Alright, we’ve finally got a release date for the new EP – APRIL 16th – Woo hoo!
It was only after listening to all the tracks that we realized there is a distinct theme running through all of them…I’ll break it down for you:

1. Where have you gone – Escape
2. Remember Waiting – Escape
3. Over the Rainbow – Longing for escape
4. I wanna run – pretty self explanatory
5. No Love – Escape
6. Pink House – remembering a sense of freedom

so, yeah, we decided to call it “The Escape.” I’m really not a miserable person, I’ve just always loved a good ballad 🙂

I hope this post finds you safe, dry and with electricity and hot water. Elie and I really didn’t believe the hype and didn’t think it would be anywhere near as bad as it was…lucky for us we no longer live in Queens. I hope everyone else wasn’t as blase.

In preparation for Hurricane Sandy we spent all day Saturday and Sunday tracking drums, guitars and keyboards at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, then retreated back up to Beacon. Not only did we not suffer any kind of fallout from the hurricane up here, but I think the meteorological happenings helped us lay down some really great tracks. Elie and I have a habit of skirting natural (and man-made) disasters, it’s kind of our thing.

Anyway, the recording was fantastic. We’ve got Chris Schultz on drums, Clif Jackson on upright, Elie on acoustic guitar, and Clifton Hyde (who played with us on the 2007 EP) on electric guitar.  We were able to track all of the acoustic guitar, bass, drums and piano live and we’re going back into the studio in the next few weeks to record vocals.  Then we’ve just got to mix, master and duplicate! As far as a release date, here’s the rough timeline I came up with today instead of working on album art:

Now you know everything I know:)

Here’s some piccies from the recording

Stay safe out there!

Lots of Love
*TWT*

Hey all!

I know things have been very quiet around here – and my apologies for that.
We’ve been playing fewer shows lately and my attention has been directed towards our next recording – but I feel that I will soon reach the point where my enjoyment of playing shows completely eclipses my dislike of booking them and we will be back on the road. Speaking of which – we’re planning a tour to Florida in Late January, so if you know of a great place for us to play or want to put on a house concert let us know!

As far as the recording goes, we have booked a date! October 27th and 28th is when the magic will be happening at The Bunker in Brooklyn. We also have a brand new, never-been-played-in-public song which we will be recording AND it features the banjo, lots of backing vocals, some foot stomping and has a rich, nostalgic, atmospheric feel to it.

ALSO, we’ve decided we’re going to have a hell of a lot more fun during this recording. We want to experiment more and really create an identity for each song.
I can NOT wait to share it with you!

Hope your Memorial Day was filled with lots of fun and good food and minimal amounts of traffic and sweatiness!

I’ve changed my mind again re: the album vs. EP dilemma.  Elie has a name for this specific type of indecision, he calls it “Pulling an Eleanor.”  I’m pretty sure this decision will stick, though.  It was my original plan, which means it was what I wanted to do in the first place before doubt crept in.  It’ll probably be about five or six songs, four of which are written, and two that are almost complete.  The good news is, this means we will be recording and releasing new (er) music way sooner than we would’ve had we been doing a full length.   I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but I can NOT wait to get these songs recorded!!!

If you missed it, here’s a free download of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” recorded live at NYU with Chris Shultz and Clif Jackson (our new bass player).  We’re going to be re-recording this for the EP, and I’ll be including a killer vocal intro…it’s gonna be good.

I’ve also started work on a stop motion video for the song using paper cut outs.  This is the first time I’ve attempted something like this, and so far it looks pretty cute.  I have about a thousand more photos to take, so don’t hold your breath, but hopefully it will see the light of day eventually!

(Truth be told I’m writing this because I hate the idea of that last post being the first thing people see when they happen upon this blog…it really wasn’t very inspired, and it’s been sitting there for months now.  That being said, I don’t really have a whole lot to say, but I figure anything is better than a list of things I’ve eaten recently or bought at Goodwill).

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We had previously decided that we’d record an EP for our next release, but now we’re thinking it’s going to be a full length album.  But it’s going to be a little schizophrenic, or maybe bi-polar is a better mental illness metaphor in this instance.

Since receiving my banjo for Christmas it’s become my instrument of choice for writing…and I have some very fun and folky songs in development.  Then there are other songs which were originally intended for a concept album – but I really can’t be bothered to sit on them much longer, or try to come up with a whole album’s worth of  material which fits into the constraints of this concept – it seems a little tiresome, although I have great respect for anyone who has the focus and can commit to such an endeavor.  Anyway, these concept album songs are much darker, and might end up having quite a bit of synth/electronic elements in them.  Then there are some in-between songs we want to record like “Where Have You Gone,” “No Love,” “Better Off,” and our cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

So I guess we could put out two separate EPs, but that would mean doubling the duplication and promotional expenses, and quite frankly, I’d rather backpack around south east Asia…yeah, it costs that much.

Plus, I think good music is good music, whether it’s folk or indie rock.  The songs probably aren’t as different as I think they are, they all came from the same place, so how different can they be?

I am trying not to get frustrated with how slow this process is at the moment.  Although I am a lazy pot head I’m actually very results oriented – or maybe I’ve just learned from living in this world that the only things that matter are “results.”  But now that I just wrote that down, I realize how completely untrue that is, thank you WordPress!  These songs are awesome, writing them is awesome, playing them by myself, to myself, is mind-blowingly awesome – and is really the only thing that matters.  But I would love  you to hear them also.

Alright, guess I did have stuff to say!

I got a mass email from someone recommending that I go through this past year and acknowledge every accomplishment, usually I would be annoyed at being added to a mailing list without my permission, but I actually really like the idea.  This will probably make for a really dull blog entry, but if you watch “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” before reading this, it will seem like the most invigorating and exciting thing ever. (Seriously, I dare you to watch that movie).

So here goes –  2011: the good, the great and the awesome:

*Booked and embarked on a tour to Chicago and had an awesome time.

*Bought an Airstream.

*Played Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artist Showcase, discovered a supportive and vibrant community of folk musicians and folk music lovers.

*Booked our longest tour to date and spent five weeks on the road playing shows in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio.

*Sold our furniture and left our apartment (hey, it’s an accomplishment!)

*Met John Platt from WFUV, got airplay and played in the studio.

*Played a Quad showcase at our first NERFA, met more awesome folk folks.

*Got a scholarship to attend out first Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis.

*Improved as a duo and gained confidence as a performer.

*Started designing websites (has nothing to do with music, but I’m adding it anyway).

*Got File Maker Pro (I told you this would be boring).

*Formed a jazz trio (Sadly, not called The Whispering Trio – we’re leaning towards “The Un Deux Trio”).

*Found some awesome pants at Goodwill last week.

*Decided I wanted to learn the banjo.

*Got a banjo!

*Discovered that you can order a vegan pizza from any pizza place – you just have to ask for no cheese…seems obvious now.

*Made a music video (I guess this should be closer to the top of the list, you can see where my priorities lie).

*Got a Kindle.

*Discovered that milk is not an ingredient in Green & Blacks 85% dark chocolate, even though its listed as an ingredient – it’s just processed on shared equipment!

*Watched 15 minutes of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” and got my money back.

So, pretty great year!  I wholeheartedly recommend this exercise 😉