Album Burnout

After a lot of really late nights working on the mixes for Dayenu, the guys are both feeling drained and numb.  Listening to pieces of tracks hundreds and even thousands of times and tweaking them each time to try and get them to that illusive, "perfect" sound is mentally exhausting.  It gets to the point that you lose perspective and aren't sure what you are even hearing anymore.  It's hard enough to be objective when you're mixing your own music, but when the process has been going on for such a long time, it's necessary to step back, take a breath and put some distance between yourself and the project.  This is part of the reason we're giving ourselves an extension on the deadline for completion.  We want to be really satistfied with the end product, and that's not going to happen if we are feeling rushed, stressed and tired during the final push.  

12 days and counting down; we're comfortable with that!

Setting the Record Straight

I have a serious problem with counting, because when I last updated our blog, I said that there was only nine days until Dayenu.  That was over a week ago, when the planned release date was November 5th, so I was off by about a week.  Anyway, we are going to buy ourselves ANOTHER week, and set the new date for Saturday, November 12th.  So let's see if I can get the countdown right this time; as of today, THIRTEEN days until Dayenu!  We have a lot to do to reach that goal, but it's all in a day's work, and it's a process that brings much satisfaction in the end.

Drumming, Claps, and Accordion Tracks

Be Lyrebirds are together this weekend in Desbarats, Ontario, so we've been spending concentrated hours in "the studio", which happens to be at Eric and Hannah-Lee's house. The guys put in a late night on Friday tweaking mixes, and despite the tempting weather, today has been devoted to recording.

Caleb completed a brilliant new drum track for Scream, Hannah-Lee added an accordion part to Chapstick, and the three of us, after several takes, clapped our way to a syncopated finish of Driving Me Crazy. It is surprisingly difficult for three people to clap a rhythm, in unison, accurately! Good for a laugh anyway.

There is still a lot to do and only so many hours left in the day, so on we go. 9 days 'til Dayenu...

Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday was an exciting day for the band. We finally released our free, four-song sampler for the upcoming album Dayenu. When I say finally, I mean FINALLY! Countless hours, days, months, and years of work have gone into this project. Eric has worked on it full-time since we returned to Canada in January.

Along with our sampler, we launched our new website, www.belyrebirds.com. We want our listeners to have the opportunity to get to know who we are as people and musicians, and hope that the website will be a venue for that.

The feeback on our social networks has been very positive so far, and we aim to reach out to an even wider group of listeners with the full album at the end of the month. You can help us out by sharing a link to our website with your friends.

Caleb is coming up tomorrow to record some new drum tracks and work with Eric on the mixes. There is still a lot to do, but the end is in sight! 11 days left to the completion of Dayenu. Count down with us!