When I bought Thrice’s latest album I thought about Dustin’s 3 daughters under 5 years old. When I bought Rocky Votolato’s vinyl I thought about his son Kienan and his wife April. When I saw Matt Pond PA at a show I paid for and then bought the 7” record I thought about the medical bills he would incur from the broken leg he got on that tour. When I bought my younger brother’s band Vanna’s latest album on iTunes when I could have easily emailed him to send me the tracks, I thought about the 4 other guys in the band and the trailer and gear they had stolen this past year.

As a musician and first and foremost - a music fan - I’m more thoughtful about how I spend the little money I have on music these days. I’m no saint and I’m not claiming to be but I am proud to support the people and lives behind the music I love with my money because to me - it’s worth it. It directly fuels the fire to continue the music making that has become the soundtrack of my life. I’m a romantic, I’m old fashioned & I love music. Without music, my life would be a whole lot darker.

To those people who have brought wonderful music into my life in the past and present - I thank you and hope you continue to make the music you want to make and I will be there to enjoy it with you.

Cheers,
Brian Marquis 

After spending 3 days at 37’ Productions recording, the remaining recording was to be done at the New England Art Institute of Boston’s on-campus studios where Brad is graduating from this summer. The room was great and setup was quick, which was important since we had a small window of time to get stuff done there.

I recorded vocal harmonies and played around with a few ideas and got some really good stuff down before we did a bass track which was the real goal of the day.

My brother Shawn, who plays bass for the band Vanna, was going to be on tour all summer but I really wanted him to play bass on at least one song on my record. They happened to be playing Boston Aug 4th so I arranged for him to come into the studio right after soundcheck and a meet & greet with fans to lay down a bass track. Shawn arrived with a little more than an hour left on the clock in the studio after battling Red Sox traffic so time was of the essence. Knowing how good of a musician and bass player my brother was, having him hear the track for the first time and writing a bass line to it and then record it didn’t seem like a tall order. Shawn got right into it and before we knew it we had a sweet bass track like he just came from practice with his bluegrass jug band. Very happy that we were able to work it out for him to play on the record.

Day 5

Today was all about laying down lots and lots of harmonies that would make the Soggy Bottom Boys wanna dance. I can really hear things coming to life a lot more with the vocals now that all my melodies are coming together. This is a really fun part of recording for me, and also the part that comes the easiest for me. We recorded for a couple hours and finished all but 2 songs. We’ll find another day to squeeze in a few hours of vocals and my buddy Erick Serna is going to record a slide guitar track on one song for me at his studio in Western Mass which I am very excited to hear. Almost, almost finished and ready for mixing! I’m very happy with how things are coming along and that’s just hearing everything raw, unmixed and not even the best takes. Exciting times. Thanks for stopping by, hopefully only 1 more recording blog until the mixes come back!