Quick Update on Kickstarter Rewards: We’re back from our Spring tour of Germany and Italy. We had a lovely time! As some of you may have seen on twitter/facebook we picked up the Kickstarter tshirts/totes while on the road. Now that we’re home, they’ll be shipped out by the end of this week. We also posted out the first batch of notes from the road. That was fun! We’ll be sending out notes as we tour throughout the year. Keep an eye on your letter box if you picked this option!
Album Progress: We’ve delivered the album masters to the label (Sinnbus) and they seem to like it (Phew!) and they have started preparing for the release. News about singles, artwork, release dates and tours coming soon. We’re finishing up the artwork with David Litchfield this week. It’s looking incredible!
We’ve been busy with the new album lately. We recorded everything during a 2 weeks stay in Lewes, England. After that we took a week away from the record. Then Paul Pilot mixed the album in Berlin and worked with us by sending files back and forth. Soon the album will be mastered! And we’ll be releasing the first single in a matter of weeks!
We’ve been speaking with David Litchfield about album and singles artwork and it looks like he’s in too! How exciting!
Geesh, this is all happening so fast!
Below is a short video of some clips we took during our time in Lewes..
Thanks very much!
Brookln & Ruth
P.S. We’re playing in Germany and Italy over the next couple of weeks. Come by and say hello!
After a scrambled egg and coffee breakfast, we’re ready to get back to work. Heading out the door for the studio to get stuck into week 2.
We had such an amazingly productive week last week! We worked on 10 songs and most of them are feeling pretty good already at this point. Going to get a couple more started today. Not sure how many we’ll actually put on the record, depends on how they all come out I guess..
Ruth and I were sat in the van last night listening through the rough mixes of last week’s work and we got really excited! We’ve written this record in a new way (for Rue Royale), much more intuitively. Which means it has a different feel to it. It feels liberating. Also, working with Paul Pilot on this record has been amazing! Paul’s able to listen to these songs in a way we aren’t as we’ve hovered over them for so long and he’s hearing them with fresh ears. So, he’s bringing some great ideas to this album as well as inspiring us to write and perform parts we’re really proud of. (Rue Royale HIGHLY recommend bands working with Paul Pilot for their next record!)
We were tempted to keep working over the weekend but we learned last week that rest, time and head space, whilst in the thick of this creative process, is essential. We had a lovely day in Lewes involving a few adventures (Brookln carrying a frog for 1/2 mile, saving it from road death being one)… We did do a lot of talking about the previous week. It seems we all need to chat out our processes a lot , especially as we are trying new approaches and making this record in a studio with a deadline. We have learned that it’s better to be in great communication, even if it feels dramatic or hard going, to keep momentum and focus. It feels like such a whirlwind of energy in the studio, up and down, that great explorative conversations and coffee are highly productive elements.
Ok, we’re off! Studio Day #6 and it’s snowing!
– — – — – –
Below are some pictures from the studio and cottage from the past week.
Just heading out the door for Studio Day #4 but wanted to fill you in quickly first!
We started yesterday by getting back into ‘Shouldn’t Have Closed My Eyes’ we were working on guitars mainly but also a couple of new ideas that came into mind while working on it. It’s been like that this week, recording something we’ve had written for a while and then an idea comes up, maybe it’s Paul’s idea as he’s bringing a fresh perspective and ears to this album. Anyway, whosever idea it is, we end up following that thread maybe sometimes it doesn’t work (like an interesting delayed guitar idea we had yesterday) but sometimes it does and then we’re sent to the moon with excitement. This isn’t a black and white kind of week that’s for sure.
We were trying to get quite a few songs up and running yesterday as it feels like time will suddenly be eaten up and we will be rushing the creative parts. This is again quite a conflicting process as we know we have limited time here but we want the songs to breathe and find new life in the studio. this means lots of rabbits trails and meandering around. We found ourselves struggling to get songs recorded and up and running whilst leaving some feeling a little lost. For example we recorded a quick guide for ‘Pull Me Like a String’ and then couldn’t quite put our finger on what tempo we wanted and felt right. So we scurried onto the next song ‘Almost Ghostly’ feeling a little strange about leaving ‘Pull Me Like a String’ up in the air.. but then it all made sense a few hours later having recorded a different song.
That may sound like a dramatic time for something so simple but it is quite an intense process and it feels like your head and heart are up in the air when you cant complete the song to a certain level. Like pulling a cake from the oven half baked.. it could go terribly wrong (that is Ruth’s example). We managed to get quite a few tracks in by the end of the day. There was definitely an awareness of time yesterday that pushed us on but now we think it should give us a good backbone to work on freely and creatively in the days ahead. Phew.
Here we come Studio Day #4!
____________________________________________________________________________
We started yesterday morning by getting back to work on ‘Changed My Grip’. Ruth played some piano and I played an interesting set of drums (pictures below). This was building upon an idea we had playing in our heads for a while now, so that was great to get it out and work through it, very exciting.
As you may have noticed over the years, we have quite an independent (DIY) streak in us. We recently heard a great quote from someone that you could make a record (live your life) by yourself but you’ll have a much richer & happier experience (life) if you’re with people. So with that in mind we have happily and nervously invited our friend Paul Pilot in on this journey.
Yesterday, after working on ‘Changed My Grip’ for a few hours, we moved on to a song called ‘Tiny Parcels’ which we brought to the studio in bare bones form. Paul brought some very fresh ideas to this bare boned song, this process is really stretching us as we wrestle with what resonates with us, what we feel comfortable with or not, feeling overwhelmed with options. That is why we are here. To make a record in a new way and to push ourselves (& with Paul’s help) into a headspace where we can create that which would not have been in our safe little studio at home.
Ooh, one more thing! Last week I bought a gut string guitar on EBay for £62 and had it posted to our cottage here. It was sitting outside the door as we were heading out to the studio yesterday morning and I recorded with it right after lunch. Feels and sounds amazing!
Yesterday was our first day in the studio. It was amazing!
We dove right in with a song called “Brought Up Somewhere Else”. We’ve been playing this song live for a few months already. You might think that helps when attacking a song in the recording process but it brings its own challenges. All the preconceived ideas and habits you can get stuck in whilst playing and forming a song live can often get in the way of thinking creatively and finding something fresh for the album. Yesterday, I think it helped us get started though, we let it come into its own after laying down the guitar and some guide vocals, a few strange piano moments then lead to something new and exciting. Thats when it gets really exciting, when something happens unexpectedly and you all look at each other with a little anxious grin “do you like that? I think its cool..” “yes, I do.. do you?…” “at first I thought it was strange.. but now I quite like it..” “oh yes I really like it..”
After a while of to and fro, we decided to get guide guitar and vocals in for “Changed my Grip” (another song we’ve been playing live for a while) at around 9pm, a little hungry and dazed but really content to carry on, I sense a few late nights and bleary mornings coming.. hurrah!
Here are a couple of pictures from the day:
____________________________________________________________________________
Though we don’t actually start recording until Monday, we are well on our way to getting this record made! We have written quite a lot in the last few weeks and have today packed up and made the trek down south. We have rented a little farmhouse (renovated stables on a working farm) and it’s way cute! Tomorrow and Sunday we will be writing and getting some rest before we kick off the recording on Monday.
We are really excited (!!) and we will try to keep you all posted as we go..
Best, B&R
P.S. if you are on Instagram, we are posting pics over the next couple of weeks (@rueroyalebrookln & @rueroyaleruth) with #rralbum3
– — – — – — – –
This was our gear as we were about to pack the van this morning.
The ceiling of the farmhouse/stables we’re staying in.
____________________________________________________________________________
We’ve had a very productive few days since the end of the pre-order campaign. We’ve spent the majority of our time writing and rewriting but we’ve also spent a good chunk of time searching for a studio along with our buddy Paul Pilot who will be co-producing, engineering and mixing this album!
We’ve decided to record at Bat Box Studios in Lewes, England. We’ll be recording for the first couple of weeks in March and Paul will start mixing toward the end of the month.
This is all feeling incredibly real and incredibly awesome!
Thanks again for all of your support in this!
We’ll be blogging it up as we go here and also over on the Kickstarter Updates.
Best,
B & R
P.S. Here is a picture of some of the beasts we’ll be taking with us.
____________________________________________________________________________
A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE JOINED IN ON THIS JOURNEY AND HELPED TO ADVANCE THE PLOT OF THIS STORY. THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT YEAR! WE’RE MAKING A NEW ALBUM!
Thanks so much for your support in this!
We’re at 73% with 11 days left! We’re getting there!!
We’ve started posting Q & A’s on our Kickstarter page updates. Do you have a question you’d like answering about this crowd-funding thing? Shoot us an EMAIL .
