60's British Gameshows and Spaghetti Westerns

Monday, Marcy 26, and Wednesday, March 28, we managed to get into the studio and finish up all the horn parts for the new album. Trombone player Adan Infante of 40 Watt and many other bands and trumpet and flugalhorn player Thomas Lake came in and tracked my parts for "Trona," "Me and Thomas Hardy," and "Josaie."

"Josaie" is standing out as the dark horse of the lot. The trumpet part is reminiscent of a sixties spaghetti western soundtrack. The song's about three minutes long - perfect for a single - and pretty catchy if we don't say so.

The other two tracks' horn parts are lending a '60s British gameshow feel to the tunes - wonderful and rich sounding. I can almost see the BBC/Thames television broadcasting logo in my mind when I close my eyes.

Ricky also tracked some great arpeggiated and strummed electric guitar tracks for "JoSaie" - a tinge of Johnny Marr in a fabulous way.

Days of Synth

Busy day: Cortnie, AWall and I descended on the demo tunes . We shifted a few around, and some dark horses have now come to the forefront. When this happens, you've got to give them room to sprint.

We started off with "Dirty Money and Filthy Love," a song I'd scratched from the demo list because I felt it was a bit unlike some of the other tunes. But it's got too much of the "single" about it to ignore it. We developed some beautiful and outrageous synth sounds today. All three of us laid down tracks on several different boards, including one fabulous old Crumar synthesizer Aaron discovered for a few bucks at a yard sale of all places. It's so Flaming Lips it's ridiculous.

The other two songs we're considering are waiting for next week's horn sections - otherwise, they're pretty much done. So we moved on to another dark horse, the surprisingly poppy and strangely named "JoSaie." Some synth Tron strings and cellos, and suddenly this spaghetti Western style tune dripped with loveliness.

After the session, Cortnie and I relaxed for a bit at Teazers, our fave Fresno tea house, and worked on polishing up our new bio.

More more more about the Distant Fairs recordings to come. Stay tuned. Until then, enjoy they slide show of today's action.

Three Songs Shaping Up

March 16, 2007 - Royal Dutch Company in Fresno - The Dalloways are honing in on the three out of fifteen songs to be used as demos, developing developing developing through creative tracks.

On Friday, we tracked lots of keys - Hammond and Wurlitzer sounds, among others - in addition to percussion such as cymbal swells, snapping and clapping, triangle, and more.

Right now, we're considering "Me and Thomas Hardy," "Trona," and the dark horse, "Let's Climb the Staircase," which needs the most work of the three. Hopefully we can shape it up and transform it into something really unique and catchy - the key to the demo tunes.

After these three are shaped up and out to the labels, we'll be continuing to develop the rest of the fifteen songs for release. We're planning on a stateside tour in addition to a European tour, complete with radio and press promotional pushes, so we're hoping we can find the right visionary label that wants to join a full-speed ahead project.

More recording soon.

Trona Keys and Triangles

Wednesday, February 28 - Fresno - Royal Dutch Company - Aaron and I got together last Wednesday for some recording time.

We're honing in on three songs we will be using for the demo of the new album, so I brought a slew of keyboards into the studio, and we worked on keys and percussion - triangle and some great sounding Mexican maracas some friends of ours brought back across the border awhile back.

We pretty much finished most of the tracking for "Trona." All we have left for that song are horn tracks.

We'll put together polished versions of the three songs we've chosen and then send demo packs out to some major indies. That's the plan, in any case. Should be able to start sending in a few weeks at this rate.