2012. I will wear my Mayan Calendar Belt Buckle Until 12-22-122012 Already? I cannot believe it has been so long since I have made a post. I hope everyone had a great holiday. Mine certainly was, and it seems 2012 will be the busiest year I’ve ever had music-wise. I have over 30 songs in various stages of completion. These tracks were primarily recorded in late 2010 until fall of 2011. I wanted to take time to record over a long stretch of time, and am glad I have done such. The negative aspect is that as of now, I’m too busy to complete this massive amount of material. Not that the material is not good. Its provocative music that is intended on keeping the listener on their toes. I hold nothing back, and lyrically it is dangerous. What is currently happening is I’ve completed a 7 song Sundrown E.P. The track listing for the E.P.: The E.P. will be available at a pay your own price option on February 7th, 2012. The E.P. is what you would expect out of a Sundrown record, with a bit of flare I suppose. I’m excited to release it, and while I will crank up the promotional aspect of Sundrown, this will be more of an album true fans will know of and I hope appreciate. You can follow Sundrown by this site, as well as Facebook.com/sundrown and twitter.com/vanhartsell. I will be closing the Sundrown twitter feed as there is more down the pipeline from me, and I update twitter frequently. At the same time of the release of the upcoming Sundrown E.P., I’m bringing in Fallen Child to the Giggle Pit to work on an 8 song collection of originals for promotional use. Fallen Child is the group that I am playing bass for. After that, we may be off to Nashville in March for additional recording and hopefully schedule a meeting or two. What happens after March is an uncertainly. I am sure Fallen Child will continue to perform and stretch to a regional area of shows. Reclusivity, my first widely released solo album is in flux. There is a ton of material as mentioned above, however it may be released in 2013. It is dependent on the Fallen Child situation, as getting back to my roots as a musician and stepping away from the vocals is very liberating. When Sundrown began, I chose to sing because I could not find anyone who would have the chops to impress me vocally as well as write lyrics I would be satisfied with. This is not a problem with Fallen Child, as the vocalist is pure talent, and a much better vocalist than I. I enjoy singing; however what I enjoy more is playing on stage as an instrumentalist, and not so much a vocalist. Sundrown does not sound like my solo material, it sounds like Sundrown. Neither Sundrown nor my solo material fit the same as Fallen Child. Its win-win and I guess I can throw another win in there for Charlie Sheen and my comfort. The influx of songs I have will probably be released over time as singles, or a part of future releases under Sundrown. Sundrown represents the aggression and psychedelic side I love so dear. My solo material represents my raw and bluesy style that I want you all to listen, hate, etc. Fallen Child represents my musical side and being a travelling musician. I will be playing my own material at certain Fallen Child shows. I’ll let you know when that comes around. 2012 is my year of opportunity. I hope to share it all with you. It’s been 6 years of Sundrown, and while I perform the instrumentation and release albums, Sundrown is still very much alive and I promise to do a couple shows this year with a full group. As well, I am re-releasing all of Sundrowns 5 previous records on this site soon. They have been unavailable for over a year. So, new Sundrown E.P. next month, a Fallen Child record in March, and various singles will be release while I will be on the road w/Fallen Child. I cannot say what I really want to say about groups outside of Sundrown, but in 2012 you will be hearing much more from me. Most notably on bass w/Fallen Child.  New Single, Entitled "Smoke" Will be Released 8/11, And "Reclusivity" Release Date Info.The single will be released and will be available for free download at vanhartsell.com, and available to listen via facebook and YouTube. This track will be on disc #2 of my upcoming double album, entitled “Reclusivity”. Disc #2 is the psychedelic/avant-garde record. I would describe it, but since it will be available for listening 8/11, there really is no need. In regards to the albums… I've backed the release date up to sometime in 2012. I've put the 10 songs slated for the first disc on the back-burner, and am recording new material. This will be a "de-facto" third album. Some of these tracks will be available on the E.P. that will be given to anyone that spends $5.00 or more on the double LP. In regards to why I did this? I like what I am writing right now, and I don't want to stop. Pretty simple really. Also, I have upgraded the studio, and in order to complete the upgrade I basically have to tear the damn studio apart and put it all back together. Now, that’s not the huge issue. Another issue is I upgraded my guitar rig, obtained a new pre-amp and built an iso booth for the new guitar amp. I had a monstrous Marshall JCM 2000 half-stack that I’ve been using regularly since 2008. I have a friend who had a Mesa-Boogie Nomad 45 2x12. Well, we switched amps, and I am very stoked about working with this amp in conjunction with my other toys. My studio is only one room. There is a ton of gear in there, so I could never get a good tone, or even monitor my guitar tracks when I had a half-stack ten feet away, so I bought a Line-6 Pod Pro rack unit to record my guitar tracks. The tone from the Line-6 is pretty cool. But we are talking a Mesa here. For all you gear heads out there I think you would agree that a mic’d, hand-built tone machine Mesa is much superior than the Line 6. I am still keeping the Line 6 for some dubbing, but I am basically stripping all the guitar work from Disc # 1 (the rock tracks), and re-recording with the Mesa, along with some other toys in the iso-booth. So to recap, new single out 8/11. I have new gear and I need to step back in order to make this album right. The albums will come out together, but I’ve been working on this for about 8 months straight. Its gonna sound great, and I’m not going to cut corners to meet some silly deadline. Sorry Will. Thanks for understanding, and I am planning on releasing some other material before the albums are dropped. Van  July 2011. Progression...A lot has transpired since the last update in May. The idea of making two albums released on two different dates has changed. I will be releasing the album as a double album on 11-11-11. The reason for the double album as opposed to two separate albums is that I want to make all the songs available under one price. We are still implementing the “pay your own price” option, however certain retailers will carry the albums in physical and download format for purchase. The price at these retailers will be the lowest that we will be able to sustain, and if someone may feel slighted if they paid for the album in a store or online, email Management directly, and we will send a direct link to download an EP of other tracks for free. On the vanhartsell.com site, the option is there to pay your own price, however if you spend at least $5.00 (which I feel is fair considering it’s a double album with 20 tracks), email Management and you will receive the EP as well. So, on to the progression. All 20 tracks have been recorded, and out of the 20, 7 have vocals and additional solo work completed. As long I am able to sustain this pace, I should have the vocals finished by the August, giving me plenty of time for mixing and mastering. Disc one is very rocking, and disc two is avant garde and out there. I’ve been in the studio on almost a daily basis, and every time I leave I have a smile on my face. I’m proud of this project. I took myself out of my comfort zone in the writing process, and I have discovered a side to my writing that I thought I never had. I certainly don’t want to have a cliché of “this is the best that I have ever written”, so I will say that I am more proud of this double album than of any album I have been a part of. I am going to attempt to do a video blog within the next couple of weeks, and I will play some song clips directly from the studio. Oh yeah, I changed the name of the album…again. I have a few names I’m floating around, and hopefully I will decide on a title before the video blog. Till then, Van  May 2011 update. Final details on the two albums, and a pay your own price option.Hey, thanks for checking this update out. There will be two full-length albums coming out this year. The first album, entitled “You Never Know,” will consist of 10 tracks, and is a dark rock based psychedelic album. This album consists of off beat drums, heavy guitars, and various orchestra instruments as well as synthesizer effects. “You Never Know” is an experimental album that has been very fun to record, as the tracks are much different than I would normally write. The first single, entitled “Smoke”, will be released in August, and the album will be available on October 10th, 2011. The second album, entitled “I’ll Never Know,” is going back to my roots as a musician and is what I call “death blues”. There are a couple of tracks that venture in the realm of rock, however the tracks are very riff heavy, without letting go of the root of the music, which is the blues. Now, I understand that the term “death blues” might turn off some die-hard blues fans, but it fits the vibe of the record. There are 10 tracks scheduled for this record. The songs are gritty and raw and is a very guitar focused album. In my opinion Robert Johnson was a raw SOB, as is Popa Chubby, Walter Trout, Marc Ford, and Joe Bonamassa. People I look up to in the world of guitar. I also play the Mandolin as well as Dobro on this record, in addition to acoustic and of course electric guitar. This album will be released one month after “You Never Know,” on November 11th, 2011. The first single, which has yet to be decided, will be released in September. I am however pleased to announce that these two albums, once released, will be “pay your own price.” The price will range anywhere from free to whatever you feel like paying. However I am only able to put these records out with this pricing at http://www.vanhartsell.com/. Of course when the albums are distributed, There will be a set price on other sites like I Tunes, Amazon, various record stores, Etc., however I hope whomever purchases these albums contact will@vanhartsell.com, and if spend over $5.00 per album, we will send you a 7 song EP from my past collection of work over the years. With our distribution agreement we cannot have the new albums as a free download, but if you help out a semi-broke musician, I’ll make sure you get some rare songs. My next blog will be a video blog with some snippets of songs from both albums. So there you have it. I’m excited to get this music out there and get back to the stage. Best Wishes, Van  April 2011 UpdateHope all is well. The progression of the album is going well. Right now there are 8 songs that have a good amount of work done. These tracks have most of the instrumentation completed, leaving only vocals and some guitar overdubs left. I am still writing and hope to have about 25 songs completed by August in the same vein as the above 8 tracks. Once I have the 25 done, I will start vocals and work each song individually to completion, and then move on to the next tune. This will give me a good idea what songs I will slate for the album. I am looking to have 12 to 15 tracks on the final album. I’ve given descriptions of the vibe of the record and what direction I’m heading to, however the album has taken a more personal approach. When this project started right after the last Sundrown release in November 2010, I did not know what direction I was taking this album. I have some songs, especially the early recordings would fit well with the earlier Sundrown work, however the majority of the songs are darker, and I would say “expansive”. There is a lot going on with effects, guitars, and depth in the recordings. I want to preview some of the material to get a feel of what you all think, however as I stated there are no vocals, so all tracks are instrumental. If you are interested in hearing some of the material, just send me an email at van@vanhartsell.com., or send me a message on vanhartsell.com or facebook. The material has a rough mix, as the mixing/mastering process will take a month or two. I hope to have this album out by November 2011. Till next month, Van  Discovery...Production on the album has been coming along quite nicely. Slow, but I am happy with the results. At this point in the recording process, I am laying down basic drum and guitar tracks for songs, in which I will go back over when I feel like I have a collection of tracks that I want. The writing process has been both exhilarating and confusing. This is due to the fact that unlike previous albums, I have been writing some with a bass guitar. I never would of seen that coming, but that’s music for ya. So there are some tracks I have in which I am playing some bass lines, then going back over with drums, then layering the guitars over them. At this stage in my writing, it is wild coming up with songs using anything other than my guitar. There are also a couple tracks that originate from a piano or synth effect. Using my synthesizers after I record an initial drum track, then building upon that. The guitars are still a focal point, however not “the” focal point. It took so long to build the studio, and the tracks that are out now, “Slap-Stick” and “the Unsettled” were litmus tests to see what I needed to build on musically, and what I needed to polish up on recording-wise. As I have mentioned before, these tracks are only demos. The album is dark, but not too dark. I hope everyone has an open mind to this album, as the more time I spend in the studio writing it, I’m realizing that my writing is going into a direction I have never been musically. The interesting part is that my guitar rig has changed, I have changed as a writer, and to fully pull off the album production live, we will need to implement computers to pull off the extra instrumentation that is on the album. So I’m not sure I will go out as a 3 piece band. The band will need to expand. Thank you all for the continuous support this past year. Looks like I’m #1 on the Reverb Nation Alternative charts for Florence, SC. which is amazing. Also, special thanks to Swede at FatCat Radio for the continued support for Sundrown as well as the solo album. And last but not least, thanks Will. It took a long time to trust someone with the Management aspect of my music, and you have been kind, have had great input, and most importantly have been patient! I’m not much for facebook promotion, since that site is more a social site, and not a band site. However, please click the Facebook “like” on the homepage of vanhartsell.com, reverbnation.com/vanhartsell.com, or http://www.facebook.com/pages/Van-Hartsell/183591644988863?sk=app_2405167945 I’ll explain later, but I am putting something together for anyone who clicks “like” on my profile. Van  Enjoy the SilenceThe holidays were hectic as all hell. Christmas is all fun and games until you turn about 14, then it degrades from getting socks to getting NSF fees. However I'm on vacation right now. I worked on the Sundrown "Recollection" release over December, thanks to the contacts via Pimpin' Lizard. "Recollection" is now available on this new site, emusic, I-Tunes, Zune, Amazon.com, as well as dozens of other sites and internet radio stations, along with terrestrial stations along the southeast. We've had new promotional support, as well as the very first physical release pressing of a Sundrown album. Sundrown was only available in mp3 format until now. This album is has been sent to various independent music stores that have agreed to carry this release. I'm juggling with gear right now. I've been an E-Bay slut, buying new guitar gear while selling some gear, trying to get some new sounds. Thank God for my acoustic to get me by during this process. I've played through a Marshall JCM 2000 half stack since 07. I am back to shopping around for effects, and am thinking of going with a rack system direct into the Marshall rig. I'll have one huge pedal in the front, a rack with a couple cords going to the Marshall, and I'm ready to play live. It was hell playing with my current rig with Sundrown. My live rig for Sundrown was a pain in the ass to set up. We may have some new pics on the site sometime this week and I'll have a song posted hopefully by the end of the month. By the way, a good friend of mine finally pointed me in the direction of Depeche Mode. Not a fan of much of the earlier work, the music from the mid 90s to now is what I'm digging right now. That's the beauty of music, there are so many great bands, signed and unsigned yet to be discovered.  12-27-10
The Giggle Pit is fully operational. Enough money has been pumped into the studio to produce some great sounds, however as a musician I am at an advantage and a dis-advantage.
The control room sounds great, as well as the vocal area. Fully decked out with acoustic sound foam, and I have a nice spot for the guitar rig. The studio runs off of Nuendo 4 which is the same program that the Sundrown record "The 8th Day Bliss" was recorded from. There are various compressors in the chain along with effects and EQ hardware as well. The microphones have been upgraded as well, and other than moving around some settings, I am good to go with recording. As a musician, I am learning on a curve. Granted logging in hundreds of hours of studio time has helped with learning tricks and the basics in sound replication, however I'm looking for a great sound, better than any other album I have been a part of. This takes time. I am currently working on guitar tone in the studio. My drum situation is good to go, however I'm not too impressed with my tone. Guitar tone was never an issue back in my teens. It was "set the distortion to 10, scoop the mids, and throw down." That is simply not the case anymore. I enjoy my guitar tone live, but replicating this tone in a recording enviroment is a challenge. The acoustic tones are there, but not the thick, yet clear tones of my distorted guitar. So I have literature, and am studying the right way of getting guitars to sound great on recordings, which is to get a great tone in the system, and coloring the tone with minor EQ adjustments. Once the tone is set, I am good to go. But with the experience under my belt, i have become a tone snob. Rome wasn't built in a day, and with my schedule it's difficult to log in the hours, so studying is my primary focus. There are a lot of tricks that due to time constraints I was unable to do in the past recording in other studios. Things like cross panning, fades, time-streching, dubbing, and mastering techniques that I always wanted to do. When you're on a budget recording in another studio, you're just praying that the takes were good and the recording is good. There is no sense in reaching for "good", when you have the capability to make some great sounding albums. So I have a ton of reading to do, and some playing around with settings, and once I have the guitar tone I'm searching for, I can write. I'm looking forward to this. Getting the guitar tone where I want it, and just writing. I don't have a particular concept, nor do I have a idea on what this album will sound like. I'm not just making a blues album, or a straight up rock album, but it will be aggressive, and some of the tunes will be on the opposite end of the spectrum. At the end, I want the music to pump, breathe, and sound alive. But I do know two things, the songs will be very guitar oriented, and I will be pushing the boundaries vocally as well. But for now, back to studying. Thanks for reading, Van  12-27-10
The Giggle Pit is fully operational. Enough money has been pumped into the studio to produce some great sounds, however as a musician I am at an advantage and a dis-advantage.
The control room sounds great, as well as the vocal area. Fully decked out with acoustic sound foam, and I have a nice spot for the guitar rig. The studio runs off of Nuendo 4 which is the same program that the Sundrown record "The 8th Day Bliss" was recorded from. There are various compressors in the chain along with effects and EQ hardware as well. The microphones have been upgraded as well, and other than moving around some settings, I am good to go with recording. As a musician, I am learning on a curve. Granted logging in hundreds of hours of studio time has helped with learning tricks and the basics in sound replication, however I'm looking for a great sound, better than any other album I have been a part of. This takes time. I am currently working on guitar tone in the studio. My drum situation is good to go, however I'm not too impressed with my tone. Guitar tone was never an issue back in my teens. It was "set the distortion to 10, scoop the mids, and throw down." That is simply not the case anymore. I enjoy my guitar tone live, but replicating this tone in a recording enviroment is a challenge. The acoustic tones are there, but not the thick, yet clear tones of my distorted guitar. So I have literature, and am studying the right way of getting guitars to sound great on recordings, which is to get a great tone in the system, and coloring the tone with minor EQ adjustments. Once the tone is set, I am good to go. But with the experience under my belt, i have become a tone snob. Rome wasn't built in a day, and with my schedule it's difficult to log in the hours, so studying is my primary focus. There are a lot of tricks that due to time constraints I was unable to do in the past recording in other studios. Things like cross panning, fades, time-streching, dubbing, and mastering techniques that I always wanted to do. When you're on a budget recording in another studio, you're just praying that the takes were good and the recording is good. There is no sense in reaching for "good", when you have the capability to make some great sounding albums. So I have a ton of reading to do, and some playing around with settings, and once I have the guitar tone I'm searching for, I can write. I'm looking forward to this. Getting the guitar tone where I want it, and just writing. I don't have a particular concept, nor do I have a idea on what this album will sound like. I'm not just making a blues album, or a straight up rock album, but it will be aggressive, and some of the tunes will be on the opposite end of the spectrum. At the end, I want the music to pump, breathe, and sound alive. But I do know two things, the songs will be very guitar oriented, and I will be pushing the boundaries vocally as well. But for now, back to studying. Thanks for reading, Van |
