A Tale Of Things To Come

Greetings and the fondest summer wishes from The Sobriquets to everyone. We hope everyone is out there, enjoying life, music and friends as much as we are this summer.

It's been a while since we've written here, due mostly to the fact that we are musicians and folks with lives just as crazy and packed as yours. We've been up to quite a bit over the last few months, and we'd love to share it with you here.

First, and most importantly, we have some bittersweet news. Joshua Neale, our bassist since 2007, is departing from The Sobriquets to pursue his new project, Negation Delirium. For those who know Josh, you know he is an outstanding metal musician and metal enthusiast, so it is fitting that he is moving on to a metal band that will literally thrash you to new states of consciousness. Check out their very shiny and new Facebook page, and be sure to tell all your metal friends (you know you have them) about Negation Delirium. We wish Josh nothing but success and heavy riffs in this very amicable parting. Don't worry, we all still hang out together.

With that said, there is now a huge open space that Josh used to occupy in the band that we are in the process of filling. We are striving to have a new bassist in place very soon so we can get back to the business of making music for all of you. We're also looking to add a new element to The Sobriquets: a full-time keyboardist. We'll fill you all in on who the new faces will be just as soon as we find them.

Much of April and May was spent at Sine Studios in Philadelphia making what will be our newest record, the record that so many of you helped make possible with your support during our fundraiser earlier this year. Once again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We could not have done any of it without the help of everyone who donated to the cause. And we could not have made the best record any of us have ever been a part of without Matt Teach and Mike Lawson, the two owners and engineers of Sine Studios. Their skills and brilliance, combined with their outstanding studio, are as much a part of the record as we are. To any and all musicians everywhere: make your next record at Sine. You will love every minute of it.

We're in the midst of the mixing process of the record right now. It's being mixed and mastered in Los Angeles by Dave Drago, and we're already psyched from the few samples we've heard so far. We hope to release a couple of tracks by the fall of this year, and the record should be released in early 2012. We all want to take our time with this one, and give it the proper release it deserves. So to all who have been anxiously awaiting the record (most likely because you helped pay for it), we ask you to wait just a bit more. It's coming. And it's going to be awesome.

Lastly, here's the big "shake-up" news that we've been alluding to over the past few weeks. With the new record and the new lineup, the remaining Sobriquets have decided to retire the name they've been playing under for more than four years. The new lineup will have a new name, as will the record. The music will be the same music you've known and loved over the years. We'll be looking for help on the new name, so keep an eye on the Facebook page for that.

Thanks to all of you who have supported us through the years as a touring band. We will see as many of you as humanly possible over the next few months as we get ready to head back out on the road with the new lineup. Everything we do is made better and more rewarding because of you. See you out there this fall!

- The Sobriquets (James, Dan, Nick and always a part of us, Josh)

I Got Nothin' (Sorta)

For real. I have very little going on that I haven't already talked about.

I'm still in the middle of that show about women, and it's absolutely become a job. I don't want to go, but I need the money. And on rare occasions, it's fun. Recently we started dicking around and trying to add classic movie themes into the middle of songs, whenever possible. Day 1 involved the theme from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". The guitar player managed to sneak it in just about everywhere. As the bassist, it's a lot harder for me to include these things. Day 2 was a particular challenge. We were trying to work in any music from Star Wars. Have you every tried playing the Imperial March in the middle of "I Will Survive"? Not entirely possible. However, playing the riff from Peter Gunn during "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" actually works pretty well. If anyone can think of movie themes that are easy to insert (a la Close Encounters), please let me know.

Also, I've been reading an exhaustive history of heavy metal music called Metal: A Definitive Guide by Garry Sharpe-Young. He spent 20 years culling all the information and interviews, and has organized the bands (about 75 of them) by type. It starts with Heavy Metal, such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Budgie, and goes on from there. It includes some of my favorite bands in there, such as 3 Inches Of Blood, Testament, Nevermore, Lamb of God, you name it. It's about 8" by 9", with size 6 font, and 500 freakin' pages, man. It took me 4 days to read about Black Sabbath alone. (On a very smooth side note, Paul Donato, one of the many, many replacements for vocalists Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio [inset], fronted the band Keep under the pseudonym Michael McDonald following his Sabbath career. The band also featured Mark St. John of Deep Purple and KISS drummer Peter Criss.)

And finally, even though it's in the Twitter, Dan took the new EP over to DiscMakers in Camden to get pressed. Should be back very shortly, at which point you will buy it. Not may buy it, WILL buy it. You can't see it, but I'm glowering and shaking my fist at you through the computer.

In summary, apparently I did have some stuff to talk about.

- Josh

Where I've Been...

Good evening, all. This is my (Dan's) first post as Dan. I play the louder guitar, sing the backing vocals and arrive having eaten.

It's been a very busy weekend for me, and a very important one for The Sobriquets. First, the "me" part.

I'm writing this while sitting in the Hollywood Hills, just outside Los Angeles. The house next door is owned by the blonde cheerleader/superhero from "Heroes" (Hayden something...). This is nice work if you can get it, I assure you of that. While I have no particular love for the West Coast (definitely a Northeasterner by blood, temperament and location), it's been a great few days, and a very needed change of scenery for a bit. I've been out visiting my brother, and attending the first day of Coachella Music and Arts Festival.

This was the main stage, where later I would see Morrissey and Paul McCartney (and hear the strains of We Are Scientists, Franz Ferdinand and a handful of other bands during my wanderings of the grounds). Later on in the evening, I would be towards the front of this stage surrounded by tens of thousands of people, watching a real live Beatle.

I learned a couple of things this weekend: I learned that I really hate outdoor music festivals that I am not personally playing at. It's full of standing, being hot, paying a lot for food, waiting in line just about everything and generally being surrounded by people that I would normally never be anywhere near. I also learned that, the next morning, I will have almost no memory of anything unpleasant about the whole preceding events. I will gush wildly to anyone who will isten about how awesome it was. All these things happened, in that order.

But I did see a lot of great bands. They included: The Hold Steady, Buraka Som Sistema, The Bug, Steve Aoki, Leonard Cohen, Morrissey and Paul McCartney. All these acts were fantastic, and I was glad to have seen them all. I was even more glad to go home and sleep in a bed.

Later, on the way home (which was at about 2 am), we stopped at the dinosaur statues from "Pee Wee's Big Adventure".

Now, onto the other reason I'm in Hollywood. I'm sitting in Hopewell Studios, owned by a good friend, Jake Rodenhouse (that's me on the left and Jake on the right). He has been mastering the new Sobriquets EP (which still does not have a title... more on that in the future). We've been in the control room for a while tonight, and we have finally finished. Let me just say, it sounds absolutely great. And for those fellow geeks who like to follow these kinds of things, our reference tracks for the mastering were from the Tragically Hip's "We Are The Same" and The Decemberists "Hazards of Love". It was mastered with many awesome pieces of equipment, including a vintage Neve console, a DBX Compressor/Limiter and a URei Parametric Equalizer.

As a personal plug, this guy is a freakin' genius and has a sweet studio. If you are ever in the LA area and want to record in a relaxed but professional environment, look Hopewell up.

Anyway, with the mastered record in the bag, we are ready to move onto the process of getting pressed, deciding on album art, all that fun stuff. More on that as it happens. These are definitely the best sounding Sobriquets' recordings yet, so you do not want to miss out.

- Dan