Things are moving along handsomely (I’ve always wanted to say handsomely to describe something!) with my album recording and preparation. I’m still on track for a release date sometime in the fall, but I’m not quite sure when yet. I’ll be sure to let you know when I do!
To keep you all entertained while I’m recording, I’m uploading pictures and videos from my recording sessions. I’m calling this collection “Anatomy of an Album” and it’s purpose is to give you all a window into the process that goes on behind the scenes when recording an album. I’ve always been fascinated by the work that goes into the making of an album; from recording tracks all the way up to the promotion and distribution! Thanks again for your generous donations, they’re really helping out…keep ’em coming!
Here’s what I’ve been up to lately:
Drums N’ Bass
To kick things off I decided to lay the groundwork for my songs by recording the bass and drum tracks for all of them. Anders, the drummer, was not only kind enough to lend me his talents on the drum set, but also his parent’s basement! Turned out to be the perfect little make-shift recording studio.

Check out all pictures of the session here.
Here’s a little video from the session, raw and uncut. (planning a “making-of” feature when the CD comes out with interviews and much more studio footage)
Horns
A big part of my music involves horns. Sounds ranging from a full 6 peice horn section to a lone muted trumpet will be featured on this CD. What can I say, I’m a trumpet player and I love good horns.
Finding a place to record horns was challenging. I wanted to have us all playing together, but in separate rooms for sound isolation purposes. A studio would be great for that, but studios have this funny way of asking for money to use their space. Huh. So instead my girlfriend Daisy offered up her apartment, which had a nice assortment of rooms for us to hide away in. Mike got to see how it feels to play trombone in a closet and I got to see how it felt to go door to door apologizing to the neighbors after the cops were called on us for being too loud. Just another day in the studio!

Pics on Flickr
Videos of me playing trumpet and Brian playing sax on You Tube.
Acoustic Guitar
The latest recording session took place at Dave the engineer’s house. It was just me, him, some microphones, and a custom series Breedlove that I rented from a local dealer. I spent hours playing different guitars until I settled on this baby. It has a beautiful, mellow, round tone that I think will really fill out my songs nicely.

Pics on Flickr
Video of me playing a little bit of “Rain Song”.
What’s left?:Right now I’m spending some time listening to the tracks that I have so far, doing a little editing, and writing the other layers that will go on top; stuff like strings, electric guitar, auxiliary percussion, etc. Once all that’s done, I’ll sprinkle a little vocals on top, mix it, master it, press it, and it will be ready to tickle your ears! Don’t forget I gotta name the thing and get some artwork for the cover of the physical CD. All stuff that I’m gonna need your help on, so stay tuned!
Keep the music flowin’…
Matt