Recording our first album - Back From Nowhere

The band had several originals from it's inception. I had written a song about my favorite "Anti-hero" Wolverine and it was getting pretty good feedback at our shows. I also co-wrote a couple of songs with Chris "Big Cat" Whitehead (Scarecrow and Umbrella Tree that were too new to make the cut). The more we practiced and the more shows we were able to book, the more Chris began to pump out lyrics. They were really good but the band was taking on a different feel than in the beginning. We always saw ourselves as a punk rock heavy metal fusion band, but the lyrics were no longer about woman and comic book characters, Chris had found inspiration in politics, history and religion. The songs that we decided to record were chosen and off to the studio we went.

Here is the song list:

Harvest Time
A Year Ago Today
Treaty
Crucified
Time Down The Road
The Only Remedy
Wolverine
Dead Calm

Recording in the studio was a HUGE change and we all had a little trouble adapting. We had formed a bond during our thousands of practice sessions and several shows. We sort of fed off of each others mood, movements and attitudes. In the studio, I was sitting in a little soundproof booth with the guitar tracks and drum tracks (recorded earlier) playing through headphones. I have no idea how many takes it took before my bass tracks were finished (and to be honest I think Joe had to re-record one or two for me).

Joe Jicha was our financier on the album (as he was for most of our equipment). Not because he was made of money, but because he had good credit. We contacted a company called Disc Makers and purchased a package that gave us 1,000 cassette tapes along with a logo re-design, 1,000 post cards and the tape inserts. We paid for the studio time and for the mixing. Joe paid (charged) for the master recording to be sent to Disc Makers. Shipping, copyrighting, more posters and fliers for the album release, the model and photo shoot for the cover, there were so many costs we maxed out one of Joe's cards, started on another and still had to take up a collection from each band member. The idea was that the album sales would be able to pay off one credit card, then if we had to we would roll the balance from one to the other until we started to collect more from shows.

Everything was ready, we were all walking around like kings.

Then we got the "master" recording from the recording studio in Sunset Center.

It sounded like CRAP!

The levels were off, none of the effects that we used were on, it was just three raw instruments and vocals slapped together. The guy either didn't know what he was doing or he spent know time mixing it. I jump on the phone and call the guy "It's just fine." he kept saying. I argued with him over and over. "The master doesn't sound as good as what Disc Makers will send back. If you want to re-record it you can, but youll have to pay for the studio time. It's just fine."

We were stuck, Joe tried to reason with him, I tried, he wouldn't budge. Disc Makers already had Joe's money - no refunds there. The guy with the studio didn't care he already had his money. And we had thousands of post cards, fliers and posters advertising an album release.

We put it to a vote and decided a crappy tape was better than a total loss. Besides the guy said it was "Just fine."

It wasn't.

I still have the master recording and one un-oppened cassette. We actually sold 700 of those tapes- mostly at our shows. The good news was we sold em' cheap and we were sounding good enough live that people were excited to get a tape. I would guess that those people felt ripped off the next day.

If you bought one of those tapes - sorry