I decided to add a few words on 'Dark Blue Dream' to the press area as it seemed a good place to convey some of my thoughts and intentions about the CD. I also find that when I get a chance to tell a story about a song, or illustrate my feelings and intentions about the music in words like this, it gives listeners a more direct insight as to what is happening. With the knowledge that instrumental music can be interpreted so many different ways, and with such diversity from person to person, I wanted to give you- the reader and listener- a more direct insight, straight from the source.

Let's also not forget, these aren't the days of full sized LPs anymore. 'Real estate' on a CD cover is pretty small, so I felt this is a better place to present some of my thoughts. You won't need to use a magnifying glass to see this!

It was my intention to record this CD in the spirit of live performance. I wanted to convey the feeling to the listener of being at a concert. In a live concert setting, musically speaking, anything can happen, and with the right chemistry with the musicians, it does! This has a direct reflection on the duration of these songs. I'm not hiding the fact that a lot of the songs are long by today's popular radio standards. "Time flies when you're having fun" and this is what happened during those 2 days in the studio recording this music. This brings me to my next point, which is 'who is having all the fun'.

I asked Frank Gambale-guitar, Jimmy Earl-bass, and Tom Brechtlein-drums to be involved in this CD because for starters, they are among the best! I had been listening to these guys for years before I moved to L.A. and admired their musicality. When I moved here I had the good fortune to meet them- all under different musical circumstances, and work with them. Another reason I chose these guys is because I became friends with them. It seemed like a logical thing to me to bring them together in this situation.

It took juggling the guys' schedule to find a good open hole on the calendar to have rehearsals and record. It turns out the the studio was pretty flexible, so we used that location for rehearsals. What we ended up scheduling was two (2) days rehearsing, and two (2) days recording. This was a remarkable musical feat because this music is not the easiest to sight read!

When we all agreed on the time to rehearse and record, I went about the process of providing them with computer demos of the songs and the sheet music. After spending considerable time in front of the computer, I was able to give the guys both an audio and visual general idea of the direction I wanted to take with this music.

Our process of recording chronologically was to rehearse one song a few times to feel the right tempo, get the right sound and general vibe of the song. When that seemed cool to everyone, we'd record the song a few times. From multiple takes of each song, we chose the best feeling performances as a majority vote. After we came to a final agreement on one song, we'd decide on to the next one to record and start the process again.

I think out of my friendship and respect for each of the musicians, it needs to be said as complimentary as possible: Each song is a 'one take' performance, and if I may say: incredible performances they are!

This was a fun and challenging experience for me as it was my first time using "Logic Pro" software. This software is very deep in it's programming possibilities, and provides many options in editing. There are a few instances where I did some song editing (not to be confused with editing individual's performances). The editing I did was entire band edits in which I selected all the instruments at a specific start time to end time within a song and snipped out the middle.

[side bar: This is a testament to the amazing talents of the musicians. In many situations, edits like this are audibly unattractive and result in 'pops' or 'clicks' mainly because of speeding or dragging tempos. In the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, Tom Brechtlein gets a big A+! He and "Logic Pro" made my editing easy.]

I also spent some time adding effects into the sounds that enhanced the vibe of what the music called for. For example, in some areas I added some echo/delay to a keyboard lead sound, or a special equalizer application to get a 'telephone voice' kind of sound on a drum loop.

Another thing that prompted my respect for "Logic Pro" even more is its flexibility in preparing the songs for the mastering process. In our recent history regarding music technology, we used to deliver 2 inch tapes to the mastering facilities (this still goes on in certain circles). Depending on how much recorded material there is, that can amount to a serious amount of time mastering. Add into that the popularity of the better mastering facilities, and that can mean a lot of time waiting for other projects to complete before yours gets attention. Of course, as technology grew and improved, we moved from 2 inch, to 1 inch, to DAT tapes, to many CDRs, etc... I took one hard drive with my mixed music to Ron Boustead at Precision Mastering and walked to my car 6 hours later with a finished product in my hands. This is also a testament to Ron's talents as he is one of the best in the business.

In appreciation,

Steve Weingart