Consider the Thief: Studio

Holy delayed tumblr post batman

With all the various options to communicate with our adoring fans, I forgot about our tumblr.

Twitter.com/considerthief

We’re doing a music video for one of the tracks from our upcoming release “signs and wonders” - on iTunes in 8 days!

Dryw is recording our new new friends FROM INDIAN LAKES in July. They are from….Indian lakes. Fresno area I think.

That’s about it. Love and smoochies

Sean

release details

very, very soon. we’ve posted new songs, check those out in the meantime.

sean

Signs & Wonders

is done.

So, the record is finished. We go back to not being quite so broke and to a more normal pace of life, at least for a little bit before things get crazy again. It’s time for a wee vacation!

We hope you enjoy the album. More songs up soon.

Sean - Consider The Thief

vocals

are almost done. We have three more days this week in the studio tracking vocals and a little bit of guitar. I had some seriously legit talks with Zack Attack that were fueled by a lack of hanging out and Eye of the Hawk. We went back to Aaron’s apartment, got burgers at Barney’s and played Halo 3 online while I attempted to avoid slipping into a food/beer coma. We watched youtube videos with Zack, because he’s out of the loop. Dryw worked, because he never stops working, on drums editing and various recording techniques while I pwned n00bz. That’s what makes him special though. You can book time with Dryw at our new studio (myspace.com/realsoundsacramento). I am blessed to be in a band with some phenomenal individuals.

I would have more pictures posted, but my brother (Brandon, my actual brother) has my camera as he studies (I originally typed “studys”, yeah it’s time for me to go back to school) abroad in Israel, in the city of Jerusalem. I figured him taking good pictures of the holy land would be more beneficial than you guys seeing the upteenth photo of me in dirty basketball shorts or dryw’s moustache, however glorious they may be. I also told him to learn how to assemble, load and fire an AK-47 so he can defend himself if need be. If nothing happens to him, I’ll be very glad but he’ll be that much more bad-a for knowing how to use an AK.

The record is almost finished. Some cool things happening in the next few weeks: hitting newstands March 6-ish is Alternative Press’ issue that includes the annual “100 Bands You Need To Know” list for 2009. We are completely and totally honored to be a part of the issue as past bands have included Circa Survive and Katy Perry (you have my number, why haven’t you called me yet baby?). You should pick an issue up and take a picture with it and send it to us. We’ll throw it up on our page and photoshop a goatee or something on you. We also have some other press stuff happening that will catapult this new record to 10x Platinum status within a few weeks. You’ll see us at shows with chains hanging off our necks, and also our amps because we can’t even carry all the bling we gonna have.

Cool things happening in my life: Hanging out with the Alpha Children boys (myspace.com/alphachildren), activities included watching youtube videos, drinking red tail and getting e’erybody all wet (Jonathan, stop sending me pictures of yourself at three in the morning, it’s getting old). Writing a lot of stuff on Reason on my crappy celeron laptop. It’s like the 386 of the 2000’s. Anyone want to buy me a Macbook Pro? I need a sugar momma. I am also growing a beard.

This blog was supposed to be brief, but I’m retarded and managed to make it longwinded. See you at shows, we’re playing some songs that y’all didn’t hurr before -

Feb 20 - Vacaville w/ homiez

March 6 - First Friday, Rancho Cordova w/ mo’ homiez

March 7 - Club Retro, Orangevale w/ e’en mo’ homiez

you guessed it,

sean

the thieves collaborate, dub-bhangra-wonders and the end

yo!

We spent the weekend in the studio. Dryw was sick, so no vocals tracked, but we did get a ton of stuff done. On Saturday Jordan tracked accordion for a song called “No More Samaritans” and Zack and I tracked on a song called “Son of Hell”.

Sunday was spent with our new friend Kush Arora (www.kusharora.com), an ace programmer from the bay area who helped us revamp the electronic drum parts on our intro song (and title track) “Signs and Wonders”. He’s into dub/bhangra/a bunch of other genres I’m totally unaware of but he nailed the feel of the drums while managing to infuse his own style into the track. Dude is super talented, I forgot to blink a few times while I was watching him at work. I am really, really excited for the final version.

As January draws to a close, we find ourselves with the end in sight. February 28th will be our final day of mixing/mastering and we’ll be putting the album up for a full stream on Myspace, I think. The album is called Signs and Wonders, and we’re excited to share it with you. Well, now I am at least.

I don’t think I was excited a month ago. I’ve had this weird love/hate/sometimes-mostly-hate/anxious relationship with the record for a lot of reasons. None of them have to do with the quality of the songs or the recording itself, but the weight of realizing that months of writing songs, rehearsing and now recording are about to come to an end and we’re going to be done with the project. Maybe it’s the amount of energy and heart I put into this release compared to past efforts with other groups, maybe it’s my psyche preparing itself for the massive life change I feel coming on after this gets released….but it is something.   

I don’t know where my anxiety stems from, perhaps it’s the possibility of rejection or failure? I’ll be honest, it scares me a bit. It takes a certain kind of vulnerability to work this hard on something and just sort of present it to as many people as possible without wondering if it’s even good. Now, this doubt is not ever-present, but it is there. You see, I gave up college, girlfriends, friends and career advancement because of music and to have this doubt stowed away in the back of mind is unsettling at times to say the least.

The awesome thing is, all of that anxiety and fear melts away when I play these songs. It doesn’t matter under what the circumstances are, live or just rehearsing…my insecurities, any masks I’ve created for my daily life, any fears about the future or regrets about the past are shed when I get together with these four dudes and play the music we’ve created.  I thrive on the transparency that music gives me, and I hope that when you listen to these songs you hear exactly what I’m writing about.

There’s no awkward posturing or pretentious gestures on this album, no empty words or contrived measures. This is us, growing with each other as friends and writing songs, each a snapshot of the lives we’ve lead in the last two years. We’ve battled depression, struggled with the far reaches of sorrow and fought vices that have threatened to swallow us whole….but we’ve also experienced true friendship, passion, progression, growth and a brotherhood that does its best to embody what true love means.

Thank you for joining us on this journey and being patient as we take the time to make this record the best it can be. More songs soon.

Love (and more love if you actually read all of that),

Sean 

Friends,

We have been working hard at home and in the studio, and I realize that apart from Sean’s pithy posts and insights, this blog has been pretty dead over the past month or so. I wanted to update you on what we have been working on, however, so we have posted an early mix of one of our songs, entitled “On High” on our myspace (here). Be sure to check it out soon, because it’s the last time you’ll hear the song in its current state. There is still percussion, keys, minor vocals, and general sound shaping to be done. Because of this, the current version of “On High” may not be up for too long. We did feel like those of you who have been following us needed to hear what we have been up to, however, so this is a thank you. With that said, listen to the song now, then we will talk.

“Of how many cities brought to light,
How many cities are there left to find?
And who could search them all?
There hide two for every one,
I was daunted by the sum.

Of all the ascents that I contrive
All of the summits seemed at first so high
For every mile there
I saw two that lay ahead

‘till a great light
burned a new sight
of what years hold
Days could not know.

Of everything with the morning, and
Everything in time.
Oh, Everything is smaller
When you see it from on high
From the earth to the ocean
I see another state of mind
Oh, everything with the morning, son
Will put all your fears to flight

What the years hold
Days cannot know.”

Those of you who are familiar with our older material may notice how different the new is. The other songs on the new record are quite different from “On High,” but they are also quite different from each other; we have tried to write a musically diverse album. When I was young, my mother listed to a wide variety of music. I grew up listening to everything from dance, to latin, to classical, to rock, and many in betweens. I remember (even at that age) thinking how cool it would be to write songs that embodied my favorite elements of a style, without writing an entire album in the same style. I wanted to write songs that I liked, without worrying about a genre. I feel like we are just beginning to explore this. While the album maintains a consistent vibe throughout, it is diverse. I hope you will enjoy it, and find it as interesting to listen to as it was to create. I also hope you will approach it with an open mind upon its release, listening for growth rather than repetition. What’s the fun of trying the same thing over?

Love, Dryw

P.S. Facebook us!

yo, sup LOL

What started out as a harmless joke and what I thought was funny and ironic has become a staple of my e-communication. I’m talking about l33t-speek, or whatever it is. LOL CAPS OMG. I need to stop, it’s bad.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are playing our first show back this Friday, January 9th at Luigi’s Pizza in Downtown Sacramento (http://www.myspace.com/luigisslice) at 1050 20th Street. That’s J and 20th for you Midtown n00bz. We’ll be playing all new material from our upcoming release, which I think has a title…but Dryw has yet to confirm. I think. I can haz a record name? And by “all new material” I mean that we won’t be playing songs from the Soldiers and Saints EP. Booyah-tiki.

Our second show back is January 17th at the Boardwalk in Orangevale as direct support for Dance Gavin Dance (www.boardwalkrocks.com), we will also be playing a ton of new stuff at that show as well. Also, we will be playing Dance Gavin Dance cover songs (jokez).

So our album, which will now be known as Chinese Democracy (except with less pentatonic solos and corn-rows) is close to completion. We’re going in for several days this month to hopefully wrap things up, with some studio time in early February as well.

I’m very glad to be practicing again. The time in the studio served us well, it helped us accomplish a very important goal but it unfortunately left us with little time to connect as people. After two months of everyone sort of enjoying life in their own way (in the studio and out) we are finally clicking like a band again. We are very anxious to release this album.

happy new year, you freakin goons.

sean

<3

P.S. - I better see said goonz at Kaki King’s Jan 31st show at Harlow’s in Downtown Sacramento. If you go to UNO show this year, make it this one. I don’t care if the Dalai Llama himself starts a sick-br00tal crunk screamo band with breakdowns that make you want to lose your $40 New-Era Yankees cap (even though you were born in Rocklin) in a pit with fat, sweaty, testosterone-laden, pimply, basketball-short wearing bro-hammers hellbent on gathering their fellow bros and beating the crap out of you because you bumped into them while they were spin-kicking the crap out of said br00tal pit.

sidenote: yo, br00tal bands. Why do you always look so angry? Especially you frontmen (http://www.dobi.nu/yourscenesucks/hxc/scene.jpg). Now, I can understand the legitimate angst/anger whatever from the homies that grew up in bad neighborhoods, or went through a ton of crap as a kid, grew up poor etc. etc…but when I meet some kid from Granite Bay who’s fronting a hardcore band that lives in a $1.7 million dollar home, drives daddy’s Range Rover, owns a PS3, XBOX360, a vast collection of very expensive awesome New Era caps and the Twilight movie out on BluRay before the rest of the world getting on stage and being VERY UPSET with life I question the legitimacy of that band. Lyrics like “STAND UP AND FIGHT”, and “STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR FRIENDS AND NEVER LET GO. NEVER LET GO” What are are you angry about? Did someone forget the soy milk in your triple-shot-caramel-mocha-frappucino this morning on your way to the personal trainer? Go play the trombone or something.

I’ll be straight up with you: When I go to Starbucks I only get hot chocolate. I ate cinnamon frosted mini-wheats this morning before work and I’ll probably go home and make a pepper-and-colby-jack grilled chicken sandwich for lunch. I don’t like onions or tomatoes in my food. I play a telecaster. I am not tough, I just find faux-toughness gut-wrechingly hilarious.  Longest sidenote ever.

Have a safe new year everyone.

perhaps I'll think of a clever title at a later time.

Spent yesterday tracking vocals (well, not me per se but Dryw. I watched and wrote guitar parts for new songs/other things) and desperately tried to avoid the bitter cold that plagues our little cave, the studio.

Things are sounding good. I’m confident the final product will be a really transparent representation of where we are as a band and as people. We have a few more days to track in January and then we are done. Monday is our first rehearsal back in months, which is an odd feeling. Getting into the rhythm of playing shows and exposing ourselves to the awesome current music (ha, ha) climate is exciting.

Today is my Christmas in Chico, CA. I’m convinced that prime rib, potatoes, green beens and pumpkin pie are the foods of the gods. Our next album will be a concept LP based around what’s it like to be a 670 pound version of me, just you wait.

For those of you that have followed us this far, thank you. I think you’ll enjoy this album. For those of you that support the plague that is autotune-screamo-crunk or whatever it is, stop. If I have one more person tell me that such and such a crunk screamo band is really innovative and interesting I am going on a shooting rampage.

Happy Holidays,

sean

p.s. - dryw got me the katy perry album for xmas as a joke, and I sort of like it (maybe a little bit). I use to listen to her singles in between guitar tracking sessions at the studio. does that make me a hypocrite? oh well, at least she has some talent, which is more than I can say for the aforementioned groups.

we sit and we wait

“I know men’s hearts are swayed by sound in a singer’s strains.

But have I faith enough to sing a city to decay?

I have tried to move mountains, and they did not obey,

but by brass and belief, their towers will be razed.”

lyrics. finishing vocals up this month and early next month, then we release this beast. practices start soon, getting ready to play shows in January.

happy holidays everyone!

sean

well, this is awesome

We are officially behind schedule. gear issues, electricity problems and annoying-as-all-get-go neighbors tuning drums during vocal tracking has set us back a few days, so we have to book odd days during December and January to make sure this beast gets finished. 

Our goal this week is to finish acoustic guitars and continue with vocals. We are fortunate enough to track with a very pricey santa cruz acoustic that sounds absolutely incredible. Tracking a certain part revealed a set of harmonic overtones unique to this instrument, and we were able to isolate the sound and make it a prominent part of the song. Yes, yes, and yes.

We bought a cheap-esque glockenspiel that was delivered today. Neato. Jordan and I are currently 24% completed with the first of three Donkey Kong games that need our attention these next 36 hours. It’s our mission. If you call us nerds I’ll throw a barrel at you.

Dryw remains busy, the rest of us are in a sort of limbo as we wait patiently for the record to see completion. I had the pleasure of reading Dryw’s lyrics so far for the album and I am thrilled to be a part of the concept he’s come up with. For me this is a new experience, working with people as dedicated as my current band mates. 

I’ve been working, salsa dancing, xmas partying, watching movies, sushi consuming, running and attempting to get buff. Jordan and I just got the heater fixed in our apartment in time to narrowly avoid frostbite. 

For those that read this semi-often, I’d like to ask you to share your thoughts on the recent “call in gay day” (if that’s offensive, I’m sorry…not sure what else to call it) www.daywithoutagay.org. I found about this the day before the nationwide protest and found it interesting. The specifics are longer on the site, but it basically stated that it wanted to ‘merica to see what a day without love would be like, followed by a blanket statement that the gay community is compassionate, driven, loving etc., etc. It called for the gay community to not make any economic contributions for 24 hours, be it in the form of any purchases, ad revenue or showing up to work and instead volunteer.  

My first thought was that it seemed to be the wrong sort of response to the recent Prop 8 decision. Wouldn’t a better way to display a unified purpose be to show up en masse at capitol buildings around the country, throw protests at court buildings where marriages are officiated or even flood government servers with hundreds of thousands of emails regarding the recent ruling? Is risking a semi-severe blow to an already fragile economy a responsible form of retaliation in regards to their civil rights? Just throwing it out there. 

coherent blog? no. That’s why I always end them with pictures so you can forget how awkward it is to read them. Happy Holidays, I hope that they are safe for you and your family as well as blessed and meaningful.

sean

watching: in bruges (watch this, it’s awesome), count of monte cristo

drywzorbs tracking acoustic

glockenspiel-tiki

donkey kong tiki

a-ron

speaking of “day without a gay”, dryw decided to protest by growing a mustache and refusing to record anything at all.