Second album releasing on June 17th
Hi Everyone,
We are really excited to announce that we are finally releasing our second album on June 17th. After a lot of thought we have decided to release it on our own label: Fear Of Cheese Records.
The last time we made an album there were big people involved in a big way. They all had their big ideas and each idea was born out of the need to make big money. Not one person involved seemingly cared about or understood sincerity in music. The same record executive in charge of our album would one day waltz into the studio and say, “Hey what this album needs is the guy from Linkin Park to play the guitars”, while the very next day he would call to say, “How about a little more Harry Nielson”; and almost everyday someone would say, “Can we make this more KROQ or Z100?” Even more frustrating was that every time I wanted to try something musical I would have to explain why, as if musical inspiration should be grounded in economic rhetoric.
The result was a rather sanitized musical effort. So, the first thought in my mind when making Ashes was to get rid of everyone and all of their ideas. No labels, no publishers, no agents, managers, and no producers. The band and an engineer to capture the band sound was all that was needed to create a less pasteurized and much more sincere record. The best part of it all: Who did we want to sound like? Nobody. How about we sound like Buddahead? What is wrong with that?
Why do we have to sound like someone else to be a hit? Why even make music to have a hit? That is so false. Did Miles Davis set out to make hit records? Did Pink Floyd set out to make hit records? I can only assume that great works in music were born out of individuality, honesty, and the opportunity to let music be discovered and developed, rather than manufactured through formula.
We made this record the way we wanted it to sound without having to explain anything to anyone. We thought of everything as one part of the whole. In this day and age of sinking album sales and the robust economy of the 99cent single, it is not always easy to remember the bigger picture: Albums live and singles fade.
I am a songwriter. I was a songwriter a long time before I cared about a career in the music industry. Songwriting to me was a vehicle for giving life to my deepest and strongest emotions. The music industry, on the other hand, seems focused on tricking people into believing something that is not real. How else can you explain the big money behind Ashley Simpson or the slew of mediocre American Idols? That is so lame.
The Ashes will be available for download from our site as well as:
iTunes US
iTunes Austrailia/NZ
iTunes Canada
iTunes UK/European Union
iTunes Japan
Rhapsody
Napster
eMusic
Groupie Tunes
Amazon MP3
Lala
Thank you for being our fans, for being our friends, and for being our community!
Raman