So we're back. We had to take a month and a half long break from recording due to work schedules but we finally returned to our home studio on July 17th to continue work on the second record. It's gone through some changes (I've re-written almost all of the lyrics and such) and we're back to work.
Our first day back recording went well as we wrote and recorded a song, wrote another one and got some ideas going for a third song. The song that we recorded was the opening track for the album, a song called Sci-Fi, it's a fairly simple song but we think that works to make it a cool opening track. It's got a cool bass line running through it and a fantastic heavy section.
The song we wrote is called Famous and we should hopefully be recording that today, it's a kinda up-tempo song with a sing-a-long chorus so it should be fun to record. Finally, the song we got some ideas for (a guitar part basically) is called Complicated Love which, hopefully, we should also be recording today. All in all, today should be a very productive session in the home studio.
Updated Track-list:
1. Sci-Fi 6:55
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Ocean Of Storms 5:10
11.
12.
Echo Project's Last Fm.
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Monday, 9 May 2011
Home-Studo Report 1
Yesterday was the second recording session for our second record and we managed to complete the first song on the record. The song is called Ocean Of Storms and it's gonna be track eleven on the disc. We utilised our Midi controller/keyboard to add some cool stuff to this song.
The song itself is quite laid-back and bass heavy which is cool. Unlike Headstrong which was a guitar heavy hard rock album this second one is gonna utilize more effects and stuff with the guitar being less of the focus and being just a small part of a larger whole. At least that's the plan going in. Ocean Of Storms is very bass-heavy during the Verses and Chrous' with a Pre-Chorus which has a cool synth line underneath. It all adds a laid-back yet ominous feel to the song which I really like.
Anyway we started recording on April 25th and we've already got one song finished. We're hoping to be on a one song a week schedule from here on out so let's see how long it takes us to go completely off schedule.
Progress So Far:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. Ocean Of Storms 5:11
12.
13.
14.
-Tom
The song itself is quite laid-back and bass heavy which is cool. Unlike Headstrong which was a guitar heavy hard rock album this second one is gonna utilize more effects and stuff with the guitar being less of the focus and being just a small part of a larger whole. At least that's the plan going in. Ocean Of Storms is very bass-heavy during the Verses and Chrous' with a Pre-Chorus which has a cool synth line underneath. It all adds a laid-back yet ominous feel to the song which I really like.
Anyway we started recording on April 25th and we've already got one song finished. We're hoping to be on a one song a week schedule from here on out so let's see how long it takes us to go completely off schedule.
Progress So Far:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. Ocean Of Storms 5:11
12.
13.
14.
-Tom
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Updates
So it's been almost a full month since I last posted on the blog, that's pretty bad, especially after I said I'd keep this thing up to date. So what's happened since I last posted on April 11th?
Well first off we played our very first live show in Reading at The Butler. It was a cool venue just a tiny little back room with some lights thrown up for ambiance. If I had one complaint it would be that we had about ten people who said they'd show up who then did not show up. Alas, we played a pretty good show but I think what we learned is that our songs work much better in a full-band, electric setup then in an acoustic setting.
So we're still on the lookout for both a drummer and a keyboardist and if anyone knows someone who can play one of these instruments tell them to get in touch through our e-mail address: echoproject@hotmail.co.uk
Our setlist for the gig, if anyone is interested, went as follows:
The Love
Falling To Climb
Atmosphere
Universe Girl
Time
Suspended Animation
We thought that was a pretty good introductory set with some up-beat numbers but also a couple of slower songs thrown in for good measure.
Onto other news! On April 25th we convened into our home studio (Steve's home to be precise), fired up Pro-Tools, and began work on our second disc. We'll be utilising an M-Audio Midi Keyboard on this set and that helps us because it give us access to not only keyboard but also any other effect or random noise that we can think of or get our hands on.
We started work on our first track that day and it came out sounding pretty good even it's rough current form. We took a two week break after that due to increased work schedules but we should be reconvening today to continue work and I shall update you as work continues.
- Tom
Well first off we played our very first live show in Reading at The Butler. It was a cool venue just a tiny little back room with some lights thrown up for ambiance. If I had one complaint it would be that we had about ten people who said they'd show up who then did not show up. Alas, we played a pretty good show but I think what we learned is that our songs work much better in a full-band, electric setup then in an acoustic setting.
So we're still on the lookout for both a drummer and a keyboardist and if anyone knows someone who can play one of these instruments tell them to get in touch through our e-mail address: echoproject@hotmail.co.uk
Our setlist for the gig, if anyone is interested, went as follows:
The Love
Falling To Climb
Atmosphere
Universe Girl
Time
Suspended Animation
We thought that was a pretty good introductory set with some up-beat numbers but also a couple of slower songs thrown in for good measure.
Onto other news! On April 25th we convened into our home studio (Steve's home to be precise), fired up Pro-Tools, and began work on our second disc. We'll be utilising an M-Audio Midi Keyboard on this set and that helps us because it give us access to not only keyboard but also any other effect or random noise that we can think of or get our hands on.
We started work on our first track that day and it came out sounding pretty good even it's rough current form. We took a two week break after that due to increased work schedules but we should be reconvening today to continue work and I shall update you as work continues.
- Tom
Monday, 11 April 2011
So, we're only about 11 days away from our debut gig at The Butler in Reading. We're all looking forward to it. We've been been doing frequent practices over the last two weeks writing what we feel should be a pretty good debut setlist. Yesterday we did our first run through of the set on an Acoustic Guitar and luckily all the songs seem to translate well into an acoustic format. Hopefully we'll go over well on the night, as per usual, there are the pre-gig nerves that I always get as I imagine the worst case scenario for the night, haha. But me and Steve's other band (Another Life) always go over well when we play live so I think it will be the same case when Echo Project makes it's live debut.
On the song front we had another brief writing session for our second record when were messing around with the Acoustic and some random effects. Steve and Wez managed to come up with a cool thing based around a couple of bass lines and a delay effect on the Acoustic which gives a somewhat ethereal feel to the song. I've put some lyrics to it and we basically got a rough demo of a song which has the working title of Ocean Of Storms. This is basically the first song with some concrete ideas behind it for our next project.
Hopefully we'll start recording some new songs proper at some point in April. Based on the music we wrote the other day I think it's gonna turn out to be much better than Headstrong at this early stage. We'll see, but I'm looking forward to starting.
On the song front we had another brief writing session for our second record when were messing around with the Acoustic and some random effects. Steve and Wez managed to come up with a cool thing based around a couple of bass lines and a delay effect on the Acoustic which gives a somewhat ethereal feel to the song. I've put some lyrics to it and we basically got a rough demo of a song which has the working title of Ocean Of Storms. This is basically the first song with some concrete ideas behind it for our next project.
Hopefully we'll start recording some new songs proper at some point in April. Based on the music we wrote the other day I think it's gonna turn out to be much better than Headstrong at this early stage. We'll see, but I'm looking forward to starting.
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Random News
So, Monday March 21st we got together for our weekley jam session and wrote the setlist for the April 22nd gig in Reading which is good. The set we wrote is around 28-30 minutes long so we should have no trouble filling up our 35 minutes slot at the gig.
More importantly, we started writing music for our second record. We now have a couple of riffs and piano lines thought out and we should be able to record some demo versions of a couple of songs in the next week or so.
We're happy to say that April 10th should be the start date for the recording of our second album and from then I can start posting weekly 'studio' (Steve's home studio set-up) reports.
We may upload our debut record to the blog at some point in the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out for that. For now though, I shall leave you with a strangely brief blog post (for me) and say good day!
- Tom
More importantly, we started writing music for our second record. We now have a couple of riffs and piano lines thought out and we should be able to record some demo versions of a couple of songs in the next week or so.
We're happy to say that April 10th should be the start date for the recording of our second album and from then I can start posting weekly 'studio' (Steve's home studio set-up) reports.
We may upload our debut record to the blog at some point in the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out for that. For now though, I shall leave you with a strangely brief blog post (for me) and say good day!
- Tom
Friday, 18 March 2011
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
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
Friday, 11 March 2011
Bass blog #1
Shazam! So here we are! Got ourselves a mighty-fine blog page of our own, for all the news and ramblings a band starting out could need to tell! Howdy do to you all, and welcome to our humble little sector of the internet. Smoking and drinking are permitted and encouraged, and please wipe your shoes upon entry.
My name is Wez, and I play the bass (I can't play guitar, it's got far too many strings), sing a couple of songs and backing tracks (poorly) and generally annoy and make a fool of myself. I do need to clarify something Tom said earlier though; I wasn't "inducted" into the band. The three of us were hanging out round Tom's for our weekly movie night, and he and Steve were discussing Echo Project. Rather meekly, I asked to join, and they happily obliged. Huzzah to being part of something!
Being a part of something like Echo Project is quite a brilliant experience for me. Taking part in the writing, construction and recording of songs, and learning the stories behind the lyrics is a fantastic way of getting to know my two best friends better, and hopefully make some music that people can enjoy as much as we enjoy playing. Not to mention slowly learning to better myself as a musician, and getting more inspiration to write my own lyrics for the group, and my stories (some of which end up on my own blog. Happy hunting!)
So to those of you who know who we are, and those just joining us, good day, good day and good day! Hope you like the music. If not, we hope that us as people will make up for it. Take it easy and take care.
Wez
My name is Wez, and I play the bass (I can't play guitar, it's got far too many strings), sing a couple of songs and backing tracks (poorly) and generally annoy and make a fool of myself. I do need to clarify something Tom said earlier though; I wasn't "inducted" into the band. The three of us were hanging out round Tom's for our weekly movie night, and he and Steve were discussing Echo Project. Rather meekly, I asked to join, and they happily obliged. Huzzah to being part of something!
Being a part of something like Echo Project is quite a brilliant experience for me. Taking part in the writing, construction and recording of songs, and learning the stories behind the lyrics is a fantastic way of getting to know my two best friends better, and hopefully make some music that people can enjoy as much as we enjoy playing. Not to mention slowly learning to better myself as a musician, and getting more inspiration to write my own lyrics for the group, and my stories (some of which end up on my own blog. Happy hunting!)
So to those of you who know who we are, and those just joining us, good day, good day and good day! Hope you like the music. If not, we hope that us as people will make up for it. Take it easy and take care.
Wez
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
First Gig
So we've booked our first ever live appearance at The Butler in Reading, Berkshire on April 22nd 2011. We're hoping for a pretty good turn out seeing as how this'll be Echo Project's live debut albeit in an acoustic format. This will be the first time Wez has played in a live setting. Me and Steve have played live many times with our other band Another Life but this is a different set of circumstances. As opposed to the loud heavy metal of Another Life we'll be playing in a more intamite acoustic setting and we'll be playing songs that are more personal which we'll be different.
Hopefully, we'll go over well and we'll be able to springboard to even more acoustic gigs over the first half of 2011. The ultimate goal is still to get ourselves a Drummer and a Keyboardist so we can play full band shows and play some of the songs that really require a full band to really make them work (Addicted To My Imagination comes to mind).
More details on the gig as we get them, which should be in the coming weeks and maybe even some more gigs to come in the coming months!
- Tom (Echo Project)
Hopefully, we'll go over well and we'll be able to springboard to even more acoustic gigs over the first half of 2011. The ultimate goal is still to get ourselves a Drummer and a Keyboardist so we can play full band shows and play some of the songs that really require a full band to really make them work (Addicted To My Imagination comes to mind).
More details on the gig as we get them, which should be in the coming weeks and maybe even some more gigs to come in the coming months!
- Tom (Echo Project)
About The Band
So I started a blog for Echo Project, mainly so I could talk about various goings on within the band that could be posted to our Last Fm page. You know so we can get people listening to our stuff and maybe spreading the word. Let's start with the basic subject, which is, details of the band.
I'm Tom Taylor and I'm the Vocalist and main Lyricist of the band. The other two members of the group are Steve Smith on Guitar and Backing Vocals and Wez Walke on Bass and Backing Vocals. We're currently searching for a drummer and hopefully a keyboardist too so we can do full bands shows.
So it all started back in about November of 2009. Me and Steve are in another band called Another Life which was going through one of it's all to frequent bouts of doing absolutely nothing (the bassist and drummer from that band are in University). I had written a bunch of lyrics out of boredom and suggested to Steve that we get together and maybe write some songs from them.
Through November into Mid-December of 2009 we wrote and recorded nine songs filling out a mini-album we called Suspended Animation. However, before we could finish Tracks 10-12, Another Life kicked back into gear and we abandoned the project.
It wasn't until May of 2010 that we came back to the band. Another Life was in another hiatus and I realised that me and Steve had a stockpile of about 15-16 songs that weren't quite right for Another Life. They weren't metal and they dealt with extremely personal subjects. I wrote a few more lyrics in this personal ilk and we realised we had 24 songs that we could record as a whole new band.
We kicked around a few different names for the band including Echo and Headstrong. We eventually settled on the name Echo Project. In the middle of May we added Wez, originally as a second Guitarist and Backing Vocalist but eventually he would find his calling as our Bassist. It was on May 10th that we began recording our debut 'album' (I put it in quotations because we're unsigned) which is entitled Headstrong. It contains 24 songs spread out over two separate discs. It's about 130 minutes of music and it's available to listen to on our Last Fm. page (which you can get to by clicking our picture at the top of the page). It's all a bit rough around the edges as almost everything was recorded in one take. About 5 of the songs are from the original Suspended Animation mini-album.
The album is concept album of sorts. It deals with the years 2008 and 2009 for us which were eventful to say the least. It kind of charts those years in a some what chronological order.
What are we up to now? We're currently searching for a Drummer and Keyboardist in the Frimley/Camberley, Surrey, UK area to join the band so we can play full band shows. For now we're trying to secure some acoustic dates in our local area. We're also plotting to return to our home studio to work on a second set of songs to constitute a second 'album' if you will.
I promise I won't ramble this incessantly in future blog postings, and I'll try and get other members of the band to post and we'll keep a nice little blog here to update people on our little band in our little town.
- Tom (Echo Project)
I'm Tom Taylor and I'm the Vocalist and main Lyricist of the band. The other two members of the group are Steve Smith on Guitar and Backing Vocals and Wez Walke on Bass and Backing Vocals. We're currently searching for a drummer and hopefully a keyboardist too so we can do full bands shows.
So it all started back in about November of 2009. Me and Steve are in another band called Another Life which was going through one of it's all to frequent bouts of doing absolutely nothing (the bassist and drummer from that band are in University). I had written a bunch of lyrics out of boredom and suggested to Steve that we get together and maybe write some songs from them.
Through November into Mid-December of 2009 we wrote and recorded nine songs filling out a mini-album we called Suspended Animation. However, before we could finish Tracks 10-12, Another Life kicked back into gear and we abandoned the project.
It wasn't until May of 2010 that we came back to the band. Another Life was in another hiatus and I realised that me and Steve had a stockpile of about 15-16 songs that weren't quite right for Another Life. They weren't metal and they dealt with extremely personal subjects. I wrote a few more lyrics in this personal ilk and we realised we had 24 songs that we could record as a whole new band.
We kicked around a few different names for the band including Echo and Headstrong. We eventually settled on the name Echo Project. In the middle of May we added Wez, originally as a second Guitarist and Backing Vocalist but eventually he would find his calling as our Bassist. It was on May 10th that we began recording our debut 'album' (I put it in quotations because we're unsigned) which is entitled Headstrong. It contains 24 songs spread out over two separate discs. It's about 130 minutes of music and it's available to listen to on our Last Fm. page (which you can get to by clicking our picture at the top of the page). It's all a bit rough around the edges as almost everything was recorded in one take. About 5 of the songs are from the original Suspended Animation mini-album.
The album is concept album of sorts. It deals with the years 2008 and 2009 for us which were eventful to say the least. It kind of charts those years in a some what chronological order.
What are we up to now? We're currently searching for a Drummer and Keyboardist in the Frimley/Camberley, Surrey, UK area to join the band so we can play full band shows. For now we're trying to secure some acoustic dates in our local area. We're also plotting to return to our home studio to work on a second set of songs to constitute a second 'album' if you will.
I promise I won't ramble this incessantly in future blog postings, and I'll try and get other members of the band to post and we'll keep a nice little blog here to update people on our little band in our little town.
- Tom (Echo Project)
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