New Song Begins.

Last night I put together the beginnings of a new song (finally). I have wrapped up all the software installations and can now get back to making music, which feels really good. As always, I go long periods in between writing Halou songs, but I usually do them in clusters.

This one, for now, we will call 'January' and we will track its progress here on the blog and see how it ends up.

Last night, I focused on coming up with a percussion figure to anchor the track. Once I had that going, it was easy to find complimentary instrumentation and some of the new tools I've been gathering made it incredibly easy. Rebecca, in typical fashion, hummed along from the beginning and had a solid vocal going right away.

Next time, I'll try to get some video of work on the track...

RYAN

ARCHIVE: Building The Studio

A few years ago when we moved house and I built my studio I posted my progress online. I just found the page and you can see it here if you like.

RYAN

Back-end Bits

I imagine this might be as fun to read as it is to write - which is to say, 'perhaps not very' - but I persist.

I have been working quite steadily on Dynamophone-related business for the past week, filling my days with mixing, recording and hypothesizing about how to get the most out of the audio one is given. Thankfully, the audio I've been given is quite good, so the challenge is for me to present it in the best possible light. Prerequisite for this being, of course, that I shall get no sleep - and should sleep come, I must dream of rising oceans that swallow low-lying lands and force one to make tough decisions about what size wooden plank is sufficient to use as transport across the angry sea. The short version of this story is that I'm pleased with where I'm at on the Rigil project and the first 'serious' mixes are sounding good to my ear with mainly small tweaking and fun, creative things left to do.

On the Halou side, I have been editing quite a bit of video footage for various things. Video is strange in that we've all been cultured to expect a certain level of 'quality' (dare I use the word?) having grown up in front of television sets. I guess what I mean is, we all know crap when we see it. I have been exposed to just about my fill of crap video lately and, hence, have been putting in some effort learning ways to navigate around that outcome. More on this as things develop.

RYAN

What?

Is Amazon.com actually selling Wiser for $80.00?

REBECCA

Reissuing

We are in the early stages of planning a reissue of our first album, We Only Love You for its 10th anniversary and I've been spending some time gathering up the tracks to include on the release. Of course, the full content of the original album will be included as well as some additional tracks tbd. The lofty goal is to 're-mix' and remaster each track, as well, to greatly improve its overall sound. As soon as things become more solid, we will put it up on halou.com to preorder.

Slow Tools

Pro Tools is a great application. However, as with most updates, the new version has thrown my system into chaos. So much so, in fact, that I'm reinstalling the previous version. I've got a seriously powerful computer and 7.3 is just bogging it down for some reason. Seeing a lot of spinning beach ball. Unfortunately, right now I've got way too much going on to troubleshoot this problem and 7.2 was so stable and quick.

Not Stopping

Right at the end of last year I took on the project of producing a new Dynamophone artist named Rigil. Today, I'm in the thick of things with the first song nearly done. The songs are quite good and they provide enough interest to keep things interesting as I listen over and over. Each track suggests a lot of ideas and I expect I'll be able to move through things rather quickly.

Next week will bring another round of editing live Halou video. We have talked a little bit about putting out a DVD, but it's early days and things are very much up in the air regarding all that.

In the next few days, I'll begin work on a new Halou track, which I intend to chronicle right here from beginning to end. I'm not sure how that works without posting the audio, but that's what makes this whole blog thing so exciting, innit?

Ryan.

The Long Road Home

Seattle, Seattle. We were hardly there, it seems.

14 hours up. 14 hours back. I think there was a show in there, as well. That's right. A lovely town, as ever, but a few little twists can always change things. I'm not sure El Corazon was the right venue for us and things were definitely a little logistically complex.

Rolling up to the club, we parked next to a rather unfortunate fellow laying on the sidewalk underneath the freeway ramp tucked into layers of blankets and sleeping bags. I continue to be confused about what causes this kind of thing that can't be addressed in a reasonable way. Here's a problem with no politically-viable constituency to raise its profile.

Inside the club, things we're more cheery. All the other performers on the bill were very kind. I'm afraid I didn't get a chance to catch any of the music during the evening. It's always great to catch up with old friends that have been coming to our shows over the last few years and this was a good occasion to do that.

The performance itself was enjoyable. I think we've played better, but I was happy with it. It's hard to play in those starkly-lit venues where there's no 'ambiance' at all. I'm hardly into huge billowing fog, but a little haze can give things a little bit of something that's otherwise just missing. We're all still really enjoying playing the new songs and I think those went well.

So, what's next? There are a lot of small projects we've got in front of us before we really start nailing down the album sometime in March/April. We probably won't be playing much in the next few months for this reason, but things change. As details emerge, we will post them here.

Ryan

Soundchecking

We're here at El Corazon at about 9:20 and just wrapped our soundcheck. Went flawlessly, which is just what you hope for after making a 14 hour drive through the ice-decorated Northwestern highway landscape. Next on the agenda has to be food and wine.

I've never made the trip up here with so much of the terrain covered in ice and frost. You can't help but get in the Christmas spirit as you drive through Tacoma, its countless neon stripmalls glittering beneath blankets of shiny white. Northern Oregon, in particular, was really dazzling with its distant mountains taking on a silvery hue as the shadow mixes with the flecks of white.

More soon.

Ryan.

Order Delay

Normally, orders are packed on Sunday and shipped Monday or Tuesday. Because of our impending Seattle trip, orders placed through halou.com this week will be packed 1/21 and shipped on 1/22 or 1/23. We apologize for the delay.

If you have an urgent need, there's always iTunes!

Thanks!

REBECCA

VIDEO POST: Tubfed Live

OK, so we've finally got the first of the multi-camera live videos done:
(For some reason, there's about a 13 second blank screen at the beginning)

AUDIO POST: R/R Coseboom - 'Untitled'

As I mentioned a few days ago, Rebecca and I recorded a simple live version of an old Cure song called 'Untitled'. We don't really 'do' cover songs for our records, so I figured this would be a good entry for an audio posting here, besides my pocketbook can hardly afford to send checks to Mr Smith & friends...

Bloggers and podcasters, go ahead and play it where you will, thanks:

R/R COSEBOOM - UNTITLED

(written by Smith/Tolhurst/O'Donnell/Gallup/Thompson/Williams)

Show Update

In case you don't get the email updates, click HERE.

Crawling into 2007

I'm totally bedridden-sick, unable to work on the many projects I've got in front of me. I had planned to come into 2007 paying more attention to what I'm eating, etc. and this illness has me doing that even more than I intended.

Next week is a busy one, with Count speaking at the MacWorld conference on Thursday and Halou playing up in Seattle on Saturday at a Microsoft Zune event. Hopefully, we'll be able to figure out the on-the-road blogging thing...

VIDEO POST: Timothy Video Editing

Friend of Halou, Timothy Benton, in the studio cutting video...

Another Strange Article

An interview with Count done before the recent 'Reload' performance. CLICK HERE

Funny Article: SF Chronicle

Short Halou profile with bizarre questions. CLICK HERE

1994

Due to the generosity/perversity of one clever gift-giver, Rebecca and I last night were confronted with a DVD of a performance of our old band circa 1994. Sure, it was embarrassing and hard to watch, but it was interesting that one of the performances was a showcase for IUMA, arguably the first music site on the web. Part of the video showed the cameraperson navigating the dodgy website of our dodgy band. 1994 did not have a lot to offer in terms of web content, I was reminded.

Ryan