Okay, so I’m going to keep this post short and sweet, and I’m doing this mainly because I’m almost forty-four hours into a zombie-like state of affairs.  The past two days have proved equal parts fascinating and frustrating as I’ve navigated the web, exploring all manner of ways to make The 2010 Project available easily and reliably to anyone who might desire to listen.

Suffice it to say that, in the end, I’ve opened up a new website which will be solely dedicated to making the works I’ve discussed on this site available to listen to, read, sample, buy, or otherwise experience.  This new site is the HMRM Store, available at http://www.HearMooreReadMoore.com (if memory serves, which it often doesn’t, I’m indebted to Nicole for the name), and it has four dimensions: music, books, music reviews, and book reviews.  I’ll have much more to come about this new site, as well as the very exciting, very recent founding of the label that released my new album: EmEff Records.  There’ll be much more to learn about we EmEffR’s in the coming months, so stay tuned for that!

So, in the name of brevity, here’s the deal.  I haven’t released an all-new, studio-production album since 2006.  Today, Tuesday, July 19, 2011, marks the fifth and a halfth (sp?) anniversary of the release of Love Out of Fashion, that aforementioned previous album.

Today marks the release date of my seventh full-length album.  I haven’t released one since the formation, duration, and/or demise of mOu, and in some ways, The 2010 Project is acutely concerned with friendship, as well as romantic relationships, and what to do after a harsh split.

It was my “2010 project” to come to terms with my life (i.e. accepting myself for who I am, being comfortable with asserting myself, etc.).  Essentially, my project was to heal and — after years on a social roller coaster, as well as working tirelessly to prove myself as a newcomer in my profession — my project was to enjoy life again.

I hope you’ll listen.  I hope you’ll appreciate the passion that drove these recordings.  I hope you’ll relate.

Finishing The 2010 Project was the catalyst for establishing ChrisMooreMusic.com, so this is a landmark occasion.  It is a time to look back and appreciate past projects which have concluded.

And to begin thinking about new ones yet to come…

At long last, exactly eleven months after I first pressed “RECORD” at the opening session on August 10, 2010 (yes, I did start this album in the year it’s named for!), this is my final 2010 Project online journal entry.

Yesterday morning began fairly early as I arranged and recorded the background vocals for “Socrates’ Gulps” while Nicole was out for a walk.  When she came back home, I finished them while she took a shower.  Finally, I had to concede my need for breakfast, and we went out for brunch.

Figuring out a bass part on guitar

Brunch led to a trip to the Book Barn in Niantic, which was followed by grocery shopping.  By the time we arrived home, a leak had begun dripping from the ceiling in our bathroom.  Unfortunately, the woman who lives above us was out for the day and didn’t answer her phone on our first few calls.  We called our parents, the condo association… pretty much everyone short of the governor for advice.

Finally, when the ceiling began to buckle, we knew that this was no minor situation.

In the end, we called the fire department and had the opportunity to meet many nice firemen, a very helpful police officer, and our friendly neighborhood grounds/maintenance man…

…who, when no one could find the leak, came bearing a hacksaw.  (See picture below.)

A leak led to firemen, a policeman, and a maintenance man bearing a hacksaw

Needless to say, by the time our last visitor left for the evening, the recording spirit was pretty much lost.

So, I picked up this morning with the bass, almost got it right (except for a part I’ve always heard in the song and which Mike suggested I convert to a bass line), had some amazing breakfast prepared by my wonderful girlfriend (who I hope is reading this ), and finished up the bass on “Socrates’ Gulps.”

So that, as they say, is that.  There’s some more mixing at Mike’s studio, some package design, and a few more loose ends to tie up before…

…the official digital release date for The 2010 Project: Tuesday, July 19th, 2011!

Check back soon for more updates!

After a handful of very late nights this week, I slept in again until after noon today.  One thing led to another, and I didn’t even begin recording until later in the day.  Even so, I was able to work out the background vocals to “Work Time, Get in Line,” as well as a series of intricate acoustic guitar solos.

The trouble with “Work Time” is that it is a song that deals in criticism: of the corporate mentality, of rigid order, of patterns in our lives that are not “supposed” to be broken.  Thus, the instrumental break is supposed to reflect the chaos of a mind trying to break free from this unnatural order, attempting to be free in some way.

This may sound interesting in theory, but there is a fine line between chaos and controlled chaos.  I did use a metronome for this song — one of the few tracks on the album without drums — but even so there are a couple moments where the tempo is imperfect.  (The takes that I did that were perfectly in tempo ultimately came across as flat and without feeling.)   Of course, one of those aforementioned moments is in the instrumental break.

In the end, after much playing along to the song, listening to playbacks, and mixing and remixing the song, I’m proud of the result.  I’ve been worried about pulling off this track from the beginning — there’s a reason it’s one of the last songs I came back to complete! — but, after Mike instructing me in how to play congas and the acoustic and background vocal work I did today, I’m happy to report that it will make it to the album as a track I’m very proud of.

By the time I finished this song, it was hot and sweaty in the stale air of the balmy evening, so I simply had no energy to begin the final track I’m working on.

Until tomorrow…

Although both days nineteen and twenty took place today, 7/7/2011, I have listed them separately because they were two quite distinct sessions.  The first took place in the early morning, as I arrived at Mike’s brand new studio just after 11:30pm on 7/6.  He began by setting up some equipment, and we got underway around 1am.  Over the next four hours, we listened to eight of the twelve tracks on the album and mixed them down to final versions.  We even got a chance to listen to the bonus tracks I’ve selected for the deluxe version of the album.

You can tell it was late just by looking at these photos, which were obviously taken without the aid of natural light.  Being that this was a late night (or, really, early morning) session, it brought back all sorts of memories for me, namely of past experiences with mOu and with Mike and Jim individually, as well as on the Meaningless sessions.

Tonight was one of those rare moments that are sufficient to sustain dreams for months and perhaps even years to come, a reaffirmation of what it is we do best and why we do it.

After I arrived home, I went directly to bed with my alarms set for 9:45 and following.

And I woke up after noon, with absolutely zero memory of my alarms ever having sounded.

This being said, I only had a few hours to record, and I used them to complete the electric solo and background vocals for “I Would Prefer Not To.”  Mike had recorded a sample set of background vocals on my iPhone that I heard him singing (and loved), so I used those as a model to complete the song.  The guitar solo came out quite well after I worked it out, found a guitar effect on my Zoom pedal that fit the song, and further worked it through GarageBand’s on-board set of effects.

After I finished these tracks, I moved on to “Work Time, Get in Line” and managed to complete the bass for this track before I headed back to Mike’s studio for more recording and mixing.

At his studio, we mixed down “I Would Prefer Not To,” then Mike re-taught me how to play congas (I had played them a bit during a DryKnuckle BedHeads jam months prior) and I finished that track on “Work Time,” and after dinner, Mike showed me a piano part for “Vows and Changes” that elevates the track to heartbreaking status.  With Mike’s instruction and coaching, I played the keyboard, and we easily finished mixing that song, to end the evening with a grand total of ten out of the twelve songs completed.

And all in time for the beginning of one of our favorite Thursday night activities: TNA wrestling!

If you haven’t heard, I’ve set tomorrow as the deadline for completing the recording of my album, so I’ll have to step it up and put the final finishing touches on “Work Time, Get in Line” and, with a bit more to do, “Socrates’ Gulps.”

Until then…

Again, not too much to say tonight, other than to convey how exciting it’s been to complete these tracks.  This morning was a bit frustrating at first, as I spent an hour working on some mixing of tracks and another hour after that searching through my Zoom guitar pedal for the best possible effect for my “No Lights, No Sound” solo.

Regardless of these struggles, I was certain of one decision: I wanted to use my Squire strat to record the solo (ironically NOT the guitar pictured below).  This simply felt right because I haven’t used the strat for any part of this album, though it was the only electric I used to record every single electric guitar track on all six of my previous albums.  Considering that “No Lights, No Sound” is the oldest song on this new album, it felt right to finally bust out the strat.

I faced more struggles in the afternoon, as I couldn’t find my groove with background vocals today.  Nothing I practiced felt right for “Threshold,” and I ended up deleting all the background vocals I recorded on “You Will Thank Me.”  That being said, I honestly do think both songs, particularly “You Will Thank Me,” work best in their tight simplicity without harmonies.

The great news of the day is that I recorded three solid bass tracks, for “You Will Thank Me,” “Threshold,” and “It All Comes Around.”  So, in the end, this was a big day, as these are the all-important 1, 2, and 4 spots on the album.

That’s all I’ve got for today, but I’ll be back tomorrow for more!

Today, I’ll be brief because, as of today, the final touches are beginning to be applied.  This means that, very soon, The 2010 Project will be a completed product and will exist as an item in my history, topping the list titled “Chris Moore’s Discography.”

What remains to be done in most songs is some variation of bass, background vocals, and solos.  Today, I started by listening back to the album in the order that my producer, Mike Fusco, suggested.

The verdict?

The new track listing is far superior to what I had before.  For me, this is the umpteenth incarnation of the list, so I’ve been a bit too close to the project, I think, to see the best order.

As of this evening, I’ve completed every song on the second half of the album, with the exception of “Work Time, Get in Line.”  Tomorrow should be interesting, as I’ve saved the more complicated tracks to complete for later.

And later is, of course, tomorrow.

So, stay tuned for a few final updates and — very soon (!) — a release date announcement.

I’ll always remember day sixteen as one of the high points of The 2010 Project recording sessions.  I started late morning today with the arrival of Mike Fusco.  We ended up playing all twelve songs on my 0h-so-cheap Radio Shack speakers and making a master list of “What Left to Do?” broken down task by task (i.e. bass, background vocals, harmonica, etc).

On “Socrates’ Gulps,” the only remaining track that needed electric guitar work, Mike helped me find an electric sound that was bright yet had distortion, but wasn’t too grungy.  I still haven’t completely mastered my Zoom guitar pedal, which is significantly more nuanced than my original Zoom pedal, so after some hit and miss there, we plugged in directly from the amp, and I played while Mike found levels and balances that sounded great.  After several mess-ups and false starts, I got a take that sounded great.

Mike captured one of the good ones, so I’m finally posting a recording session video for you:

Before he left, we rocked out to “Goodbye, So Long” with me on acoustic and Mike on bass, which was great fun.  We just played a couple days ago (Thursday) to an assortment of tracks, including my songs, new and old (from “The One for Me” and “You Will Thank Me” to MoU staples “Please Stay,” “Marissa,” and “Goodbye”) and Mike’s classics (like “You I Won’t Forget”) and lesser known gems.  For Thursday’s songs, I alternated between twelve- and six-string acoustic/electric and Mike traded off between twelve-string acoustic/electric and drums.

Now, that was a LOT of fun, and it served as just the boost I needed to get excited for this weekend and this coming week, which promise to hold — finally — the final sessions for my new album.

Look, Ma: no pedal! (Me adding a "phaser effect" on my electric)

After a late lunch, I worked out the harmonica solo (in the key of E, the closest I had) and harmonies to “Goodbye, So Long.”  In terms of background vocals, I tried some things I haven’t tried before, so I’ll have to run them by my producer before giving that track the final nod…

Me and my high-tech studio set up

And that about brings this up to date.  Thank you for reading, and stay tuned this week for hopefully many more updates, photos, videos, a final cover image, and…

…drum roll, please…

…a release date!

Somewhere in this process, I’ve lost a couple of days in my online journal.  Thus, here I am to fill in the gaps.  I don’t have full details or exact dates, but Mike came over one night (in April? during my school break?) for the first bass track overdub of the album.  Although he was here for a couple hours, we only worked on one song: “No Lights, No Sound.”  This may not sound like what you’d call progress, but we were thrilled.  We experimented with bass sounds (i.e. through pedal, through amp, directly into laptop), Mike developed a tastefully simple but memorable bass line, and I managed to finally play it right.

This was a very enjoyable night… so much so that I forgot to write it down in the logs entirely.  It was a tease, though, in some respects, considering that school and grading were still on my mind and needed to become the priority shortly after he left.

Chris plays bass?

Another lost and notable day — and one which was also a tease — came shortly after.  On Thursday, April 21st, I brought the master tracks for mixing at Fusco Theatre.  Mike finagled the hookup between my laptop and the main (and very sizable) speakers.  Then, we ran through all twelve tracks, discussed the overall sound, and in the end, each received the Mike Fusco mixing treatment.

This post is long in coming.  I’ve post-dated it to April 22nd for posterity’s sake, although I’m writing it months later in July.  As a final note regarding continuity, the picture above was taken during the “day sixteen” session on July 2nd, but it seemed appropriate here considering day fourteen was the first all-bass track session.

To clarify, Eli would be my cat, and 6am would be an hour past his usual feeding time.

I’m proud to say that, realizing how busy the coming day would be — and that this would be my last day of true break — I actually got to work right away.  I began by sitting down with my guitar to finish writing “It All Comes Around.”  I’ve had the first verse and chorus for months now, but it took until the morning of the recording session for me to finish writing it.

I should probably also apologize to Nicole for making her listen to it so many times before she left for work at 10, but I think she enjoyed it. 

I spent the late morning and early afternoon at my friend Dan’s house practicing for a three-song set we’ll be playing at an open mic night at the high school in March.  We’ve been playing these songs on and off for the past several years, but we’re finally honing them and finalizing arrangements instead of just jamming aimlessly.

Although aimless jamming can be quite fun, as well!

By the time I got home, had a late lunch, and was ready to record, it was already 4:30.  Thankfully, Nicole went out with friends from work, so I had from then until 7:30 to lay down drum tracks (which took FOREVER on this one) and to record acoustic guitar, a lead vocal, and overlay harmonica on the entire track.  I did the harmonica track in one take, and though it’s not perfect, I’ll probably end up keeping it for the overall feel of the performance.  It’s hard to recapture the energy of a song when you get it just about right the first time.

And so, after 13 recording sessions in August, October, and February, the principal recording for The 2010 Project is complete!  I’ll be hard at work overdubbing and then mixing and mastering the album in the next few weeks, so I’ll continue to post my progress here on this blog.

As always, thank you to any and all for taking the time to read what I write, and I hope to have good news and good music for you very soon!

Despite the late start, this was a productive session.  I laid down the drum, acoustic & electric guitar, and lead vocal tracks for my penultimate unrecorded song, “Threshold.”  The results are very encouraging, though there are parts of the lead vocal that I think I could do better on another take.  Also, the intro sounds great on my lovely Bose headphones, but frankly sounds muddy and messy in the car, so I’ll have to reconsider that as well.

When I finished with “Threshold” for the day, I still had time to revisit “Socrates’ Gulps,” a song that I have such high expectations for that it is, as a result, constantly disappointing me upon later review.  Today, I spent a good amount of time deleting and re-recording most of the electric guitars.  I found a killer effect for the riff, but it’s an unstable vibrating sound, so it’s been a lot like taming a wild animal.  Overall, I’m not thrilled with the result, but I’m finally confident that I’ll be able to bring this song up to its potential…

…during a future session.