Reflections of a Forthcoming Album: Part 2

What a weird year this has been. I’ll save you the cliches like “in these trying times” and “during such unprecedented times” and I’ll just cut to the chase. This year wasn’t good, nor was it bad in my eyes, as that is an oversimplified way to explain all of the trials and tribulations we have had to go through during this year to get to this point. As it seems we are soon going to soon be out of this situation regarding Covid-19, I had the chance to record my debut album “demiLAN”. I started writing this album near the beginning of when this pandemic started, and what a journey it has been. This album is a snapshot in time, during which I have felt the most challenged by the sheer isolation, and growth that I experienced during this time. It’s not a piece of work where I am trying to prove anything, it is a way for me to express the things in life I can’t put into words. 

On Saturday, June the 12th at 10:00 am, I entered revolution recording studio A to begin the recording process. Before this, we rehearsed the music on three separate occasions for two hours each. This was the first time everyone was reading the music unless people looked at the charts beforehand, and I was pretty nervous going into this. The reason the nerves were present was that, (A) we haven't been able to legally play with other people consistently for an entire year, and (B) this would be the first record I have fully written, so I felt really on the spot. Regardless of this, we pushed through and made it to the record date. 

The night before I had fallen asleep and woken more times than I can remember, it was a good thing that Americanos were in full swing at the studio. For those who don’t know, the band members on the album were David Hodgson (tenor/soprano Sax), Kaelin Murphy (trumpet), Chris Pruden (piano), Evan Gratham (bass), Jacob Slous (drums), Julien Bradley Combs (guitar), and Alyssa Giammaria (vocals). The whole session was partly run by Jon Bartel, who was in control in the recording booth. I knew I had to get Jon, after working with him on the UTJO Embargo album and hearing his mix from the previous school albums.

We firstly started with the tunes that would feature spoken word. For these songs, I composed the entire piece of music, and during an appropriate spot, I would include a vamp section where the vocals could tell a small story. The lyrics for these songs were written by Alyssa, and we had several meetings to discuss the direction of the lyrics depending on the song.

We had a nice pizza lunch break. The bruschetta pizza was a highlight for me as it was tasty, and it fit the new temporary vegetarian diet that I have been going through for the past month or so. We had Max Chu (@barcodebitch) to take photos of the band during the break. Eventually, we would rifle through the songs, and we would get to a “live off the floor” music video shoot with the entire band, which was filmed by Conrad Gluch.

After everything was said and done, I didn’t know how to feel other than being plain tired. After such a messed-up year, we had recorded a full album and it was quite overwhelming. I am quite happy with the way things turned out, and even though I am an extremely self-deprecating musician, I am trying my hardest to be happy with it, because everyone seriously killed it.

I honestly left the studio that day being a different person, and it's going to take time to realize the new change I want to see in my life, so I can tackle my next challenge. But for now, I am taking a break, and am looking forward to sharing the rest of this experience with you.