Information on Lore: We know how frustrated the pre-order supporters must be after waiting almost three years for the album to be released (believe it or not we are FAR more frustrated than anyone on this!) so I thought Id give you a quick rundown on where things are. When we first decided to record the album we were hoping it would be a three-month turnaround, but a producer stepped in and offered to help produce this album at the highest level, far and above what we could do ourselves, which of course we wouldnt turn down. Unfortunately due to other bookings, he would not be able to record us all in one go, and so the recording of Lore was pencilled in over a series of months. The first (and only) session to go to plan was the drum recording. We were scheduled to record them in 10 days, and it was done in 10 days. From there on, however, things hadnt run so smoothly. The next session were for the Guitars and bass, and unfortunately we hit a series of equipment failure. Whilst Andrews bass recording went without a hitch and was done within 3 days, Chris was unable to record his Guitars. This was partly to do with faulty equipment in the studio, partly to do with the fact that the Guitar Tech who recently upgraded Chris Guitars made some errors, however at the time, we werent sure what the problems were, only that it was just not working. As a result, a separate session had to be pencilled in, which moved the deadline. The next thing was to look at the Orchestra. To record a full orchestra would require hundreds of thousands of pounds, which none of us had, so we had to devise ways to do this on budget. It was eventually agreed on that we would use Sally Jo, and hire a couple of others to layer up the orchestra one by one. This meant we could achieve a full orchestral sound at a fraction of the cost, but it would take time. Sally Jo alone needed 6 weeks to both re-acquaint herself with a Viola as well as Violin, then layer up over 120 unique parts. During this time we hit winter of 2011/2012, and illnesses befell us all. Chris in particular was so unwell that his eardrums ended up perforated and until they healed, he had no ears to use in the studio whatsoever. Chris and Sally Jo invested in new equipment (Fractal Audios Axe FX II processors) which we used to record with. The flexibility of this equipment meant that we had far greater control over how our instruments would sound, as (to our knowledge) no one has ever recorded 8-String Guitars to a full orchestra before, and that came with its problems. Some time had to be spent finding out how it was going to work. The next thing that happened was Ericas vocal recording sessions, which were split over 3 weeks, one week a month (so three months) and due to the challenging nature of Splintered Souls music, this was a considerable strain on her voice to record so intensively, which was why she had to have breaks in between recording sessions. We also had guest musicians come in (such as symphonic choirs and ethnic instruments) which required other dates, then after all this our producer had the mammoth task of editing no less than 200 tracks of recording PER song, and begin to attempt to mix it. Again, no one (it seems) had ever tried to record and mix this amount of orchestration before, and therefore there was no rule book to follow. Our producer, Chris and James spent ENORMOUS amounts of time in and out of the studio figuring out how to approach the impossible, which took the greatest amount of time of all. There had been countless mix attempts that for various reasons failed, and the process had to be restarted, which eventually led us to realise why no one had ever done this before! The whole band became depressed, not having an album released kept so many doors closed to us and it was incredibly difficult to keep going. Nevertheless, from February of this year, Chris and our producer started making some incredibly strong steps forward. By March/April 2014, Chris left the studio with 9 out of 10 tracks mixed for analysis and the general consensus is that these are light years better than anything wed attempted to date. In fact the band, and key people within music we consulted, feel they are a hairs breadth from being broadcast ready, and have literally minor tweaks until theyre finished. All that needed to happen was for Chris to return to the studio with his analyses and get it done. Unfortunately however, Chris had two incredibly sad bereavements in his family which not only left him in shock, but up to his neck in the legal aspect of these kinds of losses which he has been trying to get sorted along side band commitments. As a result, he will not be able to return to the studio until November. So, this is the situation, its an incredibly abridged version, but thats where we are with Lore right now. NO ONE has forgotten, no one has given up, and the band are every bit as frustrated as everyone else, but this is the situation. Chris will return to finish the mixes in November, and we will let you know exactly what happens. Thank you everyone for bearing with us, thank you for your continued support, and I can promise each and every one of you, we wont forget those that stood by us this long, but it is definitely not much longer now.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 20:25:30 +0000
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