The Ten Cent Tour (or Anybody Got Any Dimes?!?)

Dear Pocketeers,

We are literally moments away from recording the final vocals on our forthcoming album, The Ten Cent Tour. There are still a few more steps before unleashing this music into the universe, but we’re close and we’re excited. Let me walk you through the process - where we’ve been and where we’re headed.

It started way back in November of 2011 when we began building ourselves a studio. We realized that we wanted to explore each song and truly take our time in the recording process. Since this would mean far more studio time than our limited budget would allow, we decided that to make this album our way, our finances would go farther by creating our own space (with the guidance of our wonderful friend/incredible engineer, Rick Fritz). We sold old gear and bought new gear. The band acquired recording equipment in lieu of gifts for birthdays, holidays, and even Josh and Erika’s wedding shower. By the summer of 2012, the band was ready to lay down our first tracks.

Over the next year or so, we taught ourselves about mic placement, vocal effects, comp’ing in ProTools. We experimented with different instruments and sounds. We learned as we went, altering and expanding our methods until we got what we wanted sonically. We threw out tracks and rebuilt them again, better, from scratch. It’s been a true labor of love from beginning to end. Every note, every sound, every arrangement, every bit of engineering and producing has been done exclusively by members of The Empty Pockets. Each song on The Ten Cent Tour is handpicked and home grown. Handcrafted rock ‘n roll, just like our live show.

Now that we’re done playing our instruments, singing our songs and pushing those buttons/knobs for the new album, we’ll be moving on to the mastering process and showing you our new logo and artwork from the illustrious (literally hand-illustrated) Joel Felix. Then it’s time to hit the road.

Will you join us on the Ten Cent Tour? We sure hope so.

-Erika B.

Puzzling the Pieces (or A Place For Everything and Everything All Over the Place)

We Empty Pockets are hard at work in the studio this fine February. The quiet thundering of the bass drum from the recording room can be heard as I type this very sentence and to my left is a large list of songs on the whiteboard, slowly being annotated, arranged, and eventually recorded. And as we work through the list, we develop our unique recording process and style, honing it as we learn and grow.

One thing that ends up becoming a point of discussion for every song we record seems alarmingly simple but can become quite complex. What is the song about? How does the musicality of each of the instruments, of each of the parts, of each of the voices serve to shine a light on the meaning and feeling of the song? Is it about a spurned lover? Perhaps a more aggressive "chucka-chunk-chunk" rhythm in the electric guitar will subtly illustrate that point. Or maybe a brash, "clangy" tone of the cymbals is better? It could just be that neither of them do it effectively, or the mix of the two together create the feeling, delicately reinforcing it.

The point is that our previous recording experience has always been tied to limited financial means. Studio space is expensive to rent and thus we were nothing if not efficient. We have been known to record virtually an entire album in one eight-hour session. While this does allow for maximum utilization of time vs. money, it is very hindering on the creative process of allowing the song to "breathe," of really taking the time to explore the sonic and subsonic implications of every note, every change, every nuance - skillfully manipulating the music to present the essence of the song to the world.

To quote our band-bud Kenny Loggins, "That's where the juice is."

Yes indeed, sir. Yes indeed.

-Nate Bellon(bass)