Big Chris & D'Bare Bones Band album is DONE!!!!

I have FINALLY finished the mixing of the 2nd Big Chris album.  I have had 3 songs that have given me fits while others just kind of fell into place.  The latest song is the remake of my old "Where The Worm Dieth Not" song.  I've had so much trouble getting this to sound the way I wanted.  I've redone the guitars a couple of times.  I redid the vocals and bass just this week.  I REDID the bass this week.  I finally have a mix I like!  It ain't perfect, but I did it so it won't ever be perfect!   


I still have some editing to do for song transitions and have to decide on the track order.  I still have to decide if I am going to do CDs this time or not, but I hope to have this released digitally at least on Bandcamp.com before the end of the week.  I have the final weekend of my play to do this weekend, so I won't get this completed until the first of the week.

I am just pleased to finally have this done.  Then, it will be time to start recording again so I can learn computer based recording and editing.

Very cool!

As for the CD opt (which I prefer) can't you do one of those companies that press/print on demand (like Xid did with the Joshua's Creed album)?

Congrats Chris. It's a lot of work being the writer, the musician, AND the sound engineer. Well done you.

Congrats!

Congrats Chris!!  Try Kunaki for CD's. The plus is that they will do your CD's on demand and you can also link from your website directly to your album sales page on their site. They are inexpensive and only take a small cut of the profit. So basically you pay nothing. The down side is that they don't have many options for your CD insert and their shipping takes a while due to them being based in California.

Wow!  Kunaki has very low prices compared to CreateSpace.  The only downside is the 2-page insert compared to CreateSpace's 4-page.

Two page inserts would still be more than the cardboard sleeve I did last time.

Very true!

That was hard working to get the CD sound like you want it to have.
You've done a very good job.

Well done Chris!  Congratulations!  I agree with Xid, JLE and Staybrite.  Print on demand would be a great idea.  It worked well for my book, and has been a rather painless experience.  Not having to order hundreds at the beginning is a bit of a win win!

Congrats!

Do you have the album artwork sorted out yet? I thought I remember adding my critique to something you and Fundy might have been working on.

Any Fundy lyrics on this album?

Fundy did the cover artwork for the front.  I will post it below.

The back cover will be reminiscent of the Van Halen album "Diver Down".  Instead of the maritime symbol for their album name, mine will be the sign for "Man Overboard".  I was going to use this for the cover until Fundy made his artwork.

Are their any Fundy lyrics this time?  YES!  We co-wrote a song called "Legs".  No, it has nothing to do with the famous ZZ Top song by the same name.  This one is about a guy with an addiction to internet porn.   He had originally done the lyrics about a hooker, but I wasn't sure that a lot of people would connect with going to a streetwalker.  I had him change the story to internet porn as I know  that a lot of both men and women struggle in that area.  While we do describe the addiction, we tried not to get preachy with it.  We simply give the advice to get off the internet if this is a problem.

Song titles are (but not necessarily in this order):

Legs
Free
Lord, How I Love The Way She Walks
Completely Flexible
Man Overboard
Bootlegger's Prayer
Please Don't Make Me Watch A Chick Flick
Where The Worm Dieth Not
I Love You More Than Meatloaf
Bush (parody of ZZ Top's "Tush")
Yes, I Know
Give It To Jesus

Very cool.
So you ended up with 12 songs.  If I remember correctly this collection of songs started out as potentially and EP project.  Looks like you found some more music to add to it.

I did end up with 12.  I am redoing three old Mission Of One songs for this and the rest are all new.  Well, ok.  I did a southern gospel release many years ago and the acapella song was from that project.  But, knowing that none of my rock or blues fans had heard this, I decided to redo it.  I am planning on shooting a video for that one just to showcase that all four parts are being sung by me.

You have a good memory, Gary.  I originally wanted to do 5 songs and call the project "Hell & Utter Foolishness".  There would have been two songs mentioning or about Hell (The Worm Dieth Not & Bootlegger's Prayer) and three silly songs.  The title would have been intentionally controversial as people would have misunderstood the meaning to think I was saying there was no Hell.  In all reality, it would have clearly pointed out that there were two Hell songs and three silly comedy tracks.  But, I decided to redo the old Mo1 songs and wrote others. Now, it is a full length project.

As for a third project, I cannot speak to when that will happen.  I have a couple of songs I want to record, i have music worked out for a couple of others with no lyrics, and a few unfinished lyrical ideas floating around.  I am nowhere near ready to record.  However, since I have new toys to start recording with the computer, I would like to do a 4 song EP of cover tunes and literally give it away.  I would love to record "Hide" that Rose did on the Intense Live series.  I would also love to redo the song "Prayer" by the band Cornerstone.  I also have a track that Kelly Matthews of Lordchain sent me that they did on a side project of theirs that I want to do.  All I need is one more track.  This would give me more than enough songs to practice with my new toys.

I believe this is the final 'Staybrite' version...

Fundy wrote:

I believe this is the final 'Staybrite' version...

I am almost tempted to use that just to see if anyone would notice!

alldatndensum wrote:

I am almost tempted to use that just to see if anyone would notice!

Oh gosh, don't do that! 

Staybrite wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

I am almost tempted to use that just to see if anyone would notice!

Oh gosh, don't do that! 

You could be like the "Where's Waldo" of Christian music!  If you shrink that picture down to a normal CD size, your face would just appear to be a spot.  It would be cool to see what people thought.  I almost bet they would simply think that this was my face since I am again not appearing on my own album cover.  Are you sure you don't want to do this?  I think it would be hilariously fun!

alldatndensum wrote:

Staybrite wrote:

alldatndensum wrote:

I am almost tempted to use that just to see if anyone would notice!

Oh gosh, don't do that! 

You could be like the "Where's Waldo" of Christian music!  If you shrink that picture down to a normal CD size, your face would just appear to be a spot.  It would be cool to see what people thought.  I almost bet they would simply think that this was my face since I am again not appearing on my own album cover.  Are you sure you don't want to do this?  I think it would be hilariously fun!

It's your album.  I certainly don't care if you use my face.  Might actually be kind of a neat little (albeit dorky) inside joke.

I can blur the edges a bit if you like...

And, now I am going to have to mix these again as I can no longer hear my snare drum once these songs are mastered!  I AM SICK OF MIXING!!!!

alldatndensum wrote:

And, now I am going to have to mix these again as I can no longer hear my snare drum once these songs are mastered!  I AM SICK OF MIXING!!!!

Ouch, maybe take a break from it for a few days.