Album Update.

I guess the right way to start this post is to say that a lot of unexpected things have come up that have prevented us from really getting down to work on part two of the Feathersongs album. Though we can’t get into most of that here (yet), we can say that the second-half of this year should see some interesting SMA-related releases. Even though we’ve been slightly derailed for the past few weeks, we have kept one eye on the album and have definitely made some progress.

The “Feathersongs Part Two” folder on our audio drive has seven works-in-progress inside, most of which are fully-formed songs that just need some focused work from us to finish up. Part two will only have five tracks, of course, but all the tracks we finish will be released in some way or other (as downloads or EP tracks, probably).

Ppart two will definitely be a much more uptempo group of songs than part one. It’s still pretty early on, but these tracks are sounding great at faster tempos. Rebecca already has some great vocals recorded and the construction we’re doing in the studio will help us to get a still better-sounding final release. I’ve really gotten back into my synths in a pretty big way lately and I’m certain that will also color the final product.

The main thing we’ve been really pleased about is that it feels like we’re finally starting to relax into being Stripmall Architecture. We’re not reacting against, or building on Halou anymore (I’m not sure we ever were, but even having those thoughts was a little distracting). These days we’re getting a little more into refining the details of relatively simple arrangements instead of layering massive amounts of texture (The Droplet Sounds, etc) or simply rushing to finish songs so the world can begin to figure out that we are even here making noise. Again, it’s still early on, but we’re really excited and looking forward to releasing the second half of the album.

In the meantime, the Pripyat EP drops this week. If you haven’t ordered a copy yet, you still have time to do so and have it shipped with the first batch of packages. Of course, we’ll also have it at the upcoming performances. We should have some photographs of the final package online,as well, in the next couple of days.

Hope you’re enjoying the summer so far. It’s really beautiful here in sunny San Rafael.

Best,
Ryan & Rebecca
July, 2010