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Hi! I'm back after a good sized absence. It's been a whirlwind of finalizing recording stuff, getting on an airplane, coming home to hugs and friend's i've missed very much, saying goodbye to a producer who changed our band for the better, and meetings with labels and industry people that could impact our future. It's a blessing to follow through in a real chase of a dream. I often find myself feeling surreal and wondering if this life is truly happening. I have for a long time been a believer in the power of dreams and how God uses them in our daily lives to bring about personal and dramatic change. I believe that poets and painters and songwriters and dancers are given this abstract gift and a unique voice or talent to express God's love in their respective mediums. I don't normally write in here about such topics, but I decided that if you can't write about real and relevant topics to your life, then the blog would be a disservice to its readers (even if it ends up only being me trying to document my own thought process). I'm constantly impressed by the new ways that music manages to sneak into my existance through old songs and new ones. I found myself fascinated int he past few days by several seemingly unorthodox rock bands. Mew, the receiving end of sirens, the dear hunter, mineral, codeseven and a few others have really been making me feel again (as far as rock music is concerned).

Mixing. Days 3 and 4.

Yep, it got real busy again. Our new stuff is seriously so exciting. I can't wait to share it with all of you. Lot's of mixing and hard work. I feel like i've reached a point where I can't explain it any more and you just have to hear it. I'm hoping that point comes sooner rather than later. I miss California. I hear there are some crazy brush fires there right now. Pray for the families who have lost or will lose their homes in this tragedy.

Mixing. Day 2.

We are in the studio where they mixed Scarface. Today we are mixing another (song title with-held to add to the suspense). This is what we are mixing on:

The songs are sounding so amazing. Every little piece of every song has new life breathed into it. Things ranging from guitar parts to backing vocals to electronics to guitar parts to drums all have new exciting changes that add up to make the songs an entirely new sound. Can't wait to share them with your ears...

Mixing. Day 1.

So we have finished the majority of tracking (only small parts on two songs left) and we have entered an amazing studio. It's the studio where they mixed Scarface, Top Gun, and Footloose. Paramore and Anberlin (two favorites in the BTP camp) were in here last week for various projects. It's pretty rad to be in a place surrounded by such great history. We hung out with the studio owner for a little bit. He is really cool guy named Aton who is really personable. He was telling us about a lot of big bands who came through here at one point or another. There are some rad rooms here that we discover when we get A.d.d. and wander the halls. There is a sweet upstairs lounge. Oh yeah, and we are mixing on an SSL (one of the top mixing boards in the industry). So yeah, we're stoked.

The Artful Dodging of a Programmers Duties.

Today we focused on finishing up a few guitar parts and doing a lot of programming. Programming (the way I define it) is anything that isnt vocals, guitars, bass, drums, or other acoustic instruments that are physically played. It's mostly electronic noises and sampled sounds to enhance the feel of a song. In our case, we go as far as relying on programming for certain parts to give us a more diverse sound. As a band, we want to use anything and everything within our grasp to create songs that make you really feel when you listen to them or sing along. It's our sincere hope that our music blesses you (the listener/friend) in one way or another.

We also ate turkey sandwiches.

James Paul Wisner is an awesome producer.

The End.

Yesterday and Today.

Yesterday was extremely productive for us as a band. We managed to finish the final guitar, programming, and keyboard tracks on 3 of the 6 tracks we are doing during these sessions. We have 3 more that we are hoping to finish today. It's very exciting to hear our hard work come together. I can't wait to come home and share it with as many of you as i can. Back to tracking...

Even more guitars and programming.

We have been busy over here in Florida recording. I wish I could describe everything going on over here in this blog in more detail but it changes by the minute. I can safely say that we have made huge changes to pretty much every song and that we have never been prouder of our work as a band. Every member has stepped up their game in writing performing and now it's just a matter of time before we get to share it with you. We are going to begin mixing in about 4 days and it's such a good feeling to see our hard work turn into some amazing songs.

For all the gear nerds.

We have been tracking guitars using several awesome combinations of gear set-ups. Some staples have been: Two RKS guitars with body variations, an amazing Tom Anderson telecaster that gets a really cool bright sound with cleans, the Les Paul that Underoath used in "They're Only Chasing Safety", an amazing Bogner Cabinet with a Bogner Ecstacy head and an old Marshall. We have also employed a Line 6 Delay pedal (mine) for swells. We also use an EBOW for certain parts.

Dave used a rad bass that has a huge sounding low end on it and combined it with a sansamp to get a really cool sound.

We have been doing a bunch of programming. The way programming works live or in writing is that Enik and I put together our ideas from various formats (garageband, reason, pro tools, korg es-1, samplers, fruity loops, acid, ableton live, etc.) and we demo these ideas in pro tools to create a flow. It's working in a similar fashion here in the studio except that James Paul Wisner is now throwing a lot of fantastic ideas into the mix and making things flow very well.

We have been doing a lot of detail work (vocal harmonies, editing, keyboards, and programming) over the past few days, so things are beginning to take shape.

As of right now we are planning on mixing these songs at an amazing studio (the studio where they mixed Footloose and Top Gun!) on a really good mixing board called an SSL. So excited. It's the studio where James mixed My American Heart and National Product (among others). It's gonna be really good.

Blessings in Disguise.

Our band has been very busy with recording and editing and re-writing and changing the sounds we have been using. It's very interesting and exciting to watch these song develop. We are still going strong with recording vocals and guitars. We have been very busy with that and trying to get our songs sounding as amazing as possible. So far it has been a great success. The guitars sound huge and full and awesome.

GTR.VX.MX.MSTR.RLS.

Well, we are nearing two weeks away from being finished and have about 5 tracking days left realistically. We are messing with the program Atmosphere for some sounds and then combining them with all kinds of elements using stacked layers of programming and sounds to really find a feel. One of the recurring themes for these sessions has been that we should create moments within the songs... like have certain elements that just appear once or variations on a theme to keep things engaging for a listener.

Enik has been doing vocals as well throughout these sessions and I can truthfully say that this is the best he has ever sounded singing... James is very good at pushing him vocally to get something that sounds good and is not relying on too many effects or edits. Enik is bringing it this time around with vocals. Very rad so far. We re-structured and changed some parts in the songs to make them better. It's so exciting and we can't wait for you to hear them!

Dear Valentine guitars...

Today was devoted almost entirely to the song Dear Valentine. Johnny did a sweet new verse lead that shreds like Minus the Bear. There is an ebow part in the bridge and a clean in the 2nd verse that has me pretty content. The guitars are sounding really big and they definitely have a much bigger sound than we are used to in BTP land. The parts are developing pretty well and there is a lot of change going on in the songs...

The guitars.

We are doing more guitars today. It's going well.

Guitarmageddon.

We are tracking a bunch of guitars. James Paul Wisner can shred. He made a total Guns and Roses style solo over Hello just messing around when we were trying out alternate parts. It sounded like pure 80's. I felt like my hair was beginning to perm during that part so we had to scrap it. Enik is right in the middle of his guitar parts and it's going pretty well. We are using a Bogner head and the same Les Paul that Underoath used in parts of "They're Only Chasing Safety." The rhythm distortion parts are done and they sound huge. Johnny is up in a little bit to add some leads and then i'll be after him putting down some delays and swells and ebow stuff... So far everything is going pretty well. The weather here is kind of terrible (it rains and then is immediately followed by a very gross type of humidity...). We have been getting restless staying at this motel type place where there is nothing to do but watch tv or play xbox. I have been on my laptop doing a bunch of programming and just trying things out for some producing stuff I will be working on when I get home... and that's about it for now.

Drums and Bass. Playing catch-up.

Well, I am a week behind now on this blog. It was inevitable. David tracked his drums in two days. We put a video on youtube. We had a drum tech named Rob and ended up using the Battlefield snare Roger was nice enough to lend us (Roger from Battlefield drums... AKA most awesome dude ever). James is doing some sweet micing/mixing techniques on the drums and i'm learning a lot more about the production side of things. Don't wanna give away too many secrets. For visuals check out www.youtube.com/btprecording. Got a video up now... more to follow. Dave followed suit with two days of bass tracking and he rocked it as well. We borrowed this bass from some dude and it sounds intense. Big rock sound... Huge. Just wait haha... We have been amusing ourselves with Wal-mart trips, gator hunting, and random antics (hopefully on film). More come later. -Aaron/BTP