stereoins

Hey, I'm Matt, I play instruments for this project.

2010-08-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what takes more courage... driving 45 minutes north of Toronto to start a collaborative songwriting/recording project with some dude who thinks he can sing, even though he's never really sang before... or bumbling downstairs hungover on a Saturday morning and actually opening the door for a stranger standing on his porch, who thinks he can play guitar, even though he's never really played guitar before.

Nick and I were both drummers who were sick and tired of being just drummers. Being uninspired by the drums, I started strumming my dad's old acoustic six-string, and before I put that guitar down, chord progressions for a song called "Fool" were written. This was nearly 5 years ago... back when I thought D minor to A minor was a brilliant chord progession.

Around the same time, Nick started writing lyrics. No complete songs, just lyrical phrases here and there. No notebooks either. Just scraps of paper, napkins, postit notes. After a petty rivalry on Pearl Drummers Forum that led to countless conversations over the net via instant messaging, I decided I was fed up of having half-ideas for my songs, and I told Nick that he was fed up of having half-ideas for his songs. That night I informed Nick, "You and I are going to make an album together", to which he replied something to the effect of "Ya right."

I showed up at his doorstep anyways. The surprise on his face was priceless. However... pessimism set in when I saw the bags under Nick's eyes and the near-empty 60oz bottle of Bacardi beside his bass drum. But a few hours later, the groundwork for 4 of the tracks to be released on our upcoming album "Out & Out" would be written and demoed.

It's amazing how this project has evolved. Once we realized that we could write and demo 4 songs in one afternoon, and 3 more the following weekend, we set out to write and record an album as quickly as we could. Simple songs, simple instrumentation, simple production value, a simple release. There were several different versions of these songs with that attitude in mind, but then upon listening back to the recordings, we felt we weren't doing the songs justice, and our idea slowly morphed into a 4-year marathon of writing, re-writing, recording, sending demos and mixdowns back and forth, re-recording, re-re-recording... overall a constant battle that I wasn't sure we'd ever complete. But thankfully, through determination and dedication, now we're just anxious and excited to get it out there.

- INs

Hey, I'm Nick, I sing for this project.

2010-08-07T10:56:00.001-07:00

About 5 years ago Matt and I met online and decided that we wanted to work together and record a small, minimal production acoustic album. Live recordings of vocals and guitars, then bass and drum overdubs. We both didn't like the idea of overdubs at the time, but there was only two of us, so we had to go with it. What happened over the next few years we never would have expected.

We wrote about 20 songs together, rewrote, rehashed, reinterpreted, and rerecorded these songs and they eventually grew into these monster productions that we now love. We love them because we don't feel like we had a goal. We did not try to, we just did, the parts that felt good stayed, the parts that didn't died out. Musical Darwinism.

"Shooting in the dark" is the term we always used for our creative process. We would act without resistance or qualification, I didn't know how to sing, Matt was just learning guitar, we were drummers you see, the sky was the limit and we were forced to improve onward and upward, thus "Out & Out" was born.

We originally had 18 songs on the album, but 4 were cut because they were too "nice". They didn't fit the style of the album at all and we thought it would be really lame to attack you with heavy hitting experimental tunes then start singing about cuddling with my ex. So we released those tunes for free. You will never hear songs like this from us again, and Out & Out will be something completely different.

I would personally like to express a huge thank you to my friends and family who have supported me through this process, be it rides to Toronto, lyrical feedback, ego boosting, and "Hey man I thought this shit was supposed to be out last Christmas, whats the eff?" Most of all the Durante family, they have been incredibly patient with me and with this project; lending us their house, their basement, and shuffling their schedules between the two to allow Matt and I to work alone without noise restrictions. Without support like theirs none of this would have ever happened.

We don't intend to get a lot of attention for this, we just wanted to do something on our own. We're just two normal, kind of goofy dudes that wanted to make a record. If you guys like it maybe we'll make another one together. If you don't maybe we'll do it anyway just to spite you.

- INs

The first of many

2010-08-02T10:24:00.001-07:00

This is the first blog post. This is the first of many blog posts. Check back soon to see the second of many.

Lacking resistance and qualification,

-INs

Don't forget to download our free ep @ http://stereoins.bandcamp.com/