New album may contain a "Concept Album Side"

So for quite a while I've had an interesting concept percolating in my head... it actually goes back several years, even before the release of our first album. But it was too large to include on "Awaken the Man" and we already had the material in the pipeline for that album anyway. So this concept was put on the back burner, perhaps for the follow-up album.

It's actually been quite a labor to make it all "work." The concept is a bit heady, yet I wanted it to be simply stated. I had some great ideas, but getting them all to work well together has been a real chore. Some of it required a good bit of research, too - I'm actually basing some of it on real life historical events and legends.

Curiosity piqued yet? It promises to be a real undertaking, one that should be epic, yet enjoyable for all of our fans. And it has some neat twists (and hopefully, some sonic surprises) that will make it really unique and powerful.

So I've got most of the lyrics laid out and ready for critical editing, and I've started on some of the music - I have some good themes going, and should be able to get some nice melodies written over the instrumentals. I sent a rough over to Josh, we'll see what he thinks... :)

First session back at work...

So a couple weeks ago, Josh and I got our heads together and worked on some new tuneage (along with some old tuneage.)

Recently, Josh wrote and published a new Guitar Instructional E-Book, and we had done some bonus audio backing tracks for that project at Digital Din a few months ago. While working on those tracks, we were messing around with the arrangement of a progression designed to provide backing tracks for scale exercises, and we hit upon a very nice change and texture - we both looked at each other and said "That's a Din Within Track!" So we started toying with that at our first 2011 session.

In the midst of laying down some scratch tracks, it suddenly occurred to Josh that it might go very well, texturally, with our partially finished song Undertow - when we dropped the tracks on the Undertow song file, it was immediately apparent that he was right! A quick transposition down a whole step and mild slowing of the tempo later, we had a whole new direction to take the song (we'd been stymied by a dead end in Undertow for some time.)

We did a little more work with the piece, and listened to a few other snippets of other songs, hunting for inspiration, but feel that we got some real work done for the first time in a while!

Back to business

It's been a really long time since we've posted here, and we're sorry about that! Life has intervened once again, and it has separated us from working on the Din Within material for several months. However, we've jumping back in with renewed energy as of now, and getting back to work on the second album. Mark has added some new equipment to Digital Din Studios, including some spiffy new studio monitors, and we're expecting to start writing with renewed energy and focus. So you should start seeing some more frequent updates here in our studio diary!

Time Flies

I figure 5 months is long enough in between updates, don't you?

So how the hell have you all been? Mark and I missed you for sure. Things in the DW camp are moving along nicely. As you might know from our Facebook reports, we were recently tapped to do a song for a Yes cover CD coming out - probably next year. We have been working diligently on it; in case you're wondering, we're doing the song "Changes." It will certainly be a fun song to listen to when it's done. Lots of "Changes" so it won't sound like a dull rip-off. And once again our drum maestro Mike Ian will be helping us out!

On the DW original music front, things are going very well. The sophomore release is going to sound a lot different from our debut CD (which you can still get copies of - hint, hint). Overall, the stuff we're coming up with is sounding a lot edgier and less symphonic. Compound time signatures are still in full effect, and the twists and turns are getting a little more extreme. I have to say, it's quite an exciting time in the Din Within trenches.

I have no idea when we'll be ready to start on artwork or final recording or anything of that nature, but every writing session lately has been very productive and is pushing us every closer to a final product.

Thanks to you all for your support. Long live prog!

2010 Looks Promising

Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Well, considering I can't hear your answers I'll just pick for myself. Two bits of good news that we can share with you:

1. Din Within has been selected to record a track for an upcoming YES Tribute album which should be released late this year on Italian label "Mellow Records." We're breaking the traditional mold and doing a "newer" song - "Changes" from 90125, with some twists, of course.
2. Progress is being made on the sophomore DW CD. One song's music and its lyrical concept is in the can, and we've made significant progress on several others. I suspect that we're going to move much quicker than our debut CD.

For the bit of bad news; Scott Lewis will not be participating in Din Within anymore. Though it was short-lived, Mark and I are thankful for the time we had Scott on board with us. The three of us still remain the best of friends (going on 20+ years now) and will support each other's musical endeavors.