CREDITS:
Recorded
on location in Osprelia, VA and at the Barn Studio, Media, PA
Mixed
at the Barn Studio
Produced,
Mixed and Engineered by Steve Durkee
Mastered
by Peter Humphreys at Masterworks, Philadelphia PA
CD
design by Jerry Steinbrink, Joey McLaughlin and Derek
Photography
by Joey McLaughlin
Assistant
Engineer: Jay French
Music
by
Derek (except Lift by Derek and Dave)
Lyrics
by
Derek
All
songs arranged by Superstatic
Management:
Jerry Steinbrink at Pressure Point Entertainment
Derek
Chafin: vocal, guitar
David Lenat: guitar and more guitar
Tim Reeder: drums, percussion, pasta, backing vocals
Chad Gustafson: B3, Piano, Mellotron, Rhoads and other noises
Kevin Jacoby: bass, cello
Additional
Musicians:
Miss Karolyn: backing vocals
Kenny Markford: bass
"May I"- Rob Rizzo-Sitar, Dale Armour-Tabla
Thanks
to:
The Neighbors in Ospralia, Jeremy Burnbaum, Chris Gately, Peter Humphreys,
Joe DeLuca, Mark Suma, Carl Angstadt, Dan Cohen, Jay Friel, Bruce Warren,
Bob Marshall, Rob Rizzo, Dale Armour, Brian McLaughlin, Tom Becker, Chris
Collins, Don and Karen Giles, Judy and Joe and Co., Bruce Hemphill, Bob Jordan
at Alesis, Lou Maresco at Fern, Cyndy Drue, Mark Teboe, Keirsten, everyone
at the Pontiac and the Local.
Without
who's love and support it would not have been possible:
Peggy and Don DeSantis, Joey McLaughlin, Jerry Steinbrink and Liz Smutko,
Fred Goldwater, Nancy, Ethan and Steve Durkee, Miss Karolyn, Kenny Markford,
Jay French, Diane Dercole, Tom McCaffrey, Dave Potts, Andrew Ervin, Jon Cooper,
Joe Augustine, Jesse, Dale and Richard, Pam Welch, Stu and Sue, Steve, John
and Rick, Bill Renner, and all our loyal fans - love you too.
For Dale and Leslie Bluebond
MAKING OF:
750 acres of marshland, forest, and beach with an amazing house at the edge of the waters of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Completely in the middle of nowhere - 30 miles from even the smallest of towns. Isolated, indescribably beautiful, inspiring and magical.
David: "We talked about some of our favorite records and the large majority had one thing in common - they were not recorded in a studio. They were recorded in a house. The Stones, Led Zeppelin, U2, Chili Peppers, (you could count the Beatles because Abbey Road must have felt like home by the White Album)".
Derek: "This record was about exploration... of our minds and our our abilities". We wanted this real trippy vibe where anything could happen, but we also wanted it to be very aggressive. We wanted the listener to say "I didn't expect that, but it's cool". There is this dichotomy that runs through the record. There was a conscious attempt to make a record that could endure - why make one if it can't stand a test of time. At the same time we wanted to just let go, have faith in our ability as a band, and just please ourselves.
Tim: "There was no stop watch on creativity. If someone had an idea at 5 am, we would just get up and press record - which happened quite a few times. Just a relaxed, creative environment where we could focus, experiment and make music".
The Name - Flinty Loam? Derek explains, " Our manager's lovely and supportive (it's an inside joke) wife, Liz deemed where the bay meets the beach - the flinty loam. It cracked us up, but we also love the sound of it.
With planning approaching a military operation, they turned a beach house into a 24 track digital recording studio. A cargo van was packed till even a wafer thin mint couldn't fit into it and then headed to Virginia. The van transported all of the band's instruments and amps etc., all the studio gear - some of which the band had and the rest borrowed from friends, food, and supplies to repair anything that broke. Since they were in such a remote place, getting spare parts was not a possibility.
Derek: "Dave and I drove the van down late at night. The van poured exhaust fumes into the cabin and within 2 minutes from leaving we were stopped by the police. Not for the fumes, but because the van looked like it went through a war. It might as well have had a sign on it that said "Out Doin' Crimes". An interesting 5 hour drive listening to Lenny Bruce and feeling like Cheech and Chong. Just to keep us alert and from drifting into a carbon monoxide induced coma the van's headlights would go off periodically. We unloaded that night, set the place up the next day and the day after Steve and the rest of the band arrived".
The Master bedroom was transformed into the studio control room. Chosen because it was the furthest place from the drums and was big enough to hold all the recording equipment and a B3. The console looked out onto the Chesapeake. In back, five feet away, was Steve's bed. Halfway down the hall the laundry room held the keyboard's Leslie cabinet, 20 ft. further was the living room, which served as the drum room. It was 20 X 30 with a 20 ft. cathedral ceiling, tile floor, view of the bay on one side and the marsh on the other. Adjacent to the living room and separated by a glass door was the family room - a large carpeted room with an equally beautiful view and a small kitchen to the side. The family room was used for recording the guitars. Down the hall from the family room was two bedrooms. The closest of the last bedroom contained the bass rig. During the course of the recording every room in the house was used for something. There was a lot in the band's favor: the owners where kind enough to offer this place to them which was not only beautiful, but also happens to have amazing acoustics, and the session fit into Steve Durkee's schedule.
Steve Durkee had been the main engineer on the last five Prince albums and also worked with such notables as Sting, Stevie Wonder, Paul Westerburg, and George Clinton, just to name a few. The band had met Steve at Paisley Park while recording their first record.
Tim: "Durkee has an enthusiasm and passion for our music that's equal to ours and sometimes more. With Steve's credentials obviously he is a great engineer, but he never makes you aware of the tech geek side of recording. His approach was "it's gonna sound great sonically. You just go out there and hit things really hard, jerky". He is the perfect producer for us - he knows when and how to push and when to rope us in. A contagious sense of humor, very comfortable to be around and loves to experiment with sounds".
Derek: "Steve and I were listening back to a track a 4 am, everyone else was starting to crash for the night. We thought it would be cool to have a snare played with brushes under the track. We wake Tim up and start rummaging around the house because Tim didn't bring any brushes. At 5am Tim is cutting this snare part holding two fists full of uncooked pasta - subbing for brushes. A good meal and goes great on a snare".
"Spontineity was key" Derek adds."I had this riff idea. Tim and I got inspired and started working on it around 2 am. As people woke up or wandered in the track, No Love, was finished by 5 am".
Chad, who played keyboards on the record: "We always tried to record the songs as a full band rather than one instrument at a time then we'd go back in and overdub if we needed to. We were recording an acoustic track and to get the vocals isolated, Karolyn (who sang backing vocals on the record) was put in a bathroom to sing. She was in there for about 2 hours and I think she took a shower during".
Derek: "I always loved the double-tracked drums on a few Beatles tracks. We needed something for the end of Dark and we got our chance to "Ringo" it. Tim had two kits. We recorded the whole song as a band - drums and all. Then as that played we recorded Tim playing over it again, along with every member of the band,(each given a drum from Tim's second kit), seated around him bashing it out. The effect is something like marching drums on acid".
David: "Steve loves to run stuff through old guitar pedals and ancient gizmos. Chad and Steve disappeared into the control room for most of the night and when they finally emerged they had recorded the most intense sounds we'd heard - all perfect for the tunes and completely original".
By the last day Steve had spent it all and finally crashed. David recalls "Steve went to sleep with a studio around him and woke up in an empty house. We'd packed everything up and into the van for the return home while he slept. We didn't want to wake him so we videotaped our good-bye's. He woke up completely disoriented with a video tape of us saying good-bye on TV".
The band returned to their Barn studio and started overdubbing - guitars, vocals, sitar, shovels - you know the usual. There they recorded three more songs Headdress, Crazy and May I. In between the shows, writing lyrics and studio renovations the band took 3 months to finish all the tracks. It took another two months for Durkee to break free from Paisley in order to get back with the band at the Barn to start mixing the record. "The equipment in the Barn is pretty Spartan compared to most recording studios, but the conditions ultimately pushed us to be more creative and experimental - we defiantly improvised", Kevin explains. "Late at night we would sneak into a major league studio in town and listen to our mixes, go back and change anything we heard that was a little off". "Our schedule got so whacked by the end that we would start at 5 or 6 pm, mix straight until 1 pm the next day, go to sleep, get up and start again. Mole People. Of course Steve thought this was like being on a holiday schedule". Steve had to return to Paisley with the record 75% finished. Two months later he returned and finished mixing the remainder. Flinty Loam was finally ready.