Suspyre

2010-11-24T07:47:00.004-05:00

(11/24/10): Posted "The Divided Son" last night

Since we reached our 1,000th facebook fan milestone, we put up a demo of a song from the new album, previously referred to as TDS. This is the first time I actually mixed an entire Suspyre song; I used to sort of pre-mix stuff, then Rich would finish it up, so it was a big jump for me to do the whole thing. I've done lots of mixing before, but on much different music that didn't have much stuff going on. Just for posterity, I'll try to remember the process of how we recorded this song, and what actually didn't get changed when the mix was done.

Drums: Recorded Gabe's playing with 15 mics originally, but by the end, it was much fewer. I wound up using two overheads, an occasional hi-hat mic during the more fancy hi-hat parts, at least three snare tracks (top, bottom, then another with a trigger on it for the crack-ier sound), three toms, and a few kick tracks (the main one is a trigger, then another track for the softer sections is another trigger sound, and there is also a natural kick sometimes).
Bass: Sam just DIs Andrew's Carvin six-stringer and I apply the AmpegSVX plug-in. Simple and easy.
Keyboards: April's keys were DId as well, but I also recorded a MIDI track just in case I wanted to run her playing through a softsynth as well. It wasn't necessary, since I really liked the sound of all of her patches. My piano sounds are way too epic; hers was lighter and more present and fit the song better. The synth sounds are sometimes a combination of patches; for the lead near the end I ran her patch through an amp-sim to give it some grit. Only the string parts were programmed; all the other synths were played, which is pretty much a first for Suspyre!
Vocals: Clay sang into a Shure KSM44, like we used on the last couple albums, even though I have some nicer mics now. Verses are only single-tracked, but the choruses are triple-tracked and then there are about 6-8 harmony tracks. Lots of Clays, like always.
Guitars: This was the experimental, yet stressful part. Andrew and I originally were going to play our respective parts through our respective amps. It sounded way too unbalanced. Ultimately, I got a DI Box and started tracking everything while capturing the clean signal as well. It also sped up the process when Andrew would borrow the DI box and track his parts at home, then bring his ENGL PowerBall to the studio and re-amp it in my live room.

- Clean guitars are my Ibanez JPM through a Mesa/Boogie TriAxis / 2:90 rig, miced with an SM57

- "Rhythm" distorted guitars are Andrew's Carvin through the ENGL, doubled with an Amplitubed track, and sometimes my Ibanez JPM doubling it through the Mesa. We used an SM57, a Royer 121, and an AKG 414, but I think I only kept the SM57 track for most of it

- "Lead" guitars were either Andrew's ENGL (the smoother and brighter tone) or my TriAxis (the grittier and darker tone)

- My solo is my custom Manne guitar through my Mesa rig.

The word "miced" means "to record with a microphone," not to throw a rodent at something. Hmm.

-Gregg

2010-08-01T10:54:00.005-04:00

(07/31/10): Some more vocals

We tracked vocals for SotC today. After doing a verse, we noticed that we're going to have to mess with the drums a little more; Gabe's beat was awesome with the guitars but when we added the vocals it just wasn't working the way we had hoped. Every album had something happen like this, so I'm not surprised! Besides that, we had fun layering harmonies and doing some vocal improvisations during the (now previously) instrumental sections.

We have one song pretty much ready to go, but we're waiting to hit our 1,000 fan milestone on Facebook before we post it. So, spread the word for us!

Side notes:

Today is the first rehearsal for our shows in September, and a BBQ at April's.

I also recently rediscovered 70's progressive rock; I can't stop listening to Jethro Tull, Genesis, and Yes. I love when I pull out old music and hear it with more mature ears; it's like hearing it for the first time again. I'm sure some of these "classic" influences make it to this record we're doing.

-Gregg

2010-07-27T09:23:00.004-04:00

(07/24/10): More guitars

Andrew and I messed with more guitar sounds, and I tracked most of my parts for SotC. I realized we've been going about the guitar tracks the wrong way; I should have been using a DI box to capture the clean guitar signal, then re-amp it later once we get the perfect sound. Our philosophy on this album was to complete one song, then make any changes in sound and re-track the parts whose sounds were significantly altered. If we had a clean track for everything, we could have just re-amped it all instead of re-doing the parts. I'm currently looking for a deal on the Radial Re-amp kit. Once I get that, guitars will move much quicker.

We have some shows coming up in September, so I've been polishing up the old songs and learning the new ones. There's lots of notes to remember!

-Gregg

2010-06-11T10:03:00.018-04:00

Here are some photos and videos to go with Gregg's last post on Clay's recording session.

Who ever said a singer's job is easy?

If only adding effects were as easy as expressing them vocally...

The Singer.

Gregg feeding melody to Clay.

Stay Sane - be silly.

The rig. The Composer. The Petrucci. The Veggie Phad Thai.

Redlining alert!

The Singer sings with his voice and speaks with his hands.

Click (Gregg) and Point (Clay). Anyone that gets my corny jokes wins.

"You talkin' to me?"

And that's all folks! I would have taken more photos, but apparently I fell into the habit of not dumping my camera memory card.

Stay tuned!

Suspyre Recording Catch Phrase of the Day:
Let's get that 'I'm the.'

2010-06-11T09:50:00.003-04:00

(06/10/10): Vocals

Clay came down to do vocals for the first song we're going to release. April was kind enough to snatch up some vegetable Phad Thai and take some videos and photos.

We worked really efficiently and actually kept most of the first-draft vocals we did weeks ago; we started around 8 and were done before 11, when Andrew got there. This song is really catchy and even radio-friendly...but then again, with the advent of Sirius XM, I've heard progressive and fusion bands on the radio on a regular basis.

Now it's my job to clean up all the tracks and do a preliminary mix on the song that makes it listen-able. Maybe we'll release it early next week!

-Gregg

2010-06-07T10:25:00.004-04:00

(06/06/10): Bass, keyboards, guitars

This was almost a 12-hour recording session....still exhausted! I am officially getting sick, so I'm going to take it easy this week.

Andrew, Sam, and April all arrived at the studio around noon and I didn't get home until almost midnight. We started by doing the bass tracks for SotC, TFD, and TMMoS. That's over 23 minutes of music, so we have almost half of the bass done, besides editing the parts.

April began her keyboard tracks for TDS around 7pm; it was her first time recording for a release and Suspyre's first time recording an official keyboardist (all other "keyboard" parts were programmed or just a small section to add a little something to the song). We had a lot of fun with all her sounds that I don't have to program anything. Also, since she prepared the parts with a metronome, her playing was spot-on, so I really don't have to edit anything either! That's another great thing about recording keyboards, there is no noise at the end of the tracks (like on distorted guitars) that requires me to split the tracks between every rest and fade out each clip. Very tedious indeed.

After she finished this one song, which will be released in a week or so, Andrew did his parts for C1. We used a different guitar micing scheme, but I won't know how it worked until I track my parts and mix things. Still not sold on the guitar sound we're getting, but a lot has to do with the plug-ins I decide to put on them.

Anyway, Clay is scheduled to come sing on Thursday, so keep reading for updates!

-Gregg

2010-06-01T11:05:00.002-04:00

Final Day of Drums (05/31/10):

Andrew arrived with Gabe at about 1:00pm on this hot Memorial Day. Our goal was to finish all drum tracking for the new album and get some new footage for the DVD. I gave an awkward tour of the studio, but I'm not sure we will leak that video just yet. As always, if Gabe is happy with some of the video he captured he'll post some to his YouTube channel.

After we finally finished setting up / got food, we started the beefy track, TaS. It took until almost 6:30 to get this one down, so then it was time to track the final song, C (or should I say C2; there are two songs that are currently one-word-titles that start with C). He finished that song by 6:45; obviously the easiest song on the album.

Now it's my job to edit and mix the drums, then this weekend we're planning on getting more bass. I will do some guitar recording as well, and we will leak the first song mid-June!

-Gregg

2010-05-25T13:54:00.003-04:00

May 21st: Andrew did all his parts for SofC and I attempted to fix some of mine for TDS. I am in process of getting my guitars set up now; my Ibanez Petrucci had terrible intonation issues and a broken jack (finally got those fixed), and my Manne goes completely out of tune whenever I bend or use the tremolo, so that's being sent out tomorrow to get looked at. Hopefully next week I will be up-and-running in the guitar department and can get more of my parts tracked! We keep forgetting to get videos of these guitar sessions, but I promise we will start doing that soon.

-Gregg

2010-05-08T23:48:00.003-04:00

Recording day 4 (05/08/10):

Andrew and I did some guitar recording today for TDS. What I discovered: the ENGL Powerball is a lot more diverse than I thought! After I was recording some lead parts and thinking it was too grainy, we discovered how to "open focus" the mids and smooth out the tone. I think I still prefer the Mesa/Boogie clean tone (The Green Rhythm channel on the TriAxis), but I did some of my clean parts on the ENGL as well. Judging by what we did today, I have a feeling I'm going to do about 90% of the clean and 10% of the distorted parts on this album. Also, we're using three mics; an on-axis SM57, an off-axis SM57 (on the same cone), and an Audix D2 on another cone. Like with the drums, I'm probably going to wind up muting the two bonus mics except for certain passages.

I'm going to redo most of the lead parts I did today, as I was struggling with the intonation on the Ibanez Petrucci I was using. I haven't changed the strings in months, so that probably has a lot to do with it. Also, I play better in private, because I panic when in company, as I feel I have to get it done quickly so no one is waiting.

It's really exciting hearing how this song is coming out. We'll leak it once we're done with the editing and tracking the keyboards for it. Then we'll have about 8% of the album done besides final mixing and mastering!

-Gregg

2010-04-30T15:02:00.001-04:00

Some videos of the drums recordings so far:

2010-04-25T21:16:00.002-04:00

Recording day 3 (04/25/10):

We're almost done with drums. Our busy schedules are still preventing from getting these done quickly; the songs are very challenging, as always, so it takes Gabe many hours to get each one learned.

Clay arrived with Gabe at about 11:30am. While he was setting up, Clay and I messed around with some demo/scratch tracks for TDS, but I wouldn't be surprised if some stuff we recorded made the final cut. I did some scratch guitars too, to test out my amp and to get a feel for the songs. I still am not 100% sure I'm going to use my Triaxis for my distortion tones on this album. I'm really thinking of getting a Cornford (what a great name, heh). Guthrie Govan and Frank Gambale both use them, which is why I want to try one.

Anyway, after we spent a while on vocals, we cleaned up some drum parts from the older songs. Some involved trying a new groove, others involved changing some sounds. By the end of the night, we wound up using Gabe's kit with a tiny bass drum (instead of the studio's) for SBtV and TWNW.

I always found it to be intriguing how people hear music differently. There no right answer to most things, so that's why every organization needs a leader to take control and make executive decisions so something gets done. While working with the band today (Sam, April, and Andrew all stopped by) I heard polar opposite opinions on everything from snare and kick sounds to the grooves we're using; both sides can work just as well, just with different results. It's just a challenge to make sure everyone is heard, but to understand that if everyone had to argue their point, we would still be on our first album. Trying to make everyone pleased with the results is absolutely impossible!

For the record, I'm enjoying the way the drums are turning out. We decided to mix them in a non-trendy, more classic fashion. Triggering everything and making them real punchy is going to be to the 2000s as synth-pop was to the 80's; sticking to trends makes things dated. Think about how all the trendy bands in the 80s and 90s are now the embodiment of a stereotype and fad, while progressive bands are timeless. I had a ten-year old student the other day bring in a Boston song he wanted to learn and said "This sounds brand new but it's from 1976!"

We finally finished at around 9:00pm tonight. I hope to get all the drums edited by next weekend, as we want to start bass and guitars before the summer, which is when I may be real busy teaching music camps. Two more songs to go for the album!

-Gregg

2010-02-21T00:25:00.004-05:00

Recording day 2:
02/20/10
More drums and beginning bass

In the weeks since the last recording session, I've painstakingly been editing and mixing drums to prepare them for recording of other instruments. This is such a tedious process, as it's completely necessary to be a perfectionist in this manner. In the many hours I've spent on TDS, I've noticed that all those extra drum mics just make this situation more difficult.

Gabe and Sam arrived around 3pm today to tackle the next set of songs. As Gabe was in-between drum tracks, Sam recorded some bass for TDS; it was his first time recording with us and did a fine job. He's learning how to properly pick (can't seem to convince everyone that fingered bass always sounds better!) and how to efficiently punch in parts.

As for drums, we redid TFD, which still needs the solo section to be done, then tracked all the parts for TMMoS, which is such an epic piece.

I hope to finish editing one song soon, so Andrew and I can get guitars on there and we can leak a song mid-spring.

-Gregg

2010-01-18T11:23:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone!
I completely forgot this blog even existed; sorry about that. I've noticed the most recent update was over two years ago. So let's start over!

As I posted in the forum the other day, we started recording drums for the next album. Since we never really kept a recording log for the past albums, I believe now is the time to do so. I will update this as the recording progresses, mostly for posterity and my enjoyment, but also those of you who like to keep up with things like this. For the last year or so, I've been producing lots of bands, which left me with little time for Suspyre. Now, a lot of those bands have finished their projects, which allows me to focus on this. So far about seven new songs are written, with a few more on the way.

Recording day 1:
01/16/10
~4:30pm: Gabe Marshall and Sam Bhoot arrive at the studio and begin setting up the drums. Gabe is playing on my Pearl Master Series kit; it's from the mid-80s and was custom ordered for this guy who, about twenty years later, no longer needed it. I heard he regretted selling it. Cymbals are a mix of Sabians and Zildjians. I'm using 15 microphones on this one (OHL, OHR, HH1, HH2, Ride, RoomL, RoomC, RoomR, SnareT, SnareB, T1, T2, T3, Kick, Aux Snare), which is the most mics I've ever used at one time. April and Andrew came by later to witness.

By the time 1am rolled around, three songs were completed (I'm going to call them C, SotC, and TDS to avoid too many spoilers), and another just needs some revisions (TFD).

I hope to begin editing and mixing these tracks this week, but things like teaching over 40 students a week and doing my free-lance composition usually get in the way.

Things will get exponentially more exciting once more layers are added to the music.
Until next time...
-Gregg

2007-11-14T12:57:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't heard yet, Suspyre is slated to play ProgPower Europe 2008. It's happening on Friday through Sunday, October 3rd through 5th at JC Sjiwa, Baarlo, The Netherlands.

Only one other band is confirmed right now, Division by Zero. You can reserve your package deal here.

2007-09-22T14:18:00.001-04:00

Most of you, I'm sure, have never seen Erypsus Studios. Neither have I, until today (which is strange, since I've known Clay for about 13 years and now live with him). So what more appropriate opening for the Suspyre blog than to share the awesomeness of this place with all of you?

My attention divided the instant I walked up the flight of stairs into the studio. My ears moved to the right, where Jeff was recording a drum part for the new album. Normally, all of my attention would be on that stimulus, but it's difficult to move my eyes from the wall of beautiful guitars hanging right in front of me. Even as I sit to the side writing this, I'm still glancing up at them. Personal favorites: the transparent blue PRS and the semi-hollow body Gibson. It's also tough to miss the sax lying in front of the guitars. You might remember that one from "The Breath of Gloria."

After standing in the same spot for probably seven or eight minutes, staring and listening, I headed over to the control area. Gregg has the greatest wide-screen monitor, perfect for recording purposes. I commented as such, and he replied, "Yeah, I can't wait to get a bigger desk so we can put the second monitor next to it." Yes, they're going to have a monitor roughly three and a half feet long. Mere mortals do not need this much screen space; Suspyre, however, does.

This is my favorite scene in the studio, at least from a whimsical standpoint. Gregg: "The energy drinks are from this high school band that comes in here every Friday night...they're not used to staying up past 11." He also mentions that he had thrown out all the garbage, bottles, and cans earlier this week. So you can imagine how much time is spent up in this space.

The best part of this whole trip, though, is getting to hear parts of the new album. I gotta say, the guitar riffs are freakin' killer. Jeff is inhuman on the drums, especially to the lay person's ears. He'll do a take, and then say he has to do it over again, even though it sounds perfect to the untrained ear.

Rich just showed up, so we're only minus Andrew right now. Clay is streaming the video onto Yahoo Messenger. All the sudden, this is sounding a lot more like a diary than a blog entry.

2007-09-13T11:50:00.000-04:00

As some of you know, we started recording the third album last weekend. The music is so difficult; gladly we'll all patient and hard-working or else we'd get frustrated easily. Jeff will be in the studio Friday until Sunday to do some more. We predict all the drum tracks to be done by the end of the month. Then we have to finish guitars, do vocals, then all the orchestral stuff, EWI and saxophones, possibly keyboards (still unconfirmed), and then finishing touches. I'm hoping it's done by the end of the year.
Just keeping everyone updated...
-Gregg

2007-05-24T11:36:00.000-04:00

This is funny. I just noticed that I had to approve comments before they were published. Now, I just did that, and found comments from May of 2006 that were finally published to the blog. Oh well. We'll start updating this more, as some important stuff will be happening shortly.

-Gregg

2007-04-05T11:11:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. It's been a while since any of us have written. What I wanted to say is THANK YOU to everyone that is giving us comments and reviews regarding our new album, "A Great Divide." I wish I had more time to respond to our Myspace messages but things are pretty hectic right now. Your comments mean so much and really keep us going. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have as much ambition to keep making music.

The album is available for sale nationwide now. You can read reviews and purchase the album on Amazon.com. It is also available from many online stores such as The Laser's Edge, and our label, Nightmare Records.

Right now we're preparing for the Chicago PowerFest. We're all looking forward to it and hope to see many of you there.

-Gregg

2006-12-16T18:04:00.000-05:00

The new record is finally ready to be duplicated. After many long months, we received the artwork for the album cover and liner notes. It will be released by Nightmare Records on March 20, 2007.

2006-10-03T01:02:00.000-04:00

"A Great Divide" was mastered this weekend by Jeff Lipton of Peerless Mastering. The band's friend, Chris Cook, kindly drove Rich and me up to the studio outside of Boston so we could actively hear what Jeff thought should be done to the CD.

This record is groundbreaking in the way that it was mastered; instead of crushing and compressing the audio in order to increase volume, the CD was left quiet in order to hear all the dynamic contrast. This makes it possible to turn it up and not have harshness. Try this: take any CD you have from the 70s or 80s and set your CD player to a volume where it sounds good. Now take a more recent CD and get that volume to be equal in loudness (probably a much lower setting; for me "Temple of Shadows" has to be at 8 to sound like "...And Justice for All" at 27). But hear the difference; the older CD doesn't get harsh and has a more rich sound, while it hurts to hear the new CD. This is probably the reason why I keep getting headaches when I try to listen to more modern music loudly.

Anyway, sitting in the studio was the first time I heard the CD in its entirety. I noticed so many new things. There is a balance between heavy riffs, lush/flowing orchestral parts, dissonant/energetic orchestral parts (even some microtonal moments), classic prog, and a tasteful use of pastiche. I'll let the public guess where these motives are once the album is released, but I'll have to disclose the proper locations soon enough to avoid false information floating around the internet.

Right now we're waiting on the artwork and final "okay" of the master, then it's duplication time.

-Gregg

2006-09-10T22:05:00.000-04:00

We finished recording the new album, "A Great Divide." This month we'll be mixing, making any last-minute changes, mastering, then getting it out to the public. If we sign the record contract, expect a January 2007 release.

-Gregg

2006-08-06T00:53:00.000-04:00

We finally opened a real forum at ultimatemetal.com. It's here. Feel free to ask us questions since I'll be checking periodically...actually, obsessively, so you'll get some sort of response from one of us.
-Gregg

2006-07-24T22:20:00.001-04:00

I'm currently going through the photos that were taken a couple weeks ago by Clay's long time friends Sam and Al. This was a spur-of-the-moment photo shoot, but they did a great job. Of course, there was a lot of Photoshopping that had to be done to make us look like attractive human beings.

There we are as a six-piece. Noah Martin finished recording the bass parts and we sent him back to Atlanta, while Andrew Distabile is now our bassist, and will hopefully be playing guitar as well in the future. There are so many guitar parts that having three guitarists will really help make the live experience as good as the CD.

The recording is almost done. We recently added female vocals, courtesy of Ceara Johnson, a woman with whom Rich and I work that has a master's degree in voice. All that's left for the basic tracks is the instrumental piece, a chunk of Manipulation in Time, the rest of the interlude in Alterations, and a small part in The Singer. After we finish that, we have to do the rest of the acoustic guitars and saxophones, and then the guitar solos. This album has so many involved parts to it, so it takes so long to get it right. It's going to be really hard to play this stuff live, which makes it even more fun. Except some of these songs to start turning up on our setlists next month.

As for shows, we have three next month; make sure you order tickets from our merchandise page. Actually, the new website is going to be up this weekend; I just have to finish transferring over all the content and we have to choose what pictures we want. There is also a secret; we may be doing a short tour this autumn. Details are confidential right now as they are unconfirmed, but be prepared for something cool.

-Gregg

2006-07-11T15:38:00.000-04:00

We're in the process of finishing up bass parts for the new album. We've already taken Noah away from his life for a week but we only have a little more to do, so we'll send him home shortly. Everything sounds amazing; it's heavy and there are plenty of surprises. Noah even was cooperative enough to use my horrible Brice 6-string fretless on the appropriate parts.

The new website will be up shortly; the content is currently being transferred to it. New pictures are also on their way.

The album should be done by August.

-Gregg

2006-06-29T12:22:00.000-04:00

We're selling some of the guitars that live at the studio. Many of them were assembled by my dad. See what we've got here. You can also view the whole line-up (for sale and not for sale) here.

-Gregg

2006-06-20T12:54:00.000-04:00

I'll disclose some information about the new album and Suspyre. The artwork will be done by Rainer Kalwitz. He painted many great album covers in the past that you can view at his Myspace. The mastering is going to be handled by Azimuth Mastering, a place that is not only in the same country as us, but only about a thirty minute drive from the studio.

The bass parts on the album are going to be played by Noah Martin, known for his awesome work in Blood Promise/Lilitu, and Dark Empire, among others. But, since Noah lives over a two hour plane ride away, he won't be available for the upcoming concerts, so Andrew Distabile will be handling our live bass duties. Andrew, originally a guitarist and a long-time friend of our drummer Sam, is so dedicated that he pledged to put down the guitar to learn bass so he can play with us. That deserves a big \m/

The Hamilton St. Show is about 97.82% confirmed; we just have to send in the deposit. It will be on August 26th, 2006, time and price TBA. We will let you know what other bands are playing once we know.

As for recording, it's picking up quickly. The other day I had lots of fun layering saxophone parts in "Alterations of the Ivory." My tenor sax is not even a professional model; me playing that is very similar to if we played all the guitar parts on an Epiphone Les Paul or Mexican Strat (a good instrument but just could be better, y'know?). But, we got it to sound good. The alto stuff I did was another story...I love that horn (Selmer Super Action 80 Series II, 1997 model) and it was fun squealing on it and doing some quarter tone stuff too.

Also...we'll be periodically broadcasting some of our recording sessions over the webcam. Just add "suspyrewebcam" to your Yahoo! messenger and send us a message and we'll connect to you through the talk function so you can hear it. Or, you can just watch silently.

Wow, this entry was a lot longer than expected, but I think you all deserve to know what's going on! Stay tuned...

-Gregg-

2006-06-15T23:42:00.000-04:00

I'll make it short and sweet tonight. Everything is really sounding great on the recordings. I get to hear more and more each week and it's really starting to come together. We're looking forward to getting it out to everyone as soon as possible.

2006-06-02T22:52:00.000-04:00

Here's some tentative release info for the new album:

A Great Divide

All compositions by Gregg Rossetti except "The Singer" by Gregg Rossetti and Rich Skibinsky

All lyrics by Clay Barton

Line-up:
Gregg Rossetti - Guitars, MIDI sequencing, alto/tenor saxophone, mandolin, Chapman Stick
Rich Skibinsky - Guitars, MIDI sequencing, keyboards
Sam Paulicelli - Drums, PVC pipe
Clay Barton - Lead and backing vocals

Guest musicians:
TBA

Track list:

	Opus II: The Alignment of Galaxies (34:06)
I.	1. Forever the Voices (1:09)
	2. The Singer (9:00)
II.	3. The Spirit (3:15)
III.	4. Galactic Backward Movements (9:50)
IV.	5. Manipulation in Time (8:46)
	6. Resolution (2:06)
	Opus III: The Origin of a Curse (35:26)
I.	7. April in the Fall (5:42)
	8. Subliminal Delusions (6:13)
II.	9. Bending the Violet (2:31)
	10. The Piano Plays At Last (6:02)
III.	11. Alterations of the Ivory (7:40)
IV.	12. Blood and Passion (7:18)

We'll update with some samples soon. There are no finalized bass parts recorded yet, but some of the songs are nearing completion in the guitars and vocals.

2006-05-25T12:13:00.000-04:00

We've been hard at work in the studio. Gregg and rich have been taking every free moment to record guitars, however, it does take time. Four of the tracks on the album are basically done, rbut that includes the orchestral track, intro track, and outro track. April is the only finished full song. Two more songs are in the works and tomorrow the plan is to finish the vocals on those. If we're lucky we will start vocals on a third. As everyone should know, eveything is written. We don't start recording unless we have the outline done. It will take time, but all that time will be recording so that we can give you the best album we can. Suspyre is so excited about the album and everything we do sounds awsome to us. We want it done as soon as possible. Please be patient because the wait will be worth it...I promise. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and getting more vocals done. Have a good one all...

2006-05-04T13:05:00.000-04:00

Everyone should check out our Yahoo group, that we started about a year and a half ago and never really established. I put up a poll regarding everyone's favorite track on The Silvery Image, so be sure to vote, maybe it will influence our song selection for our next show.

Anyway, I've been starting to record again since the semester is winding down. The new material is so much harder than The Silvery Image; the riffs are not necessarily faster, just much more complicated. There are plenty of odd times and lots of fun with rhythms that I can't wait to hear all come together. I now have Fridays and Tuesdays off so that's when I'm going to try to get in some recording (along with lots of composition time).

My graduate comprehensive examination (the thing I need to pass in order to get my master's degree) in music theory is due tomorrow, so I'll get working on that. Everyone stay tuned for more updates!

-Gregg

2006-04-22T00:29:00.000-04:00

Of course no one reads this, but I still wanted to put a new post up. Thanks to everyone on myspace for supporting the new song. The rest of the album will hopefully continue to dazzle you. It will take quite awhile for the album to really begin to form, but we're all really excited about it. We're getting really good response about the new stuff, so we will get it done as fast as we can. I know we can't wait until it's all done and we can hopefully plan a real tour. That would be fun...I'm going to work on that now. Good night all.

2006-04-20T10:18:00.000-04:00

Check out "April in the Fall" - now uploaded to our Myspace.
It features our new orchestral plug-in we just got; that's why the orchestra and piano sound so lush. There's a PVC pipe instrument in one part, courtesy of Crimson Roots. Also, that's a fretless guitar in the odd-time section. We've really exploited the power of the 7-string on this one, as well. It's not the final version, since it's not mastered, but it's as close to the real thing as we're going to get for now.
Enjoy.

2006-04-17T23:36:00.000-04:00

Being in a band takes a lot out of a person. There is much more to it than just the music. What I'm getting at is that we, unfortunately, had to part ways with our bassist, Kirk Schwenkler. Since we didn't want it to be a personal issue, we took the easy way out and e-mailed him. I'm glad he took it well, since I (and the other guys) value Kirk as a friend. We just have been getting vibes from him that Suspyre couldn't be his life, since he is interested and talented at many other things, and decisions need to be made. He believes "I can't make this my main focus in life, and if that is what you guys need, then you do in fact need a new bass player.", which pretty much summarizes it. So, now we have to look for a new bassist, which isn't a huge deal right now since we're concentrating more on recording rather than shows.

Anyway - a new song will be up VERY soon. Maybe even tomorrow. Wow.
-Gregg-

2006-04-08T19:21:00.000-04:00

It's an interesting time around the studio right now. The songs are coming along slowly, mostly because we are so picky about the way it comes out. However, that's a good thing because all of you should be very pleased when it is finished...I know the band is excited with the early stages and the way it's sounding.

The first single should be out and released soon. It's going to be quite a while before the album is done, but we wanted a new song to give to the prog power compilation. We respect that festival too much not to try and get something new out for them, for ourselves, and of course for our fans. We will update you when something new happens. Peace...

2006-03-30T13:07:00.000-05:00

The new album is coming along well. The drums are completely finished and one song, which will be released to the public shortly (via Myspace), just needs some finishing touches with the guitars. Be prepared for something very different. Sometime in the next month or so we'll make more announcements - like track names, album title, and all that good stuff.
As for The Silvery Image - reviews keep coming in, which I hope will amount to some label picking us up so we can easily finance the next album. Right now we're trying to push merchandise, since we're not really doing any shows at the moment. Be sure to check out our Cafepress page - right now all they have are white shirts and some gimics (I know you all want the Suspyre teddy bear!).
Anyway - keep reading, and post some comments every now and then so we know you care!
\~Gregg~/

2006-03-22T22:41:00.000-05:00

It's good to feel like everything makes sense again. The wonderful process of recording is beginning to take some shape. Most of the drums seem to be completed. We now find ourselves trying to find time to get the rest of the music in there.

Hopefully everyone has seen the clip on myspace. Sam is now notorious for getting his recording done quickly. Well actually I think he always was. You leave the studio to get a breath of fresh air and in 20 minutes another song is done. Sam is fantastic and a ball of energy. Gregg, Rich, and I are just plotting times to get as much done as possible. We hope you all have enjoyed the clip on myspace and let us know on the comments if you want more or not. We'll put more up if everyone wants some updates.

Thanks all and may your rock be triumphant...

~~Clay~~

2006-03-16T21:37:00.001-05:00

I am really looking forward to hearing the new material with real music behind it. It's getting exciting around the Suspyre camp. I think everyone is very anxious to begin to see the album take shape.

If we ever have the time we would like to offer some new shirt ideas. We're looking into some possiblities so that everyone can find a shirt that expresses the rock in them. I know I have some ideas, so I promise we will take care of it soon.

I'm going to go work on some possible album titles...rock on all.

~~Clay~~

2006-03-15T23:18:00.000-05:00

So what's going on in the world of Suspyre?
We've been getting quite a few reviews recently, mostly very positive.
As far as a label goes, we're still unsigned. We've been doing some shows occasionally, but the main priority now is the next album. I don't want to give away too much yet, but all I can say is that it's already been composed, about 80% of the drums are done, and we're working on finishing up a track to submit to the ProgPowerVII compilation.
We'll keep posting in here periodically for your reading pleasure, and for our own benefit as well!
-Gregg from Suspyre

2005-11-22T23:10:00.000-05:00

Now we're jumping on the blog bandwagon. The URL for this blog is http://suspyre.blogspot.com/