In the early 90's John and I were in an original band that was playing classic rock around the Phoenix, AZ area. We went through a number of bass players and singers when I decided that trying to maintain a band was not something I wanted to do anymore. I approached John and told him that I was going to buy some recording gear and focus strictly on writing and recording. I also told him that I was going to start writing more progressive rock material with lots of odd meters and dissonance. I expected him to look horrified and run screaming out the door. He didn't bat an eye and simply said let's do it, and away we went.
For some reason I thought it would be easy to write record and release material. The writing part was easy; it was the recording and releasing part that proved to be difficult. First there was the cost of putting together a good quality digital studio. Nobody tells you how much of an addiction that it becomes. You're constantly upgrading digital recorders, mics, mic-pre's, compressors, etc etc. It's like falling into a rabbits hole, it's very easy to get lost in the technology. Then there's the issue of back ups. We learned the hard way that if you don't back up you’re guaranteed to be redoing tracks. Hard drives crash, and they do it when you can least afford it. Then there is the problem of finding other musicians to fill out the sound. We struggled to find a bass player. I played the bass on the tracks originally. Then a friend of ours, Tony Olive who we had played with on several occasions came in and layed some nice bass tracks down on a few of the tracks. I thought we were done and was looking forward to mixing and releasing the CD. I called Rocco and asked him if he would help me mix the tracks and get them ready for release. He and I have been playing or recording music together since 1980. In the latter part of the 90's he decided to take a hiatus from music to concentrate on his family and a new hobby he was starting to become passionate about, mountain bike racing. So when he agreed to help with the mix down I started seeing the end in sight.
After we started working on the mix downs the music bug bit Rocco again and he started to woodshed with his bass. We mixed down the first few songs that Tony played bass on and then moved on to the songs I had played bass on. As I sat there listening to the playback I started to hear a guitar player playing bass. The songs were taking on a fusion type of feel that I wasn't happy with. One thing led to another and Rocco was laying bass tracks down. Now the songs were starting to sound like I was hearing them in my head as I was writing them. At this point things were looking very good, all but one of the songs was finished and the first 3 were mixed. Then came the great hard drive crash. We lost several songs, the first 3 we mixed with Tony playing bass, a song that was supposed to be on the cd, and a 2 other songs where we lost some drum tracks, a bass track and a couple of guitar tracks. I did have some backups so it wasn't a complete disaster, although it felt like it at the time. We were able to recover and finish the songs less the 1 track. Unfortunately the 3 tracks Tony was on needed to be redone and his contributions, although very good didn't make it to the cd, sorry Tony. Thus Strategy was born and you are hearing the fruits of our labor. I hope you enjoy the music. We certainly enjoyed making it.
Tim
