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!

     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

     To any planning on pledging on the KICKSTARTER Page, your last chance is swiftly approaching!  We have ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT before May 3rd when our Kickstarter Campaign ends! 
    Although we have met our original goal of $1500, we set a STRETCH GOAL of $2000 with some extra rewards in place for everyone if we reach it by May 3rd.  So, keep pledging and if you have already pledged, please keep sharing the link: http://kck.st/HACoeE

     We are SOOOOO grateful for the 40 Backers who have pledged on the Kickstarter and those who've donated their time and resources in sharing the link with friends who might be interested!  This is YOUR accomplishment, and we are going to do all that we can to make you the BEST RECORDING POSSIBLE! 

Spread the Love,
Kelsey

Then I had this BRILLIANT idea of making a coffee float! 

Turns out ice cream doesn't float in coffee... it sinks.  And melts.  BUT IT STILL TASTES GOOD! 





You know what else was a treat today?  MEETING OUR GOAL ON KICKSTARTER!  We have 9 DAYS left of our campaign, and we've already met our $1500 goal!  THANK YOUS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS PARTICIPATED!  So, we've set a STRETCH GOAL  you can find out more about it here.  Our new goal is $2000 before May 3rd!  The difference with this goal is we will receive ALL of the money pledged up to this point and that includes anything over our goal, so keep on pledging, because the more support we raise, the better we can make this EP! 

Fix yourself a treat today.

love,
Kelsey