The Rog and Glenn collaboration began with an extended weekend of songwriting in Brevard, NC in March of 2012. With no preconceived ideas or material, the plan was to improvise using free form jam sessions and see what resulted. We set up a keyboard and microphone for each of us, hit record, and let it flow.

After sifting through our recordings, we were able to identify nearly 50 song ideas, in many cases entire songs. Some common themes emerged among 10 or 12 of the songs and we began to realize that we had come up with something akin to a Broadway musical or at least a concept album.

Some the vocals and instruments on the finished album are original tracks from this session, including the keyboard parts and vocals for “One of Them”, “Close the Club”, “Uncool Party Master,” and “PR KMA.” In certain other cases, we deemed it necessary to rerecord parts but made an effort to stay close to the originals – which was difficult, because we had to figure out what in the world we had played the first time.

Much of the album has the spontaneous feel of newly inspired ideas, because that’s precisely what it is: improvisational songwriting recorded for posterity. After the Brevard weekend, we worked on adjusting, editing, and adding instrumentation, and then enlisted some of our talented friends to help us with drums and auxiliary percussion on almost every song, as well as lead guitar on two songs.

We finished out the album with a day of mixing at Echo Mountain Recording Studio in Asheville, NC, using a Neve console, analog processing, and a tape machine, to achieve a high-end and somewhat vintage quality. Finally, the album was mastered by Grammy award winning engineer Brad Blackwood at Euphonic Masters, adding the final layer of polish to what started out as a crazy idea for a guys weekend but turned into a project we’re extremely proud of.

This process created what we think has a unique energy and vibe that we have never achieved before. We consider the album a “listening experience,” and we hope you will find it both entertaining and enjoyable as such.

Credits:

Jeremy Cayton: drums
Shawn Robers: auxiliary percussion
Rusty Blanton: lead guitar (tracks 4 & 10)
Roger Brandon & Glenn Hubbard: everything else

Mixed by Julian Dreyer, Glenn Hubbard, and Roger Brandon at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, NC. Mastered by Brad Blackwood at Euphonic Masters, Memphis, TN. Cover design by David Davis.

All songs written by Roger Brandon and Glenn Hubbard