It has been almost a year since we last posted, so I'd like to note that Wrong Side of Dawn is not dead, we have actually been making progress on the album. Sadly, since both Brian and myself (Nelson) are in law school, we've only been able to work on the album on vacations and odd weekends. Also, Mr. Nuzzo has frequently been unable to make time for us in his studio, since running a recording studio is not his full-time job (he's still a high school music teacher). Regardless of the reasons for the delay, today I have an important update for you: the rough mixes of every song we originally intended to have on the album, with the exception of "The Grinder's Tale" which did not record well. You can listen to the rough mixes in the flash widget below:

Once again, these are *rough* mixes, which means that they have not been polished much at all, these songs sound almost exactly the way they did when we recorded them. Before bands publish their music, they generally edit their songs to make them sound better, cutting out mistakes, putting effects on their instruments and voices, making sure the volume levels are all even, etc. We have not done that here, so these songs all sound worse than the finished product will, but I thought it would be best to "release early, release often" and make these songs available in their unfinished state now so that you can see what we've been up to all this time. Note that track 5 "Vulture" is not intended to be an instrumental, we just haven't gotten around to recording the vocals for it yet.

At this point, we may not actually do final mixes of all of the songs that we recorded. Our current plan calls for doing final mixes of 5 of our favorite songs and officially releasing those as an EP. Then we want to go back into the recording studio with a new lineup and re-recording the songs we were less happy with, as well as some new songs that we've been writing. Stay tuned and hopefully we'll have some more interesting news for you later this summer.

Nelson and I recently got back in the studio for the first time in 3 months. Work on the Wrong Side of Dawn album has been suspended for a while, due to a lack of money, time and manpower. Though we'd hoped to be finished back in January or February, Nelson and I are happy to be back to work and hope to have things wrapped up, uh, someday.

The first song we worked on was the same song I had been working on when I was last in the studio, a song that will be titled either "Out of Time" or "Running Out of Time." As we finished up with it, Michael Nuzzo, the owner of the studio, made a passing comment about the fact that the song "has something to it," which is big for me because it's one of the few times in my long history as an amateur songwriter that anyone outside of my own band has ever suggested to me that one of my songs has any redeeming qualities whatsoever.

"Running Out of Time" original demo:
Running Out of Time, mp3
Running Out of Time, lyrics

I wrote the rhythm guitar parts and chorus melody to the song more than four years ago, but never got around to writing some decent lyrics until about one year ago. I could say that sort of thing about a lot of songs, because lyrics are so goddamn hard to write. Strangely, these lyrics might be inspired by the song's own guitar solo.

Last June, I was trying to record demos of some of my songs. I had three verses written for "Running Out of Time." I had a chorus with some "whoa whoa" nonsense singing that still remains part of the song. I had one guitar solo in the middle. The song was supposed to end with the chorus being repeated over and over as everything faded out.

After recording bass and acoustic guitar, I took out my electric guitar to record the short solo in the middle of the song. After I finished, I started improvising just for fun, playing over the part at the end where I had recorded the chorus chord progression over and over in order to facilitate the fade-out. After playing around a little bit, I decided that this sounded pretty good, so I pressed record. On my first take I ran out of space. I hadn't played through the chord progression enough times to accommodate all of my improvised ideas. After a couple more takes, the solo was condensed down to fit the space I had unintentionally allotted myself, and the solo I recorded then is basically the same solo I play now.

As I listened back to what I played, I decided that the song would have to end with this guitar solo, rather than the vocal chorus that I had planned. I also started to have second thoughts about my lyrics. A song with a guitar solo this good would need better lyrics than this.

I closed my eyes and listened back over the solo. Strangely, a memory popped into my head, a memory of playing in my yard when I was four.

Yeah, I remember when I was four. I guess some people don't remember that far back, but I remember being two. My oldest memory is of my mother trying to explain to me what a birthday was, because the next day was going to be my third birthday. Since I didn't know how to count, I don't think I actually realized that I was two. I just knew that I was about to be three.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the guitar solo. I figured that something was nostalgic and backward-looking about the sound of the guitar. From that jumping-off point, I fashioned some lyrics that worked sort of in reverse chronological order. The first verse starts in the present, watching the sun rise (on the wrong side of dawn, in fact). The second verse recalls an old friend. The last verse looks back to childhood, when you did stuff just because it was there to be done. Then the last line says there's no more time for that, but hey.... GUITAR SOLO!!!!!!!

On another subject, recording the "Out of Time" vocals in the studio provided me with an early moment of panic, when it initially turned out that I couldn't hit the lower harmony on the intro of the song. Since I'd recorded the demo, my voice had apparently gotten... higher?!?!?!? Let's go back and figure this out...

My senior year at Swat, I joined the chorus because I needed one year of participation in a performance ensemble to graduate with my music minor. Not confident that I could work my violin chops back up in time to join the orchestra, I approached John Alston about the possibility of joining the chorus. He asked me when was the last time I'd sung classical music. I said, "Eighth grade." John seemed pretty concerned about my ability to keep up with his chorus. Good thing I didn't tell him the truth: "Never, John. I barely listen to any classical music. But sing it? Never."

I remember the first day that I showed up for chorus rehearsal. Some of my friends were in the chorus, and as I walked towards the men's side of the room, clear confusion on my face as I tried to find a seat, they asked me, "Are you a bass or a tenor?" I didn't know. I thought I could figure out a way to sing whatever I had to. The bass section was about three times the size of the tenor section, and the tenors seemed pretty desperate for some more support, so I sat down next to my friend Misha in the tenor section. This didn't last. A shocked John Alston spotted me and had me move into the already overcrowded bass section. "What are you doing over there? You're a baritone." John had yet to actually hear me sing. It wasn't until after that rehearsal that I would sing and barely pass my overdue audition. John had apparently gleaned my range just from talking to me.

He seemed to be right about me not being a tenor. I definitely got less comfortable as the notes got above middle C. Some of the lowest notes were also a problem too at first, but I was eventually pretty comfortable getting down to an E below the bass staff.

Fast forward to this year in Nuzzo's studio: I'm trying to record the two-part harmony from the "Out of Time" intro. The lower half of the harmony goes down to a G, the one on the bottom line of the bass staff. Back in June when I made the demo? Piece of cake. Clearly within my range. Now, I'm doing take after take and I can't quite get there. I'm getting a little panicked, since the clock is ticking by on my studio time, and Nelson and I have already spent more money on this than we planned.

Ever since graduation from Swarthmore, I do most of my singing while driving, singing along to the songs on my iPod. Most rock singers sing in the tenor range. Tough for me at first, but I got used to it. I thought my range was expanding. Apparently it wasn't; it was just shifting. I never realized your voice could actually get HIGHER as you got older.

Nuzzo, the owner/producer/engineer/everything of the studio, is a school choir director. I expressed my frustrations at not being able to reach notes that were so easy less than a year ago. Not too long after John Alston was so surprised to see me sit down next to Misha in the tenor section, it was Nuzzo's turn to be shocked. "You're not a bass," he said. "If you were in my choir I'd use you as a tenor."

David Hume says we have no way of knowing that the future will be anything like the past, so for all I know I may wake up tomorrow making sounds that only dogs can hear. But this still seemed pretty weird to me. Anyways, Nuzzo managed to coach me through my own goddamn music until I got the G, and "(Running) Out of Time" is now recorded and ready to be mixed.

P.S. So when guys are stretching to sing higher, they joke around by pretending to squeeze their testicles. What is the equivalent when you're trying to sing lower? Do you hold your hands down by your knees, palms up, like Tanaka talking to Pedro Cerrano (a.k.a. President Palmer/the "you're in good hands with All State" dude/Dennis Haysbert) in Major League II? "You have no... you have no... .... MARBLES!! You have no marbles!"

"Marbles? Huevos?"

This is an abridged version of a note I (Brian) posted on my facebook profile some weeks ago, explaining how the lyrics to the song "Where Is Bobby McGee?" came about. Some of my lyrics were written in such a roundabout way that not even I know what they mean anymore, but "Where Is Bobby McGee?" might be the easiest one to explain. And the one most in need of explanation. I have to admit, it's probably the least favorite WSD song of every other person in the band due to its musical repetitiveness. Nelson reminds me all the time. But I meant it as a lyrically driven song, so whatever.

[Note: After I originally wrote this, Nelson corrected me to say that "Where Is Bobby" is actually not at all boring to listen to, just painfully boring to record.]

Here's my demo:
Where is Bobby McGee? mp3
Where is Bobby McGee? lyrics

The lyrics don't necessarily make a whole lot of sense if you've never heard "Me and Bobby McGee," originally by Kris Kristofferson (you can find lyrics here) and made famous by Janis Joplin. The song was originally about a girl named "Bobby." Janis Joplin switched the genders of the characters, and it's her version that I'm working with in my take on Bobby McGee. Most people think of Bobby as a boy, and that version works better for me anyway.

The inspiration for "Where Is Bobby McGee?" can be traced back to Prof. Rick Schuldenfrei of Swarthmore's philosophy department. When I first went away to school, my dad had only one request: "Just don't major in philosophy." I think this is because my dad wanted me to get a job when I graduated. Dad didn't realize that Brian Rose could have majored in anything at any college, and in no case would he have graduated with a job waiting for him. So I never really considered majoring in philosophy, but I did take a couple of classes with Schuldenfrei. Contrary to my dad's ideas about the subject, Schuldenfrei doesn't seem to think that philosophy is about thinking deep thoughts while you beg for change on the street. Or while you sit in your ivory tower, whichever stereotype you prefer. The man seems to think that the study of philosophy can change lives and predict the future. While I give the guy credit for that, I have to say that what I really like is his tendency to make fun of people and to pound his fist on his desk when he gets frustrated

In Schuldenfrei's class we read John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty." Mill is a big fan of freedom, apparently. Sounds like a good guy then, eh? Surprisingly enough, Schuldenfrei is not a big fan of Mill. In "On Liberty," Mill explains all about how freedom of speech and freedom of action will lead to an enlightened society, where individuality will lead people to develop all their abilities to the fullest: "It may be better to be a John Knox than an Alcibiades, but it is better to be a Pericles than either; nor would a Pericles, if we had one in these days, be without anything good which belonged to John Knox."

Holy shit, do I have to unpack that entire goddamn sentence? Screw that. That's an essay on its own. Let's just say Pericles was a smart guy and leave it at that. And Mill says more freedom = more Periclesesses.

Schuldenfrei disagreed with Mill, and he let the class know. According to Schuldenfrei, empirical evidence tells us that freedom often leads to a society filled with people who don't want to be Pericles. They just want to feel good. Schuldenfrei pounded his fist on the desk while trying to remember a song that he couldn't quite put his finger on... "Bobby McGee," he said. "I don't think this sort of freedom turns people into Pericles. It turns them into Bobby McGee. Feelin' good is good enough for me."

While turning this idea over in my head during class, I came across the phrase "Bobby McGee can have his freedom," (the original working title of the song) and tucked it away in the back of my mind because I thought it sounded cool. That night I took out my acoustic guitar and started playing a riff I'd written in about 5 minutes the day before. With the original "Me and Bobby McGee" lyrics sitting in front of me on the computer, I wrote my lyrics, not including the fourth verse, in about 15 minutes. A combined 20 minutes to write the song. Quickest song I ever wrote. (Usually writing a song takes several hours spread out over the course of weeks, or in some cases, spread out over a few years). I included a ton of references back to Janis's Bobby McGee, right down to the "la la" part at the end. The song is based off of one of Schuldenfrei's signature themes: Americans love to talk about our rights and freedoms, but what happens when freedom becomes the biggest priority in your life?

Rather than say more, I'll just let the song speak for itself, outside of a couple of clarifications. In my first draft, the song was all about a single character, Bobby McGee. But then I realized that I'd created a sort of paradox in chronology. The speaker in the first verse seems to be at least as old, probably older than the girl, and by implication older than Bobby. In the second verse of my first draft, Bobby is a memory from childhood, a memory of an older guy. I didn't know if Bobby should be older or younger than the speaker, whether the song should take place in 2007 or 1967... so I got Bobby out of the song all together in my final draft. He's just a concept and not a character. The guy in the second verse is now the same age as the speaker. He's not the ex-boyfriend from the first verse. And neither of them are THE Bobby McGee, though they may be analogous to him. I also started thinking the song sounded a little preachy, especially coming from a guy who might not always follow his own advice. So I added the fourth verse to say, "I'd like to avoid being Bobby McGee, but what the hell, I can't say." So four decades after the story was born, I guess I'd like to know... where is Bobby McGee these days?

Recording an album has taken a lot more time and money than we anticipated when we first started out... even though we are using a friend's recording studio (my high school music teacher, Mr. Nuzzo), and we've been relatively efficient in using our studio time, we still haven't quite finished recording the album, and the bills are mounting. Fortunately, we are almost done with the recording phase, with only a few guitars and vocals and other finishing touches left to record. The next step will be mixing all of our tracks.

First comes the "rough mix", where we select which of the takes of each track on each song that we have recorded will be used for the final product. This is not as straightforward as it sounds: sometimes we will take the best part of each take and cut and paste them together to form one impossibly good take. The idea is to make sure that you record each section correctly at least once, rather than trying to get the entire song perfect in one take. This method doesn't work very well if you don't have the same rhythm track under each take, which is why ideally you want to lay down the rhythm tracks first (drums, bass etc.) and then record everything else later. Naturally, the more times you play the song through to add new instruments, the more studio time you use and the more money you burn. You can also lose some "feeling" when the entire band isn't recording in the studio together. It's hard walking the line between recording each instrument separately to approach perfection, and recording everything at once to try to save money and add "soul". I think we struck a decent compromise with this album, but only time will tell.

There was also the issue of having too many takes of each track, making it difficult to decide which takes to keep and which to throw away. Brian solved this problem for his guitar solos on this album by wiping and re-recording each guitar solo until he got it exactly the way he wanted it, leaving us with only one take for each solo by the time we got to mixing. That saves us a lot of time when we go to mix, but he may have burned some extra time in recording using that method. For my vocals and Karen's backup vocals, we laid down a handful of takes and moved on even if no single take was satisfactory, saving time in recording but burning more time in mixing. Ultimately, you have to decide which method is easiest / most efficient for you, it's not something you can generalize about. (Of course, if you have oodles of money and time, it doesn't matter which is more efficient, but we're not at that level.)

Next we'll move deeper into mixing, trying to tweak each track and use various effects to get each song to sound precisely the way we want it to, and editing out slight imperfections. The trick with this stage is not to be absurdly perfectionist, setting time limits and knowing when to walk away from a song that is "good enough", otherwise the album will never get done. We'll do our best

After that, if we think it's worth cleaning up the album to top-40 radio quality, we'll have to get someone to master the album, polishing our sound to a shiny finish. We'll see how the album is sounding by then, and how much that process will cost...

I (Nelson) have relocated to southern California for the rest of the semester, so progress on the album will be slow until I return in May, but we'll start seriously mixing in May, and we hope to release the album to you wonderful people sometime this summer.

Wrong Side of Dawn will be entering the studio to record its first real album this coming weekend (January 6, 2007). We've finally managed to put together a full band, thank goodness, and the final lineup for this session is:

Brian Rose: lead guitar, vocals
Nelson Pavlosky: rhythm guitar, vocals
Andrew Angelin: bass guitar
Greg Albright: drums
Steven Stratvert: piano/keyboards
Karen Rustad: backing vocals

We expect to have a finished album, recorded and mixed, by the end of January. Then the next step will be getting album artwork, printing and packaging copies of the thing, and then figuring out ways to sell it. Stay tuned!

One of the more bizarre instruments that we hope to use in our recording sessions is the Smigel Styrofoam Soprano Guitar, created by Nelson's friend Mr. Smigel, possibly by accident. This guitar can be tuned up to an octave higher than a regular guitar without any ill effects, but we usually tune it only 7 half-steps higher than normal. As the name implies, it uses large styrofoam crates as resonators, producing an odd lo-fi sound that we enjoy.

If you want to hear the SSSG in action, check out the original jam that Nelson recorded, and then the remix that Karen made called Regret (lyrics), which will probably end up on the official album in some form, perhaps after some re-writing and re-recording.

This rant about the sad decline of the guitar solo in modern rock was originally posted by Brian on his Facebook. Since he's our lead guitarist, I thought you might be interested It is intended to be the first in a series, so if you like it, you can hope for more!

If you asked me four years ago about the state of popular music, I would have told you that rock had died sometime in the mid '70s, that with a few exceptions, chief among them U2, no one had recorded anything worthwhile since then, and I had no reason to listen to the radio because all new music is crap and I'd be better off spending my time figuring out what classic rock record I should buy or download next. Nu metal, hip hop, emo, pop punk, teen pop, it was all crap to me (some of that is still crap... others not so much).

The other day I was listening to the Fray's "Over My Head." I'm sure most people are pretty tired of this song by now, but, since I still don't ever listen to the radio, the song still seems fairly new to me. Now, I don't think the Fray is anything special, in fact, they're probably primed to flame out after one album. And the song is an excellent pop song... no more and no less. It's exactly the kind of thing you'd expect to hear on the radio today. But it's also the kind of thing you could never hear 35 or even 5 years ago. Despite my insistence that rock music is degenerating, I have to admit that it has evolved.

I'm not really looking to give a complete lesson in rock history, but simply to trace a few elements of rock music that I, personally, like. This is purely my opinion, and I'm working with a strong confirmation-bias. I was going to write a note about this, but I think it's going to be too much; I'll have to write two notes. I know you don't want to read two notes. In fact, there's probably no one who even made it this far in this note, once they realized the whole thing was more than two paragraphs. That's OK, because this isn't for you. It's for me. Seriously, I'm going to come back and read this tomorrow. And when I do, I'll say to myself, "Self, this is some damn good shit." But if you like reading other people's opinions on this stuff, as I do, you can go ahead and read.

The good stuff will come later, but I'll use this first note to get one thing off of my chest, the one thing that really sucks about rock, the one area where musicians have been dropping the ball for thirty years. I'm talking about the downfall of the emotive, virtuoso guitar solo.
(more...)

I went to an open mike night at the Folk Project several weeks ago to play some WSoD songs, and they were nice enough to record my performance for me and send me the DVD. I finally got the video up on Revver, so if you're curious feel free to give it look ^_^ Here's the flash version:

If you hate Flash, you can try downloading the Quicktime file instead.

I played Flight / Crossing the Bar, Contained, and Break Free... I'll have to see what other songs I can polish for public consumption. This was my first public performance in a while, so I was a little nervous! I also didn't retune my guitar properly for Break Free, I'll just use an electronic tuner in the future to make sure I get it right the first time around from now on. I hope to play more open mikes in the near future so that I can get used to playing live again, ideally together with more WSoD members

This picture was taken, ironically, from the "right side" of dawn, in that I actually woke up at 6am to take it instead of staying up all night.

Speaking of the wrong side of dawn, you might want to check out the latest and greatest version of Running Out of Time (version 3 for those who are keeping track), and its updated lyrics:

Light appears at the edge of the sky
It reveals the problem for me
It's just what somebody looking toward his day should see.
I see it now, from the other side; I'm about to go to sleep.
Got nothing done today but I'm thinking maybe sometime next week...

No sooner did I make that last unpromising post than I found myself recording some more music with Brian, and planning to book time in a studio for the first week of January. Hopefully sometime over the next semester we will find a @#$%ing drummer!

Until then, check out this new demo song that we have uploaded:

* The Grinder's Tale - An old recording of one of Brian's songs that finally got vocals. I'm kind of proud of the piano part I wrote for it, and I really like the main guitar riff... it's a lot of fun, both to play and to listen to ^_^ That said, we didn't always manage to stay on the beat, and the song does drag out a bit in parts... it could use a little condensing and re-recording. I'm not putting it on the "demo CD" right now, at the moment it's a "bonus track" on our download page.