We figured this might be an appropriate time to blog so that we can explain everything that we're juggling and keep you in the loop.
You may or may not have noticed that we've wrapped ourselves around what we would consider to be our most prominent endeavor as of late - our Indiegogo campaign. This experience for us is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. Maybe more so terrifying... but we're stoked about it too.
What is it?
Well, essentially it's a fancy video of us explaining why you should support us and donate your money to help us make our first full-length album. Here's what we didn't say in the video:
Recording our first 2 EP's (i.e. our first EP with Noel on drums with the cute little cartoon faces in block colouring on the sleeve and our second EP with AJ released exclusively on bandcamp) were great experiences. Like... so great. Camping out for a weekend and being silly in the studio, learning how the process works and generally speaking, a lot about ourselves as musicians. That being said, the quality of what we were making was not quite what we had in mind. Our first EP was recorded in a home studio with 2 younger gentlemen just giving their new recording equipment a go. Wonderful guys and a fun weekend, but the process was insanely rushed, and because of this, I think we made some decisions we might not have, had we had more time. We consider this EP "vintage" material - track #4 is complete with an old/eery buzzing sound in the background! But alas, we were young and naive and looking to be proactive. It cost us nothing and we had an excellent time and to this day are still proud of the accomplishment. We also took some outstanding pictures:
Oh - and they had kittens! Like 6 of them! Bonus!
The second time around was set up in a more professional light. A recording studio owner out of Marine City, MI found our page on MySpace (yup, MySpace) and wanted to record 2 tracks for free simply because he liked our music. Hot diggity dog! We set up the session, headed into the fancy studio and got to it. Long story short, while we were out to dinner and the sound engineer was mixing, our second track got the axe. Meaning he accidentally erased it. Soooo with that mind blowing misstep, he offered to record an entire EP for us for free to make up for the loss. Though we were a bit baffled and discouraged, we were excited to be able to have a second chance stab at an EP.
To make a novel more like a blog, in the time between when we recorded our first two tracks and scheduled to record our full EP, we parted ways with Noel, started working with AJ, were completely revamping our entire list of songs, and then my dad passed away unexpectedly. We were ill-prepared to record to the point of still writing parts for the songs the day we walked into the studio and if I had to paint you a picture... you know the moment when you wake up late to your alarm going off, disheveled and completely oblivious to where you are or why the alarm is going off to begin with? That sitting straight up in bed, pseudo-dillusional, eyes wide moment? Yeah... that was us. We had no idea what we were in for. The sound engineer running the studio was changing locations and we were forced to go in and record sooner than we had planned. So once again, a rushed process.
Ultimately, the sound quality was far better than our first EP. But the editing/mixing/general end product still left us feeling incomplete. Again, proud of our accomplishment and took some sweet pictures... but still incomplete:
Bottom line - we are doing it right this time. No other options.We are going to do whatever it takes for us to have the appropriate amount of time. That means enough time to write, enough time to rehearse, enough time to record, enough time to mix/master and enough time to produce the physical album.
We can't do it on our own. I wish we could. No one likes asking for money and we kind of despise it. But we are really hoping that with your help, we can finally do things the way they should have been done from the beginning. And fortunately or unfortunately for us, it really depends on how generous our friends/family/fans are feeling. We have hit the 15% mark on our goal and are so grateful for those of you who have participated! We can't believe there have already been 30-something people willing to donate to our cause. Thank you so much for your support. We still have quite a ways to go but are confident that things will continue going in a positive direction. Here's the link to the video and the campaign so you can see what we're talking about and contribute if you feel like it:
JOA's Indiegogo
So that's the biggie. The thing we've been biting our nails about and losing sleep over. But we also have some other really cool stuff to tell you about. We had a photo shoot! CMF with Green Owl Photography took us out this past Sunday and took some incredible shots. We will be posting soon, once we can all agree on which ones we want you to see :) Our website is nearly finished and we will be launching it soon also! Dustin Rourke put it together for us and it's brilliant. You guys are going to love it. We just need a few more bells and whistles and a couple of tweaks and then we'll release the link. Woop woop!
We're also pushing hard with writing for the album. We've got some new music and we can't wait for you to hear it!
Again... we can't thank you enough for your support - it truly means the world.
Until next time - we'll leave you with this little gem. Happy Halloween!
<3,
JOA
