Drums? Check. Bass? Check. Guitars? Check.  Piano? Half check. 
We have gotten SO MUCH done in just 3 short days!  Scott and I tracked the rest of our guitar parts yesterday, and even got to start tracking piano for 3 songs, Sarah learned how to play Glockenspiel for Bear Hope and even added a bit of Organ to Midnight Wars!  Today we are going to track the rest of the Piano.  If we get that done in time, we'll start tracking lead vocals.  That's me!  Here's a little treat for you from me and Mallory snickering together while the boys talk drums.  That's Chris Leonard in the background talking about the drums doing summer-salts!  He's an AWESOME drummer, really.  Mallory and I just get a little stir crazy when we've been in the studio for a hours.   

     Well, we made it through 2 DAYS of recording and we are ahead of schedule! 
     Yesterday, we tracked the rest of the drums, all of the bass, and started on guitars.  Everything is sounding AWESOME!  I am so pleased to be working with the musicians I'm working with, they are so talented! 
     Today we plan to finish up the guitars and start on piano!  Moving right along! 
     It was like a reunion yesterday with dozens of friends from my college days here and there and everywhere! Someone I haven't seen in a long time, Zach Vinson and his wife Christina stopped by the studio to say hey and listen to some tracks with us!  Apparently all of my friends from college got together and just decided they'd migrate to Nashville.  If you're in the East Nashville area tomorrow night, stop by Ugly Mugs at 7:00pm to hear Zach Vinson, and another friend, Olive Hayes, put on a great show. 

Until tomorrow!
Kelsey

     Yesterday was our first day of recording for Bear Hope!  I am in Nashville enjoying the warm weather with Mallory and Scott from The Rough & Tumble (they just released a new EP, check it out here),  and several other friends who've volunteered to help out!  It's going GREAT! 
     We have laid down what we call scratch tracks for all the songs.  These are sort of like a primer in the tracking process so that all the other instruments as they record separately can have an idea of how the song moves and get a good feel for it.  We also tracked drums for three of the songs!  We're right on pace and today we're going to work on tracking bass, guitar, and more drums!  YEAH RHYTHM SECTION! 
For those less musically inclined fans, the rhythm section (bass & drums) need to be tracked first as a foundation for the rest of the instruments. 
     If you've never recorded before, you might have assumed that bands record everything together much like a live performance.  Some bands do record this way, it creates a certain kind of sound, but it's much easier for the sound engineer to control the levels of each instrument if they're tracked separately, and creates a much cleaner sound because there's no sound bleeding into the other microphones in the room.  Interesting, yes? 
     I'll continue to give you updates and I hope you get the fly on the wall view throughout this whole experience! 

Love,
Kelsey 

     During our week of practice, The Rough & Tumble and I (+ Tumble's husband) visited Thistle Farms which is a non-profit organization affiliated with Magdalene House (a safe house for women seeking shelter from the streets).  Jennifer was our tour guide.  She showed us all over the Thistle Farms facilities (minus the farm which is off site), their products, the paper making room and showed us how to make paper out of flowers and thistles.  As Jennifer mentions in the video, Thistle Farms relies solely on the sales of their product and charitable donations to help the women in their two year recovery program get the group and individual therapy they need to restart their lives.  The women also work in the Thistle Farms facilities learning important job skills to help them re-enter society once their two years is up.  You can read more of Jennifer's story on the Thistle Farms website, www.thistlefarms.org, or follow this link.  THANK YOU JENNIFER and THANK YOU THISTLE FARMS!

     I'm sorry for my lack of communication while I was in Nashville this week, but I wanted to check in and let you all know that it was a SUCCESS!  I went down to practice with The Rough & Tumble, and we had a blast!  We have chosen 6 songs to be on the EP out of the 14 written, and we have come up with arrangement ideas for each of them.  That way when we get in the studio, things can move as quickly and efficiently as possible! 
     We also got to visit Thistle Farms, I'll be posting some videos soon.  Thistle Farms is affiliated with Magdalene House which is a safe house in Nashville.  We sat in on the meditation circle, got a tour, and helped them make some paper (one of the products they sell to keep their organization running)!
     I'm back in Grand Rapids this week, but next week is THE WEEK!  We'll be recording from May 23rd through May 30th and I am so excited to send out these songs!  More details to come!  Love to you all!

Kelsey

     So, tomorrow I will be making a ten hour drive down to Nashville to meet up with The Rough & Tumble, so get in some early practice time.  Recording has been rescheduled for May 23rd-30th (hopefully it doesn't get moved AGAIN), so we thought, since we had the extra time, we'd get in some practice. 
    
     The songs are nearly ready to be presented to the world, but there is a bit more fine tuning that needs to go on in the pre-production stage (before getting into the studio).  I'm still really pumped to share these songs with you, and I can't wait to hear them in their final form once we've got the whole band together! 
    
     As promised, I am going to be shooting videos and taking pictures through out this process to share with you all, and for those who pledged $25 or more on Kickstarter, will have a peek at the behind the scenes of recording and practicing and working out kinks and... all the good stuff you never get to see. 

Love to you all! 
Kelsey