Often, I’m very passionate about a song when I first write it. But within a week or a month, the initial high of passion and creation will wear off, and I can sense weaknesses in the songs. I get bored by them. I’ll play them on my acoustic guitar for a friend, and I’ll find myself making excuses like, “Probably the drums will make this more interesting.” Or I’ll play half the song and say, “Yeah, you get the idea.”

But mostly reggae. Since we just got finished with our tiny tour, and we are on the eve of re-entering the studio, it seems like the best time of all to write a little bloggy blog blog. First, a math question: If two trains are traveling towards each other at a speed of 130 km/hr, and train A contains Owen Plant, and train B contains Ryanhood, what is the most precise expression of the energy created by their collision? The answer is: One million awesomes. (Feel free to check the math on that. I was fortunate enough to get to sit in on a math class at MIT with my younger brother while I was in Boston, and even though it was mostly beyond me, it DID get me thinking.) So, the tour: Owen Plant. Man, oh man. This guy can SING. If you're lookin' for a boy with a voice… Each night we followed roughly...

Realizing that Ryan and I have been flying under the radar as of late, we thought it was high time we let you know how our recording is going, what the songs are sounding like, and what we think of it. So without further ado: - We began recording in late summer, and we worked on and off up through Christmas. We're roughly 70% of the way finished. (Slow and steady wins the race, right Mr. Tortoise?) - We have completed bass and drums and main guitars for 11 of the 12 songs we're planning to include. - We've sung what are called "scratch" vocals for all of them, in order to find out which harmonies work, where different melodies are needed, etc. - We're currently back home in Tucson rehearsing our acoustic butts off, making sure that we know exactly what we want to sing when we get back to LA to begin...