Textures

We're getting close to finishing the tracking for The Man With Guns For Arms, Follow the Earth's first full length LP, and full in length it is. A blistering, yet aloe-soothing, two hours of music.

I've been really interested in creating textural soundscapes and ambience, and I found this recording process as a good template to experiment with that. For one song, "In the Wake (Of the Reoccurring Glory of God)", I put the majority of my pedals to work. I recorded one solid take throughout, using my Digitech Hard Drive Reverb pedal (set to a well delayed reverse effect) along with my Digitech Bass Synthesizer pedal (on a wha-type setting, low sensitivity), the Electro-harmonix Bass Big Muff (Set on dry, with Volume at 1 o'clock and Tone and Sustain both at 2), and movement with the Ibanez wha pedal throughout. I'm really pleased with the results. Hopefully either this week's paycheck will see my purchasing of Electro Harmonix's new Sustain Pedal, called Freeze. That, or their Phaser pedal, I haven't decided yet.

As far as our schedules go, it's been pretty hectic. I work in the morning from 6-2 monday through friday, Andrew works basically every day from 3-10ish, and Brandon and Shane both work graveyards, typically 10-7. So the majority of the second disc has come about rather distant from each other. Andrew and Brandon recorded most of their parts together, and I came in to do my parts seperately, because I have a rather strict, self critical curfew. It has been coming together really well though. We have some natural soundscapes and ambience we'll include near the end, then the brutal mixing process, mastering, then completion. And I'm still trying to figure out some appropriate artwork for this beast. Stay tuned...

Update and stuff

One does not live in Wyoming. They live, lose their mind, and leave Wyoming before they're lost to it forever. As many probably know by now, we're back from that terrible place with some new gear, tunes, and a tour bus. And as soon we arrived, we started pre-production on our first full length (the "Jesu" and "Memory" EPs, while an almost hour of music, isn't considered a full length, as far as our music goes), "The Man with Guns For Arms".

So recently we have been recording this massive piece and looking for jobs. We are working with the great Travis White (Empirates, Indiephonic Records) on this massive project. The project began with demo tracking all sixteen songs, then setting metronome tracks for all but a few of the songs.

Initially, we wanted to record on analog tape, then bounce it to Pro Tools, but a few songs in we had some technical problems with the tape itself being stretched while recording, so regretfully we decided to use the tape machine as an interface, which is working rather well. We have the bulk of the first disc finished. Here is a list of the songs on disc 1 and everything it needs:

1. Iccasis Overture: Everything, we haven't recorded this yet solely because we are taking samples from the other songs

2. All Was Well: Female vocals, possibly a little auxiliary percussion

3. Interlude: As far as I'm concerned, this one is done.

4. Act I: Brandon's screaming vocals, synth at the beginning

5. The Walk: Auxiliary percussion and organ

6. Act II: I think a few vocal tracks, but I'm not entirely sure

7. The Sound of Winter: A few synth tracks, bass ambience

8. The Silence of Winter: Everything. We need to rent a saxophone and a flute for this one.

So it's all going rather well. I'm very pleased with the results thus far. I would try to explain the packaging for the album, but it's best to just see it.

We have succeeded in obtaining jobs, Brandon and Shane now work at Walmart, Andrew at Western Wats, and I got my old job back at Smiths. We're also playing a show September 16th at Velour, which I'm pretty excited about. Stay classy Utah County.

Help Wanted

In the past week or so, I have witnessed many things while being confined to one place. Not that I'm strictly stuck there, it's my choice whether to explore the beauty of Medicine Bow or not, but being jobless makes it seem that way sometimes. I have been faced with fear beyond my imagination, or not. Every insecurity and "enemy" I've ever had has looked me in the eye without letting go, and cries of agony and hopelessness have surrounded me. How? Use your imagination.

All I know is that I feel stronger now. My enemies are closer than any friend I've ever had, and the concept of reality is just that to me. All I can truly believe in is the mind of mankind, the potential, and the result. Stories, art, and song. Everyone has it.

Tell me your stories. I'd love to hear them.

Preparations

Off to Wyoming in a week. That means the last week of farewells, good times, and tying loose ends. It's never easy leaving everything, breaking attachments, and abandoning comfort zones for a while. With no idea of what the future holds, it's basically getting lost in the dark, doing what you think is right to find your goal.

So here's to now. Feel the music, help one another, and we'll see you soon when I have more to say.

Actually, does anyone know how to create some kind of download page for official downloads? I have a few bootlegs from shows that I'd like to put up for people to download for free, but I'm not cool enough to know how to do all that yet.

Progression

FTE played Muse Music's Battle of the Bands on Friday, May 14th. This show wasn't the best for me, I'll explain as I go. Our setlist was an unusual one, beginning with the opening track to the Memory record called The Sun, which is mainly Andrew playing piano and singing a ballad about the big bright bastard in the sky, and how much the world relies on it.

Next, we played an instrumental song in the essence of softer Pelican material. This is where things went bad, for me. Any musician will tell you the terrible gut feeling when you try everything and you still produce no sound. Embarrassment, shame, and the depressing feeling that the show was ruined. At least, for me it was. As I messed with every pedal, and every knob on the amp and my guitar, Brandon and Andrew played through the 1 1/2 minute interlude as I panicked. The worst part is it was right in front of me. I had stepped on the instrument cable standing up before the song started, jerking it from my bass. How I missed that, I'll have no idea. It was not a fun experience.

Trying to collect my frustration, Brandon strums the opening chords to the twenty-two minute epic, "Paix". Everything went pretty well through this one, which is pretty surprising considering there is a lot of spoken tracks played through an Ipod. The song was met with much applause from the crowd. Everything seemed to be okay.

In other news, Brandon and Shane left for Wyoming on sunday. Pretty sad stuff, but we'll see them in about two weeks. And, to make the day worse, our God of metal Ronnie James Dio died the morning of, losing his lengthy battle with Stomach Cancer. Everyone had high hopes for him, and he seemed to be pulling out of it, but it consumed him. A dark day indeed, I'm still processing it, but in the meantime I'll listen to his immense body of work in respect of our fallen hero.

In lighter news, we have our farewell show coming up next saturday. Brando and Shaney are driving down for the night, and it will be a party. Until then, I feel it's time to listen to some new music. "The Red Album" by Baroness, "Eternal Kingdom" by Cult of Luna, " Meanderthal" by Torche, and "The Impossible Leap In One Hundred Simple Steps" by From Monument to Masses should do the trick.

A Couple Shows Coming Up, and Record News

So, Follow the Earth is playing a few shows before we move to Wyoming. One is Muse Music's Battle of the Bands, and we're playing the final slot on Friday, May 14th. Kind of late notice, but we're doing it. The other show is our "farewell" show, and it's May 29th at Muse as well. We're moving to Wyoming, because Brandon and Shane got bomb ass jobs erecting windmills. While we're out there, we plan on getting a house and all the equipment we need.

We also plan on resurrecting our album "The Man With Guns For Arms", Follow the Earth's first venture into this crazy world. The songs written and re-written over the course of about four years, the track list is as follows:

Disc 1:

1. Iccasis Overture

2. All Was Well

3. Interlude: A Thought on Survival

4. Act I: Copper and Steel

5. The Walk

6. Act II: Armus Virumque Cano

7. The Sound of Winter

8. The Silence of Winter

Disc 2:

1. In the Wake (Of the Reoccuring Glory of God)

2. The Man With Guns For Arms

3. On the Seventh Day

4. Tangency

5. Return to Arcadia

6. Blue Ocean Garden

7. Aside: A Thought on Redemption

8. The King, The Meterist, and The Duel

Our music around this time was darker, more primal and introspective. Elements of post metal, avant garde style ambience and jam passages help illustrate a man's slip into insanity. This is music I'm really close to, being the period in which I joined the group. Aside was actually the first song I wrote to, and the writing process for The Walk was the greatest time writing I've ever had, as it is mostly just a jam song.

With the artwork already done for this album, we should finish it by the end of the year, but I'll make no promises, as we rarely keep them. I can promise that it will see the light of day though, and this music will never be forgotten.

Vinyl Interests

I've been listening to a lot of vinyl records lately, including Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy", Mastodon's "Crack the Skye", Alan Parsons Project's "Eve", and the entire "Messiah" by Handel. It gives me inspiration to create epic vinyl packaging for our records. With the amount of music we have, and how long our songs are, it'll take up quite a bit, but it will be epic. Here's the track listing for our three planned albums if we were to put them on vinyl:

The Man With Guns For Arms Vinyl Track listing:

Side A:

Iccasis Overture

All Was Well

Interlude (A Thought on Survival)

Side B:

Act I: Copper and Steel

The Walk

Act II: Armus Virumque Cano

Side C:

The Sound of Winter

The Silence of Winter

Side D:

1. In The Wake of the Reoccurring Glory of God

2. The Man With Guns For Arms

Side E:

On The Seventh Day

Tangency

Side F:

Return to Arcadia

Blue Ocean Garden

Side G:

Aside (A Thought on Redemption)

The King, The Meterist, and the Duel

Memory/ Vinyl Track listing

Side A:

The Sun

Greetings and Salutations, Miss Erin Chapman

Voice of a City in Echos, Movement I

Side B:

Vision

Centralized Republic of New Industry

Side C:

Voice of a City in Echos, Movement II

Side D:

And So We Took

Fear the Ox, Ban the Crow

/Iccasis Vinyl Tracklisting

Side A:

The Bear

Forest World

Side B:

March of Leviathan

Act III: Alaska

Side C:

Memory//Iccasis

Ziz Hymn

The Eternal Struggle Between the Protagonist and Antagonistic

Side D:

I Am The Ocean Part 1

Side E:

I Am The Ocean Part 2

Pretty Epic, eh? Well, I better get to work. Make good choices.