05.10 -- Drums @ Houlton Wesleyan
05.11 -- Drums/Guitar @ Houlton Wesleyan
05.12 -- Guitar @ Houlton Wesleyan (direct in!)
05.13 -- Bass @ Deprez's (direct in!)
05.14 -- Bass @ Deprez's (direct in!)
05.15 -- Vocals @ Houlton Wesleyan
05.16-17 -- pseudo-mixing
05.18 -- lots of CD burning!

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01. Sheathen	03:40
02. Full Effect	02:43
03. Count Me Out	03:13
04. Overcome	04:06
05. A Perfect Disguise	04:02
06. End	04:16
07. 2 Hold U	07:20
TOTAL	29:20

---------------------------------------------------------
COVERS:
Say It Ain't So (Weezer)
Never Say Goodbye (The Impossibles)
Natalie Portman (Ozma)

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• 200 copies on CD-R, cover songs released online

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I don't remember every detail from this recording session, as it was several years (and several computers) ago, and i didn't take the detailed notes that i eventually learned to. Most of the stuff i had to piece together by checking the recording files. I DO remember that we basically cranked out this demo from setting up the drumkit to packaging 200 CD-Rs in just over a week.

At this point, Lowfive had only played a handful of shows (two?) under the current name. Our little boys of No Conform parted ways in September of 2000, only to reconvene as slightly older boys in December with a modified agenda. Spring semester of 2001 saw the threesome (in this incarnation the band was just Gabe, Chuck and Matt) all heading to the same school, meaning the new band could get some material together. DEMOLICIOUS was the record of that material.

We'd also never done a proper "studio"-ish recording of the band yet. All of the No Conform recordings were live into a computer, or live from a camcorder, so we really had no clue what we were getting into. I DO distinctly remember reading the entirety of The Musicians Guide to Home Recording in preparation! I'd also purchased some microphone cables and some cheap dynamic mics for the project. We used Gabe's computer to record (mine had crashed at the end of the spring semester), and borrowed the rest of the equipment we needed from the church where we recorded the majority of the tracks.

I don't remember any particular difficulties in the recording process... quite the contrary actually! Because we were in a church, we naturally got a great drum sound. Unfortunately, we were recording direct in to a computer, so we just got a stereo mix, which, likely due to our inexperience, had wayyyy to much cymbal. Our choice to record all of the other instruments direct in (from solid state amps, no less) was another brilliant example of our naiveté. I also forgot to mention that we had no multi-track audio software, so everything was recorded and mixed in SOUND FORGE 4.5! Also, considering that the band had only played 2 shows, and that Gabe never really sang in practice, most of the songs hadn't really found their singing voice yet. I remember Gabe could only make it through about a half hour without killing his throat for a day, so we didn't have much opportunity for retakes. He did consume an entire 3-liter bottle of cola during the process though!

So tracking took about 5 days, with drums on Day1, drums & guitars on Day2, more guitars on Day3, bass on Day4, and vocals on Day5. Everything was done in the church, except chuck's bass parts, which might have been done in the practice space over at Deprez's house. All in all, we did the 7 tracks for the demo, and 3 cover songs. "Mixing" was completed on the 17th (although it was little more than just layering all of the tracks on top of each other in SoundForge!). We spent all of the next day and night at Chuck's house with several computers burning 200 copies onto CD-R (keep in mind... this was back in the day of 2x and 4x drives!). I designed the label on chuck's computer, printed a copy, and we used the photocopier at the church to run off copies of the labels in the middle of the night. A 5am finish came just in time to take off into Canada for the May Rally show for which the demo was (shoddily!) produced. Basically i only slept like 3 times this week, working during the days, and pulling all-nighters for mixing and burning.


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• while recording the cover of Ozma's "Natalie Portman", Gabe used the church's organ to figure out the keyboard part. We didn't record this, for some reason i don't remember... probably time constraints.
• this was also one in a string of "Say It Ain't So" covers that we recorded at pretty much every session since Gabe's high school band Eat Social.
• the demo was named by Jeremy Cummings, a close friend to the early Lowfive. Lots of people think it's called Demolition, and that's pretty cool too.
• the original titles of "End" and "Full Effect" were "Closer" and "Pandemonium", respectively.

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12.27 -- Drums @ Gabe's Basement
12.28 -- Bass (Chuck) @ Gabe's Basement
12.28-12.31 -- Guitars @ Gabe's Basement
01.08-01.10 -- Bass (Chuck) @ Gabe's Basement
01.11-01.12 -- Guitars @ Gabe's Basement
01.13-01.14 -- Acoustic Guitars @ Gabe's Basement
01.15 -- Guitars & Piano @ Gabe's Basement
01.16 -- Bass (Gabe) @ Gabe's Basement
01.17-01.18 -- Acoustic, Bass, Vox @ Gabe's Basement
01.19-01.20 -- Vocals @ Gabe's Basement
03.12-03.15 -- Vocals (Gabe & Tracy) @ Gabe's Basement
04.11 -- field recording for SP @ Park St Station, Boston

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01. It Always Snows When You're Here	02:10
02. Prelude	03:42
03. Action Reaction	04:40
04. Waitforever	04:41
05. Still Photography	03:31
06. My Very Mind	06:10
07. Jesus Sunrise	05:42
08. Boys Will Be Boys	05:18
09. Autumn	07:23
TOTAL	43:17

----------------------------------------------------------
CUT FROM ALBUM:
Overcome

ALTERNATE VERIONS OF:
Waitforever
Autumn

COVERS:
Weezer - Say It Ain't So (unfinished)
The Impossibles - Never Say Goodbye (v2.0)
The Impossibles - Stopping Sound

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• 1000 copies on CD
• alternate versions released online
• NSGv2.0 released as part of the Impossibles Tribute Project online comp

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Aside from the chronological fact that this was not, in fact, where it all began... this WAS where it all began. By far the most ambitious project young Lowfive had ever embarked upon, and probably the most important step the band ever made, in any incarnation. This was the first opportunity we had to really sit around and create an album, experiment, and do things the right way. Granted, we were all very inexperienced at this still, but this is the month that really taught us all about it.

Things all got underway 2 days after Christmas 2001. We had allotted our entire winter break to recording an EP of new material to help wash the taste of Demolicious out of our mouths (although we were happy with it at the end of the week we spent working on it, we eventually realized we were wrong!). This time we tried to avoid any time crunches by borrowing as little gear possible from anybody, therefore letting us work at our own pace. I had increased my gear for this project, adding a mixer, 6 more dynamic mics, and some real multitrack recording software. We set up our little project studio in the basement of Gabe's house, pretty much taking it over for the month.

The 2 weeks were pretty smooth and uneventful; basically we just were getting a feel for our setup and laying down the basic tracks. Drums were knocked out on the first day (somehow we managed to do this without any real mic stands... Gabe made some out of firewood), as we were still only able to record a stereo mix of drums. Next, we laid down some rhythm guitar and some of Chuck's bass. I believe we borrowed a mic or two and maybe a stand or two to do drums, so after the first few days, we had no reason to rush.

Chuck and Matt had to head back to school for an intersession seminar or some crap, so we tried to get all of Chuck's bass tracks done before he left. We did a pretty good job, although we weren't totally successful. There was a good reason too: three or four of the 9 tracks that eventually made it to the album were brand new songs! After Chuck left, and we agreed to have Gabe finalize all of the remaining bass tracks, we set to work on the most fruitful part of the project.

For the next 2 weeks it was just Gabe and I working almost all day reviewing tracks, adding layers, and trying new ideas. What started as a guitar-bass-drums trio ended up producing a full 5+ person rock album; dual guitars, acoustics, piano. Although it would have been great to have the entire band with us for the whole month, i think that in this case it might have kept us on task, which would have been ultimately detrimental to the process! Needless to say, Matt and Chuck were surprised and excited when they heard some of the stuff we were churning out. I'd say our only interruptions at the cave were frequent visits by then-roadie Seanbert Q. Higgins, who was used as a sounding board for new ideas. The further we got into the layering process, the clearer it became that the band would never be able to do this stuff justice in a live setting. Sean Higgins was then ordered to join the band and learn the songs we were recording, as he was appointed new guitar player for the band.

Prelude, Action Reaction, Waitforever, Jesus Sunrise, Boys Will Be Boys, and Autumn were all songs that the band was either familiar with, or had at least been practiced through. My Very Mind was a brand new track that Gabe walked Deprez through on drums, and Gabe and I pieced together off and on throughout the month. The two tracks which i (to this day) consider highlights were ironically the 2 "filler" or "album only" tracks that were created on the spot. I think both of these songs started with a riff that gabe had in his head (or piano loop, in the case of It Always Snows...), and we just built from there. Although not on the album, our 2nd try on Never Say Goodbye was also a really cool experience, as we got to go sort of nuts with the guitar layering (which sort of foreshadowed the addition of synths to the band later in the year).


Still Photography was an experiment in layering; it all started while recording a loop during the acoustic guitar day. We thought we had something, so we got down the loop in order to experiment with other loops on the top. Once we added the bass line (also played on acoustic), we devised a structure and were able to evaluate the whole thing as a piece. We polished it off with another layer of acoustics, and decided that this needed to go on the album. At this point i absolutely knew i needed to get some field recording for the track. Originally we tracked this under the title "intermission", and a final song title was picked in the following days.

It Always Snows... is more of a funny story; Gabe wrote it on the toilet, then came down and asked me what i thought. i thought it was good for a toilet song, so we tracked that one too.

The month wrapped up with us rushing to finish everything we could. I think we got all of the instrumentation and probably 90% of the vocals done before we had to tear down the studio and head back to school.


We had our second and final chance to wrap up recording in mid-march of that year, as our spring breaks fell on the same week. Tracy and Kirsten were also in town to visit for that week, and Tracy was able to help us out by lending her voice to the intro song, which had since been named "It Always Snows When You're Here". The song actually got it's title because apparently it was always snowing when i went to gabe's house. The 2 month break in between sessions was good for us, as it let me comb through the tracks and get the mixes near finalized, so i knew exactly what i needed for takes and re-takes. Three days of vocal sessions was all she wrote for this record, and then we spent a day on Gabe & Tracy's side project, tracking the Later Comes Too Soon single from Shadybrookdrive.

Ultimately this was a huge creative step for the band, creating 3 new songs, cropping out all Demolicious-era songs (although one track - Overcome - was originally scheduled for the album, before being the first song cut from the tracking sessions). Secondly, it was a great departure stylistically from Demolicious, as the demo was more of a stepping point from No Conform over to the Paths-era lowfive. All of the third wave ska-influence was gone, and it was replaced with somethig much deadlier... Sean Higgins.


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• Alternate versions exist of several tracks from the album, including Waitforever (original vocal pattern) and Autumn (different verse lyrics). There are also rumors of a top-secret mix of Jesus Sunrise featuring Kirsten and Tracy caterwauling on top of the music in place of the regular vocals (and you thought Demolicious was bad!)
• the field recording of the subway was recorded states away from the northern maine woods, in the heart of boston, at Park Street station on the T's red line. If you listen carefully, you can hear the automated train announce "Next Stop: Downtown Crossing".
• also if you listen carefully, you can hear a few burps and farts that were permanently embedded into the drum tracks. Apparently, some people thought this was hilarious at the time!
• the revised cover of Never Say Goodbye was not planned, and when the decision was made to give it another go, Matt was already back at school. We ended up using the drum track from the Demolicious sessions, sped up to the appropriate tempo.

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07.24-07.25 -- Drums @ DPPS Linneus
07.25-07.26 -- Bass @ DPPS Linneus
07.27 -- Gabe's Guitar @ DPPS Linneus
07.28 -- Sean's Guitar @ DPPS Linneus
07.28-07.29 -- Sean's Guitar / Keys @ DPPS Linneus
07.29-07.30 -- Vocals @ DPPS Linneus

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01. Lie Down With Dogs	08:24
02. The Atlantic Ocean...	07:16
TOTAL	15:40

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• approx 100 on stenciled CDR (50 standard size with black back, 50 3")

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Having augmented the band with 2 extra members (Shiggins on guitar, and myself on keys) early in the summer to fully support the "Paths" material, recording the V2 demo in mid-july was the next natural step: this was our first representation of material written with and for the 5-piece lineup. Although these were the only 2 songs we wrote that summer, they showed a significant musical and lyrical growth over earlier material, and really were the first songs to feature the "signature" Lowfive sound. Although these are the 2 longest Lowfive/Softer songs ever to grace our catalogue, the whole process was relatively short, lasting just over 1 week.

As we'd become pretty familiar with the recording process by this time, so we were able to bypass a lot of the same hassles of earlier sessions. I think by this time we had all of our own equipment, including an abandoned house in a rural area that enabled us to practice and record late into the night. Summer 2002 saw a looooooot of practicing, and i think it comes through on the V2 demo. While the quality is not astounding, i think it's a moderate step forward from the "Paths" sound, and the performances have improved by leaps and bounds. The drumming is a lot more consistent, thanks to our addition of a click track to the process, and the vocals are a lot stronger as a result of muchos practicing with vocals. These were the first recording sessions for myself and sean, and i think we both fell right into line. I obviously had a lot of experience from the other end of things, and sean higgins probably actually ended up with something to be proud about, when compared to the rest of his miserable life. This is odd though, as Sean Higgins was actually on one of his convenient vacations during this week, so Gabe had to lay down his parts for him. For anybody who didn't already know, Sean Higgins is a weasel... and not the cool kind like Pauly Shore.

Anyhow, the end result was probably the best recording we'd done up until this time. We'd gotten the process and the performance down to a science; really all that was holding us back at this point was the lack of better equipment (like the ability to multi-track drums). V2 also marks the first release where i was able to track and mix (not to mention master) the whole thing with a single program, which hastened the post-recording processes. All in all, this got us really excited to record again, and rushed us into trying another record before the end of the summer.

We made about 100 copies of this on 2 different formats; half on blackback CDRs, and half on CDR minis. Artwork was relatively simple and corny; a V2 stenciled in white on a flat black disc. The V2 didn't really have any specific meaning, although we came up with the following explanations: V = five in roman numerals, this was the 2nd release by Lowfive. V2 could also be interpreted as version 2, which worked because this was the 2nd incarnation of the band (although this particular version of the band would later be dubbed v1.2). Most copies were gone by the end of the summer, and the recordings were then made available online.


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• Although often referred to as simply "The Atlantic Ocean..." for length reasons, the full title of the song is "The Atlantic Ocean is a Lot Bigger Than It Seems"

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08.27-08.28 -- Drums @ DPPS Linneus
08.28 -- Bass @ DPPS Linneus
08.29-08.31 -- Guitar (Gabe) @ DPPS Linneus
09.01 -- Guitar (Sean) @ DPPS Linneus

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01. Action Reaction

02. Autumn

03. Boys Will Be Boys

04. End

05. Jesus Sunrise

06. Overcome

07. Prelude

08. Sheathen

09. Still Photography

10. Waitforever

----------------------------------------------
COVERS:
Natalie Portman (Ozma)
Take On Me (Aha)

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• never finished, never released.

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I think we flew too close to the sun on this one. Hot on the heels of the V2 demo sessions, with which we were all pretty pleased, we really felt we needed an accurate recording of the full band on the rest of our material, and budgeted just under a week to re-record most of the "Paths" songs that remained in our repertoire, as well as a few revamped "Demolicious" songs AND two cover songs, totaling an attempted 12 songs in 5 days. We'd incorporated a full band version of still photography into our set, but had yet to co-opt "It Always Snows..." and had never attempted "My Very Mind". Re-worked versions of Overcome, End, and Sheathen existed, but were rarely played live.

Ultimately, we just bit off more than we could chew, and were not only rushed during the process, but were unable to complete tracking (no vocals). As luck would have it, this would be the last time Lowfive v1.2 would ever record together, so it was disappointing to see the project fail. We attempted to recreated the quick and fluid process of recording the V2 demo, complete with the V2's full band sound, but simply did not have the time. We were rushing through this so quickly that we tracked most of the instrumentation on several songs before deciding that the tempo was too fast, among other shortsighted faults. Although we'd once again improved our gear (the addition of a 100' snake enabled us to set up a control room separate from the tracking room for the first time), the quality was still less than we'd hoped for.

Although no vocals were recorded, and these recordings were mostly abandoned after the lineup change (Chuck and Matt stepped down in the fall to allow the band to remain active during the school year with new members Jason and Ian), i feel we were fortunate to get some of these songs and ideas documented, especially the full band versions of Still Photography, Sheathen, End, and Jesus Sunrise, as most of these would never see the light of day again (Still Photography was later resurrected for Lowfive v2.0, and Jesus Sunrise was introduced to Lowfive 2.0 but abandoned soon afterward).

Cover songs recorded during these sessions included the perennial favorite Take On Me, which was commonly requested at hometown shows by our pals in Minor Setback. As the band was relocating down to Bangor, we figured we'd record this one as a gag for them. The Ozma cover (Natalie Portman) was actually played live frequently during this summer, and felt especially appropriate because we were the only other band besides OZMA who religiously used cheesy Casio keyboards (the drum machine in NP is actually just one of Casio's preset drum beats). This version (2002), although never fully complete, was a good blueprint for the 2003 version we recorded with Jason and Ian in the upcoming winter.

All in all, these recording sessions were packed with superlatives; although we went into this with the highest hopes, we were met with the most frustration and rush-tration. Although we did have a lot of fun going out with one last bang, this was probably the saddest of all of the sessions, being one of the last times we'd all get together as a band (the original core), and not really getting anything worthwhile out of it.


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• Autumn was abandoned early in the tracking process due to a counting error or something similar.
• After all of the guitar tracks, Gabe and I stayed late to record some ideas he was working on - a song we were calling "test", which, over the next few months, grew into "1913" as we know it.

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Recorded January 2003 at DPPS Linneus by Caleb.
Drums re-tracked in the spring at Emerson College by Caleb.

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01. Action Reaction	00:00
02. Atlantic Ocean	00:00
03. Autumn	00:00
04. Calico	00:00
05. Element of Subtlety	00:00
06. Lie Down With Dogs	00:00
TOTAL	00:00

-------------------------------------------------
ALSO RECORDED:
Ditbae (Impossibles cover)
Natalie Portman (Ozma cover)
Skater Boi (Avril cover)
Boys Will Be Boys
Jesus Sunrise
"test" (aka 1913)

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• Unfinished and unreleased.
• Impossibles cover was released online as part of the Impossibles Tribute Project online comp.
• Eventually i'd like to mix what i have of this record and fix it up for a web-release.

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It was December of 2002 and Lowfive had undergone a major transformation in the 3 months prior, having replaced the rhythm section with the addition of Ian and Jason on drums and bass respectively. Although we'd only written 2 new songs, the songs that survived the transition had changed a bit. On top of all that, consider that aside from the V2 demo, our only recorded material was from the very first 3-piece incarnation of the band. Needless to say, we were anxious to get some new recordings done!

We budgeted a few days of freedom at the practice house in Linneus following our Lowfive 1.2->2.0 transitional show, and for the few days around new years, we hunkered down in that freezing house with nothing but the passionate fire rock in our hearts and a small wood stove near our hind quarters. Knocking Ian's drums and Gabe's guitars down rather quickly, Jason came up to record bass the following day.

I think Sean was in Canada again for this recording, so Gabe did most of those parts as well. Sean did manage to make it back for the tail end of recording, so his stench did manage to saturate these recordings ever so slightly. He brought Tracy from Shadybrookdrive back to the USA with him, and we spent the following few days working on a SBD ep that never quite made it past the rough mix stage. Also recorded before we tore down the project studio was a song from Chuck's solo project, The Subpars.

Looking back, this was a really amazing few weeks, simply for the experience of just hanging out alone in an old house with all of our friends past and present stopping in to make music, play Atari, watch old tour videos, and complain about the intricacies of the old abandoned house. It saddens me to think (that in the summer of 2007, as i write this), that house has been sold, most of those friendships have withered or broken, and northern maine isn't much more than an infrequent holiday destination. At least we can always be sure that one thing will remain constant: the DPPS championship scores of Megamania and Kaboom!

For technical details, we used the same basic setup we used for the unfinished Redux sessions, albeit with a little bit more focus on getting things right rather than rushing through the material as fast as we could. given that we had a few whole weeks as opposed to a few days, and the fact that we were attempting about half as many total tracks, there was a lot less stress overall, and for as long as we were able to keep warm, we were able to enjoy ourselves.

After we all went our separate ways for the spring semester 2003, i was able to lay down some keyboard tracks and start mixing the tracks. i was fortunate enough to be taking a studio recording course that semester, and snagged the opportunity to re-record all of the drum tracks in multi-track using the studio classrooms at the school. this would be our first opportunity to progress beyond the flat, premixed "stereo line-in" drum tracks for which we'd had to settle up to this point. Ian came down for an afternoon to record, and after a slow start, we were able to knock out new drum tracks for the 6 songs intended for the release, as well as Boys Will Be Boys. None of the cover songs got the multi-track treatment (none of them were that serious) and Jesus Sunrise got cut out due to a combination of no time and the fact that it was being phased out of the setlists.

Despite our anticipation to get some new material finished and released somehow (to fill the gaps between the long out of print V2 demo and our current lineup, once again our release fell victim to shifting circumstances within the band. Just as things were nearing the final stretch of really hunkering down and wrapping the project up, we got word that both Sean and Jason were planning on leaving the band at the start of the summer. While this was definitely going to put a brief pause on the band, it was basically cancelling all plans to nurture these recordings into a legitimate release, as a new lineup would be less likely to support an older release (as evidenced by the lack of focus on Paths following the roster revamp after the summer of its release.

All in all, this release just progressed too slowly in a particularly volatile time for the band. Even if we hadn't replaced half of the band right before the intended release, at least 2/3rds of the material was just updated and re-recorded versions of material that had already been released on Paths and V2. Things were growing pretty stale with the song catalog anyway, as the previous 8 months had generated 3 new songs (Calico and An Element of Subtlety for this release and 1913 having been written just after the recording sessions for this album).

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• On one of the nights at the old house after everybody had left, Gabe had me record some really loose ideas he was piecing together in his head. titled "test" at the time of the session, the song was presented to me nearly finished about 2 months later as 1939: Fuck You, Vinnie. i think the story around that one was that band sidekick Vinnie Migliore always wanted to write a song called 1939, and we were stealing it out from under his feet, or something of the ilk. The first demo mp3 i got of the song (recorded by Ian at Castle Newburgh) somehow was auto-tagged as Ricardo Arjona's "Historia De Taxi". This was both funny and fortunate, as we liked the "historia" part, and eventually incorporated it into the final name of the song: 1913 (Historia).
• Avril Lavigne got real big in 2002, and we were basically really lucky that our song Prelude sounded eerily similar to the song "Sk8er Boi". All of our close friends and distant enemies were kind enough to perpetually remind us of this, so we ironically embraced the connection. We even played a mashup of the songs in practice once or twice, and did a really cheesy "Sk8er Boi" intro to Prelude at a live show to appease our pals Minor Setback. They loved it... or else! Anyway, gabe and ian were not amused at all at the suggestion of recording a cover... which is ironic, considering that all we recorded of the song is bass and guitar!
• This marks the 3rd and final time we recorded a cover of Ozma's Natalie Portman. I think we got it right this time, despite the lo-fi recording. Also, this is one of the very few vocal tracks for which i provided backing vocals.
• DITBAE is technically a cover of the Impossibles song Disintegration (is the Best Album Ever), although we always privately referred to our version as Defender (is the Best Game Ever), coined most likely by Chuck during the initial recording sessions up at the abandoned practice house in Linneus... where we were playing a lot of Atari for a few weeks, including Defender, which provided us with the opening sample to this cover song. Also of note here: this song features gang vocals from Chuck and Sean!
• Because he was in Canada for most of the recording sessions, and because Gabe had already recorded a good chunk of his parts, Sean's tracks included a lot of novelty clips, including a 5 minute guitar solo over the entirety of Boys Will Be Boys that actually sounds pretty cool! WAY TO GO, SEAN!

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Recorded October 2003 to January 2004 @ Wooden Walls (Orono ME) and Castle Newburgh (Newburgh ME) by Jon York.

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01. Confessions of an Ardent Heart	06:13
02. Stopping Sound (Impossibles)	03:45
03. Oxygen (Impossibles)	05:29
04. The Hunger Artist	02:59
05. Tourniquets and Treachery	05:55
00*. 1913 (Historia)	06:50
TOTAL	31:11
* i think there were a few different variations of this demo, some which included 1913, and others which didn't

-------------------------------------------------
CUT FROM DEMO:
Still Photography (full band)
It Always Snows (full band)
The Atlantic Ocean... (new version)

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• hand-written CDRs in slim cases, distributed at shows in spring/summer 2004
• i'm unsure how many copies of this, or how many different version of this exist

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Not only were these were the first recording sessions in which i didn't have a creative hand, they were also the first sessions for which i wasn't present (discounting several live and practice demos recorded for internal use). That said, i don't have the full story on the entire process, but i can tell as much as i know.

From what i remember, these were recorded in 2 or maybe 3 separate sessions over the last quarter of 2003. I don't remember the exact date, but on one of my trips up from boston for a show, i arrived at Castle Newburgh to find the drumkit miked up and several tracks laid down. In lieu of practice that night, we basically went over the spur of the moment recording (as it was explained to me - although it was a bit weird not really knowing everything that was going on with the band for the first time, it was very cool to actually get some new recordings!). What bugs me the most is that i have no clue which show this was for, and as a result cannot remember the start date for these demos! I know that some mixes started floating around at the end of October 2003, and all of the initial instrumentation was complete on the first 4 tracks (Confessions..., Tourniquets..., The Atlantic Ocean..., and new song The Hunger Artist). By the time of the 1913 video shoot (middle of november), i'd heard 1913 (obviously) and the full band recording of Still Photography (about which i was quite excited, as it suggested that we'd be pulling the retired song back into play). I believe that i might have recorded my keyboard parts for those initial tracks during that weekend of video shooting.

December saw the recording of the 2 Impossibles covers that ended up on the demo. These were a surprise to me, as i didn't even know they were being recorded. Apparently the band had been contacted about contributing some tracks to a tribute CD for The Impossibles based on an earlier recording of Disintegration is the Best Album Ever that we recorded during the Threnody sessions. It was the opinion of the maine boys (which which i concur!) that since the lineup had changed, and since we were now able to make better recordings, that we should submit the best songs we could for the project. Hence: re-worked full band versions of Stopping Sound and Oxygen. Although i was left out of most of this process (and ironically BECAUSE i was), i think these were probably the best tracks we'd recorded, as Jon originally didn't think i was going to play on the songs, and used the extra channels on the recorder to get expand the core instrumentation. The band was basically done their parts by mid December, and we found a way to make it work with some keyboard tracks. I tracked my parts one afternoon around Christmas break. The compilation CD didn't seem to get very far into the planning stages before it fell apart, and these tracks were thus left wandering aimlessly in the desert, much like Sean Higgins in his day-to-day existence. I didn't really like the idea of putting 2 cover songs onto a 6-song demo, but they were being sold/distributed before i even found out about it. Also, they probably WERE the best sounding recordings we had at this time, so it was natural to want them to be heard. This was before Myspace really came into vogue.

An early mix of 1913 had to be hurriedly finished in time to fit into the music video, so the version on the video is quite different than the version that ended up on the demo. Aside from a different mixdown and master, several of the parts were removed or changed. As the CD demos were beginning circulation (at some shows that i had to skip), the mixes had most of the keyboards stripped out or mixed sparingly. 1913 was the most affected, as Jon's old guitar part was removed and replaced with a guitar part that played a part similar to the original keyboard part for the verses.

Some of the vocals for the older tracks on the demo (TNT, Confessions...) had been recorded, and came out much better on this version. It's possible that some additional instrumentation was tacked onto these mixes also; unless some of the parts were just clarified in the final mix -- i wasn't kept informed of any of the processes or decisions being made around this time, so i can't really say for sure. Needless to say, the versions that ended up on the CD were a bit more polished than the original mixes.

All in all, it was great to finally get some music out there again. Unfortunately for me, this demo will always be a reminder of bitter times in the band, as i was a little shocked when i learned that i'd been cut out of the loop in the decision to start assembling/distributing the demo. To this point in the band, i'd done or overseen most of the work that sort of defined our style or image (website, artwork, etc), and i felt that the end demo was a little lacking, as it had no proper artwork and i still question the use of the two cover songs on the first demo of the new Softer lineup -- without proper artwork or liner notes, people could easily mistake the covers to be Softer originals (as was the case when playing them live without proper preface). Additionally, i really had no input on the final mixes or masters, leaving me to like it or lump it. I think the most glaring disappointment i have was that i only learned of the demo's distribution by a fellow promoter-friend of mine who picked one up at one of the shows i missed, and told me he was disappointed that the keys had been taken out of the CD (which i didn't even know had been released at this point). This was one of the many factors that ultimately led to me quitting the band shortly after.

Despite my regrets, i do think this was a crucial step for the band, as it was the first music on CD we'd released since the V2 demo a half-dozen band members ago. Unless we wanted these recordings to end up like every other we'd done since (shelved indefinitely do to roster, stylistic, or song-catalogue changes), it would have to have been released around the time it did anyway.

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• a few tracks that were recorded in the initial sessions (Still Photography and The Atlantic Ocean...) sort of faded into oblivion. They were mostly finished tracks, although i'm unsure if i ever got to record keyboard/synth parts for them, as they were second-stringers to the new material that was definitely going onto the demo.
• this recording of The Atlantic Ocean (third version) added some new parts not seen in the original demo or the track from the Threnody sessions, inluding some of Jon's signature guitar noodlety, and a new vocal line ("Lovely eyes indicate the loveliest of souls") sung during the bridge. If you've heard this mix, or maybe only if you've read what i just revealed, you might recognize this little line from the artwork wayyyyy back on The Paths That Lead You Home, where it was placed in the traycard next to our model (who had, and still has, lovely eyes). If you are a learned fellow, you might even recognize this as a modified line from Kerouac's On The Road: "lovely eyes surely do prophesy and indicate the loveliest of souls".
• a full band version of It Always Snows (which reared it's cheerful head into some of the latter-day Softer shows) was started during one of these recording sessions. Due to the lack of a nice piano sound (i think i was still using a cheap Casio or Yamaha as my piano sound at this point), the attempt was ultimately scrapped. It's unfortunate, as the full band version sounded really nice and never was sonically documented :(

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03.19-03.20 -- Drums @ Emerson College (Boston) by Caleb
03.26 -- Guitar (Gabe) @ DPPS486 (Boston MA) by Caleb
April/May -- Guitar (Jon) @ Wooden Walls (Orono ME) by Jon
April -- Keys/Synths @ DPPS486 (Boston MA) by Caleb

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01. There Is Nothing New (Part I)	00:00
02. Confessions of an Ardent Heart	00:00
03. Aleatoria Prosa	00:00
04. Of Tourniquets and Treachery	00:00
05. Maine Will Kill Us All	00:00
06. The Blessing Way	00:00
0*. The Hunger Artist	00:00
TOTAL	00:00

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CUT FROM ALBUM:
1913 (Historia)
Calico
COVERS RECORDED:
Surfwax America (Weezer)
Let Her Cry (Hootie and the Blowfish)

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• in my wildest dreams, this will be finished and released someday, in some form

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This will always strike me as perhaps the most promising recording of my time with the band. The Hunger Artist came along a few months too late, as it ultimately fell victim to crumbling relations within the band. Originally intended as a formal presentation of the songs that were earlier recorded (and later released) as the Summer 2004 Wooden Walls demo, the tracklist was the first purely Softer-era release, as Lowfive-era hangers-on 1913 and Calico (which were re-recorded during these sessions) had been clipped from the release. Additionally, nearly all of the songs had been written entirely with 1 incarnation of the band (TNT having been started briefly in the Jason & Sean-era of Lowfive).

Another element of this project that i loved was that it was a concept release. All of the songs worked together and spoke to each other in a much more cooperative way than on any of our other records. As suggested by the title, the thematic elements (and album artwork) were influenced by Franz Kafka's short story "A Hunger Artist", which, when read as a companion, greatly enhances the potency of the album. This album was produced as a major component to my undergraduate honors thesis at Emerson (in conjunction with this website and the 1913 music video, as well as a lengthy thesis). Eventually/hopefully, a Softer project site will be published at www.hungerartist.net which goes into more depth on the thematic & story elements, as detailed in the thesis.

Aside from the project falling to pieces and me quitting the band during the process, this is (ironically) the first band recording where i felt that everything was going right and clicking into place: the drum tracks were very solid performances, were high quality/multi-tracked to as many channels as we liked, and very easy to work with. Right there we'd already one-upped every previous attempt at recording, as practical or technical restraints usually led to acceptance of less-than-pristine drum tracks. Most of the songs were done in one or two takes and in very little time.

For the first time ever, we actually had extra time in the studio to play around, which proved invaluable to the integrity of this album as a concept work. Although the first plan for the album was to use 1913 and possibly Calico as complements to the core of TNT, Confessions, and The Hunger Artist, we actually had time to lay down the tracks to some brand new (to me) tracks that the band had been working on in Maine, and which were written specifically for the (eventually clarified) album theme. These were the first recorded versions of Maine Will Kill Us All, The Blessing Way, and Aleatoria Prosa, as well as what could be considered an early demoing of There Is Nothing New. I think the best (and easiest) way for me to explain all of this is to break the album down track-by-track.


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SONG-BY-SONG:
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01 -- There is Nothing New (part I)
As the title indicates, this is only half of the song that was eventually completed as There Is Nothing New (later version was released on the ...Immaterialist EP the summer after i left the band). I think this song was still in its infancy when we started the project. From what i remember, we had just tracked drums for the rest of the songs, and had some free time left in the studio, so Gabe and Ian decided to run through this new song. During the guitar sessions, we couldn't track guitars for the 2nd half of the song as Gabe needed to hear the bass to do his parts. Additionally, Jon wasn't able to track his guitar parts for this half of the song because he needed Gabe's parts. I think Gabe did all of the guitars on this track, as he did some rough takes of Jon's parts until i could get some of Jon playing, which unfortunately never happened. As we never recorded bass for the record, and really didn't do any more sessions after guitars, this basically left a bunch of lonely drums in the 2nd movement of the song. As a matter of practicality, i cropped the 2nd part off, and did my best to segue into Confessions. As this was a brand new song, i never heard the vocals or vocal melody, and my parts and the final mix probably don't reflect the song in its true form. Although i'm happy with the soundscape created here, i am curious to see how the song would have played differently with all of the parts.

02 -- Confessions of an Ardent Heart
This was among the more seasoned tracks we recorded, plus we had also done a prior demo recording. Naturally, i had an idea of what the song should sound like. Drumming went swimmingly and perhaps sound the best out of the bunch. Although we were never able to record bass for the track, i played a placeholder line with my roommate's keyboard, which was a (slightly) better quality than any of the Casios i had been using up to this point. While the intro part really should be replaced by bass (as in the true version of the song), that melody became a refrain for the album, and really brought the whole album together when used as in a music box version as an outro. Although i was rushed to get parts recorded (as this was part of a studio recording project for school), i still managed to get really great key/synth tracks with relatively little effort. I was much more happy with the performances and the sound of these tracks than of those on the earlier demo. Part of it was that i had better instruments available, and part was just the ease and convenience of the setup. On top of all was probably my ability to experiment with different sounds and the unlimited tracks for alternate takes and experimentation. I still have a few parts i would like to add to the song that would help bring it to some degree of instrumental rest, as it still is lacking vocals and some crucial guitars and bass.

03 -- Aleatoria Prosa
Another brand new song to me, i originally had no grasp on this song. I struggled to picture it in my head, as i'd never heard the full instrumentation. I believe i know the vocal melody, and i do have the lyrics, but really no impression of the song as it was ever played by the full band. My parts were written based solely upon rhythm guitar and drum tracks, and originally i hated it. Three years later, and i still find the song one of the most interesting (perhaps because it's still "new" to me). Like many of the other tracks on the album, i have some great plans for additional instrumentation that may or may not pan out. Although originally presented to me as being conceptually tied to The Hunger Artist, Gabe later told me that although it fit, the lyrics were coming from a different place than the other songs. I believe this was a short-lived song in the band's repertoire, and was phased out of the setlist shortly after its introduction. I have my theories as to why, and i think it's unfortunate... which is ironic considering my initial dislike for the song!

04 -- Tourniquets and Treachery
Like Confessions, this was a seasoned track with an existing demo. Basically, we all knew how the song should sound, and the goal here was to make a smoother and tighter version than what we had on the demo. Had we finished all of the recording, i believe it would have been exactly what i'd always envisioned for the song. Although we're still lacking some crucial guitar/bass tracks, this still rings to me as the best version of the song we have. I'm particular happy with the revised keys/synth parts, as they were particularly offensive on the original demo (Wooden Walls); part on account of a poorly chosen chords, and partly because of the lack of a good instrument. I'm much happier with the organ sound i had available for this recording, and i was much more comfortable with the Prodigy for this recording, as i'd owned it for a few months by this time. Particularly effective is the "breakdown" part of the song, which while demoed in a fit of noble inspiration, never was quite there on the original demo. I feel like i nailed it here.

05 -- Maine Will Kill Us All
This was yet another track that was brand new to me, although i had been given a preview of the lyrics before the original studio sessions. Additionally, i heard the vocals during the drum tracking sessions, as Gabe performed the rhythm guitar/vocals to help guide Ian through the tracking. This is quite a departure from the rest of the Softer catalogue, most notably for a tempo not seen since the Matt Deprez days of "sprint drumming". That said, i was quite pleased with it and felt it was easy to work with and would have been easy to finish up real nice. Again, i wrote my part with just the original drum tracks and rhythm guitar, but i think i was probably the most on target with my parts here, as i think the final instrumentation was fairly simple and rhythmic... EXCEPT for the really weird bridge parts; these were totally constructed by me in the studio out of multiple takes of raw instruments and no knowledge of the proper song structure. Originally it was a mess, but i'm very happy with the stuff as is, even if it is out of time and structure from the official version of the song. It's unfortunate that some of the problems never had a chance for repair, but the song still sounds pretty full (and then pretty angular!).

06 -- The Blessing Way
As the final brand new track of this session, i believe this song had seen a few miles by the boys up in maine, as it seemed to be the most rehearsed and developed of the bunch. Then again, it's a very slow and simple song (described to me as the song that would take the place of The Atlantic Ocean in our catalogue). I'd also heard gabe working on this song a while back on his acoustic, so i believe it to be older than the other "new" songs. I did get some of Jon's crucial parts (most notably for this song), because he really came through for me and was able to stop time for a few days and crank out some guitars for me up at Wooden Walls (and expedite their shipping to me, to boot!). My instrumentation was simple, but i was very happy with it. After i recorded my parts, however, i wrote a part on a new instrument called a Suzuki Omnichord, which was reallllly nice and unique. I managed to play this live at my final show (in May 2004), but have yet to track out the part. This is, in part, due to the fact that i really like the sound of the song as is, and i'm worried that i'll really love the take but it won't work for the song's benefit in the end. One of these days when i get the ambition to make another pass at finishing this beast, i will put my theory to the test.

07 -- The Hunger Artist
Originally intended as a hidden title track at the end of the album, this was separated from the other tracks by a refrain of the Confessions bassline by a distant music-box, then a short period of silence. i have perhaps the least instrumentation for this track: just drums and Gabe playing his part as well as a modified version of Jon's part (he wasn't sure of the exact way that Jon played his). Strangely, i think the sparseness of the mix makes it much more effective. I purposely didn't record any keys for this track, and like the song without bass. Eventually i may experiment with the addition of the instrumentation, but i've grown to love the cold and winding nature of the "empty" track and expect that out of all of the tracks i've gotten used to being unfinished, this one will be the most resistent to change. Although it captures the essence i always felt of the initial demo (with the solo exiled-drummer-boy marching drums and the twangy and noodling guitars), the execution as a haunting and hidden outro to the album is exactly how i'd envisioned it.


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• Although cut from the release, the music video for 1913 (released in Dec 2003) reflects that the song was originally intended for this album. Oops!
• Having a little extra time in the drum tracking sessions, we thought it only fitting to record a cover song (Weezer's Surfwax America)... as well as our ironic cover du jour. This time around? Why that would have been LET HER CRY, by Hootie and the Blowfish. Like most of our joke covers, this never really got past the drum tracks, as we always felt that everything else could be finished in our spare time. As usual, we find it fitting to forget about the whole thing shortly after!
• In theory, i will finish this in some instrumental form someday for a web-release. I've been saying it since 2004, but i still believe it (and not in the way i say that i'll finish Threnody someday... i still have passion for this one). Additionally, i'm going to try and co-opt a lot of the thematic material from my thesis project into a project site delving deeper into the album and the original Kafka short story.

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As this was album was conceived as a concept from the start (and not just a collection of songs wrapped together into a single package at the end solely because we had enough songs), i wanted the artwork to speak to the music the same way the music speaks among itself. Early artwork ideas (and this is going back 2 years or so to when we were still thinking about releasing the Threnody EP) had been based on the idea of x-ray images, so i used that as some visual inspiration. Additionally, i was going through a phase where i was really interested in ethereal and ghostly images, astral apparitions, etc (this was the focus of all of my photography projects that year)

After immersing myself in Kafka's story, i forged all of the images and inspiration into artwork, including the tortured and emaciated skeleton figure and the panther seen on the interior of the liner. The traycard panels (inner and outer) were basically lyrical selections i found poignant to the theme and effective as excerpts, printed in reverse and with a shadowy/watery overlay. All of the artwork was produced in a darkroom using photogram technique: combining objects and lights with photo-sensitive paper. You might recognize our cover model as the VISIBLE MAN from your childhood!

All of the cryptic text panels were done with reversed/moistened printouts and organic texture created with layers of moistened paper towels on top of the original printouts. While the whole process was one huge experiment, i was able to produce some artwork very much in line with that for which i hoped.

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