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October 9, 2011
Today is John Lennon’s birthday. He would have been 71 today if he hadn’t been murdered in 1980. It’s always incredibly sad for me to think about John being gunned down. It really has nothing to do with me believing he was the second coming of Christ because by all accounts I have read, John was flawed like the rest of us, sometimes in ways far beyond the normal levels of hypocrisy, selfishness, and malice we typically see from people day to day. John gave us his music. I miss his melodic and rhythmic sense. I miss his voice, in song and interview. It would have be nice to see him continue on into the 80′s and 90′s much like McCartney did, maybe going on tour as was planned and playing all those songs he and the guys retired in the 60′s. He was going to tour in the spring/summer of 1981. Plans were put to rest on December 8th, 1980. John’s recording career lasted all of 13 years. The albums in the 70’s weren’t always brilliant and there was – for my taste – ALWAYS too much Yoko, but you were never left without at least one treasure even if the album didn’t live up to the hype.
Remember John today.
I’ve been recording the last week, working on the EP. I’m extremely excited about the progress and direction this thing is going. I’m doing my best to try and stay out of the dark place, but I do know that mix sessions will commence soon and then the darkness will truly begin. I don’t mind.
I will let the light that shines before me guide the way.
The light that shines before me.
David
September 22, 2011
Continued work on the new EP, and the goal is still to get this out before the end of the year.
I also started listening to a BBC show about Dennis Wilson. I am so drawn to the creativity of the Wilson brothers and the Beach Boys in general. Dennis’s story is a sad one and I hope I can last the entire show. It seems like it’s going to be depressing. If I need a pick-me-up, I’ll turn on some early Beach Boys material and that will set my head straight. Their version of “Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring” is so incredible. SO incredible.
Speaking of Beach Boys, the SMiLE box set is due here on November 1st. If you don’t know much about the legend of SMiLE and the headache it will forever give Brian Wilson, look here. It’s incredible and the great album that never was is about to BE. It’s incredibly exciting for me.
Hope you’re all digging Paper Airplane and all the rest of the Vault.
David
September 8, 2011
It’s been a long time coming, but we have the new album ready for release. I’m absolutely amazed with where we took this thing from the conception of this project right up through the final master. I hate that life got in the way of getting this thing out there and it’s really almost been one whole year since laying down the initial tracks. It’s a moot point now, though. It’s finished and sounds glorious.
The next thing to work on is the small matter of getting an EP out before the end of the year and our 5th anniversary Christmas single. I won’t go into too much detail, but the 5th single will bring along a nice tying up of the 5 year ends, helping us move into the future for more singles and more Christmas celebration.
Anyway, dig the new album and keep checking in to see what is happening with the new music coming down the pipe very soon.
David
June 30, 2011
Listening to the final mixes of the new album before we do the master. I have 2 words: fucking incredible. They feel and sound wonderful. They have the beautiful richness and earthiness that we wanted as we were getting started with this thing. I don’t think we could have asked for anything more.
It’s July tomorrow. We planned on having this thing out on Memorial Day weekend. So much for sticking to the production calendar. This is what you get when you are your own boss. It’s good and it’s bad and I think we did the right thing.
David
June 25, 2011
Listening to the 96k/24 bit Paul McCartney remasters this morning. They sound quite phenomenal and I’m very impressed. I never really had a ton of appreciation for McCartney II before this. I think it had something to do with the fact that when I think Paul McCartney, I want to hear “I’ve Just Seen A Face” or “Maybe I’m Amazed” and McCartney II so isn’t that. Not even close. It’s all experimental, weird, creative, and really shows you what can happen when an artist is left in a dark room for 6 months, left only to his devices. It’s becoming a go-to album for when I’m in one of those moods to not be creative even though I (mostly) have no desire to create in that fashion. The furthest I went with that whole vibe was Drive. I’m still not sure why I went that direction with my first album, but that’s another discussion for another day.
Back to the 96k thing…
We all really need to somehow move into this 96k thing. The depth of the music is remarkable and, let’s face it, the Red Book code is just old. Having said that, my next album was started in 44.1 and will remain there for the duration of course albeit 24 bit. We did track the album in Chicago at 96/24, though, and I’m really digging it thus far. I’m thinking about offering a multi-tiered download of that album to see what the response might be. I’m thinking lossless FLAC 96k/24 bit, maybe one at 44.1k/16 bit, and MP3. If you have any opinions on the matter, drop us a line in the contact section.
Back to McCartney II, but on to the bonus audio (a 10 minute galloping jam titled All You Horse Riders is in this next jam)
David
June 23, 2011
Just doing some random testing on this site.
David
June 23, 2011
I opened this page today to simply keep you updated on what was going on in the world of Hey Now Records.
Today we were listening back to some tracks in preparation for the mastering phase of our next new project titled Paper Airplane. This duo project of Andy and myself is 10 years in the making, finally realized during an amazing trip I took to Chicago in October 2010.
We’re going to include 9 wonderful new songs in an all acoustic duo setting. We wanted to get the setting just right for the songs and keep them in a very organic space. The mixes are just about finished and really all we’re doing at this stage is just fixing the nit-picky things that we’d otherwise be kicking ourselves over in 5 years. Good to get it right the first time.
Other than that, we’re keeping the gates open on the Vault for the next 10 days and hopefully you’ll all join us in checking out the tracks (streaming or download, all FREE). Stay tuned for more information on Paper Airplane. It’s almost finished. Promise.
David
