New year, new beginnings, new drive.

So here’s the story.

First things first…we have ProTools. This means I now have almost every music production software available. From Ensoniques Paris, to Cakewalk Homestudio 8, to Reason 1 , Reason 3 , Cubase, Redrum and more… my circle is complete as ProTools is the industry leader and what most musicians use.

I now have two teams for production.

Alpha Team:
Alpha Team is myself and Saccovan. We’ll be working on the future projects like “Man God” which resumes production shortly after holidays and studio moves and restructures and computer failures and other things that come to piss me off. Alpha Team will use our mutual ProTools equipment, his guitars, mandolins, bass and Korg Triton rack along with my Roland Fantom-S workstation/keyboard.
Omega Team:

Omega Team is myself and Ed Friedman. He’s back from working on Hollywood projects and has torn down his antiquated “Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll” mentality and embraced the new wave of Dark Rock that is Epica. He’s in charge of tearing down both “Darkside” and “Consecrate: Anthem of the Athame” and an older song; “Master of the Dark” from the “GUNK “(gothic/Funk fusion )  Project. He must learn the songs notes and structures and begin rebuilding them. He’ll be responsible for mapping key changes, changing tempos and helping rebuild to more realistic choir and stronger, punchier orchestrations. Omega Team will be using our mutual ProTools equipment, his guitars, bass and Korg Triton workstation/ workstation along with my Roland Fantom-S workstation/keyboard.

This is where we’re at. The project goes full swing within days.

Make it so! Engage!

I’ve done it. I’ve found the Jim Steinman to my Meatloaf. I’ve found the Garfunkel to my Simon. I’ve found the man that’s gonna put Epica on the top of the heap of the revolution!

Ok… His stage name is The Producer: SACCOVAN, and when I first heard his song “Sake” which he claims he wrote and recorded drunk in 6 hours, I knew he was the guy for me.

One day he came to the day job. I have a roll up midi keyboard that I keep in my briefcase. We pulled it out and in a few moments he was grasping half the melodic bass line I was going to use in my latest song; “Man-god”. Hell, we even took the time out to test what my vocal range was so he could make sure he could work within the parameters! That’s what I call a professional! A few days later he calls me up and asks me to come over. Let me digress and tell you that a man who lives 8 blocks from my job which is 12 miles from my house is so much more enticing and excellent than the 120 miles I traveled each way to the last bunch!

So anyway, I go over to his house and he plays for me about 8 or 10 tracks of the most amazing rendition of the few bass notes I gave him complete with spooky choirs and mandolins along with live bass, synth bass, rhythm guitar and very warm percussion! MANDOLINS!! I had never heard them before in modern music! They gave such an earthy yet
soulful ethereal sound to the whole thing I think I may want them in every song I do with this guy!

Not only is he a genius at fleshing things out, basically, each song should only take 6 solid days to complete rather than months or the 2 YEARS it was taking to do the other songs in the old places. This time, there’s no reason why this project will not only be completed, but be so amazingly awesome that the finished product could go for every award and record ever established. I’m talking everything from Best New Artist to Highest grossing album of all time.

OK, sure…it’s good to dream, but I truly am seeking perfection. The kind of perfection that made Thriller the all time kind of all albums sold. The kind that wins Best New Artist. The kind that smashes sales

According to my text messages, my engineer who deemed to grace me with a text communique, tells me that he doesn’t have time for my project because he has a new bunch of musicians he hangs out with that simply “dig his music“. Ok… I’m trying to start a revolution and it seems I just can’t get anyone to get it through their heads that what is being attempted here can quite possibly change the world as we know it.

Maybe it’s me. Maybe because I’ve become complacent and sedentary, the fates are pulling away a bit. There was a Twilight Zone episode where a family loses it’s daughter through an inter-dimensional portal that opens up in the daughters bedroom next to her bed an she falls into this other dimension. They map off with chalk the size of the portal.
During the course of discovering she’s in through this portal that still has the appearance of looking like a standard bedroom wall, the father is held by the ankles as they try to guide her back to the opening.

All the while, the local neighbor who was helping hold the ankles kept shouting for him to hurry. As it seemed that while the father had half his body in our dimension, the doorway to the other side was closing. Eventually, he would have been stuck with one half of himself in this dimension and the other half in the other.

That’s somewhat how I feel. Like the windows of opportunity are closing on me. With Rob quitting at this time and him telling me that the files may be “in-decipherable” is starting to tell me that 2 years of planning an recording may have been all for naught. I very well may have to buckle down and HIRE people to get this thing done. I had been trying to avoid the whole “by the hour” thing. Not to be cheap or anything, but simply because I didn’t want that “assembly line” feel. I wanted a Jim Steinman to my Meatloaf. This guy was supposed to be it, yet after 2 years we can’t finish ONE FUCKING SONG?!?!?

Now comes the times in mens souls when we must shit or get off the pot. In the next few posts I will explain how I intend to get a handle on this situation. Like a General on the battlefield, I must regroup and put things in to gear by amassing more troops. I have been to lax in my work. Now I have changed the plan. First, I must bring the base camp closer. 127 miles to record when I have a regular job is more of a time waster than anything. Secondly, I must attempt to find a way to actually finish Consecrate be it in another studio, at home or back up at Robs. Either way, it’s something that must be done. I’d rather not have to do both Darkside AND Consecrate all over again.

There is a new plan. I’m going to let it fly. You’ll be able to keep up with the progress here at my new home for Epical updates.

So here it is. The brand spankin’ shiny new Epichronical blog. This is the blog strictly for all the project progress reports and the technical end about what’s entailed in trying to get this musical career in flight. Posts prior to this will be imported from my “Project Progress Reports” category at the Path to Endarkenment blog.

Following this will be the most current of what’s going on in the ways of the Epical Musical Prophet.