At first we were planning on calling this album "The Holy Bible" for some god-forsaken reason. I think a sort of feverish need for PR drove us toward the idea of pissing a bunch of people off. Jasper, Will and I had contracted this amazing form group hysteria about it, and if you were around us at the time, you probably would have taken aback by our shifty eyes and diabolical laughter. Luckily, weeks later while brainstorming in the living room; Dave being the voice of reason, suggested "The Hunter and The Fog". We didn't really know what it meant exactly, but it had a nice ring to it, and evoked some nice imagery. But before all that...
In January '07, home after a freezing but wonderful week-long tour to San Francisco and back, we got together with Sean McCullough of Oktober People and began recording what would eventually become this album. The bulk of the songs had felt like a full collaboration between all four of us. We had achieved a new creative level and we felt we were playing to the best of our technical abilities and were finally becoming a cohesive and close group. The songs had a harder edge to them, which may have been a reaction to our first album's more poppy nature, but more likely we were listening to a lot of Torche, and reminiscing about all the groups we'd loved in our late teens. Initially, the idea was to track all the songs very quickly and get the thing mixed and mastered for release that summer. Sean's recording space doubles as a rehearsal space for the many talented bands he was a part of, it comprises about a quarter of a small storage complex, which shares a single bathroom and is warmed by three propane heaters, which we all huddled around like a litter of puppies, basking in the glow of Pro-Tools spread across two computer screens. We endlessly rubbed our hands together for warmth, blowing O's of misty breath from our mouths. We talked a lot of bullshit, air drummed, played Sega, napped on the couch, stared at pinup girls and sometimes recorded music on occasion. It took a weekend to record the basic drum tracks and almost a year to record and re-record everything else. Each of us became producers, sometimes meeting with Sean separately to run sessions, fix tiny flubs, and occasionally re-record whole sections of songs. We tried our best to milk Sean's patience with many cases of Tecate and Taco Bell runs.
Winter became Summer and became Winter all over again, we kept telling everyone the album was indeed coming, but instead it lay dormant. I had it mastered by Alan Douches the week before Christmas '07, and had demos ready to go by February of last year. Our initial idea of recording a quick album, became a drawn out task and was moving at a snail's pace. It wasn't that we weren't really excited about what we had created. Speaking for myself, I was afraid that no one else out in the real world would be, and that we'd be lost in a sea of noise.
They say the second album is the most difficult, and at first we were all very excited about our own momentum and creativity. At the same time, I got a little carried away with wanting to do things 'the right way' and was trying to nail down promotion, the money to pay for promotion, and a whittle together a bona fide release schedule. Eventually, it all seemed incredibly daunting and I became paralyzed by the thought of the impossibility of it all. No matter how much I kept listening and re-listening to the album, overanalyzing, and trying to figure out if there were any glimmers of genius hidden within, it got to the point that I was so used to the tracks, that I had lost all objectivity regarding it. In addition to all that, I was becoming my very own George McFly from Back To The Future; I didn't know if I could take "that kind of rejection". I got my nerve and sent out a bunch of copies, but didn't receive much feedback. The people in 'the biz' who loved the first album seemed perplexed by this new batch of material. "Maybe it'll grow on me." one person put it.
I was at a loss. Because of all this, the initial excitement that we felt back in January '07 had been replaced by a delightful sort of apathy. We tried to start writing again, but had lost direction. Dave finally had enough, and he played his final show with us in the summer of '08.
The title 'The Hunter And The Fog', seems to be the perfect for this album. Initially, we had our guns poised, we knew what we were after, we thought we had all the ingredients, but we got lost and kept circling, trying to find our way back. After all this, and after a break from endlessly and narcissistically listening to it on loop, I still really stand by it as a great album. I am quite proud of it, and am surprised by the sounds and textures that we layed down among all the grab-assing, Taco Bell and Tecate.
I am thankful for all of Jasper, Will, Dave and Sean's patience, creativity and talent. I'm sorry I didn't mention it earlier, but better late than never (I hope).
Recorded at Silver Chord |
January - December 2007
Cherry Tempo
Dave Jordan - Guitar, Effects Pedals
William Phillips - Drums, Percussion, Keyboards, Guitar
Javier Romero - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Programming
Jasper Schriber - Bass, Vocals
Special Assistance
Sean McCullough - Recording and Mixing Engineer, Producer
Alan Douches - Mastering
Trike Productions - Design
I would also like to thank the following people that come to mind at the moment for both putting up with my antics and helping me become me: My Mom Carmen Rodriguez, My wonderful Rodriguez Family especially Perfecto and Clorinda Rodriguez, Susan Smith, Patrick and Suzanne Strait, Michelle Rodriguez, Westin Glass, Alex Rose, Brian Rains, Damian Taggart, Mark Heyman, Molly Bradbury, Crockett Bodelson, Guillaume Visot-Nolder, Amado and Kelli Abeyta, Maury and Connie Crandall, Jake Inman, Emily Schriber, Erin Armstrong, Nicholas Constantino, Santos Montaño, Chris Chavez, Sam Taub, Iano Dovi, Toby Lyons, Kyle Wilson, Justin Fiset, Gabe Archuleta, Damon Archuleta, Aron Conaway, James Sterling-Pitt, Giancarlo DiPalma, Jerome Louis, Rob Motes, Jose Weber, Josh Hernandez, Steve and Melissa Jabour, Brian Bosh, Forest and Anna Graham, Tug Leeder, Cory Murchy, Warren Langford, Tina Nguyen, Crystal Simms, Tara Fox, Molly Terrell, Aoife Runyan, Karina Vevaris, Ali MacHendrie Ecklund, Selene Preston, Maria Krajewski, Elena Serna, Erin Frochele, Dana Miranda, Abi Hedine, Liberty Yablon, Amenity Applewhite, Katy Gross, Diana Thomas, Marian Thomas, Maia Easton, Elenor Bauer, Mary Harris, Myrria Quintana, Darcy Lyons, Eve LaFountain, Elizabeth Murphy, Jennifer Martin and the good folks at Xynergy, Ana and Warehouse 21, Laura and Jessica at The Alibi, Honey Harris, Joe Anderson, Dr. Karl Horn (for fixing my ear).
- Javier
The other guys are working on their thank yous, they will be added shortly.