Echo Valley

Echoes From A Dimly Lit Studio Pt.7

The new album is finally done! Done! At least the music part is. I actually completed mixing more than a week ago (Sunday June 23) at the amazing 6 Nassau in Kensington Market. The record is being mastered by Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel as I write this.  We are quite proud, excited and eager to share but I have to say it’s been a difficult but rewarding experience. I guess we say that about every release don’t we? It’s true. Our previous release, Inferior Ghost, was hard to make because I had to close down my recording studio (which was where we wrote/rehearsed) and at the same time we had to finish up and promote what should have been a full-length album but ended up an EP.  I guess you can say there was a period of homelessness for us. We had no studio or rehearsal space between doing the last tracks for Inferior Ghost and touring to promote it. Inferior Ghost is really our half-finished sophomore album.

This latest album, Darker Lights, was difficult to make too. Musically, we  had to start over from scratch because we lost two members right after the Inferior Ghost tour. I junked all the songs I was writing for our original lineup. We had to re-invent our approach and ultimately our  sound. We also had to re-establish our home base – now a great little private studio we call Echo Valley. We had to write new material and we still had show commitments to honour. Darker Lights really began in the fall of 2012 with a writing phase tempered by a bout of writer’s block. We didn’t start recording “proper” until mid-February. Andy joined us in March and it is now early July. It took us 21 months to record our debut album and we did Darker Lights in five months – still, I feel it’s our best work yet.

There are nine new compositions and one “remake” of an Inferior Ghost song (which is like a whole new song now). The album (as of this writing) is just shy of 4o minutes long.  It’s darker,  heavier, more guitar-driven and more moody than the first album. That’s about all I can say at this point. We’ve been pretty good about keeping the work private so far – only sharing among ourselves and our inner circle. I’m proud to say that 90% of the record was tracked at our own Echo Valley studio and the remaining 10% was tracked at 6 Nassau at the beginning of a 15 day marathon mix session. Everything was engineered by myself and Nathan Vanderwielen.

Currently, we are working on a sequence for the record and should be putting the physical presentation together soon. Once we have a sequence I’m going to share some lyrics here on the blog – but no sounds yet…There is no official release date for Darker Lights. My guess is that it will be released sometime mid to late Autumn. I’m sure there will be a few teasers out there soon. Stay posted for more news.

p.s.

Next Toronto appearance: August 10 at the Rivoli.

-dean

Echoes From A Dimly Lit Studio Pt.6

Hello.

First, it’s NXNE week here in Toronto so we will be appearing at the venerable Rancho Relaxo, Saturday June 15 at 1AM. NXNE passes will get you in and cover is TBA which means relatively cheap compared to other venues. It’s one of TO’s best kept secrets that Rancho is the place to be in the wee hours of NXNE week, especially during the closing weekend. It’s usually packed with REAL MUSIC FANS – all nicely tipsy.

Second, it’s been radio static here at pmaps dot net and that can only mean one thing: we’ve been hard at work in the studio. In fact, we took a break this week for NXNE and will be returning to the studio – in this case, Nassau 6 in Kensington – this coming Monday to resume and complete our work. Why the studio change, you might ask? Well that’s because we are in the final mixing stage now. 90% of the recording part of the record was completed at our own  Echo Valley studios but we’ve taken the tracks to another studio to get our hands on even more vintage gear and to get another perspective, etc., etc.  Both our good friend, Nathan Vanderwielen and myself are doing all the mixing.

So what’s the new album going to be like?  Well, to sum it up this is one for the freaks and geeks.  Prom queens and star quarterbacks need not apply, although you’re welcome to try.  In past blog entries I dropped some song titles.  Here’s another tidbit: The name of the album, due out this fall, is DARKER LIGHTS.

Photographic evidence:

more vintage gear ...

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Dean and Nathan mixing ...

Andy at the Grand Piano

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Dean and Andy add additional guitars and bicycle to the tracks...

Echoes From A Dimly Lit Studio Pt.5

Hi,

It’s been a while. As you probably know we’ve been working in our studio on new songs and this past Monday, with some help from Nathan, we finally laid down the foundation for three new songs: “Nothing/The Memory Song,” “One by One” and “Vanauley Walk.”  It was a fun-filled and  zany marathon session (!) but we felt these three songs were ready for capture.  The next couple of weeks will be spent choosing takes and recording the overdubs for these songs – things like guitar, synth and vocals, etc. We’ve already started that, in fact.  There are two other songs in the works, but I’ll write about them another time.

As of this writing, there are not many live shows on the horizon for PAPERMAPS (check the shows page).  We will be appearing at this year’s NXNE Festival here in Toronto. Our showcase time is Saturday, June 15 at the venerable Rancho Relaxo (300 College St.)- 1AM sharp! Other bands on the bill include PKEW PKEW PKEW (gunshots), The Quiet Company and 2 Live Drew.

As promised, here are some studio pictures (all taken by Andy):

PAPERMAPS RECORDING SET UP AT ECHO VALLEY STUDIO

Here’s our typical bed track session set up…not much different than a rehearsal except the baffling the the extra microphones.

“What a mess!” Nathan V does his thing. Bobby’s behind the drums.

“ARG! This is hard!” Me working out a challenging bass part for “One by One,” a song penned by Betty where I play the bass. Everyone else looks on…

Betty deciding which amp sounds best…Alas there are no photos of our photographer, Andy.  Next time!