The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Hello Everyone... per request, here's an update for the fans of the band:

We returned from our Asia/Australia tour a month ago, saw our families and friends for a bit as we de-jetlagged our bodies, and headed back to Boston to start working on new material.  Getting back together in the same town again, was more of a big leap than we expected, I think, as the band had been spread apar t while we weren't touring since August of 2007.  As that move came with sacrifices for some, we're very pleased to be activated again.  The process goes something like this:

Everyone has a lot of songs.  We play the songs in rehearsal.  We meet with producer.  Producer says the band is in a good place and is capable of a lot, but the material is all over the map, and it also needs to be better.  Best and worst part is, he's right.  So we start over.  More writing.  More soul searching.  We could make any album (everyone in this band likes a lot of different music), but we're really striving to ditch out on some silly trend that's going to last for a year, and try to make songs that could be played on the jukebox for awhile.  It's really a hit or miss situation.  We're also really zooming in on lyrical hooks.  The hardest thing in songwriting, I think, is taking those simple everyday phrases that you and I always say and somehow twist them into something interesting... that simply state the real heart of the matter.

Tom Petty really nailed it when talking about restlessness, wanting Friday to come sooner, waiting for your crush to call, etc.

"The waiting is the hardest part".

These six words are so simple, yet anyone can relate to this... whether you're in first grade waiting for class to end, in high school waiting for Friday's football game, college waiting for the Delta party, in the office waiting to get out, or waiting for your weekend bingo game when you're retired.  ANYONE can relate to this simple statement.

Now, it sounds so easy when you sing it... and that's why it's the absolute hardest type of lyric to write.  It's much, much easier (at least for me) to write poetry... prose... rhyme together nonsense, or even jam cool ideas into melodies... but the good songs... the REALLY good songs... are simple... and get to that "point."

This... is stressing me out.  HA, but it's worth it.  I now walk the streets of Boston with a pad and paper and jot down anything and everything that comes to mind, or anything I hear that could be interesting. This is also new.  I used to ALWAYS work from melody first (and still happens), but the band is very focused on working from a phrase or title.  Once you have that, a lot can take shape.  

The waiting is also the hardest part for me.  I love touring.  It drives me nuts when people tell me that we can't tour... in the states or elsewhere.  I also know that we must make an album, but we're not just going to put out anything, though we have plenty of songs, if we wanted to do so.  It has to beat anything that's happened thus far.  The waiting is the hardest part, when I know we'll probably be working on this album for awhile... quite awhile... but it'll be ready when it's good.  Then hopefully we will be rewarded with a chance to tour and share these songs.

What else is going on?  We paused this week to record with Nate Campany and the Serenade.  Nate Campany, for those of you who don't know, is a tremendous songwriter, and one of my best friends in the whole world.  We all came together in Boston to record "live" (not track by track) at Q Division studios, and the music coming from the monitors is very, very rewarding.  Nate fans, get excited, this is very special, and non-Nate fans, please check it out.

The Serenade line-up:

Nate Campany (of course)

Phil Galitzine

Joe Guese 

Ethan Mentzer

Kyle Patrick

Adam Popick

Matt Pynn

Me (Ben Romans)

Adam Tressler

Luke White

Joey Zehr

Our friend Matt Beaudoin is co-producing with Nate and engineering.... and ruling at it.

Anyways, Nate, if you're reading this for some reason, thank you so much for this experience, and for your songs.

After we finish recording, the band takes off next week to Genting, Malaysia, to perform at the MTV Asia Awards.  Mega thanks to the fans for showing the support to get us there.  If you get a chance, check it out... it'll be a blast.  Then we head back to the states, to get right back into the album.  Once we get to a place where we feel like we can share some of the material... it's possible that we might do some shows in the area, if it doesn't distract from recording... I hope we can.

I think that's about it, as far as an update goes.  I hope this finds you well... and I hope to see some of you soon... the waiting is the hardest part.... but it's worth it sometimes.