webpage

i just finished talking to dhruv... and he is going to be making a webpage for the homesick collective. it's going to be fancy so it can look good on his resume.

after thats up and carl's cd is done, i'll spend a lot of time promoting all the music and hopefully a few people will read this. now this feels like im in high school again and i have a livejournal to share all the secrets i would never tell close friends with any internet creeper that wants to know. 

i asked sandy to prom and she said no cause jim is already taking here. i feel like my heart is being stomped on. i'm going to go listen to death cab for cutie.

firey firey pizza hell

Things are coming along very smoothly for Carl Creightons sophmore album. It's probably going to be called "11 North" or maybe "We Shall Overcome Someday" or maybe something else? But whatever it's called, it's some really amazing stuff and it's been nothing but a pleasure to work with him on it.

Spending a lot of time on the record/recording a majority of it at my place has allowed the following:

- Perfecting all the vocals

- Being able to say we recorded a lot of the vocals in a mattress fortress

- Adding strings!

- Recording the strings in the mattress fortress

- Me being able to twiddle around a little with some guitar parts

- Adding some AMAZING sounding harmonies

- Recording "party" noise and completely freaking out one of Glebs friend

- Adding accordian to basically every song

We just started mixing and it's coming along nicely. "Your Heart in my Pocket" features an ambient mandolin solo. That probably makes no sense, but you'll know when you hear it! "Christian Girl" has accordian, church-y vocals, egg shaker, and all sorts of fun. 

I'm super excited to continue mixing, and see how all these songs turn out!

Stay tuned!

~ Blake

So, to update the myriad of Homesick Collective viewers...

After a discussion with Jesse Newkirk, also of My Boy, we decided to start writing/playing again ASAP... in a bit of a new direction... Carley is going to be singing more, more synths, less cello, new drummer (that we haven't found yet.) I'm really excited. We haven't played since the summer, and the energy we had at those shows was awesome... so hopefully we can start where we left off and then some. I'm really excited, did I say that?

The Carl stuff is going REALLY well... we've gotten all the lead vocals done (I think.)

We have all the rhythm tracks (almost) done.

Still to go:

Strings, some bass tracks, horns, background vocals, guest vocals, mixing.

Oh yeah, and we are going back to Seaside to re-track Whalemen and track for the first time Already Gone.

But overall, I'm loving the way the songs are coming out and Carl is an amazing musician to be working with! His singing voice is of course wonderful, but he also has an amazing talent with harmonies and they are going to be a really awesome component to a lot of these songs. One song, When I Go, is like Simon and Garfunkel doing punk rock with the guy from Sigur Ros doing ohhh and ahhs in the background. Awesome.

In other Homesick Collective News:
I want to start booking lots and lots of shows for the bands, so that we can take over the world. I also want to put together a comp. Hopefully I can start these things soon.

~ Blake

my roomate says carl creighton’s music is like walking alone on a cold november day along one of 10,000 lakes.

___________________

i'm listening to "light bulb" off of carl's debut minnesota, and i remember the one day i got to see minnesota being recorded... and the first thing i heard was carl doing a vocal take for never gave you my guitar and i was blown away. and the next vocal take was "light bulb" and i remember this one in particular because i had a few tears roll down the side of my face... and now i'm listening to "baby's breath" and i feel crippled by the beauty of the song. i can feel the coldness in my bones.

i'm listening to "smoking is ugly" while smoking a ciggeratte. it makes me want to quit smoking. but the organ sounds really awesome .

horns are going to be a lot of fun on the new one.

now i'm listening to the roughs.

christian girl sounds awesome. it matches the feel of the b room in seaside perfectly.

there's xlophone on if e'er you lose the will. it's sounds like a horror movie soundtrack.

no color in my dreams also has xlophone but it sounds super pretty.

the drums and bass are a bit too boomy on whalemen, so i'll have to work that out. i feel like this one needs a high guitar part.

when i go sounds pretty punkish right now which is going to be an insane contrast over all the harmonies carl is laying over this stuff.

freedom is a buzzword rough is pretty awesome.

charlies spanish harlem feels like rodeo music.

fire in the ward is nuts. the electric sounds pretty killer. and the bass riff that comes in around 1:55 is blazin'.

love sweet love is the prettiest song on the record.


________________________


self rant:
i used to not smoke. i used to be in love. i used to write with capitals. i used be filled with the right words.



____________________



minnesota is a beautiful record.

(and knowing the piano it was recorded on, he made it sing.)

i'm so excited to be working on this project and tomorrow marks day 1 for vocals. hopefully we get to start on your heart in my pocket as well.

i need sleep.

i'm going to drink some red tea and pass out.

~ blake

11 North, the Seaside Chapter

For those who aren't in the know, I'm working on Carl Creightons new album called 11 North.

Alright, so after 2 long days of recording at the Seaside Lounge we got a whole lot done!

We got all the drums, and bass done. We almost got all the guitar done.

Here are all the nerdy details:

Instrument                Microphone             Preamp

Kick                             RE-20, D112           Vintech

Snare                          SM57                        Vintech

Rack Tom                  421                            Sytech

Floor Tom                  D-12e                       Sytech

Overhead L&R          AT4060 Tube        API

Behind the set           Coles 4038              API

Bass Guitar                RE-20                     API

Strummed Acoustic AT4060                  API

Picked Acoustic        AT4060 & 4038    API

Electric Guitar         Coles 4038              API

It has punk drums, it has looping on the intro song, it has very little piano, Charlie plays with a pick on a lot of songs. Basically, it's very different than Minnesota (Carl's first CD.)

In the coming weeks we will be writing string arrangements, recording vocals, doing some more guitar, recording strings, recording horns, making sense of "I've Lost My Mind", and mixing.

It's going to be awesome.

I'll keep everyone who reads this (I think I'm the only one) updated!

~ Blake

I need another world, this one is nearly gone.

Check out the new Antony and the Johnsons... it's heartbreaking (as always.)

There isn't much other news.

Finally going into the studio with Carl this weekend... should be a fun time.

~ Blake

If I could settle down, then I would settle down.

Alright, I found a box for the BX10. And now I'm writing a second blog entry today and I don't feel lame because it's my first day.

I realized I didn't really explain why the name of this blog is The Homesick Collective. Well, it's a cool name and was originally going to be used for a small label I was starting up with a friend but that kinda didn't work out for the time being. For now it's just a name I'm using for this blog and for the different music projects I'm involved in.

So, in other Homesick Collective news:
I will be putting my (Arthur Advocate) EP "Allie, Don't Let Me Disappear" out for free the same way I did the first one (same site and everything... http://foundation.feelgoodlost.net (big up to Dhruv for making the site).) It's kinda crazy... I don't know if I really like it all that much, but it's interesting at the very least. I went a little overboard with the 80's synth sounds, and the weird vocal effects, and the random sound effects, and the drone-y intros. Basically, I went completely overboard with the whole project. Most likely the result of getting into pschyedelics for the first time. I am excited to show other people it, because I've completely exhausted myself of the songs and can't even tell if it's somewhat good anymore. I guess that will be up to you to decide. It has 4 songs and 1 little interlude thingy. I'm sure I'll have a press-kit esque blog when the site gets up.

In other complete bullshit news:
I read an interview with Steve Malkmus from Pavement on my train ride back home to New Jersey which prompted me to buy a super deluxe version of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Being unfamiliar with Pavement, but having a basic idea of what I was going into I was pleasently suprised. Me and Tim were driving over to Andrews place listening to the CD and for the first few songs we were catching each other up on our various failures and successes and only half paying attention to the CD, and then "Range Life" came on. As soon as the chorus hit ("if I could settle down, then I would settle down.") and we stopped talking and starting the song over. We then did this about 5 more times... then went on to enjoy the rest of the CD. All in all, I'm glad I like Pavement now.