Phonofield is now three.

Both Dan (drums) and Usman (keys/piano) have decided to part ways with us.

With the rigors of writing new material, pushing ourselves constantly in the creative process to break out of our comfortable molds, we have created a beast of a project which, as a result, requires pretty much total commitment. Add on top of that the fact that we haven’t played a show since March, this has made things even harder and, sometimes, less enjoyable.

During rehearsals, often times we’ve come across difficult musical issues. We’ve found ourselves wondering if it would be too easy to throw in a particular chord here, a smooth riff there, or an atmospheric, delayed/reverbed guitar trip-out line to top it all off. Can something that sounds good really be wrong? Our answer was a definite, “Yes.”

From the beginning, I have always wanted our band to be in touch with the roots we have as musicians, to not forget the accessible, hooky, simple music that shaped our sounds and styles, but at the same time, to stretch towards what is yet to be cliche, that which challenges us to takes risks and explore, in order for us to find a way to be in the moment, here and now. To not innovate and evolve in music to me meant death. The status quo is death.

With the departure of two of our five members, Brian, Nick, and I are forced now to step up our game.

Lots of questions: What will a trio sound like? Will we be able to hang without a full-time drummer? Will we use a laptop in every song? Will we just press play and jam along to a track we’ve composed? Which songs from our catalog still apply to this new context?

But with as many questions, many realizations come into play as well: We can practice ANYWHERE (no studio required!), we are more FREE in terms of how to structure our sound, we are more naked (sort of a good thing!), we can take some chances we never would have taken before with regard to experimentation, we can play shows in smaller venues, our sound setup can be simpler, we can coordinate schedules easier, we’ll have an easier time communicating…

Perhaps a new chapter is a good thing for everyone.

As before, our goal was never just to play nice songs. It was to find a form of expression that was raw, delicate, dynamic, devastating, and uplifting. Visceral and cerebral; acoustic and electric and electronic; some strange hybrid of old and new, familiar and strange. Always sincere, always honest, always intense.

Dan, a longtime friend (of Nick’s) and an extremely talented drummer, has been known to have his hand in a few things at once, so we wish him the best in everything. We still see him as a resource, and wouldn’t be surprised to see him appear as a guest drummer in one of our future performances…

Usman, a brave soul who took a dive by responding to my crazy, ranting Craigslist post, stared right in the face of uncertainty, and stuck it through for nearly a year before we knew the slightest bit about what we were doing. When it was clear, he committed all the more, and brought the humor, the reliable work ethic, and willing spirit that makes any project easier to work on.

We will miss you. God, this sounds like a breakup.

In the meantime, stay tuned. The status quo has been destroyed. Things have been shaken.

It’s in our “Sounds Like” section. If you purchase through this outlet, we keep more of the profits. Thanks for your support!

iTunes coming shortly!

This past Sunday was our final day of mixing.

Not only that, I re-recorded the vocals last-minute for three songs… with a somewhat raspy, flu-laden voice. Will you notice? Maybe you wouldn’t have if I hadn’t told you. Perhaps you would have thought I just sounded particularly sexy for some unbeknownst reason. Ah… but the cat’s out of the bag. However, I am very relieved that I was well enough to do it after being sick twice already this year, once bad enough to warrant a trip to Urgent Care. Any later and we would have delayed the whole process, jeopardizing the timeframe for the EP’s release! Yikes.

But yes, the day has finally come when we can say we have a legit, professionally-mastered recording. Pretty scary… but we put a lot of thought and heart into every moment, and since it is semi-permanent, we thought it would be a good idea to have the whole thing brought up to industry standard specifications, and basically polished off like all other serious records.

That’s essentially what mastering is: evening the volume levels from song to song, making sure the loud parts are not overbearing, and the soft parts are audible, making sure the vocals have presence, and bringing out the frequencies that get lost and toning down the frequencies that get muddied-up. Oh, and “mastering” sounds really cool, too.

Chris from Hyperraje Records. This is one cool dude.

He’s got the creds to prove it, too

***

Funny/terribly sad/cool story:

For our cover art, I spoke with a photographer from Italy who was willing to license a photo of his out to us for free, if only in return we would send him a CD. Good deal, right? Yeah, well after going back and forth for a few weeks, this photographer’s lab supposedly suffered a terrible incident the night before our deadline. Wonderful! So yeah, I had one night to come up with a new concept for the design. Oh well. I don’t think I did too shabby a job though. I almost like it better my way…

***

Oh, and if you want to be surprised by the track listing, I suggest you LOOK AWAY NOW

Otherwise, can you spot the typos? There are at least three in this preliminary version…

Come get your very own copy March 1st when we release this at Cafe du Nord! It is sure to rock! (By that, I mean the CD and the show.)

Advance Tickets for $10

Let’s see what we’ve done so far:

-Recorded some music and edited/mixed it. That’s about it. Hahahaha.

What has to be done still:

-Mastering (to be done tomorrow), need to submit it tomorrow night

-Artwork (i have been talking back and forth with a photographer, but the photo is not in my hands yet, electronically speaking), don’t know anything about Illustrator and working with templates, need to have it done before Wed morning…

-CD Replication needs to be finished before March 1st so we have something to sell at the show!

***

None of this could have been finished any sooner either, considering I have gotten sick twice this year already. Vocals were completed yesterday… Insane.

This has been a crazy ride, learning how to do our own recording completely DIY with no more than 4 mics and a Firebox. Software tricks, late nights, hard decisions, and now the whole process of actually printing the CD/artwork… wow, who would have known this would take so much work? But hopefully, people will see a glimpse of Phonofield’s vision. And that is what makes it worth it. If one person truly gets it, I mean GETS what we’re doing, then it’s all been worth it.

This has been long overdue, so hopefully you can bear with pictures from three different recording sessions all lumped into one stream of awesome. Yep.

***PIANO***

Nick + Firebox + Macbook = Greatness

Usman readying himself.

Artsy.

I cracked the whip on Usman.

***DRUMS***

Oh yes, drums. Only four mics. We are calling it the “minimalist” recording approach.

Who needs a kick drum mic stand? OH YEAH, CUZ WE DON’T. WE USE BOXES AND SHIRTS.

Note to self: ZOOM H4, records milliseconds slower when by itself. Unusable as standalone area recorder when multi-tracking. Sad.

Note to self: guitar pedals come in handy when you need to boost up a kick drum with too little gain. Ridiculously brilliant. Or just plain ridiculous.

I just told a good joke.

Dan laid the smack down on this stage of recording.

***BASS & FINAL GUITARS***

Brian’s bass rig. Ampeg SVT3-Pro + Acme Low-B2 = tone.

Nick’s closet makes for a good isolation booth.

Fan sighting! The Phonofield movement around the world has begun.

Today I was glad I am not terribly claustrophobic. I recorded my vocals in a room roughly 3′ x 4′. I imagine someday we will be laughing about these days… yes, laughing maniacally atop a pile of $100 bills and listening to our platinum record on $1K Grado RS-1 headphones. Yes, I imagine.

Today we recorded “scratch” guitars, which is a fancy term for the tracks you sometimes throw away, laying them down so that, at the very least, the drummer has something to play along with when it comes to his part of the recordings. If they sound good enough to keep, then we have finished a significant chunk (probably 10%) of the demo today.

And The Dandelion War did not disappoint. Even though one of their members was out of town for the holiday, a talented friend of theirs stepped in and helped out on guitar. Their already epic arrangements were matched only by their stage presence: a paradoxical dance between control and abandon.

At this point, the numbers at Hotel Utah were staggering. The upper room and main floor were absolutely crowded from corner to corner, all standing in wait for the headliner.

We took the stage with a healthy dose of bewilderment, feeling at our core the definition of surreal. This was it. The moment we’ve been waiting a year for…

1) Twilight Gleaming
2) Cover Up
3) Gray
4) Pulse
5) Can’t Take It With You
6) Optimistic*
7) Flint
8) The Flames
9) [Jam]
10) Postures
11) Pretty Colored Lights

*Radiohead cover

All in all, sweaty, nervous, but confident… we came, we saw, and we conquered. And the crowd cheered for an encore we simply didn’t have!

You did it.

163 in attendance. Sold out.

Thank you! Please take this as a token of appreciation: phonofieldlivepromo.zip

-Warren