division-usa.com

Good evening, everyone! Many of you know that we’re recording the fourth Division CD, “Control Issues” and have reached the part of our program where it’s time to record vocals. Tonight, I had the chance to go in and work on a fairly violent and very tense piece called “Gemini.”

“Gemini” was one of the first songs written for the CD and was even demo’ed a while back. Much like “Bloodletting” and “Soulmate”, “Gemini” has undergone several composition and vocal changes since that time. In fact, it’s probably the case study for the difference between how I sang a few years ago and how I sing now. It was also one of the keys that helped me shape the lyrical theme for Control Issues.

This song is about two brothers; one who has lived a near-perfect life with his parents. The other is a bastard child who was the product of an affair of their mutual father. When brother two comes calling, it wrecks everything brother one has ever valued. In the end, the two sides of the coin wind up on the furious path to mutual destruction.

“Gemini” was crafted from a story a friend of mine and I were writing a number of years ago, unbeknownst to many of the audience. We were great friends but wanted everyone to believe we hated one another, and so the characters were born.

To prep for the storytelling nature of this song (and others), I listened to a number of old radio programs, like Suspense, Inner Sanctum and The Whistler. The horror and irony behind these shows really created theater of the mind in the days before TV, and I wanted to tap into that same creativity. I also listened to great storytelling bands, probably none more closely than Iron Maiden.

Ok, I’m rambling, so I’ll head out now and keep everyone posted on the next sesions. Be well and love music!

One Love,
nK

Division fans,

In lieu of reporting from the studio, we wanted to extend the chance to some of our fellow metal musicians and let them introduce themselves to you.  The first guest blog we’re featuring is from Dan Roem, frontman for the drunken, disorderly dudes in the Virginia-based band, Cab Ride Home.

As many of you know, CRH and Division have a long-running sign war, including whip cream pies and adult diapers. Division is set to hit the stage on May 27th with Evergrey at Jaxx Nightclub. Rest assured that the CRH crew will be there, to continue the raging sign war. (Tickets available here.)

And now, our guest…

“Hey, this is Dan Roem, vocalist for the drunkest band not named Division in Northern Virginia: Cab Ride Home. I’ve lived in Manassas my whole life, being born at Prince William Hospital and living in the same Brentsville District house 22 out of 24 years.

I grew up in an Italian household and attended Catholic schools for 13 years, from fourth grade all the way until I graduated from St. Bonaventure University in 2006 with a degree in Journalism/Mass Communication. Thus, I drink.

St. Bonaventure is located in the middle of “Bumfuck, New York” as one of my professors once put it. It’s an absolutely gorgeous campus and the people there are surprisingly friendly despite the constant snowfall. But the closest major city - Buffalo - is 65 miles away, and when the snow stacks so high that it covers half your bike, you can understand how there are not always a whole host of entertainment options at your disposal.

That leaves Bona kids with two choices: drink or drink and then do something else. This is where heavy metal, the discovery of Jagermeister, and having the No. 2 college radio station in the nation all come in handy, though only two of those activities should be done together.

The main reason I wanted to be a journalist is because I did not have the chops to cut it as a musician but still wanted a career where I would travel constantly. During my college career from 2002-2006, I drove an absolutely insane amount of miles, well over 100,000. Shitty weather was not much of a deterrent from catching shows back then, whether they were in Spartansburg, SC, Columbus, OH or Manchester, NH.

What journalism allowed though was an avenue to pursue all-things related to heavy metal without being able to cut it as an actual musician. As a reporter for SMNnews.com, I interviewed some of my all-time idols, like Mike Amott from Carcass and Arch Enemy, found my way back stage at Ozzfest 2003, on tour buses like those of Sworn Enemy and Motograter, and even free hookups for shows. Life rocked.

Writing for SMNnews.com gave me chops in another area though: writing. It gave me something to be passionate about where I could directly apply the skills I learned every day in the classroom. Spending two hours a day, every single day, scrolling through hundreds of Web sites looking for news to post really was not that much of a burden. It was enjoyable.

Away from the Web site, I was on air at WSBU every week as a disc jockey known for hosting the heaviest show in western New York. Like SMN, The Buzz had its share of freebees too as CDs came in all the time that the rest of the music department had no use for but I thought were treasure troves. A copy of Comalies by Lacuna Coil came into the radio station a copy weeks before the album hit stores in the fall of 2002. I had heard Swamped online before then and became entranced.

That album changed my outlook on music, as much as Wages of Sin by Arch Enemy did earlier that year. Two albums in one year completely redefined my prospective on music. In fact, 2002 was a banner year for metal, especially of the European variety: Soilwork (Natural Born Chaos), Dark Tranquillity (Damage Done), The Crown (Crowned in Terror)… so much good stuff came that I could infect the masses with via two mediums. What a great time to be a metalhead!

But part of the college experience is growing up. A quote from Wayne Static of all people has actually stuck out the most to me throughout the years as he told Guitar World once that it’s absolutely crucial to have a hobby or some kind of activity completely separate from music or else it will burn you out.

With the 2004 election being so dominate, I took the plunge into politics. Being a reporter for the radio station gave me an outlet to flex my journalistic muscle in something that I began to think at the time mattered more than music. And this idea persevered for probably the better part of a year. While I still had my musical outlets - the 2004 edition of Ozzfest had the best line-up in festival history and I hit that tour three times - the idea of who would be the leaders of our country seemed so much more important to me.

Music, it seemed, was not entirely trivial, but just not that important.

In February 2005, I joined my first real band, Trapped Under Hangnail, as a guitarist and vocalist. After a member chance, we shortened the name to TUH and I focused on guitar. We were certifiably awful, came in last place and second-to-last place at Battle of the Bands competitions, and had more than our fair share of shit talked about us at various open mic nights in the Town of Allegany.

I still did not have the chops, but I was learning. Most importantly, being in a band allowed me to put music in a whole new context. You have to sacrifice so much and ask people who have nothing to do with music to sacrifice too in order to make this work. Bandmates must be on the same page and friends must show up in full to your shows in order to convince venue promoters that you’re a legit draw.

Taking the hours upon hours out to learn simple covers only to eventually write original music is quite a godless endeavor, as Warrel Dane would put it. Asking people to give up their night so they can rock out with you instead can sometimes require you to put your tail between your legs and ask for what basically amounts to a favor for the umpteenth time.

TUH was not entirely serious though and when Deac and I started Cab Ride Home after I graduated in May 2006, we weren’t dead-set serious either. Our goal was just to play a show at Jaxx and get drunk (a lot) in the process. And that worked out great… for a while.

Playing music at a serious level has taught me countless invaluable lessons, but I would like to highlight a couple of them in particular. For one, the notion that music is trivial is bullshit as it directly impacts people’s lives. It’s all in the eye of the beholder and it’s kind of like how national policies in politics have less of an impact often than what your local Board of County Supervisors decides to do.

Music impacts people on a day to day business. To a reclusive, 13-year-old kid or a happy-go-lucky, Mister or Miss Popular 20-something year old, music communicates in a way that the “important” things simply do not. Congress unveiling a new health care policy for seniors may be of utmost importance, but to a teenager who’s being picked on every day or to a kid who needs some inspiration before facing a crucial test, that bill won’t get him or her through the night. When somebody someone loves is far away, what a bunch of fat-cats do in Washington, Richmond or any other capital will not create the soothing atmosphere reminding each person that just because they’re separated, they’re not alone.

But a song can.

Maybe its just a needed release at a live show. A concert can create such a feeling of unity and create such positive vibes, that it can be the lone place someone can go to just blow off a little steam and have a good night for once. There is nothing trivial about giving a person something to be happy about, even if it’s for a fleeting few moments and comes at a price. Part of a live show is all about living in fantasy land for both the musician and the fan, where the performer is a man-made god there to amuse the attendees.

So it may sound stupid, unimportant and, indeed, trivial. What’s the point of all of that? When there’s global poverty, wars, economic crisis, and crimes against humanity occurring all the time, how can music possibly be important?

Valid questions for sure. On the other hand though, if that is the world with music, imagine the world without it. Without Fade to Black to calm someone’s nerves, would one more suicide note have been penned? Without that Katatonia concert in New York City, would two people from different ends of the earth have met and eventually married?

Or, to paraphrase Mikael Stanne, without the magic, would there only be the mundane?”

Catch more CRH at their MySpace site.

Division made its way to Hagerstown, MD to perform for the first time at a great little bar called The Broad Axe on Saturday night.  What follows is an attempt to capture just a bit of the debauchery…

Where to begin?  Well, first of all, we’re very grateful for the chance to play at The Broad Axe and want to thank Revilement for sharing the stage with us last night.  The Broad Axe is a great little tavern that sits right on West Franklin Street in old town Hagerstown.  If you’re near there and haven’t checked it out, please do.

We arrived early and had a chance to yuck it up with some old friends and some of the usual suspects.  Division went on at 10 and we played an hour of tunes including songs from the first three CD’s as well as material from the upcoming “Control Issues” release.  We also played songs by Iced Earth, Slayer and Metallica.

The biggest hit of the night was Dave’s tee shirt, which had an arrow pointing to his left and the words “He loves the cock”.  Since Dave stands stage right, that shirt implicated everyone else in the band.  This fact was mentioned to us between every two songs by one particularly drunken bastard.  However, “he loves the cock” was far from the only quote of the night.

Here’s what I learned about Hagerstown…or Jagerstown as I watched the Jager Bombs dropping like rain…people there thank you with shots of alcohol.  This might have been a St. Patrick’s Day thing, but I don’t think so.  I’m guessin’ this is the normal culture.  In fact, while one person was buying us shots, he complimented Mike by explaining how great “you and that little fucker” played guitar.  Classic moment.

There was also a comment about the hippie chick who most likely shaved certain areas of her physique, but not her armpits. Oh, and after the one drunken patron grabbed the microphone, I made the comment to Ron that I don’t “go to his workplace and take the spatula out of his hand”.  So there was plenty to go around.

Naturally, conversation turned to horror flicks and gear.  The guys in Revilement are really, really good at what they do.  Check them out on MySpace or live.

Up next, a super secret show announcement and an update on the recording process and the artwork.  Stay tuned!

nK, Division

Just arriving home after another solid recording session for the upcoming Division CD, “Control Issues”. Mike (Blevins) and I had three uninterrupted hours to bang through material and, other than the threat of snow and making one another laugh, we managed to stick to the schedule.

Maybe it’s coincidence, or maybe not, but the last two songs that I’ve gone in to record are both songs about a slow and steady descent in which the person singing the song crosses over from normal to psychopath. Mike, who is engineering the disc, was really helpful with some ideas on how to deliver melody lines, how many harmonies lines to have and how hard to hit them. I think his guidance has helped to deliver more of the ’slow burn’ journey instead of me just delivering each line as hard as possible. He really understands dynamics, and probably missed his calling. He could be a great director in Hollywood…in the demented, Kubrick, “no you can’t go to the bathroom” kinda way.

Today’s song was “.45 Intent”, about a young man who gets the girl of his dreams only to find out she’s not what he wanted at all. It’s sort of like “Blind Date” meets “The Tell Tale Heart”. The entire song came from a line that crept into my head while I was at a goth bar in Louisville: “In this bar surrounded by the ghosts of Bettie Page“. The pin-up queen has since left this life and I’m not sure if that’s profound or I just sort of want it to be as an artist.

The song also features optimal placement of the F word. Shocker.

Division is performing in two short weeks at The Broad Axe in Hagerstown, MD. March 14th will be our first trip to the place and we welcome anyone who wants to come down, check out the new tunes and have a drink. Till then, back to work, slackers! Be careful in the snow!

One love,

nK

Evening, Divisionaries!

Nick here, updating you all on the latest Division news. The Control Issues sessions continue.  This time, I get to face the big red “record” light and the microphone. Why not get the ball rollin’ and just hit one of the heaviest songs on the disc, right?  So, Mike and I filled about three hours tonight recording vocals to “The Collector“.

For those of you who don’t know, this song was the focus of the “Die to be in a Division Song” contest. The three lucky winners are now immortalized in song, since they involuntarily donate body parts to the title character in verse two. Congrats again to Candy, Suzanne and Alicia for all your hard work.  You’re a part of Division history. (for the winning pics, click HERE.)

In other Division news, the band’s artwork was featured on the Season Four premiere of Supernatural. In the cross our fingers department, Division is also in negotiations with two movies for soundtrack opportunities, and our chosen artist for the cover of the new CD. 

What else?  How bout a brand new Division YouTube Channel?  You got it. Check out the vids from past shows HERE.

Okay, if you’re as anxious to see us live as we are to play for you, don’t miss the next gig, March 14th at the Broad Axe with Embrace the Tragedy and Revilement!  We can’t wait to see all our great Divisionaries!

Alright, back to work for me.  Stay metal and stay tuned for more great news out of the Division camp!

Nick- Vox
Division

…but we took them, anyway. Rather than just use a sound from one of the commercially available sources, we went the route of actually sampling James’ drums (both old ones and new ones) for tones that we might need/use for replacements. So, set up a few mics (including a couple that James used the “Borrow From Guitar Center” method of acquisition on), and got some sounds. Some very nice sounds, actually.

Then we did a little bass. More on that as it unfolds.

…plus we had an extended break due to Thanksgiving in the U.S., plus, well, I often wonder if anyone actually reads this. I mean, if it’ll get the hit count up, I could always add some rabid lemming pr0n or something…

Anyway, I digress. Recording rolled along last night, in what was hopefully the last drum session for the new album. James, as usual, pounded during the first song with reckless abandon, and actually got some very good stuff. Dave repeatedly wondered if the drums owed him money. On the re-take of a song we’d recorded the previous session, James hit it with much more energy and precision this time around. Since these were the last two (of 11), we would seem to be done with drums. Although I may find something unusable - I haven’t reviewed and comped everything yet - I’m pretty confident we’re done with pounding on stuff for a while.

Speaking of pounding on things, up next is the bass. I really feel for Ron’s strings…

…since the album is well under way now, especially. After having drum session #1 go slowly due to some technical issues, #2 went much more smoothly - James looks to have punched out four more songs during on Thursday. Good thing, too, since we lost a recording session on Sunday, as you will see…

First off, though, there’s a story within a story here. When we last went into a studio (MCR, when Matt was still in the band) to do the 2004 “Hunt” demo, James really struggled - we had slated three songs to be recorded, we only got two, and no one was really overly happy with the drum performance. When we did the 2007 demo earlier this year (using the same mobile recording rig we’re using now), we had some of the same issues. James seemed to start off really strong, and get more and more inconsistent as we went.

Our process was one that’s familiar to people who’ve recorded in a studio before - do a take, and listen back to see if it’s a keeper. I honestly do it that way from habit, since I started recording at 1″ tape 8 track studios, where we didn’t have the money/time to keep multiple takes on the drums. The only change in my mindset was that we could go back and punch in sections, which was very difficult to do with tape. James diagnosed the problem as physical - he’d get cold and tight while we were listening to playbacks of the takes, and the effects would accumulate over the length of the session.

Enter modern recording technology. Since you can record multiple takes non-destructively, it’s allowing us to record 2-3-4-5 takes of a song, and then I can “comp” them together into a single drum track, taking the best sections from each. Interestingly, though, I haven’t had to do that much - James’ being able to play consistently through the sessions has actually raised his confidence level enough that I’ve usually been using the last take we recorded, because they’ve been getting stronger as he goes along.

“Hunt”, in particular, is a great example. We’ve actually been playing it a little faster live than we recorded it. When James commented on my having the “slow” tempo in for the recording, I said “we’re fine as long as you keep the energy up, so beat the sh*t out of them.” He did. We got a great take of that - so good that I’m looking forward to putting the guitars over it already. This change in process has allowed us to capture something that I think has been missing so far from our albums - the energy of our live show.

Speaking of that, we didn’t record anything on Sunday. Why? Because we were at Jaxx, opening for seminal British doomsters Paradise Lost.

Yeah, I know, we weren’t doing any more shows until March. Well, Jaxx got in touch with me last Wednesday and asked if we could do it. We had one rehearsal - after James tracked those four songs - and played the same set we did at the Therion show. The crowd was a little better than I expected, we had fun, the other local (The Groaning) and the PL crew were pretty easy to work with, and it was an overall positive experience. PL was great, too, which is funny because I’m only really a fan of one of their albums (”Gothic”, which they did play the title track from), yet I always seem to enjoy them live.
Well, I have a bunch of drums to review during the Thanksgiving holiday, so I’ll be busy. Then it’s back to recording next week…

…although my adventure really started on Saturday, when I re-discovered the frustration of trying to make sure that click tracks were completely up to date before I started my guitars stuff. Of course, they weren’t. I couldn’t play “Gemini” (ostensibly the easiest song of the bunch) to save my life, but after stumbling through it, I punched “The Collector” out in two takes. Odd.
Then I used the demo I’d already done for “Feast”, which, we discovered on Sunday, was at the wrong tempo. Oops. Guess we’ll pick that one up on Thursday. Yet again, I find myself wishing for more inputs for recording.
Anyway, James got “Gemini” down with a little work, and did five takes of “The Collector”, all of which had really good sections, so I should be able to comp them together. Yes, that’s one of the dirty little secrets of the recording studio - what you hear on albums is rarely, if ever, recorded in one take, for any of the instruments.

Anyway, I think we have two good ones - I’ll be reviewing takes tonight, and comping one drum track, and then sending a karaoke mix around for the rest of the band to practice to. Ah, technology…