From the Pit (sorry if posted already):
And now to the Brendan O'Brien Q&A and the press promo video that they
showed us before listening to the album.
The video was around 10 minutes long & featured parts of the songs Sirens,
Mind Your Manners, Lightning Bolt & Getaway.
Getaway was an early mix and sounded really different then what we heard on
the record later, Brendan apologized for ruining the song in that first
video.
You could see snippets of the MYM music video, interviews with the whole
band, and Ed alone in his car & in the studio archive or something like
that.
Ed talked mostly, but the projector was really dark and the sound quality
not that good so that we couldn't understand anything.
Mike talked about Sirens being the song he's most proud of, Ed talked about
waves (no surprise, haha) & that songwriting is like a wave, once you are
on there you can swim.
Ed also said that he is always relieved after a new album is finished and
that he likes to see what's next.
He also talked about the inspiration to the lyrics or album in general,
that it's about what's going on on the planet. (But, isn't it always?
)
You can also see Ed rocking out in his car to the new record, haha.
So, now to the Q&A.
Brendan talked about how he and the band first got together. They toured
europe at that time (1992) and asked Brendan to fly over for their gig in
Nuremberg (Rock im Park) &
he really came all the way to europe for them.
Then he was asked about Of The Earth and I probably understood the first
part wrong because I think he said it was recorded for the last record, but
then someone asked again and B said it was never recorded because it just
didn't fit, but he liked the song live. I thought that was weird.
We then asked what he knew about the new leaks Cold Confession & let it
ride, and he said cold confession was recorded for S/T but has now been reworked onto LB
Then the topic changed to Sleeping By Myself. B said something about it
being PJ written, which I didn't understand, maybe he meant that Ed
initially thought this would be a PJ song but later put it on his solo
record. Brendan loooved the song and wanted it on a PJ record badly so he
convinced the band to do a band version of it.
He then talks about the recording process, that in the past he was the one
with little kids who had to leave recording sessions to be with his family
and now the opposite is the case with them all having families. They don't
always record in Atlanta anymore, try to be more near Seattle. They
produced the songs in LA & mixed them in Seattle this time. B didn't seem
to like it that much, he said something about all (the band) being more
concentrated if they are somewhere farer away without much distraction.
They bring there own recordings or song drafts to the studio and then they
work on them/select them together. Ed wants to please everyone and tries to
sing on all the music they bring in, he also finishes the songs. He said
that to the band it's clear, that they wouldn't do a great album without
Ed. That sounded a bit strange to me
B can't remember them ever writing songs together. He said it's always that
someone brings something in and then they go over it later, but not really
like for example a Stone&Mike song or something like that. They are more on
their own while songwriting.
Pendulum was recorded for Backspacer but later didn't fit.
They also got a couple songs leftover from the LB session.
Infallible is a Jeff song, Sirens is from Mike & Let The Records Play is a
Boom song. B said that he thinks there's no Matt song on LB.
He also told us (because of the years between the albums) that Ed has to be
ready. Like, they all wait for Ed to give his ok, because he is the main
force for writing. Otherwise the recording process is more democratic than
in other bands.
& B told he always takes his time for PJ records, especially because they
record so little, so it's only around 40 studio days in 3 years.
We then asked if he enjoyed his Birthday Wishes we all sent him from
Belfast in 2010 and he said he liked it very much & that his daughters
organized it and he was really surprised. They played it in the evening at
his house on a big screen
B was asked about the Mirrorball tour and said that he had a blast doing
that and that Neil made a great choice, asking PJ to play with him. He also
said that he wouldn't really want to tour again because he is more a studio
kind of guy and not made for touring
He then was asked about Wrigley and just told that Ed was really grumpy
because of the delay.
& he told that there will be a new Creed album in January, don't
know if that's stuff everybody already knows, but maybe it's good news for
some of you.
END OF THE Q&A
The fans had enough time to ask questions, even several, I think ONLY fans
asked questions, no one from the press did.
