Baliset: Touching Nerves

First of all, that is NOT the name of the new album or a new song or anything like that.

I always would imagine as a kid that one day I would be a famous musician and I was always "preparing" answers to questions that would inevitably be asked about what my creative process is like and what was mentally going on while I prepared songs and solos, etc.

I may not have had a CLUE as to what the process would be like but I figured one day someone might care enough to ask me and I wanted to be prepared!

However, no is really asking me and while I really am not sure anyone is interested to know, I do want to mention something briefly. I was working on a new riff tonight. Without giving away what it will end up doing or what the song name is, I will say that cranking the amp up and recording it and listening back to it at full volume and writing parts over it did something to me. I was feeling almost manic and transfixed afterwards, like I had given birth to some crazed beautiful baby that was destroying the delivery room and singing a melody with a perfect voice at the same time.

It was awe and destruction all at once and while it is only a 2 minute piece for one of my songs, it gave me the confidence that i really am going in the right direction with some of these ideas and gave me hope for this album. Not that i didn't have that before but it felt stronger.

Back In The New York Groove

I am sitting in bed tired. I have had a weird couple of weeks.

I got a nasty bout of supposed pneumonia which forced me to cancel a high profile Baliset gig, and miss work.

Then i went back to work and finished out the week with not one but TWO Baliset gigs and a guest gig sitting in with Kayo Dot to perform Choirs of the Eye in its entirety at The Stone in NYC.

I am choosing to talk about this because it had a profound effect on me. It was inpsiring to say the least. I got to hear the new KD album in full performed live and during the performance I had visions of creativity and sparks flying into my brain to help me write for the next Baliset album.

And it also was weird because i felt alot like Captain Jack Harkness at the end of Doctor Who season 3. You are teased into believing that he might rejoin the Doctor for adventures but in the end he tells the Doctor that he has his own team now and they need him and that summed up my feelings on Baliset. They are my team now and I feel more comfortable musically with them than anyone else I have ever played with and while it was fun living the fantasy life of being in Kayo Dot complete with a sold out crowd and exhuberant fans shaking your hand and making you feel larger than life, I missed my team.

I am happy with the success we have built for ourselves and if i took one thing away from this whole experience, it is that it gave me a focus point in my head for the next album.

But Toby and the rest of KD know they can call on me for help at any time and as a friend I will help them with whatever they need but as I return to my life of anonymity once again, I do get excited for working on where aliset my new team is going.

How You Can Support Baliset e.g. Mailing List And Pre-Orders

Hello​ Frien​ds,​​​

As I have alrea​dy menti​oned,​​​ the Balis​et album​ will be out March​ 17. As we are getti​ng close​r to the relea​se date I would​ like to let you know of some cool ways those​ of you enjoy​ the music​ you have heard​ on the page can suppo​rt this proje​ct.​​​

For those​ of you who are not aware​,​​​ this band'​​​s album​ is a compl​etely​ self-​​​funde​d,​​​ self-​​​relea​sed,​​​ self-​​​promo​ted effor​t.​​​

In looki​ng for ways to help defra​y the cd manuf​actur​ing costs​ I have teame​d up with Nimbi​t to manuf​actur​e the cds and throu​gh them we will be offer​ing a speci​al chanc​e to pre-​​​order​ A Time For Rust and get some bonus​ goodi​es.​​​

The compl​ete detai​ls have not been squar​ed away but what it is looki​ng like is that the pre-​​​order​s will be $10 and in addit​ion to getti​ng the cd when it is relea​sed you will also get a poste​r and a downl​oad card good for bonus​ track​s not avail​able any other​ place​.​​​

We are inclu​ding these​ bonus​es to encou​rage you, the fan, the casua​l obser​ver,​​​ the frien​d,​​​ the foe, or whoev​er you might​ be to purch​ase a pre-​​​order​ and help to finan​ciall​y suppo​rt us in relea​sing the debut​ album​ and in turn you can feel good about​ yours​elf for helpi​ng to suppo​rt true indep​enden​t music​.​​​

So pleas​e go to www. balis​et.​​​ net and in the Nimbi​t store​front​ that is on the page there​ is a link to sign up for our maili​ng list and pleas​e do sign up so that when we have the pre-​​​order​ infor​matio​n ready​ to go you can be the first​ to know as well as heari​ng about​ upcom​ing shows​ (yes we will be playi​ng live to suppo​rt the album​)​​​.​​​

Also pleas​e check​ out the balis​et myspa​ce at www. myspa​ce.​​​ com/​​​balis​et to see a video​ I made for the song "A Time For Rust"​​​ and hear some other​ sampl​es!​​​

Thank​s for your time!​​​

Balis​et

99 problems but a mix ain't 1...

now that i have the album 99% in the bag my brain is starting to move on from it.

with just the mastering left to go i feel like i can divert my focus on these songs for now since i have all the parts in place and adding that last polish seems to be an easy feat in terms of gathering my knowledge of what i need to do.

so in the meantime i have been diving full on into the next two things.

the first is as all acoustic thing i have been thinking of doing for some time. it has the tentative title of "to the king of all night's dreaming." it is a deeply personal piece of work and i have felt really right about working on it. the songs and lyrics came pretty naturally and i am definitely not trying to make some type of epic thing. i think it will be a good process to help me emotionally deal with alot of things that i have had going on that happened more or less after the a time for rust writing process had happened.

the second thing is already thinking about baliset ii. i am not giving a title or anything yet and i am trying to approach it more thoughtfully then the last one. i want to have the songs pretty much demoed as complete as possible before going into record. again i am trying to strip away some of the epic yearnings i had with the a time for rust stuff. the songs are shorter but i am getting a picture of the overall album and i am really psyched about it and since Adam and i have already started hashing out the songs it has been a pretty fun time for me creatively having him with me to bounce ideas off and then to help flesh out the songs that until then were mostly just existing as acoustic ditties.

getting closer and closer!

as the news bit on the baliset homepage suggests, i have committed to a timeline and release date for the album, this allows me to feel confident i can get the album out on time because in order to achieve this goal and publish the date i needed to plan out how exactly the next four months will go.

i have one more tracking/mixing session left to polish up a few vocal lines still troubling me and tweak the mixes ever so slightly.

next we have mastering in december with colin which will allow me to have the finished project ready for pressing so that in turn leads to...

promos in january. just getting some promo versions of the cd printed up with the artwork for the cd so i can start sending them out and then saving up money to release the thing in march. phew...

not to mention that i am not allowing myself the luxury of resting on my laurels since i have two bonus tracks to finish at home that will be included as b-sides to the single in january, an acoustic album i am writing AND conceptualizing baliset album #2. adam and i have a rehearsal planned for sunday and i am hoping to demo the first new track and get that process going too.

its an exciting time but i am trying to keep my head and not get too stressed or over-confident and just go with the flow so to speak.

in the studio

it feels good to start the finishing up process on the album.

there's still a ton of vocals left to be done BUT since i am doing those in october we have had the better part of two days to focus our effort on getting the existing parts mixed so as to make the process of integrating the new vocals in october smoother and leave the project on schedule to be completed in time for my mastering session in december.

i try to contain both my excitement and impatience and i just keep my eyes on the prize so to speak (i hate cliches) and try to not get cocky or arrogant about it and just let the album fall into place on its own.

still as we sit here in the control room and i hear the individual tracks we have recorded over the years and hear the rhythm guitar i recorded in 2003, the solo i recorded in 2005 and the additional guitars and keyboards i added here in 2008 and i think about what the songs were in my head back then and what i imagined they would sound like finished back then and now how they are turning out now and its pretty amazing how they have grown and i am really in awe of how cool they are becoming and that somehow makes the five years and frustration worth it.

pre-studio jitters

i have told many people about this before but i do get these jitters the entire week before i go to the studio. will i remember all the parts i wrote? will i be able to accomplish what i need to accomplish?

there is added pressure this time because this is what will amount to be the last couple days of tracking and the beginning of the long mixing process but it also means that the album is nearing completion.

more updates will come soon...