No really, SORRY!!!

so,
we've been working on packaging the last couple of weeks, an its coming together just fine!!!
we're very, very, very excited about the direction/concept, etc. very unique, very cool.

i'll try to post some pics soon... but we do want most of it to remain a surprise.

-jut

sorry.

sorry for the lack of updates.
we've been mixing and working on packaging.
we're very excited about everythig that is on the table. i think you'll all love this album.

concluded

it is finished. we've completed recording, and are now in the final stages of mixing our ambient album. in fact, we're going to listen and take notes for our final mix, and discuss packaging, art, etc. look out man!

juicy fart (re-mix)

tracking will continue today for our ambient album... in fact, we only have one more "song" left that requires any live performance... the rest of our work will be field samples, studio samples & tape archives that need final placements w/ the rest of the album.
since we've been mixing each "track" as we go, we could very well have a finished product by the end of the day.
but we'll see... at the very latest, we'd finish it next weekend. any way you look at it, we'll finally have a proper follow up to "WRITE ME IN METAL/MAKE ME FOREVER". and it only took 4 years!

time lines, all around us, time lines!

we're entering the studio next weekend, and if needed the following, to finish this ambient record of ours... yeah, holy shit man! we'll have ourselves a record by the end of this month. next up, packaging, and starting work on the cowboy record. sweet jebus chris mas.

Up your tinkle-butt with a mason jar, Canklesores.

Tink tinkle the tinkling of music boxing.  We were music boxing for many rounds last night.  I have a black guy to show for it it's all swole shut and very discolored.  

Another fun little thing we did for the ambient project or future such projects, a cut/paste invention with a lot of music box sounds.  

Also, Ben has a great new movie pitch.  It is a three-way buddy movie where the stars are a Chris Tucker type character, a Cheech guy, and a Jackie Chan guy.  They run away from the cops or something even though they are wrongfully accused.  It is called "Black Beans and Rice".  Movie poster forthcoming.

Fresh from the Beat Labratory Slow Cooker

How about this, we sit around and drink our drinks, and we manipulate our analog musics on the digital computerizing machine using God only knows how much Pagan sorcery. 

All of our sounds from two years are on tapes.  Tapes are old magic.  We now have them on the computers where we can see what the music's soul looks like.  It is looks pretty wavy.  Last night we gazed into the dark secrets of our own sonic history, and cut and pasted and chopped and screwed until it sounded like some somethings.

I have revolutionized the way that I think about everything.  

We have one ambient track/transition almost completed, and we will be working on a few other things to prepare for the day of great finishing.

I googled "The day of great finishing", and this is what I got.  This, and a healthy portion of dumpstersluts dot com.  

backwards and forwards.

we're looking to book some studio time, late april, to finish the ambient record. tonight we listened to more tape loops, which jeff has been transfering onto his computer... and we should hopefully have those edited by the time we enter the studio. we've only got a few other things on our checklist.

How is blog formed?

Long time no blog, if I do say so myself.  It has been many moons since I have run with the buffalo and laid my blogohawk into the skull of the white man.

I think if I was a savage Redskin, I would name my son Blood Garden, or Farms With A Spear, you know?  Something that'll raise some eyebrows around the tribe.  Mickey Rourke would be a good one too.  Or Battlebee Coldbottom.  No, probably Blood Gardens.

Because that kid has to know from day 1, that I conceived an ice-cold bigfisted killer.  The whole reason I impregnated his mother, as well as many other godless squaw women, was to raise more warriors as razor-sharp tools with which I can surgically incise my way to the very lifeless heart cavity of the white devil.  Once I am there, I feast on the squishy organ as it still pumps the cold, earth-polluting, globe-warming blood substance that is cursing our land.  Full to the brim with honky hearts, I fill my mouth with as much as it holds (which is a whole lot!), pry my head out of the rib cage area, and then feed my hungry soldier babies sitting in the nest made of caucasion corpses, directly out of my stinky beak.

For I am Knitter Of Many Scalp-Quilts, guardian of this sacred land, and buster of countless caps on the battlefield, into brave warriors and whack-ass bustas alike.  

album update, part 2-ish

so... we went into the studio last week, so maurer could lay down some sweet, sweet sounds. looks like we'll just have one more weekend left, and the album should be done!
in the meantime, we're working on field samples, other sounds, and most of all... the transitions between the "songs", and the ambient beds that will go on top, or under these "songs"...

for most outsiders, this must be very, very confusing.
sorry.
and i'm not sure when we want to reveal details about the record.
again... sorry.

also, we're still kinda getting used to getting ourselves back out into the public eye, so to speak. i know most of you thought we'd hung up the towel, but in truth, we've been secretly writting, and demoing this record (and the other one we're working on) for about two years... but it wasn't until a month ago that everything started coming together for us.
it was one album, that was getting too big for it's own good, and ur producer finally got us to sepparate the two. thank god!

now we're on a nice creative roll.
everything is coming together just fine.

it feels good to be back.
bayta darell loves you all.

we've all got questions

after the release of our first album, "WRITE ME IN METAL/MAKE ME FOREVER", we started work on an epic sci-fi space rock saga, w/ plans for it to be a 2x disc, and include a book, that we've written. well... it turned into more than we were ready for, and both the book, and album have sat on the back-burner. we recorded the album, and it turned into 3x discs, and the book still has some holes.
so... we started work on another album, which has turned into 2 albums.but we're going to focus on one, release it, then finish work on the other record. THEN, we'll go back and finish the space opera. we've also been on a LIVE hiatus. sorry... we just got burned out. still trying to think of something to bring us back... but for now, we're finishing records.

things I did tonight

What I did earlier tonight:

1) Bill Miller (2 x BBQ sandwich + fries + sweet tea)
2) gas @ texaco
3) drive to studio and unload gear (including untested, recently home-made microphone pre-amp)
4) begin session by a failed test of the pre-amp
5) fun machine sweells for hwhile over "curey song"
6) attempted a whistle, with three helpers, but failed quickly
7) switched to guitar and finished the song with silly noises.
8) guitar sweeells on "roads loop" (took a while, but finally got the touch and pwned those swells)
9) simple accordion chords for "spanish song"
10) load out in the rain and negotiate deals to take Jason's accordion and the fun machine back nashville

New Album

we're nearing completion of our "2nd" album... going into the studio tonight, so maurer (abacus) can lay down some tracks (before he heads back to nashville). we hope to have it finished, and released soon... very soon... more info will follow.

Interview

How did you each get your start in music (and just name for me who's in the band and what instruments, etc they play)
Ben White: I was in the church choir when I was younger. I learned to play guitar by playing churchy music and was in a college chorus for a couple of semesters. I studied music theory, and such, in early college years. I was in a band in Dallas for a short time I began to appreciate good music, moved to Austin and met the boys. I mostly play guitar, but on "Write Me In Metal…" I play guitar, drums, sing lead on a couple, backs on others, and play an assortment of other do-daddies.

Justin McLeod: At the tender age of 11 I learned how to play the guitar & bass by listening to "Pet Sounds" & "Revolver". After years of playing in various bands, I started playing guitar & singing in Hundred Year Storm. Shortly after recording an EP, I left to commit full time to Bayta Darell. I mostly play bass & sing, but on "Write Me In Metal…" I also play acoustic guitar, some electric guitar & drums.

Joffrey Dorman: Started in high school choir. Learned to play guitar for church music, following in the footsteps of my mother and father before me. Stopped altogether after deciding that music in church was mostly unfulfilling for a absoludicrously snobbological bastard of my particular ilk and quality. After a year of finding my tastes, and myself I jumped back into music at the genesis of Bayta Darell. I now play guitars almost exclusively and sing main vocals. I prefer to hone my single instrument rather than play various instruments all very shittily.

Justin Maurer: I took piano lessons for 13 years (5-18) and eventually got involved with the band setting through my church (this is also where I met the Bayta Darell crew). I gradually picked up different instruments and by the time Bayta Darell was formed, I was doing my part playing drums, keys, vocals and the occasional bass or guitar. On the recording I mostly played drums and keys and vocals at times… the right times.

Current Bayta Darell live line up:
Joffrey Dorman, Justin McLeod, Ben White, Mike Delaney (Drums), and, sometimes, the very distant Justin Maurer.

How did bayta darell form?
We found, among friends, the love and longing to create, listen and experience beautiful music. We made the proper arrangements, signed some papers and began our consummation. The band has, and is continually changing form by introducing new bed buddies and losing certain others. The core of Bayta Darell is still tight, even though Justin Maurer is under scholastic discipline in Tennessee.

Tell us the songwriting and recording process for write me in metal/make me forever.
Most of the songs on Write Me In Metal… were ideas, brought to practice by an individual, which the band, as a whole, would fill out by playing through the idea for varying measures/units of time. Most of these songs were played through while watching movies projected on the wall, with the sound muted. This is our favorite mode of writing.
Recording was the collaboration between our producer, David Dreesen, and the band. We brought our shit to David and he made it smell.

Give us a little idea about the process behind writing lyrics. Why do you write the way you do?
We all get together and write a slew of insignificant words and pile them into a hat. Taking turns, we draw words until we have a phrase and then write them down. The phrases that make us cry are then put in another hat, a better hat, and we again take turns drawing phrases. After enough are drawn, the phrases get sent into the final sorting process, "The Great Wording," and that's how, when Bayta Darell really loves each other, they can make songs. Also, we're drunk during this entire process.

Actually, the songs are songs for a long time before they have real words. The singer sings words, but those words are not words. After enough time, certain sounds and phrases stick. Usually before the actual words are written, a story is invented for the song. The sounds and phrases are fit into the story as best as possible. More words that are words fill in the gaps.

Is rock and roll dying?
Most music that is defined as "Rock and Roll" sounds dated. It has lost its impact by becoming cliché. It has left a definite mark on many other forms of music that are experimenting with new sounds and feelings. Rock and Roll is not dead, but now falls under a sub-genre of contemporary music where nothing too exciting is happening. The Spirit of Rock Roll, or Son of Ghost Rock and Roll, is alive and well, existing throughout all forms of indie and pop music, regardless of genre.

Most music sucks ass. There's so much music being made everywhere, the law of averages says that most of it has to suck ass. It also says that there is probably a greater amount of total good music being made now than in the long, long ago. It's all subjective, clearly, but we say that there is more good music to "find" than ever before. If one looks a little bit harder than TRL or the radio, they can find a huge amount of music that fits their taste.

So, no, it is not dying. In the immortal words of Wesley Willis, God rest his tormented soul, "Rock and Roll will never die…Wheaties-the breakfast of champions."

Who are some musicians/artists who inspire you?
Joffrey: Brian Wilson, Sigur Ros, The Prayer Chain, Starflyer 59,

Justin: The Beatles, The Beach Boys (Brian Wilson), Sigur Ros, Mogwai, Pink Floyd, the Who, Starflyer 59, The Prayer Chain, CSN&Y, A Five And Dime Ship, my mom.

Ben: Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Sigur Ros, Mum, Mogwai, Mono, A Five and Dime Ship.

Justin Maurer (abacus): Ester Drang, Mandarin, Sigur Ros, Mogwai, M83, Sufjan Stevens, The Beach Boys, Damien Jurado, Queen, Tom Waits, Richard Swift

What is the secret of communicating the deep things rooted within your soul through music?
We feel certain passions and we inherently create music around such passions. Anyone who listens to our music will take away from it what their person and situation allow. Any one person could attain one depth while another finds a completely different meaning. Communicating happens when we express our passions. We do not actively strive to communicate to the listener through the music or lyrics. What we would rather do is create a world of our own choosing, one where the stuff of dreams come to life and the Whole Fantastic Universe and all of its parts are the way we believe them to be, or the romancing of everything we know and see. From this place, the listener can espy a new place and experience it. Our goal is for the listener to embark on a journey through the space of our sounds because we have been on journeys of our own, without which we would not be who we are, individually and as a band. We think that people should have varying interpretations of the music according to their personal journeys.

Bayta Darell has no "secrets."


What is the hardest part of being in an independent band? What's the best part?
1. We have to do everything our-own-damn-selves.
2. Not having anyone tell us what to do.

Any advice for young bands?
We still consider ourselves a young band, but I would say to know what you love, know what you are good at and then use that to create what you love. If you want to be successful quickly, don't follow in our footsteps.

How has you band been received in the live setting?
We try to approach each set-list with care. Each one is different. Each show is special. The hardest part has been in finding our audience. We know they're out there…

What is in the future for bayta darell?
Albums, hopefully tours. We are in the process of writing for our next album with an even more dramatic mixture of organic, post singer-songwriter style, and our "punk as fuck" sci-fi rock.

Bayta Darell returns to blogging

Let the blogging begin.