I had the time wrong for the video premiere tomorrow night.... it's going to be aired during the show "Bravofact Presents" that airs from 7:30pm-8pm Eastern Time on Bravo!.

Mastering started today! It sounded so good in the mastering studio! :) I'm really looking forward to sharing this. I also have to start thinking about cover art... Marc and I went out for dinner the other night and ended up talking about cover art although we said we weren't going to talk about any of that stuff for one evening. We ended up brainstorming some ideas and basically wrapping up dinner in order to go home and do some related internet research. some night off eh? :)

I got home from the mastering session to basically eat and clean up a little before starting another session with Tamara... we're recording all her main vocals for her record this weekend. Her new music video comes out next week on Bravo - a song I produced back in the fall. It's the first song I produced for her, and it's what lead to me now producing her full length record, to be released later this year. Anyways, the video is going to premiere on Bravo this coming Wednesday night (the 23rd) at 8pm. I wish I had cable... ! (I'm actually in the video, for a little bit...)


k

final listen through. yay! barring any technical glitches, hard drive crackles, etc, i'm ready to master!

today was a milestone day of sorts. i went for a meeting with the mastering engineer! he and i listened through some of the pretty final mixes and he gave the A-OK for volume levels and such, so now i'm just deciding the order of the record and listening through for any last minute tinkering. this is it!

dad emailed me this morning to say that after reading my journal yesterday, it sounded to him like i'm being too much of a perfectionist, and i should stop. well i agree, on some level, but when it comes down to it, i just want to make something i'm really proud of and happy to listen to. And let's face it, there have been phases during these last 2 years when i really wasn't happy with it... so why would i put that out to you fine people? why would i want to put out a record that i would be embarrassed of in a short while? i think for me, the wait has been worth it - i feel i've grown as a musician, producer, engineer, and songwriter. i think i'll be able to enjoy listening to this, and i hope everyone else will too.

karen

i think through this all i'm becoming a recluse. Recluse? did i frikkin spell that right? check dictionary.com... i've been so superstitious about actually journalling anything about the record for fear that i'd speak too soon. i've gone through so many phases with this darn thing that i feel like i've made 3 or 4 records... but it's still just one. The truth is, during the summer/fall after Optimist Party I started working on a record with the band, and sometime by the spring/summer I scrapped most of it. All of it? Well sort of. Some songs got completely dropped, others found a new path and stayed on the list. I think at some point i want to do a record that's all just fun rock songs. Maybe i'll do it under another name, or with another band. These poor neglected children.

But seriousness calls, and the record began again... it sounds like i just changed my mind one day, but it actually evolved over a while... and new songs, new treatments of old songs, new parts, new instruments, new sounds... and lots of new technical knowledge too. My ears are really really different from how they were at the start of all this...unfortunately, this also means that I have a hard time listening to a couple of my favorite bands, because i don't like the production on their records. I have to go into a space where i'm not completely listening. interesting. like taking prozac for the ears.

so i'm going to try and write more openly, if i can stand it. i'm also trying to be more balanced in my hermitry... rent a season of a good tv show and sprinkle plenty of episode breaks between sessions at the computer. Go to the gym. Make real food for dinner. Ok, instant miso soup. mmm.

what i really need is to get this studio out of my house. i'm looking at a few options... would be strange to have an apartment that's actually filled with LIVING stuff instead of looking like a frikkin music store. (although we get some cool reactions). but i think i'd really enjoy "going to the studio" each day, instead of eating breakfast in the studio.

k

i do it to myself. i forget pieces of evidence that would explain the whole thing. i need a bomb squad for my head and a censor for my mouth. i talk before i think, i think too much sometimes. i want to disappear, i want to stop seeing. hypocrite.