I got a wav file yesterday of the 45-minute long track that is Acts I-VI by Roareth, and… wow. God damn that’s heavy. It’s like they took sludge and put it through a black hole. Fucking vicious. I can’t wait for everyone to hear it. Kudos to the band and to Tad Doyle for the excellent job recording. I couldn’t be more psyched to have it as the first release on The Maple Forum.

Doing an interview about the studio time seemed cheap, so I charged guitarist Aaron Edge with the task of writing a studio wrap-up, in which, much as in the recording of Acts I-VI itself, he excelled, detailing the atmosphere in the studio and how exactly drummer/vocalist Ben McIsaac broke his collarbone, delaying the process. Feast your eyes on the following and make sure to stick around at the end, where you’ll find a new video for “Act V.” Awesome.

Aaron says:

Considering all that goes into writing and recording a record, this went pretty smooth. As band members, we get along so wonderfully. As a creative team, I can’t think of a better crew to work with… everyone is so easygoing and at the same time, productive. It has been a pleasure for me to be part of Roareth over the last year of our journey.

These six songs, released as one entity, embody our growth thus far, from our first crop. Acts I-VI took less time to write than most records in my personal past, in part, because I am blessed to share the Roareth experience with such fine musicians. Though I did most of the writing for this record, each band member’s energy and spin took those early riffs to new levels of goodness. I’d bring in an idea and they would help shape it into something worth being proud of, I love these people.

Speaking of love, working with Tad is a huge part of why Acts I-VI became the wondrous monster that it is. Not only has he been a great musical influence, he (and his new amazing wife, Peg) have shown our band unconditional support. I got to know Tad better though the year that I was his drummer in Brothers of the Sonic Cloth. The dude is a big, sweet tank of talent. He has great ideas, but knows to give advice only when it is asked for. He lets our band have our way with our material, but he knows the material well too, helpful as an engineer. I have recorded a handful of other projects and bands with him at the helm over the last two years, he knows what he’s doing and he knows what I’m going for when we share audio and high decibel time together.

Studio Witch Ape is located in a super location in Seattle, just comfy enough without being too soft and uncreative. Some studios are too stuffy or so damn cozy that it is hard to be productive at anything save for a good nap. Tad and Peg have some amazing gear to record with (and on), including groovy stomp boxes, vintage amps, other custom stuff and cabs galore! I should also say that there is always good, strong coffee too… which, if you spend a lot of time in a recording studio, there is never enough of. If you are into heavy and are coming through the Northwest, you should certainly work with Mr. Doyle. We, as a band, are addicted to him and his studio.

There was a setback during the process though: Ben, our drummer/vocalist, broke his collarbone right in the middle of a week of sessions in the studio. I wish I could say that it was a strange scuba diving adventure gone wrong, or a parachute mishap, or even an incredible car accident that should have been YouTubed… no. Not as glorious. Stage diving while heavily intoxicated is not recommended, and that is what poor Ben did. But, he came in only a week and a half later and finished the last three tracks of multi-vocaled mayhem all the same. The skinny guy is as tough as nails. Tougher. He works every day of the week, plays in four different (and all amazing) bands and has dedication to music like none other. Luckily, the drumming of the record was all done before the accident. But, ya know, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he would have been able to pull that off too.

After Ben and Rachel [Lynch, bass] had pummeled all six tracks into salt, almost every one a first take (by the way) [raises a fist into the sky in admiration for them and their talent], Pam [Sternin, guitar] and I cleaned up our Mesa and Sunn guitar passes. We did try something new, guitar-wise, this record: We didn’t do separate passes for clean and heavy. Instead, we just played the songs through as we would live, channel-switching our amps as we went along. It meant being tighter, but we dialed it all in pretty well. It made mixing a breeze later. There are only three tracks of guitar on Acts I-VI — usually I add many to thicken up the sauce. We were more conservative on this project and we like it.

Samples came next, which is always a blast. And then, there needed to be this drone at the end… something to leave a cold and lightless tunnel to the listening experience. 11 tracks of guitars near the end plus piano string-pulling and ethereal noises throughout wrapped it all up like your first Barbie under the holiday tree. Yeah, just like that.

So, it is done. And we are so proud of it, we hope you will be too. I also remixed the whole damn thing and that will be available a bit later in the year… more drone and with strange/odd parts removed and added.

Thanks to all for the support we have received thus far!

[qt: http://www.odeum.org/Roareth/Roareth_ActV.m4v 460 320]

Tags: Roareth, The Maple Forum, Washington

This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2010 at 11:22 am and is filed under Label Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.