Tales From The City: How The Album Was Made (Part 1)

From November 2007 to February 2008 the band has been very busy working on new demos that became songs and then these, in the end, formed our new album: "Tales From The City".

Writing a complete album can be a difficult task. You go into phases where it brings you to great heights but also to very great lows. I personally think everybody goes into these phases, from a school teacher to a car engineer to a doctor. The only difference is that with musicians you feel them over a short period of time. Perhaps that is why drugs can be such a big part of the histories of musicians, because we live so many highs and lows.

(ANYWAY), I’ll try with the best of my abilities to explain to you how the record was made: from the first demo I wrote through the recording process; what influenced me at the time and how I tried to put that into the music. Since I write the music, I’ll try to keep these future blogs only on the musical aspect because it would not be fair from my part to give my own interpretation of the lyrics since Mat writes them.

When I first start thinking of the next record, our second one, I think it was somewhere around July 2007. I had previously written a few demos but nothing concrete, only ideas here and there but no specific direction. Because my early demos didn’t have any flavor, I started thinking what I could do to improve them. I then tried to remember why I was doing music, why I fell in love with this art. I came to the conclusion that I didn’t fall in love with a song in particular, but with albums, because the best albums have a signature, a sound. It brings you into different moods, it reminds you of a certain period of your life, which is something we didn’t quite achieve with "Tomorrow Starts Today". Our first record is a good collection of songs... but without any links behind it.

That was the starting point: writing a record instead of composing singles. What kind of album would I’d like to do? What directions the band would be willing to take?

The first memory that I have was that I wanted something very joyful, something pleasant to listening to, something very pop.

One precise moment changed my whole vision of the record. In July 2007 my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Even if there was a good chance to recover from this terrible disease, it changed my way of seeing things. I could feel death... it was around.

Thanks to who ever is out there, she is still alive and in good health.

Nonetheless, it changed my life. And it was the first element of inspiration: Darkness and melancholy was "au rendez-vous". Life isn’t just beautiful.

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Next blog, we’ll go track by track and together, we’ll discover every elements of the album. I say "we" because for me too it will be like rediscovering the process of recording the album which will be a good exercise.

Regards,
Criq