. Although I still had my share of downbeat moments as show in the song Suspended Animation. This album covers more of Steve's troubles and is more the story of his year (2008-2009) which is covered on the songs with his lyrics: Time, Losing (The Rain Comes Again), Wednesday/Waiting and Addicted To My Imagination.

And that's a brief summary of the recording and meaning behind our first record Headstrong. Hope you enjoyed...or something. Yea...

Track Listing:
Disc 1:
1. Intro 2:01
2. She Goes 5:13
3. Sunday 6:12
4. Under Summer 4:12
5. Atmosphere 5:02
6. Oneirology 5:06
7. Out Of Time 5:36
8. Thinking Too Much 5:05
9. A Song For Them 7:10
10. Tomorrow's Dream 5:35
11. Sara Gilbert 5:30
12. All Is On (No Way Out) 5:48

Disc 2:
1. The Love 2:12
2. Falling To Climb 5:56
3. Time 3:18
4. Universe Girl 2:56
5. Afternoon 5:54
6. Losing (The Rain Comes Again) 6:38
7. Time's Fleeting 5:35
8. Return 4:30
9. Suspended Animation 5:18
10. Wednesday/Waiting 10:12
11. Addicted To My Imagination 7:18
12. Outro 4:14

- Tom