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		Neal's Studio Diary Hi Everyone! I'm back! Welcome to nealmorse.com. Now that I've emerged from my 9 month hibernation in studio land (except for a brief stint with in NYC with Yellow Matter Custard) I'm ready to breathe the air and live among the 'normal' people again. But, who really is normal anyway? My wife and I have been arguing about that for ages. But...I digress. You probably want to know what I've been up to for the past year or so. Well, here's a brief run down on all I can remember... Before I start, I know that some people were under the impression that I wasn't going to be doing music anymore. I just want to say that I'm sorry I left that impression because I wasn't sure what I was going to be doing. I'm still not! I'm following what I feel God wants me to do daily. And that can change. So, I'm grateful that I got led to do the Testimony album. When anyone hears this record I think they'll realize why things happened the way they did. Which I had no idea about when I quit the band. Anyway, here's some of what's been up with me since last year: September 2002 - In store performances with SB. Man, my heart surges just to think about it. It was quite bizarre, especially because some people already knew I was leaving and I'd catch their eye and they'd look really sad and, of course, I was fighting back the emotions as it was. But, it was supposed to be a fairly happy occasion...even most of the people at the record company didn't know at that time...it was just hard...and fun at the same time. I love the guys so much. And I kept trying to put the thought out of my mind, which I can do pretty well sometimes, and I almost made it. Until we played June at the second one. The thought of it being the last time we'd sing together (who knows what the future holds) and all the great times we'd had together just slayed me. So I started crying in the 2nd verse I think it was. Then I panicked. You know how it is when you start to cry, especially when you've been trying not to, it's hard to stop. I didn't know if I'd be able to finish the song. And how would I explain it? Well, thankfully I recovered fairly quickly and no one asked me about it. I still don't know if anybody even noticed. The other thing that happened in September (it actually started in late August) was this creative explosion that began the 'Testimony' album. Here's an excerpt from the 'Testimony' notes that will be part of the super-deluxo ridiculously lavish el grande Limited box set. In late August and early September of 2002, I had a creative explosion of sorts. It was wonderful and pretty crazy at times. I remember driving to the airport to pick up the Limited Edition SNOW Box sets from customs and singing 'It's all I can do' into my handheld tape recorder. The main challenge I could see ahead was how to fit it all on one album. There were numerous slow grand themes, several ballad ideas and loads of instrumentals that seemed almost endless. One thing that was really bizarre during this month was that I was doing loads of interviews, I mean tons of 'em, and Nick was doing a ton as well, but it was extremely surreal to act like everything was normal. Talk about having an elephant head at the dinner table and trying to ignore it! One guy even said "hey, you becoming a Christian reminds me of Kerry Livgren of Kansas. You aren't going to quit the band soon are you?" Ha ha ha. I didn't know what to say. I think I finally mumbled something like "uh...uh...no...not any time soon anyway...ha.ha" It was awful. But, just to set the record straight, it was a very hard time for all of us and we were all trying to do the right thing by each other, the record companies, the band, and the SNOW album. If it would have been up to me, I probably would have come out with the news sooner, but the labels wanted to wait and give the record a chance to breathe first, and since we'd all worked so hard on it, we wanted that as well. But, it wasn't real comfy, that's for sure. My apologies to anyone who was hurt by the way we handled it. October 2002 - This is when we went public about me leaving. I remember sitting with my wife on the couch and thinking, 'wow, it's really happening'. Until that was done, I guess part of me felt like I could still change my mind. After that, I really felt like it was it. And I had a whole new wave of emotions after that. That was when I wrote 'The Land of Beginning Again'. Here's my comments on that from the 'Testimony Notes': The Land of Beginning Again - This song came later than the rest. I was in the middle of the demo/writing phase in mid/late October and my kids were participating in a poetry reading with the other kids at my church. So I went to enjoy the cuteness. One little girl got up and read a poem called 'The Land Of Beginning Again' and I just started crying. I didn't even know why. Something about starting over and wiping the slate clean just touched my heart and really surprised me. One reason why I was so emotional is at that time we had just made our announcement that I was leaving the band, and I was hurting and feeling bad about it and wished it didn't have to be that way. Then the next day I wrote this song. To me, it represents the hope for salvation and renewal that's inside us all. November 2002 - I decided to build a studio add on to my garage. The demo process for Testimony was in full swing. I remember my friend Mark Leniger's father died and we went to Oklahoma City for the funeral and were there for several days. I set up a little portable midi-recording studio in our hotel room there and worked out the drum solo section of what is now called 'The Storm before the Calm'. December 2002 - The studio was being built by my friend Mark. It was slow 'cause of some cold weather. We spent Christmas in California and my family (with special help from Al) got me a Stella guitar that I love. I finished the Testimony demos and got a copy out to Mike Portnoy (MP) before we left for CA. I remember talking on the phone with Mike during that time; him being real enthusiastic about the album and wanting to play on it. I prayed and thought about it for quite a while. I didn't want to do anything displeasing to the Lord. But, the more I thought and prayed about it, the more I felt that having Mike play on it was the right thing. So....full steam ahead! We set up the sessions for February. January 2003 - There wasn't much to do this month as I was waiting for the studio to get built and for Mike to learn his parts. My wife and I went on vacation for a week in Europe with another couple and had a cold but wonderful time. I don't think I'd ever been to London and Paris without having some kind of gig, so it was nice to just hang out. We walked by the Astoria and I had a little pang of emotion.... thinking about the last time I'd been there and all the crazy load outs, trying to sort out our gear on the sidewalk with all the millions of people walking by. February 2003 - Mike came in the middle of the month to record his tracks. It was funny, you know how you try to plan and get ready for something big to happen....well, the studio was supposed to be done Jan. 15, which left me 3 weeks plus to be ready for Mike. Keep in mind this is the first time I ever tried to make an album totally at home without paying a studio, and I was a little nervous about it. You don't want to have a guy like Mike come and have things not be right. So I thought I'd have time to get everything set up and do a trial run and all. You can probably guess that I was on my knees finishing the floors the morning the drum kit arrived! I mean, when Mike started cutting tracks, my friend Mark was staying up 'til all hours finishing the bathroom. We barely made it. We brought in my good friend Terry Christian to help us get sounds and get everything going. Of course everything was buzzing horribly and we had more problems than I can even remember. I remember at one point Terry looked at me and said "Neal, is this going to work?" I wasn't sure at that point but I said "it HAS to" or else I'd have to rent a studio at the last minute. Needless to say I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. Luckily we had a new man on our team by the name of Jerry Guidroz who sorted the whole thing out for us. The phrase 'the Lord knows what you need' comes to mind. When I hired Jerry I had no idea how badly we needed him. I thought we just needed someone to be second engineer and be a runner or whatever. Well, Jerry very quickly became THE MAN. I should watch what I say 'cause if he reads it he'll start charging me more money! :-) Suffice to say that the Testimony album became dependent on him very quickly. But, somehow, through all our trials, we actually got some of the best drum sounds and performances I've ever been involved with. Just wonderful. We even had time at the end to do a bonus track and we did a cover of Tuesday Afternoon by the Moody Blues and Can't Find My Way Home by Blind Faith. We kinda ran the two songs together. It was fun and came out very cool. Later when I was re-doing the vocal (in July) I changed the lyrics of 'Can't Find My Way Home' to 'Find My Way Back Home'. I altered the lyric so I could feel it a little more. I've got to say that Mike was just about the most prepared person I've ever done a record with. Except maybe Ryo. They were about the same I guess. But Mike's just a drummer. :-) That's a joke by the way. Yeah, Mike brought a bottle of white-out to the sessions! So if he had to change his notes and charts (which were color coded in a binder with lazer printed labels!) it wouldn't be messy. What a dude! So not only is he an amazing drummer but he's also extremely organized. He knew the music better than I did! March 2003 - We did the main part of the string sessions during this month. Chris Carmichael came down to help me arrange all the orchestra parts. At first we thought we were going to hire a small string section, but once we went through the music and realized how much and how difficult it was going to be, and Chris informed me of how much it would cost for even a small group for several days, we opted to have just a few guys and track them over a million times. It was a lot of work but it came out better than I expected. Enter Eric Brenton. Eric is an old friend from California who in the early 80's used to play in the band 'Burlesque' , the same one I was in for years. I was actually in it after him , but we knew each other. Anyway, he called me up when he heard I quit SB (I didn't even know he was an SB fan) and we got to talking and I asked him "..hmmm...you play lead guitar, classical guitar, violin and flute right?" "yeah" he said. By this time I knew that I needed a bunch of strings and flute (and guitar for live shows...the guitars were done at this point) and then Eric shows up! Incredible. He's been a Christian for many years and was/is totally excited to play music he loves for the Lord. Then when he came out to work on the album he went to my church, and to make a long story short, he felt led to move here and now he's moving here with his wife and family! So, you'll be seeing and hearing more from Mr. Brenton. April 2003 - To the best of my memory we kept working on the strings and I did a lot of my guitar and bass fixes during this month. I know we did the low string sessions (cello and string bass) toward the beginning of the month and that was great. Chris Carmichael really took on directing David Henry on cello during the quiet string bit between �Storm before the Calm' and �Oh, to feel Him'. David really nailed �Transformation' as well. Really burned through it. Then, at the end of the month I went up to Kerry Livgren's farm in (you guessed it) Kansas. We had spoken on the phone a few times and I really enjoyed his advice and his humor. So, while we were visiting some relatives in Kansas, I drove up to see him. I had sent him a CD of music to play to, and he had already played his solos, so I didn't HAVE to go to his studio, but I felt it was important for us to meet. After driving through the land that time forgot (almost every town I drove through looked like it hadn't been changed since the 50's) I arrived at Kerry's on a hot afternoon. Mostly we just talked, only worked on music for about 5 minutes. We talked about everything from SB to Kansas to Christ to how he wrote �Dust in the Wind' .....all kinds of stuff. Suffice to say he's a first rate guy and I felt great about making the trip. I look forward to our next meeting...whenever that is. May 2003 - Lead vocal month. I had hoped to be ready to mix toward the end of May, but I wasn't near ready. It's a big, long album and everything takes longer to get right than you would think. I had scheduled a trip out to CA at the end of the month, because my brother Richard and his family were visiting from Germany, and I made it extra long so I could maybe go back and forth between Rich Mouser's studio and where my family was gathering. But, the mixing wasn't to be. We were going to need a lot more time than that, and I still wasn't ready. I still had no idea how the album was going to be mixed. I mean, was it right for Rich to mix it? Should I be out in CA at his place for 2 or 3 weeks? I really wanted to have Rich come to my house to mix it but...how? I certainly didn't have all the gear we needed. How was this going to work?? More later..... news : live : biography : discography : audio : reviews : more Layout © 2003-2007 Mark Bredius : Content © 2004-2007 Bill Evans Media and Neal Morse

Neal's Studio Diary

Hi Everyone!

I'm back! Welcome to nealmorse.com. Now that I've emerged from my 9 month hibernation in studio land (except for a brief stint with in NYC with Yellow Matter Custard) I'm ready to breathe the air and live among the 'normal' people again. But, who really is normal anyway? My wife and I have been arguing about that for ages. But...I digress. You probably want to know what I've been up to for the past year or so. Well, here's a brief run down on all I can remember...

Before I start, I know that some people were under the impression that I wasn't going to be doing music anymore. I just want to say that I'm sorry I left that impression because I wasn't sure what I was going to be doing. I'm still not! I'm following what I feel God wants me to do daily. And that can change. So, I'm grateful that I got led to do the Testimony album. When anyone hears this record I think they'll realize why things happened the way they did. Which I had no idea about when I quit the band. Anyway, here's some of what's been up with me since last year:

September 2002 - In store performances with SB. Man, my heart surges just to think about it. It was quite bizarre, especially because some people already knew I was leaving and I'd catch their eye and they'd look really sad and, of course, I was fighting back the emotions as it was. But, it was supposed to be a fairly happy occasion...even most of the people at the record company didn't know at that time...it was just hard...and fun at the same time. I love the guys so much. And I kept trying to put the thought out of my mind, which I can do pretty well sometimes, and I almost made it. Until we played June at the second one. The thought of it being the last time we'd sing together (who knows what the future holds) and all the great times we'd had together just slayed me. So I started crying in the 2nd verse I think it was. Then I panicked. You know how it is when you start to cry, especially when you've been trying not to, it's hard to stop. I didn't know if I'd be able to finish the song. And how would I explain it? Well, thankfully I recovered fairly quickly and no one asked me about it. I still don't know if anybody even noticed.

The other thing that happened in September (it actually started in late August) was this creative explosion that began the 'Testimony' album. Here's an excerpt from the 'Testimony' notes that will be part of the super-deluxo ridiculously lavish el grande Limited box set.

In late August and early September of 2002, I had a creative explosion of sorts. It was wonderful and pretty crazy at times. I remember driving to the airport to pick up the Limited Edition SNOW Box sets from customs and singing 'It's all I can do' into my handheld tape recorder. The main challenge I could see ahead was how to fit it all on one album. There were numerous slow grand themes, several ballad ideas and loads of instrumentals that seemed almost endless.

One thing that was really bizarre during this month was that I was doing loads of interviews, I mean tons of 'em, and Nick was doing a ton as well, but it was extremely surreal to act like everything was normal. Talk about having an elephant head at the dinner table and trying to ignore it! One guy even said "hey, you becoming a Christian reminds me of Kerry Livgren of Kansas. You aren't going to quit the band soon are you?" Ha ha ha. I didn't know what to say. I think I finally mumbled something like "uh...uh...no...not any time soon anyway...ha.ha" It was awful.

But, just to set the record straight, it was a very hard time for all of us and we were all trying to do the right thing by each other, the record companies, the band, and the SNOW album. If it would have been up to me, I probably would have come out with the news sooner, but the labels wanted to wait and give the record a chance to breathe first, and since we'd all worked so hard on it, we wanted that as well. But, it wasn't real comfy, that's for sure. My apologies to anyone who was hurt by the way we handled it.

October 2002 - This is when we went public about me leaving. I remember sitting with my wife on the couch and thinking, 'wow, it's really happening'. Until that was done, I guess part of me felt like I could still change my mind. After that, I really felt like it was it. And I had a whole new wave of emotions after that. That was when I wrote 'The Land of Beginning Again'. Here's my comments on that from the 'Testimony Notes':

The Land of Beginning Again - This song came later than the rest. I was in the middle of the demo/writing phase in mid/late October and my kids were participating in a poetry reading with the other kids at my church. So I went to enjoy the cuteness. One little girl got up and read a poem called 'The Land Of Beginning Again' and I just started crying. I didn't even know why. Something about starting over and wiping the slate clean just touched my heart and really surprised me. One reason why I was so emotional is at that time we had just made our announcement that I was leaving the band, and I was hurting and feeling bad about it and wished it didn't have to be that way. Then the next day I wrote this song. To me, it represents the hope for salvation and renewal that's inside us all.

November 2002 - I decided to build a studio add on to my garage. The demo process for Testimony was in full swing. I remember my friend Mark Leniger's father died and we went to Oklahoma City for the funeral and were there for several days. I set up a little portable midi-recording studio in our hotel room there and worked out the drum solo section of what is now called 'The Storm before the Calm'.

December 2002 - The studio was being built by my friend Mark. It was slow 'cause of some cold weather. We spent Christmas in California and my family (with special help from Al) got me a Stella guitar that I love. I finished the Testimony demos and got a copy out to Mike Portnoy (MP) before we left for CA. I remember talking on the phone with Mike during that time; him being real enthusiastic about the album and wanting to play on it. I prayed and thought about it for quite a while. I didn't want to do anything displeasing to the Lord. But, the more I thought and prayed about it, the more I felt that having Mike play on it was the right thing. So....full steam ahead! We set up the sessions for February.

January 2003 - There wasn't much to do this month as I was waiting for the studio to get built and for Mike to learn his parts. My wife and I went on vacation for a week in Europe with another couple and had a cold but wonderful time. I don't think I'd ever been to London and Paris without having some kind of gig, so it was nice to just hang out. We walked by the Astoria and I had a little pang of emotion.... thinking about the last time I'd been there and all the crazy load outs, trying to sort out our gear on the sidewalk with all the millions of people walking by.

February 2003 - Mike came in the middle of the month to record his tracks. It was funny, you know how you try to plan and get ready for something big to happen....well, the studio was supposed to be done Jan. 15, which left me 3 weeks plus to be ready for Mike. Keep in mind this is the first time I ever tried to make an album totally at home without paying a studio, and I was a little nervous about it. You don't want to have a guy like Mike come and have things not be right. So I thought I'd have time to get everything set up and do a trial run and all. You can probably guess that I was on my knees finishing the floors the morning the drum kit arrived! I mean, when Mike started cutting tracks, my friend Mark was staying up 'til all hours finishing the bathroom. We barely made it.

We brought in my good friend Terry Christian to help us get sounds and get everything going. Of course everything was buzzing horribly and we had more problems than I can even remember. I remember at one point Terry looked at me and said "Neal, is this going to work?" I wasn't sure at that point but I said "it HAS to" or else I'd have to rent a studio at the last minute. Needless to say I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. Luckily we had a new man on our team by the name of Jerry Guidroz who sorted the whole thing out for us. The phrase 'the Lord knows what you need' comes to mind. When I hired Jerry I had no idea how badly we needed him. I thought we just needed someone to be second engineer and be a runner or whatever. Well, Jerry very quickly became THE MAN. I should watch what I say 'cause if he reads it he'll start charging me more money! :-) Suffice to say that the Testimony album became dependent on him very quickly.

But, somehow, through all our trials, we actually got some of the best drum sounds and performances I've ever been involved with. Just wonderful. We even had time at the end to do a bonus track and we did a cover of Tuesday Afternoon by the Moody Blues and Can't Find My Way Home by Blind Faith. We kinda ran the two songs together. It was fun and came out very cool. Later when I was re-doing the vocal (in July) I changed the lyrics of 'Can't Find My Way Home' to 'Find My Way Back Home'. I altered the lyric so I could feel it a little more.

I've got to say that Mike was just about the most prepared person I've ever done a record with. Except maybe Ryo. They were about the same I guess. But Mike's just a drummer. :-) That's a joke by the way. Yeah, Mike brought a bottle of white-out to the sessions! So if he had to change his notes and charts (which were color coded in a binder with lazer printed labels!) it wouldn't be messy. What a dude! So not only is he an amazing drummer but he's also extremely organized. He knew the music better than I did!

March 2003 - We did the main part of the string sessions during this month. Chris Carmichael came down to help me arrange all the orchestra parts. At first we thought we were going to hire a small string section, but once we went through the music and realized how much and how difficult it was going to be, and Chris informed me of how much it would cost for even a small group for several days, we opted to have just a few guys and track them over a million times. It was a lot of work but it came out better than I expected.

Enter Eric Brenton. Eric is an old friend from California who in the early 80's used to play in the band 'Burlesque' , the same one I was in for years. I was actually in it after him , but we knew each other. Anyway, he called me up when he heard I quit SB (I didn't even know he was an SB fan) and we got to talking and I asked him "..hmmm...you play lead guitar, classical guitar, violin and flute right?" "yeah" he said. By this time I knew that I needed a bunch of strings and flute (and guitar for live shows...the guitars were done at this point) and then Eric shows up! Incredible. He's been a Christian for many years and was/is totally excited to play music he loves for the Lord. Then when he came out to work on the album he went to my church, and to make a long story short, he felt led to move here and now he's moving here with his wife and family! So, you'll be seeing and hearing more from Mr. Brenton.

April 2003 - To the best of my memory we kept working on the strings and I did a lot of my guitar and bass fixes during this month. I know we did the low string sessions (cello and string bass) toward the beginning of the month and that was great. Chris Carmichael really took on directing David Henry on cello during the quiet string bit between �Storm before the Calm' and �Oh, to feel Him'. David really nailed �Transformation' as well. Really burned through it.

Then, at the end of the month I went up to Kerry Livgren's farm in (you guessed it) Kansas. We had spoken on the phone a few times and I really enjoyed his advice and his humor. So, while we were visiting some relatives in Kansas, I drove up to see him. I had sent him a CD of music to play to, and he had already played his solos, so I didn't HAVE to go to his studio, but I felt it was important for us to meet.

After driving through the land that time forgot (almost every town I drove through looked like it hadn't been changed since the 50's) I arrived at Kerry's on a hot afternoon. Mostly we just talked, only worked on music for about 5 minutes. We talked about everything from SB to Kansas to Christ to how he wrote �Dust in the Wind' .....all kinds of stuff. Suffice to say he's a first rate guy and I felt great about making the trip. I look forward to our next meeting...whenever that is.

May 2003 - Lead vocal month. I had hoped to be ready to mix toward the end of May, but I wasn't near ready. It's a big, long album and everything takes longer to get right than you would think.

I had scheduled a trip out to CA at the end of the month, because my brother Richard and his family were visiting from Germany, and I made it extra long so I could maybe go back and forth between Rich Mouser's studio and where my family was gathering. But, the mixing wasn't to be. We were going to need a lot more time than that, and I still wasn't ready. I still had no idea how the album was going to be mixed. I mean, was it right for Rich to mix it? Should I be out in CA at his place for 2 or 3 weeks? I really wanted to have Rich come to my house to mix it but...how? I certainly didn't have all the gear we needed. How was this going to work??

More later.....

news : live : biography : discography : audio : reviews : more

Layout © 2003-2007 Mark Bredius : Content © 2004-2007 Bill Evans Media and Neal Morse