OVERHANG

It feels like something's starting again, building naturally: Jeff continues to improve significantly each time we play together. Joel is enjoying his new temporary residence with a former roommate on the North side. Grant and Joel feel a kind of relief about being able to put Janis aside as a long-term strategy so that we can concentrate on other matters at hand--like finding a bassist, updating our website and myspace account, devising a promo pack for labels. We seem to be letting go of this Grand Vision in some ways, the one that says we must be a U2-like band of brothers that starts working with an engineer early in our careers to create a brand new sound that ushers in the era of Great Christian Bands! We haven't lost the ambition, but we have been refined a bit more as we've been losing all those elements we thought were necessary to achieve such goals.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's the end of January and Joel promised to be out of the place in South Shore at the end of the month. So it seemed to make sense for him to pay a relatively cheap plane fare to Latvia and work with Janis to do the final mixing and mastering there for a few months while his wrists were still healing. Over Christmas, Janis had sent us a mix that was definitely on the right track, but he didn't quite hear the compositions the way we do. So we thought it would be best, and maybe easiest, if Joel went there and worked with him since communication and musical taste adjusting always happens best that way. But after a few intense discussions, Janis expressed that he didn't think he was right for what we wanted to do. That may be accurate with the musical philosophy Janis has now, but if he were willing, he would come to feel things the way we feel it too (so, this is sounding more and more like what happened with Matt and Dan last year). But he's not willing. It seems like Joel and Grant have found a special knack for encouraging people to follow their dreams only so they realize that what they thought they wanted really isn't what they want after all! Granted, Janis has been through a tough time since we bought him several thousand dollars worth of equipment to start his own studio. And maybe he is more cut out to build studios, maybe that's his passion. So, Joel is quite disappointed. He doesn't want to mix or master this music alone. The music would sound better with another person's input.

At the moment, we wonder if maybe we ought to just let "Another Hole" go. Either as a failed album or a project to be picked up at a time when we have the resources to do it right.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 6:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We got together again last Monday in Lansing for pizza and rock'n'roll. We watched a Led Zeppelin video for inspiration and then went into the little room in Jeff's basement where our equipment is. Joel and Grant are down to two amps; one is quite unreliable because of the dust and water from the fire. The other one has a big black spot burned into the front, but it pumps out all the sound we need. Fortunately, Jeff's two neighbors are hard of hearing because Grant's amp is super loud and Jeff hits the drums very hard--a necessity for OVERHANG! The room used to belong to a teenager--there's promotional stickers from a bunch of bands, graffiti, and study aids all over the wall. "Slut" is written in purple on one side of the wall and inspirational sayings on the other.

The teen spirit is obviously still in the room because we all are playing like angsty kids in a cannabis shop. Ur, candy shop. Joel, unfortunately, has to bob himself up and down to the music without a guitar because of his arm inflamation, but he keeps a vigilant ear open to what will make the beat better. After Monday, we can see that Jeff is making quick progress and we are starting to feel the itch of possible live performances in a few short months. Joel still doesn't know if he's going to Latvia. He had a kind of tough talk with Janis over the phone last week, despite the high phone rates. Janis is probably living on one meal a day and has been battling bronchitis (his studio didn't have heat for awhile) but we need more mixes from him in order to make a decision on whether or not we can do mixes over the internet.

Bassists? That one guy from North Park has stopped responding to our emails, so we'll keep looking. Or, if worse comes to worse, Grant will play the bass or something. There's more than one way to skin a cannabis. I mean, cat.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 8:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Grant helped Joel move in on the South Side Friday. Driving along the lake, we noticed smoke coming from somewhere near the expressway. We got Joel's meager possessions up to the 12th floor of his new temporary residence with an excellent view of the Chicago skyline along the lake...and that smoke which continued to build. As Grant drove back to Oak Park north along the lake, he drove through the heavy smoke again as it drifted east and dissipated over the water. The guy on the radio said that Pilgrim Baptist Church was on fire--its roof had collapsed and it was completely destroyed. The church was the birthplace of gospel music and the first Jewish synagogue built in the city. For members of the church and for those architecture and history buffs, a very sad day.

I am glad Gospel music cannot be destroyed by fire. It can be harmed, of course...by bad gospel music, but not by fire. Joel, Grant and Jeff are playing together on Monday. They will eat together and talk about the future. Joel and Grant will also meet with a bassist possibility, another North Park student. All this band stuff is making it hard to send Joel off to Latvia for several months. But Joel's wrists are still hurting. And maybe it would be better for Janis to come to Canada (Toronto or Sarnia) and then Grant could go over the border and record his guitar and piano parts with Janis every other weekend or so. These decisions tend to work themselves out, somehow.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Joel is flying back from Canada today. Hopefully everything will be fine at the border. Grant has not been the best of bosses the last few months, financially speaking. We hope the border guard doesn't ask for receipts of payment over the last several months. Joel enters further and further into debt, but maybe he will be able to start paying back some of it soon. Janis has not been able to pay his large debt back to us, so Joel is left with the annoying phone calls of creditors. But Janis is working with two promising groups who may be getting major label money and this should trickle down to OVERHANG. This promising set of circumstances for Janis means it would not be wise to try to get him to the States right now, so we're thinking that Joel will probably go to Latvia at the end of January. Janis sent us a mix of Disaster over the Christmas Break and it is very good. Sonically, he's on the right track. He changed a few things structurally that we do not want changed, so it will probably take some hands-on involvement with Janis to get it right. But we are confident that Janis is the right person for the job. He will make the already over-toiled album enjoyable to listen to rather than just a work to be admired for its complicated mesh of guitars and beats. So, for January Joel and Grant will work all day, every day on the new material--Grant doing vocals in his little basement office in Oak Park, Joel staying with another friend in a studio apartment in South Shore (Illinois, not Hawaii)--and get together with Jeff a few times before Joel leaves for who knows how long to finish--FINISH!--the album, Another Hole for You to Crawl Into... and Never Get out Of For a Long Long Time.

Posted by Grant Elgersma at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)