Astoria is the search for the sense of the miraculous in everyday life. The follow up to The Days Of Truth & Hope, Astoria hopes to take listeners deeper into a world where music has no boundaries. By combining elements of Progressive Rock, Jazz, Celtic & Modern music our goal was to create songs whose emotion depth would not be compromised by preconceived notions. We sincerely hope you enjoy the results.
Astoria is released and on sale now!!!!
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(Jason) Some songs are just born to be written and to me this one of them. My friend Shannon Webb and I were working on his solo cd and he brought me just the basic elements of the song. As soon as I heard it, I fired out the keyboard and begin to write the intro & string arrangements to it. Shannon told me that this song would fit in much better on my record than his so here we are. I reworked the lyrics and arrangement a few times to add some dynamics. The overall mood is very exotic but still maintains a rock feel to it.
(Van) This song had already been recorded in a different form for another person when I first heard it. The psuedo Middle Eastern vibe was already present. It felt very “Kashmir-ish”. Very powerful. I tried to establish a somewhat Bohnam-esque groove in the verses. Subtly complex with the double bass patterns and “ice-bell” cymbal but heavy and somewhat loop like. In the verses I freed up the pattern a bit and used some off beat ride cymbal patterns to give it some musical movement. Steve Smith (Journey, Vital Information) is a master at this. I totally ripped it off. Lol! No wait, I learned from history. ;)
We experimented quite a bit with the newly created “break down” middle section. At one point we even tried a tribal drum solo. Bad idea ;) What seemed to work best was reintroducing the looped drum pattern from the intro to establish some continuity and lay a pad for a solo. We had always envisioned a guitar solo but when Dave Bainbridge offered to provide a keyboard solo and we heard what he came up with, it sounded as if it should have always been a flute solo all along.
(Jason) This was the last song written and probably one of the most fun to record. It began with the acoustic rhythm that I happened to just come across one day. As soon as I played it I started writing lyrics for it. Once I got the basic structure laid out, we added the bridge section that modulates and goes into more of an angelic sound. After this comes the guitar/bass tapping section where I'm tapping the acoustic strings Michael Hedges style. Van comes in on the marimba and Dave with a jazz fusion inspired piano solo, which really adds a lot of dynamics to the song. It takes a lot of twists and turns throughout making it an exciting listen. At the heart of this record this song defines the lyrical mood of the album and what it represents.
(Van) When Jason first presented this song it was just acoustic guitar and drum machine. It was pretty obvious that it had some great melody potential. I decided to play off the original drum machine loop and keep it pretty groovy and simple. The soaring half-time section was something that evolved along the way as a bridge to introduce the more prog-like guitar tapping section. Getting this to flow together was a bit of a challenge so it didn’t end up sounding like a train wreck. Keeping the “flying brick” fill into this helped the new section settle into the tempo change quite nicely I think. The guitar tapping section was originally in 4/4 but I had the bright idea to drop a beat at each turnaround. Jason bought the idea and it instantly became the proggy-fusiony section. Hooray! Adding a couple layers of marimba, shaker and bongos gave it somewhat of a rich Latin feel and Dave’s piano solo and organ work is absolutely killer! I can’t help but smile every time I hear it.
The Narrow Path
(Jason) This song actually started out as another instrumental song. The beginning and ending were another song that I had written on nylon string guitar awhile ago. The middle section was written to add a travelogue moment in the song, to add excitement and take you on a journey that at the beginning you maybe didn't think was going to happen.
(Van) An acoustic guitar based song whose form stayed pretty much the same from the beginning. It’s an interesting song in that it doesn’t have a standard verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge form. It’s more like a slow building journey (along a narrow path?) that doesn’t repeat itself till the end guitar reprise brings it full circle. Since you don’t really hear repeated verses or choruses it has the interesting effect of wanting to be listened to several times in a row. That sounds like some sneaky musician mind trick to fool the listener into repeated plays. Does it work? ;)
I decide to let the drum part build slowly, starting with sparse cymbal and shaker parts. Adding some simple bass drum for a bit more energy. When the full grove comes in I decided to use my smaller auxiliary snare to keep the sound lighter and higher. Saving the main snare for the more powerful “climbing” section. Jason was kind enough to leave some areas open for some drum breaks so I played some stuff.
(Jason) Swampy is the word for this one...the song began as the opening guitar riff and once I had it I knew I had to have some dobro on it. As the song progressed it developed a kind of swampy/open/atmospheric quality to it. I really like the way Elic sang this, he captured the mood in the vocals perfectly. Greg V did a killer job on the dobro adding very haunting passages throughout to enchanece the overall feeling. Van did a wonderful job of keeping that slow groove without compromising the musicality of the rhythm section.
(Van) A very cool laid back swampy song. Kind of reminded me of some solo Robbie Robertson. My intentions were to keep it pretty simple and groovin’ in the verses and bring up the energy in the choruses a bit. For the bridge section I added some bongos and a primitive bottle cap tambourine/shaker to give it a more “rootsy” feel. Jason kept fussing with the guitar solo for a while until he got it just right. I’m glad he did. I think it sounds great. Simple, soaring, great tone and sets just the right mood.
Drifting
(Jason) I had the main piano riff around for awhile. I always thought it would make a cool song but never could figure out exactly what to do with it. One day I added the strings and all of a sudden I knew I was on the right path. About 30 minutes later it was done. I always thought this was an interlude more than a full length song. Its really more of a connection piece but still seems to stand on it’s own equally well.
(Van) An extremely “visual” song. Very Pink Floyd-ish in its musical imagery. I suggested the idea of using a water sound effect in the beginning to help set the mood. I also think it helps tie in the cd cover artwork to the song. But the title could also be interpreted as a person wrestling with their convictions. I like the way the song finishes somewhat open-ended, signifying a person’s ongoing struggles. The marimba, piano and violin seem to work well together to create a very lush musical landscape. I’m glad my 4 mallet chops hadn’t disintegrated too far.
Into The Eastern Wind
(Jason) I believe this was the 2nd song we recorded for the record. I wrote the entire acoustic section for the whole song before I even had an idea what else I was going to do with it. But the melody and the remainder of the song just unfolded over a few days of pressing into it. Again this has a travelogue feel to it that takes you on a journey. Frank did an amazing job on violin and really captured the vibe of the celtic/exotic nature of this song.
(Van) A travelogue piece, that takes the listener on a multi-layered journey. Frank Van Essen’s violin work really ties the 2 halves of the song together into a cohesive work.
I felt this song needed to be very “tom” oriented to keep with it’s ethnic flavor. I also didn’t really like the more contemporary sound of drumsticks on the toms so I played everything with plastic bundled “rods”. It produced a much “wetter/slappier” sound that I thought better fit the mood. Jason really liked it so…. For the 1st part of the song I decided to have the tom parts build a section at a time to establish some nice layering. So every 8 bars a new tom part is added as well as other miscellaneous percussion. If we ever play this live I’m going to need more phalanges!
Even though the song was essentially done a few years ago we decided late in the mixing process that the middle transition section needed some additional work. It’s never too late to “tweek”, right? I think it paid off. I mean come on, how can you not like a song with a gong hit! The 2nd half of the song is a bit more straight ahead but I didn’t want to totally lose the ethnic vibe so I turned the snares off and used a liberal amount of “tom work” for the pre-chorus sections. I think it all tied together pretty well.
(Jason) Most of the song was written awhile ago but the middle "groove & solo" section are reasonably new. I knew I wanted Dave to play a prog rock B3 organ solo and boy did he ever! We reworked the chorus at the very last minute of recording and I am glad we did because once we sang it, it all fell together and made sense. You will notice the rockier songs on here seem to have an exotic flair to them. I always thought you could do this kind of thing in a rock song. Like Kashmir and others...
(Van) Probably the “edgiest” song on the cd. My goal was to create a drum part that had the same sense of “urgency” that the lyrics invoked. The only problem was, the lyrics were developed after my part was done. Lol. Sometimes you have to be a mind reader. Ok, maybe my drum part shaped the urgency of the lyrics in some way. Ya, that’s it!
Lots of energy and snare activity keep the song pushing forward. A few opportunities for some good prog-ish “money fills”. Some nice aggressive cymbal bashing during the middle section. A strategically placed vibraslap hit for just the proper amount of “menace”. Sorry Mr. Walken, Vibraslap is the “cowbell” of the new millennium. :) Besides some great guitar work by Jason, the thing that really caps the song off in my opinion is the terrific synth work and organ solo by Dave Bainbridge. Aggressive, yet textural at the same time, the organ solo is the perfect buildup to the “fall off the cliff” (or does he?) climax. Huge thanks to Dave on this one.
(Jason) One of my favorite songs on here, It's a very simple ballad mixed within a nice atmospheric feel. I really like the lyrics of this song, how it guides you along and uses images of nature to tell a story.
(Van) Just a lazy, sittin’ on the front porch, starring at the stars kind of vibe. Nothing complicated. Just some bongos, shaker, cymbal rolls and temple blocks to help paint the musical picture.
Lost For You
(Jason) This song was one of those moments as a songwriter you wish you could have everyday. A few years ago Danny and I were just jamming and I had the main melody already developed. I said let me play you this and see if you can come up with the chords. Well in about 20 mins the song was done, it was very strange how we begin to play the song and once we ran out of what we had written we just continued to play and new sections were being written in real time and it was wonderful. I was recording our performance for backup and at the end of the song we just looked at each other what just happened, that was incredible. I have never had a moment like that since, it was truly a gift.
(Van) The first song I recorded for Jason and the last one I made revisions to. An absolutely beautiful song. Great string work by Frank Van Essen and Claire Fitch. My sole job was to not mess it up. Just some cymbal rolls and toms for color and texture. At the 11th hour I decided to re-do the cymbal rolls and change my previous floor tom rolls to more orchestral sounding timpani rolls. Much more lush. A fine decision on my part ;)
A reed player friend of mine, Mike Jones, happened to be listening to a mix of the song just before it was going to be sent off for mastering and offered to try a penny whistle part on it. Something we had never thought of. It ended up sounding great, just like it was always meant to be there. This piece would have probably sounded perfect without any percussion but I wanted to be on the stage when it receives its Grammy for Best Instrumental Performance. Maybe I’m biased but I think it’s one of the most beautifully haunting songs I’ve ever heard.
(Jason) The first song I wrote ends up being the last song on the record. I wanted to write a 2 part Celtic infused piece that had this great middle section and energetic jig ending that would provide a triumphant ending to the record. Everyone really did a wonderful job on this song giving the spirit that I wanted to capture on this song.
(Van) Ah, the cd closer. It’s gotta be special, right? Well I think it is. A very Celtic influenced piece based around Frank Van Essen’s excellent violin work and another example of “tweeking” at it’s best.
A “finished” version actually showed up on a Christian compilation cd a few years ago called CPR (Christian Progressive Rock) Vol. II. But come on, we couldn’t just release the same version again. Much too easy. No we decided to re-do the drum part, the vocals, add some new guitar and synth parts, fly in a new penny whistle part just prior to mastering. Just minor cosmetic changes. Lol. Well they were all for the better and I’m very happy with the way it all turned out.
I really like how the song gradually ramps up the energy and drama. Jason’s guitar work and Dave’s solo in the 1st half really burn and crescendo into the transition section beautifully. I’m just “going along for the ride” on this one. The 2nd half is just a full on Celtic jig with some rock attitude. Doing my best to propel the music forward and get your head bobbin’. Kudos to Jason for some cool bass voicing that I think really adds to the drama of the song and also for the violin reprise at the end which works great in my opinion (you did listen all the way to the end, right?).
