So its basically in the bag

Well I'm not sure how many of you have even joined us on this adventure on this blog, but for those of you that have, thank you for joining us. I'm sitting here back at home listening to some of the mixes and reflecting on the months passed, we have really come up with a nice record and it was amazing to see how hard Jeff Martin & Paul the engineer worked on this, its great when the people you work with have some passion for the project and it sort of helps you feel what you are doing is worth while because the process can get so involved you often lose sight on what your doing and why you are doing it. For me being a big fan of Jeff Martin & The Tea Party it has been an invaluable experience to see how someone I respect a great deal works and It's a nice feeing that we are now bonded by this recording, of course this album has bonded myself, Marty & Dave even more but when I hear this record I hear it reflects all our hard work including Jeff. I think after hearing it 10000 million times its time to take a week away from it so I can listen with fresh ears and plan the next stage which is mastering this beast. I hope you all enjoy this album, as we have truely poured all we have into it and feel this is our strongest and post pure musical expression to date, so at the end of all this I hope you can feel the passion we have put into this thing, for now you must be patient, it will be in your ears soon enough!:) - Mark

Vocals are done

It was an intense 5 days for me, 15-16 hour days, but vocals are done as of about 6am yesterday. So far I think its some of the best vocal work I have done, and its been great that Jeff has also contributed some backing vocals adding an extra element to the sound. The great thing about our process is that we process and mix alot as we go, so today and tomorrow will just be fine tuning the mixes & then the album is basically done! I'll update again a bit later - Mark

Vocals, Vocals, Vocals!

First off, sorry for lack of blogs, its been an intense few days, we have a great deal of singing to do, and not the longest amount of time to do it in! So its friday morning, we have around six songs done, some of the more difficult ones have been done, so now we must pound through the rest. Some nice things have taken shape, including a duet type thing between me and jeff in the song 'the sleeper'. Its been great having a singer like Jeff help me shape these vocals, I think you will all agree this is some of the best work The Eternal has done, ok back to work! more news soon... Mark

Now rock has began

So yesterday we began tracking vocals. I was nervous as you may have picked up, but that settled once we began work and it actually sounded good, the first song we approached was the title track 'Under A New Sun'. We layered some lush harmonies in the chorus and of course its started to sound like The Eternal but something is a bit sharper, a bit different, I cant put my finger on it yet but its pretty cool! So 'Under A New Sun' was tracked with not to much hassle and we also managed to get half of 'Delerium & Desire' in the bag also. So its nearly midday, time for some scales, honey tea, a quick dribble of whiskey down the throat and its back to work! - Mark

Back In Byron Bay

So here I am again, sitting in 301 Byron Bay as we get set up for the vocal sessions. The week leading up to this has been great, Jeff & Myself have refined the poetry, coaxed the vocal melodies to reach their full potential and now its time to put this all into motion.

I arrived here a few hours back to the familiar faces of Paul and Angus setting up mic's and doing a recall mix on 'Under A New Sun'. I know they must get some diva singers in this place cos the vocal booth looks more comfy than my lounge room, I have some great mood lights, a couch & it's all been cleaned up for their latest vocal diva... ME! haha

So in the next hour Kenny (Jeff Tech) will be here from Brisbane (We parted ways in Sydney this morning), so we will have a lovely dinner then get to some work for the evening to get myself warmed up and ready to rock! More news and pics to come. - Mark

Wine, coffee & poetry

Yesterday was an amazingly creative day, workshoping my lyrics and ideas with Jeff has really helped me look at my lyrical concepts with much more detail and in the end we have come out with some real poetic stuff, well not to say it was not already poetic but now I feel that these lyrics stand on there own without the music, which is great as rock music tends to disregard lyrical content to a degree but now I feel I have lyrics to do justice to the great music we have created. So today we have a few songs left to work on then it will be into the studio here for some work on my voice before we head to Byron Bay monday, but overall things are looking great at this point! - Mark

Progress!!

So Jeff and myself are locked away here in Sydney tearing it all apart and putting it back together again, we have been really focused on refining lyrics and vocal melodies at the moment and its really shaping up well! Basically we will finish this process tomorrow and then spend the following few days working with my voice, those of your familiar with Jeff know he is an amazing singer so as hard as it can be for me to sing infront of him, i got to suck it up and get on with it! But this time here in Sydney is really going to make out job easy in Byron Bay next week.. also another thing we may not have mentioned is how great a cook JM is, so for the last two nights have been treated to amazing and exotic meals! We are winding up for the night but I'm feeling good about where it is all headed! - Mark

Back to work...

...well not that the work ever stopped really... we have been home for a while, but on that time we have been reviewing mixes, refining vocal parts, re-demoing and also putting together a DVD so as per usual, we don't really ever stop working!

So now comes my time of judgement! Always a bit nervous when it comes to tracking vocals but gotta just get it done! So lucky for me Jeff has invited me up to work on vocal parts with him for some last minute cramming:) then the following week back to Byron Bay to finally get this album in the bag!:) More to come this week - Mark