DUMBO

We finished our mastering about a week ago with Joe Lambert Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.  What a strange day it was when the mastering began.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and I was completely wrecked.  Lorne and I had just played with Clogs the night before at the BAM Opera House, I moved a ton of gear, was going on several weeks of only 4-5 hours of sleep a night, and really did NOT want to get out of bed - but we've got to get this done!  I packed up the hard drive with all of our files, put it in my backpack, brewed some coffee, and then mounted the Raleigh ten-speed to ride down to DUMBO (it's about a mile from our studio in Bed-Stuy).  

I turned the corner onto Jay Street, I can just see the water now (East River), and there is a truck down near the river spewing huge clouds of smoke that envelope the entire block.  What the hell is going on??  I have to drive my bike through this Armageddon to get to my destination and manage to chain the bike next to a pile of trash on the river's edge.  

I find my way upstairs, through the long hallways of the industrial-building-turned-artist/business offices and finally come to the door of Joe Lambert Mastering.  "Come on in, Tom."  I immediately feel like I've known this guy for at least the past ten years, even though we've only spoken on the phone twice.  I tell him about the environmental disaster I just witnessed outside and we head to the nearest window....the smoke has cleared...what are you going to do...We go back and sit down at Joe's work station.  "Friday's a great day to make a record," says Joe.  So it is, so it is....

L243 studio updates

All of the tracks are down and we are now in the mixing phase.  We did some mixing this past weekend and probably have one more day of work before we are ready for the final phase of mastering.  We used ALOT of instruments on this record.  Not only did we bring in a slew of extra percussion sounds, but we had strings and piano as well.  An-Lin Bardin played cello on the title track (we're not giving that away yet) and Michelle Lee played violin on two pieces.  I got to make my studio debut on piano which we added on Underground.  Though the record won't be released for a few months yet, we will be performing a lot of the music next Saturday, Feb. 28, at a showcase recital at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.  

L243 in the studio

We just finished the first day of recording for the new record.  Very exciting - and totally exhausting!  We laid down tracks for two new pieces that feature the marimba and steel drum and we're very excited about the sounds and vibe of the recording so far.  We'll be back in on Saturday and Sunday for more recording... more studio updates to come - we hope to get some photos and video footage of the process.

let it snow

We're currently working on the new album and just had a fantastic weekend of rehearsals.  Lorne and I are very excited about the new record.  We won't actually start recording until the end of the month, but we're continuing to develop the new material which includes several pieces that have not yet been performed live.  We will probably do a bit of improvisation in the studio as well, since that played a major part of our first record.  Those in NYC will be able to get an exclusive view/listen of many of these pieces at our concert in Brooklyn on February 28.  Meanwhile, Lorne will be riding his bike through the snow to get to rehearsals in Bed-Stuy.  more updates soon... - Thom

Happy 2009!

We're kicking off the new year by inaugurating this blog site. We attempted to keep a blog on the myspace page for awhile, but it just wasn't happening. We hope to stay in touch with everyone and have more frequent posts through this site...

I know a lot of people are glad to see 2008 behind us....what a year. Still, through all of the difficulties, paths were forged for positive change. Unfortunately, sometimes things need to get very bad before a majority of people will stand up and say, "Hey, we need to do something about this." Living in NYC, I'm often reminded of that scene from the Sidney Lumet film, Network: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Sometimes when I find myself losing my patience, I make a conscious effort to step back and not let things effect me; other times, I think 'you know, I wish more people would get pissed off and stand up and say something. I'm not going to keep this all inside just so that I don't offend anyone or cause a ruckus.'

Looking back on 2008, what really sticks with me as a person is the same thing that propels me forward - the music that we made as Loop 2.4.3. There was a lot of wonderful feedback from our first record and we developed an album's worth of new material that we'll be recording in early February. I'm looking forward to getting what's in my head onto the tangible form of the compact disc.

As a fun aside - I spent New Year's Eve at a friend's apt. in Brooklyn near the Grand Army Plaza at Prospect Park. At one point we turned on the television to check out the scene at Times Square. What did we see? Hordes of people of course, and lots 'live music'. All of the big name entertainers were on the big stages miming their way through the music the way they always do for network TV. It was FREEZING, so it's understandable that they wouldn't actually play. (Ludacris needs to at least find some people who look like they might be able to play a musical instrument though.) After our quick fix of the Dick Clark classic, we headed out into the cold to check out the scene at Prospect Park. There was a decent crowd at the north end of the park, and I don't know who the band was, but they were actually PLAYING! The drummer didn't stop for a second (maybe because his hands would have fallen off), and the band had people dancing while the fireworks went off overhead. Thanks to the musicians at Prospect Park for keeping it real. Go Brooklyn!