2024 Forward

1. In Time
2. Never Arriving
3. Burrowing
4. Day Time (demo)
5. Do You Remember (demo)
6. Your Philosophy
7. Matter Of Fact
8. Useless Things
9. They Are Not There (remake)
10. The Day After Anything Goes
11. And Now I’m Looking
12. Not A Home
13. Alien Infusion
14. Other Vancouver
15. Layered Sky
16. Clouded
17. Never Lied
18. One Thin Soul
18. Starring You
20. Run From Me
21. F#m (demo)
22. Promise Unknown
24. Marooned
25. No One Listens Anymore

10 December 2024

The last four weeks have been very productive. I’m determined to get through all the songs we have and get them finished an mixed.

First up was Scott’s song Another Vancouver. When I first heard it, I had an idea for a new open G rhythm part. That would be in the Keith Richards style. I was told to have at it. I spent a day learning the song and working out the part. I cut the track the next day. Scott liked it and returned to the song to add his complimentary part. As soon as that was delivered the song was mixed.

One of mine was the next choice. Not A Home is a newer one. I did more work on it and printed a mix. Joe wasn’t happy with his drum part, and Scott agreed it wasn’t working. The problem seemed to be a result of some issues with the recording not the playing. I was happy to get a new pass and asked Joe to play it simple. It would be a couple of weeks before he was able to get to this. The new track was exactly what I wanted. It’s in line for a mix now.

In the middle of all this Scott sent over a new song, a good one. Joe got drums on it right away. It’s now parked and in line for finish work.

I pulled up another one of mine, Alien Infusion. I hadn’t been happy with the intro section, so I was determined to find a new idea. I replaced the electric guitar with acoustic. I then added some keyboards that would come in before the guitar. A slide part was then added. I also recorded a backwards echo part to accent the downbeat. Once I got all that sorted out I decided that maybe Joe could sing it better. He was happy to have a go at it. I’d given him a couple of clues which he ran with. Scott wanted to try a lead guitar part. The new additions to this song did wonders and the final mix was approved by all.

In Time was written in May and sent over in June for drums and guitar work. I’d played a solo which Scott liked. Due to the fast pace of writing and vacations, this one was shelved until the other week. I had intended to redo the guitar solo, thinking I could do better. I had an idea for an effect which I tried on the original recording. It worked and the track seemed fine to me. Along the way I added organ to the chorus and eletric piano to the bridge. The mix came together quickly. Another one in the can.

I wrote They Are Not There in the Fall of 2018. Ric added drums soon after. Deniz added slide guitar as well. The original version was nearly nine minutes long, with no drums on the first half, which was the two verses. Ric jumped in for the heavv chorus. In the end I decided it was not for Two Suns Two Shadows. Usually it would have been held for the next album, which was Faith In Failure. By the time wwe started workeing on that one, I’d decided it would be all new material. The song got shelved. Once again, this new album was going to be all new material, with Joe drumming. It was at this point I decided to rearrange the song and re-record it. The new track I cut was considerably shorter, starting with the chorus. When I handed it over to Joe, he had his own ideas for the drums.

When I returned to the song, I found it was just drums, guitar and a guide vocal. Right away is apparent the guitar wasn’t in sync with the new drums. First task was a new guitar part. I know I made a mistake when I cut the track. I had to go through my chart and see where I went wrong. A new guitar part and bass were added. Once again Scott offered to add some guitar. We discussed where the song was going. He went away and came back with it very quickly. There was the main part and a solo at the end. Joe suggested the drums drop out for a bit in the middle. It made sense that they drop out for the shorter second verse. This actually returned things to the original version for this section. That required a transition into the verse. I worked that out on synth and mellotron. The simple song has a couple of mix tricks to add some movement. The results are clearly superior to the original. Don’t be surprised if the first attempt does surface in the future.

Scott didn’t stop at the guitar solo, he wrote a new song. We’ll get back to this one as soon as possible.

I once again returned to the earliest of the new songs.

I reviewed Matter Of Fact and And Now I’m Looking. Matter Of Fact just needed a little work. I’ve added organ and will add a guitar part to add some shimmer over Joe’s guitar line. And Now I’m Looking seems to need another layer. I’ve discussed this with Scott and semt iot back to him to revisit.

That’s where is stands today. Work is moving along well ahead of schedule. The addition of new songs to the list are welcome. The new album will probably be a double CD. I don’t see any reason to sit on material as there will be more to follow.

5 November 2024

Next song in line for finish work is Never Arriving. I could not remember this song until I put it up to work on. It’s a good one and one which I thought might signal a new direction. Not exactly, but it does show an expanding sound stage.

The first task was to redo the intro, a stand alone acoustic guitar part. New stings on the Yamaha helped. I played the same parts, just a lot better. Not quite free form, but it feels right. The next task was to redo the vocal. I quickly realized I’d only written one verse and hadn’t tackled the bridge yet. I had enough material in my rough draft to come up with a second verse. This song is a mash up of two dreams. Very noir. That made it easy to fill out the lyrics.

The track is very sparse. The main parts are organ and bass. The piano plays a nice passage, and then sits out. There is a bit of acoustic guitar and mellotron on the chorus. I resisted the temptation to add anyhting more. That said, I decided to add a rew piano notes on the chorus. The song moves through a lot of short sections. Then there is a very different feel for the bridge, which come just before the out.

I’ve done a lot of the detail work now, getting the vocals sounding right and adding effects. I’ll spin a final mix tomorrow.

In October I took a week off to fly out to Minneapolis to see the dB’s on their reunion tour. I finally had the chance to meet up with Peter Holsapple face to face. I can report he’s a lovely guy and made an extra effort to join us for a chat. The music was inspirational. I’d like to think I can convince Peter to play on our new album. Thing is, at this point we don’t seem to be needing to reach out to any of our auxiliary players.

On the short flight home, I managed to write yet another song, Promise Unknown. Once again it appeared fully formed. I got on the case the day after we returned and put together a reasonable track. The idea was inspired by Jack Bruce. There are some interesting chord changes and a heavy bass part.

In the back of my mind was Scott’s song, One Thin Soul. This was a curious one. When Scott sent it over, he said he had some reservations, and wasn’t sure it was suitable for the Brain. I understood his reasoning, but I could hear a good melody and vocal. I got an itch to try and ‘remix’ it as they say. I asked Scott to send the files so I could have my way with it’ I’d done a simple test that convinced me what I had in mind was possible. It took him a while to find the files as the original title was different. Once i had the raw materials, I got to work. I had the song rebuilt and mixed with in a week. The original structure was valid, it was just the approach. I turned it into something out of the early 90s. I think I was surprised that my idea worked so well.

I moved on. I realized I needed to compile mixes of all the songs so we can decide how to release them. I figured I’d run through the songs in the order they were submitted. Turns out Layered Sky was the oldest on the list. When I wrote it, I was thinking it was a Neil Young And Crazy Horse thing. Joe had other ideas when he did the drums. Fair enough. The problem was the track was very raw and not very well played. This meant I had to go through and replace the bass and vocals. The two guitar tracks were fine as was the piano. The approach Joe took meant I had to rethink how to complete the song. The two guitars and piano that formed the backnone of the song were deemed satisfactory. The new bass part was a little simpler. I added some synth to get the song started, and then organ over that. These two return through the course of the songs. To that I added mellotron strings, and then choir. A lead guitar line was recorded as well. It’s not so much a solo, but it serves the song. A fresh vocal track completed the recording. By then then mix was nearly finalized. Yesterday I did some detail work on the acoustic guitar part. It’s now finished. Time to move on.

IN the background Joe did drums for the song Clouded. He’d not got to this previously. He also did a new drum part for Promise Unknown. He wasn’t happy with the performance on the first pass. Both new efforts sound good, so I can finish those songs as I get back to them.

We now have nineteen songs in the new album folder. The big questioon is how to release it. Common sense would suggest it’s be split into two albums and released six months or a year apart. The Brain rarely does the sensible thing. This productive streak suggest we have more songs in our future. There is a good chance the new album will be a double CD, two distinct albums, not unlike Sandbox Dispatches.

The goal now is to continue to work through the list doing finish work and final mkxez. I’d suspect Scott’s songs are ready for mix. Two have already been committed. We’ve been working so fast, I’ve forgotten what some of the songs sound like. This will be an interesting period for all of us.

The last two weeks have seen a lot of time in the studio. I wrote a new song, Not A House. It was inspired by a misheard lyric on a Wilco album. It’s one of those songs that came together in just one short session. I asked Scott needed any more than what I’d done. He assured me the arrangement was complete. It’s always good to get feedback. It’s also good that the new ideas are flowing freely.

When asked, Joe said he had time to tackle the drums on six new songs. Five of mine and one of Scott’s. Twelve hours later he’d returned with five of the songs completed. In the past I’d present Ric with very complete tracks. He’d form his ideas around a well structured song. This was the case for the songs Joe played on for Fire Printing. When I started writing songs for the new album, I decided to keep my initial tracks simple. I didn’t want to be locked into any ideas before drums were added. And I wanted Joe to have a free hand. Last night and this morning I sent over six songs for drums. Twelve hours later we had drums on five of the songs.
The notes I’d sent with the tracks just explained what the songs were about and tempos. The most specific instructions were for Scott’s song And Now I’m Looking. Tony Miller had taken this one and had a friend add drums. It was sort of an audition for the open drum position. He did a fine job. When reviewing the new songs, I felt that this one was a little rushed. I Suggested to Joe that he open up the feel and let the song breth. Thing is, I was determined that Joe would play all the drums on the new album. I rerecorded They Are Not There so we could use that song. I changed the arrangement, making it a lot more compact. Once Joe gets to Not A Home, there will be twelve songs for the new album. There are a few more demos on the table that we will talk about. Both Scott and Joe have promised more offerings. I’d like to think I have a few more up my sleeve. The idea is to have more than enough songs so that we can pick ten or twelve for and album. The left overs will be the starter for the follow up.

To say the songs were re imagined is correct.

15 July 2024

Another busy period. Scott and Joe delivered Staring At You virtually complete. Scott also offered up One Thin Soul He told me it was an older song that he wasn’t sure would work for us. I fould hear the song underneath his arrangement. I told him what I had in mind and he agreed to try. It took him a couple of weeks to locate the multi tracks as it had originally been titled Sea Heag.

******Update*****
There was also the matter two songs I’ve had in my folder for several year, Your Philosophy and Useless Things. Scott submitted these two songs in 2017 when we were beginning work on what became Sandbox Shadows. I did some test work on Your Philosophy, but nothing ever followed.mI think there were plenty of new songs we were focused on.

I talked to Scott about having another look at these two. Your Philosophy has a strong Beach Boy feel. That would seem to suit what we are doing on the new album. Joe agreed. I can’t say I’d got to know Useless Things first time around. I was surprised at how much it sounded like an early Help Yourself song, right down to the guitar solo. When Scott searched his files, he could not locate the multi-track files for Useless Thing. Fortunately he’d done a very good mix of the track which we could add to. I gave Joe some suggestions for percussion. I added bass and a bit of piano. The result was satisfactory. Philosophy[hy received extensive work to get it into shape. Again the results were more than satisfying. Two songs that could have been forgotten are now on the list for album 17.

After returning from Arizona I got back to work. The song that became Alien Infusion. I wrote the n=music first. Once again work was interrupted for a long planed trip to Sweden. The stated reason for the trip was to see Rain Parade who would be just starting their Euro tour. In reality it was also a chance to visit our friend Jerker Emmanuelson and The Nomads.I’d last seen Jerker in 1994 when he toured the US promoting his first Hit The Hay release, which was also the first official Donovan’ Brain release. It’s been 24 years since we’d last seen the Nomads.

In the middle of all this activity Scott sent over a new song, The Day After Anything Goes. Joe had added drums. I made a small suggestion. I asked Scott if he had a resonator guitar. He did. The song seemed to suggest 1970s Kinks. He was more than happy to redo the rhythm parts. In turn Joe came up with a new drum idea and did another pass. A good song became a great one with just that one idea.

I decided to try rerecording They Are Not There, as song written during the productive period that resulted in Sandbox Shadows. Deniz Tek added guitar to the original. It didn’t make the cut for that release. It was considered for Fire Printing, but wasn’t used as the new songs seemed to fit together better. The original arrangement was an epic 9 minutes long. I remade it in a more compact, and more rockin’ form. The new version seems to fit better with the material we have for the new album.

Looking forward, the plan is to start work on the follow up to Fire Printing. There are still several we’d done with Ric which didn’t get used. My feeling is we should start fresh. No doubt the songs with Ric that we’ve not used will find a home in the future. I did a quick inventory. There are three demos Scott had sent over which we never attempted. There is one song in progress, In Time. I believe this was one of the last things Ric played on. I might ask Joe to redo the drums so we have a fresh version to work on. I’ll keep the version with Ric for later use.

I think there are two demos Joe sent around the same time as he submitted his songs for Fire Printing. He sent over two more a couple of weeks ago, Day Time and Do You Remember. Scott and I both thought we could work these two up. That is a good starting point. Once we start working on these songs, I expect more ideas will surface.

I had an idea that I’d started last year. I only had a couple of fragments and a vague lyric idea based on two dreams. I put writing on hold so as not to get distracted from finishing the new album. Once I got back to this one, Never Arriving, it came together quickly. I had enough to build up an arrangement. My idea for the song was pretty specific and I managed to capture that. I decided it was ready for drum and passed it over to Joe with some notes about the concept. He got on it quickly and sent back his first draft. He’d interpeted the idea I had in mind. The first brick laid.

That meant I could move on and see what else I could come up with. This time I had no lyric or melody ideas, just the rhythmic feel I wanted to work with. I sat at the organ and played along until I found some chord changes I liked. I tried vocalizing over that. It was the right direction, but not the flow I wanted. I tried inverting the opening riff to get me into the vocals a little differently. Nothing came of that, but the idea was in my head. I woke up at 3.30Am this morning with some lyrics. It was a good idea that opened up the door. This time I decided to move to guitar to work it out. Everything snapped into place. It took me a good while to get the mics set up to get a clean recording of acoustic guitar and vocals. I got two verses and the second part recorded in just a few passes. I did go back and do a new vocal over the guitar. I’ve got an idea how to finish the song now. Another bit of lyric appeared, enough of an idea to complete the idea. This is the way things should go when I can focus on writing.