What’s taking so long?
– Everyone
That’s a great question and will take roughly the length of a brief and readable blog to answer.
American Odyssey part 1 happened as a result of winning the Michigan State Fair Superstar competition and honestly we as a band were only beginning to bounce back from the pandemic. Originally we were only supposed to record an EP but because we had already released the Stampede EP and worked with the Tuxedo Avenue guys on Gregory James, we decided to record a full-length album. Our first in fact.
This album was recorded quickly from April to May of 2022 in a half-dozen or so sessions. Mixing was wrapped in October and we opted to not get the album mastered after trying out a few options.
October was also the month that Rhett Yocom let us know that he couldn’t commit to the band anymore. With all understand and love but that meant that we now needed a bass player. Luckily that person came later the same day.
Trevor Hayse Hardin has been rehearsing with Joe and myself since November.
Rather than rushing the process of building a brand new rhythm section from the ground up we are taking our time to develop a strong musical cohesion between us. Trevor is an excellent bassist, wicked smart but most importantly a joy to work with and be around. I can not overstate how proud I am of the work we’ve done together and can not wait to show you all.
The calm before the storm.
This isn’t our first rodeo. We’ve done this before and if there is one thing I wish I would have done in the past is taken the time to smell the roses and live life a bit when you get the chance.
There has been a number of other extremely boring hold ups as well. We had some tedious issues with how we were going to release this thing but also Loxodon is officially a business now which makes things more better-er but also more tediousy-er. We’re doing shit right this time because we didn’t do that in the past. When life hands you lemons… make a tuna sammich.
Listen, we all got day jobs and frankly none of us believe the hype that being a rock star is all it’s cracked up to be. Think about it, do happy people overdose on drugs and insist on working themselves to death? No, no they don’t. We do this because it’s what we do.
The album is coming. We’ve started planning the album release date. That update is coming soon. We’re aiming for May but at the time of writing this a date is not yet set.