Progress Update

So, both the horns and the guitars are about half way done. We are making good progress, and so far everything is sounding great. Demitri has been coming up with some pretty crazy ways to get the sound we want and its definitely working.
Here's some photos from last night.
After working in the studio we played along with a bunch of bands for Black Square's CD release at 39Hotel downtown. It was fun to see some old friends (especially Ben and Janzell who surprised us!) and its always great play some of our new music.

Time for the Horns

Tonight I would have to say was pretty epic. In every sense of the word.

It was the night that we were able to start recording the horns. Adam on the Tenor, Tim on the Alto, and Me(Aaron) on the Trumpet.


We really were able to communicate and get the correct articulations and phrasing down for "Sing to Me" and "Wailing and Gnashing." This proves to be quite the challenge because we don't write any of our music out on paper. Ideas are exchanged and we come up with the lines that you hear.




We have never recorded all horns at the same time so it took a little while to find what we think are the sweet spots of the room. Needless to say, when we first heard the results of our recording it literally gave us chicken skin! THIS WAS THE SOUND THAT WE HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR!

It's a nice raw and live sound. I think we got it this time Demitri! AURYTE! haha.


The only problem is that because the music is raw it is also revealing. We found out that it is going to be practically impossible to get 3 people to play exactly in tune with each other all the time. But we are up to the challenge. I think Demitri is a wizard at fixing things.

This is going to be a great album. I love to see the experience that we have gained really put to work boys.

Aloha readers

Drum Tracking = Complete

Finished up an hour ago. Expect some fun stuff.

Upstanding Youth at Pipeline

This past Thursday we opened for our good friends National Product at Pipeline Cafe in Honolulu. It was a great show and awesome times. We actually started playing as a band around the same time as National Product back around 1998 or so. Our very first real "gig" was with National Product at a venue that no longer exists at Puck's Alley near the University of Hawaii. A lot has changed since then, but we've kept in touch with the guys from NP and especially with the front man Danny Casler. Demitri is especially tight with NP since he grew up and worked with NP long before we knew Demitri. It was great to be able to see NP as they've developed and really taken control of their musical future.

As a little treat here is a clip from the show. It's a clip of Desperation and also an introduction of our new UY hand signal. See if you catch the symbolism of the signal. The metal sign with shaka - groove with a crunch - however you look at it it symbolizes our mixture of sounds nicely as well as the letter U and Y. Hope you love it.

Drum Tracking Updated

We are done tracking the drums on 8 of the 11 songs for the record. So far the process has been pretty smooth. On Friday we did four songs and then we did four more on Saturday. Tomorrow we'll do the last three, and work on tracking some other percussion stuff.

Anyway, here are some notable moments and random facts:
*Nailing the full band section of "Tell Me Will We" with no metronome
*Completing "Headlights" in 40 minutes
*Getting totally fried on "Flying V" two days in a row
*Using the new drum tuning system Demitri got in LA- it saved us a ton of set up time and the drums sound amazing
*I bought a used ping ride and then thought it wouldn't end up being useful but it actually sounds good!

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So here is the track listing for the record, in no particular order:

Sing to Me
Judgment
Wailing and Gnashing
Tell Me Will We
Headlights
Flying V
Detonate
Bigger Than You or Me
Electric Fence
Empty Pockets
Warning Call

Most of these songs have never been heard outside of the studio so we are excited for people to hear the finished product.

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UY hanging out before the NP show @ Pipeline Cafe

in the studio

Hey Guys! we have officially started the recording. Tom and I are tracking the drums as i am typing this. Tom is killing the drums and we are having a lot of fun. I won a whopper at burger king (thanks Indiana Jones!) Someone will get some pics on here of what we are up to and what it is like being in the studio with UY. I'd like to take some video and put it up so I'll try setup a camera or something. Hope you are all being awesome, and if you can come down to Kainoa's tonight we play at 10pm.
See you soon!

Let the tracking begin!

If you have been following this blog you've heard about the preproduction and demoing we have been doing to get geared up for the real thing. Well we are going to begin the drum tracking on Thursday. I'm pretty excited because I have thought a lot about the drum sound and how I want to approach the process. Don't worry, we'll keep you in the loop.