So it was about 4 years ago that Brian and I were sitting around in his room wasting time listening to loud music when he said he wanted to show me something.

Its a musical composing program called Cubase. We can use it to write music on either sheet music or tabulature and we can use this other program called Reason as a digital soundboard to mimic the sound of various instruments.

My eyes opened wide because Brian knew I had been writing music for various instruments for years, mostly by drawing sheet music, grand staff style, with pen and paper, (and my handwriting is exceedingly sloppy). So he was saying that I could write it in the computer and could use another program to audition the sounds I was writing for by mimicking the instruments and their lines.

I looked at him and knew instantly there was only one place we could go with something like this. This would be no mere hobby but a lifestyle change, the start of a new musical direction. We were going to write an album comprising of whatever instruments we wanted it to and then we were going to translate it into reality by getting it recorded and sharing it with as many people as possible. I had no doubt, only determination to charge full speed ahead. At first Brian claimed not to fully realize the Pandoras Box he opened for the two of us but I believe he always knew what would happen if he showed it to me which is why he did.

So what we did was we wrote the entire album over a couple years and continually auditioned it with every instrument synthesized and when we were certain it sounded right we sought out other musicians to play the various lines we wrote. Of course Brian played all guitars and I played all bass. Brian is also the recording and mixing guru who facilitated the transition of this album into a recorded reality. Lydia is my 18 year old but at the time of the recording, 17 year old sister.

For years we were going to be instrumental and then we finally decided to experiment with some vocals for the sake of it. We all like good vocals. I was horrible at first, I had some experience singing when I was younger but was wretchedly out of practice and with limited range. It took another year to come up with all the lines and then make them sound good. I was inspired by several different metal styles and tried to incorporate most all of them. Lydias lines were woven in after most of mine were done.

The Phoenix metaphor speaks volumes to us. The phoenix is a profound symbol of life and rebirth. It has a life cycle of 500 to 600 years and after that amount of time, it sets itself on fire and dies in the flames. Then, after three days, it rises again from the ashes. It is a completely benign creature who lives in dew. It is said that the phoenix has a beautiful melodious song which grows ever more mournful as its life comes to an end. It is also a symbol of the sun and immortality.

Our album is about this spiritual journey and meant to be encouragement to those who may be discouraged by the rigors of the life cycle for although the song of life may get sad from time to time it will find a sweet and happy end note. So live life well, live life, proud, and live life free.

The Nightmare actually came first and last. First started and last finished in terms of songwriting. It started as a 19 minute electronic bass line which was based on two separate piano songs I had written when I was very young (much of the trumpet was from one of those piano lines). Brian came forth with all of those furious guitars in that first movement and spent many years upgrading those leads. Two perfectionists clashed in a battle against convention, naysayers, and our own reservations. The final tapping solo was actually one of the things Brian came up with after the rest of the album was finished. The song was originally finished as a song for two guitars, bass, drums (drum synth at the time), trumpet and violin. There was no clarinet or bass clarinet. Not until we finished the Nightmare. We would end up finishing The Nightmare many many many many times.

The clarinets were a revelation to us. We toyed with the idea of having different instrumentation for different songs but we decided that this would not be practical from a recording or playing standpoint. Not like our chamber metal format is that practical anyway but we do what we can.

Somewhere in the midst of the Nightmare Brian came up with some 90 second metal blurb called the Metal Demon. It was some furious riffage with fleeting orchestration but so abrupt and sudden that it left you wanting a whole lot more. We bandied it back and forth and stretched it out in length a bit before Brian went to town on the orchestration with a few overhauls and fleshed out the guitars and soon we had our intro song, Up From the Ashes.

Next we decided to each write a song as complex as possible for the other person to play. Instead of collaborating we decided to each write one ourselves. I mean we never truly admitted that this is what we were doing to each other but this is what we were doing to each other. La Muerte que da Vida (Fire) and Question of Faith were born, respectivelywell with Faith I had actually written the bass line and some of the guitar lines many years ago but those guitar lines were at the time written for the violin and trumpet. With Fire as is its working and original title, Brian basically methodically went bar by bar writing every note for every instrument before proceeding to the next bar and ending up with one of the catchiest and most furious songs we have.

Then we each decided to write a ballad. Brian wrote The Wind I wrote The Awakening. Brian will stick to all the ballads next time because I clearly do not know the meaning of the word.

Funeral was actually our quickest song. I was at home one night and wrote out everything but the guitars. Brian came over just to drop something off and was like, oh whats this?

Just some new shell for a song but I havent written any guitars. It sounds real cool but its missing that drive.

Brian was like, oh let me see.

5 minutes later 95% of all the guitars were written out and we listened to it and were blown away.

Defiance came about lastexcept for the Nightmare, which was in rewrite phase 3 of 4 at this point. We decided to write an Uber-Prog Song. We felt that we needed to do that for some reason because we had metal and we had beautiful instrumentation and we had trippy 70s sounding stuff but we didnt have that Uber-Prog song that we felt we needed.

We proceeded to write some piece of absolute garbage.

Then we scrapped it all and I pulled out and overhauled some old bassline I had stored away and collaborated on that song more fully than any other and came up with a song that we feel reflects all of the things we learned and grew threw from the other songs on the album.

So there was the albumthe order was set very long ago back when we were instrumental (still are in the story timeline). Ashes, Faith, Wind, Fire, Defiance, Funeral, Awakening, Nightmare. Fire became La Muerte Que De Vida after Brian visited Costa Rica in a place called Tortuguero. He was walking with his beautiful girlfriend of the time Marcia who is now his beautiful newlywed bride and saw a sign that said, La Muerte Que Da Vida next to a trail off into the distance. The Death that Gives Life. The Fire. We are Born to Burn well burn to rise. It was the album theme so Fire became it in name.

We need an intro.

We said it to each other many times. Ashes is so furious that some may be turned away before realizing the scope of what we are trying to do. We make no apologies for its ferocious sound, we embrace it completely. Fueling the lifecycle story with absolute vigor and force of might. But we didnt want to pummel everyone either so we decided to do a little intro version of Amazing grace because of its beautiful sounds and themes about freedom and slavery.

Then came the lyrics/vocals

Nobody listens to instrumental music these days, we lamented.

Well Brian wasnt gonna sing. Laws of Comparative Advantage, he had never done it and he had a whole bunch of sound engineering to research to get ready to record people, both in terms of equipment and techniques. I was wretched had more time and more experience under my belt so it fell to me. At first I tried to sing with an operatic style that was ghastly. Then I stumbled onto the gruff vocalsI traditionally did not like them at all in music and Brian really did and it was strange that I tried it in the first place.

That is the only thing you do well, keep doing it.

So with encouragement like that I charged ahead and growled my way through the album. It was not enough for me and so I quit my dead end corporate job of 4 years because I came to the realization that I was only coming up with angry growling vocals because I had become an unhappy person. So in two months of glorious unemployment I sang my head off every day in the studio, singing high and cleaning and developing confidence in my clean tone to match the gruff. Then it was on and the choirs came into being and the back and forth, multiple tiers, over-dubs, etc. Lydia and I re-recorded our vocals several times throughout the recording phase of the rest of the musicians and did not finalize our recordings until after everything else had been recorded.

Bringing my phenomenal sister, Lydia, into the fold was divine. I would sing wretched falsetto versions of her lines and then she would redo them with all of her glory and poignancy. Wind was a very close and intertwined collaboration and it is Brians and my pleasure to have her take the lead here. We look forward to an expanded role from her in the future.

So with the recording we decided to finalize the drums first.

Zack, our young drummer is 2 days younger than Lydia and I have known him as long. I have changed the diapers of two of my own band membersyikes!!! Zack was the only instrumentalist given any freedom with his line in terms of what was written and we gave him near absolute freedom to drum as he wished. We gave him copies of the music with synth drums and he used some of the synth drum concepts in his drumming but basically ran with it, rehearsing on his own for months before recording a fantastic blend of jazz, prog, and metal for us.

After we finished with Zack, Brian and I spent many torturous months recording our final lines.

Then it was onto the classical chamber.

Cornelius was first. Mr. Boots recorded all our clarinet and bass clarinet lines and we are honored to have been able to work with such a wonderful musician and person. I was walking the halls of our studio one-day after lamenting with Brian how we would never find someone who played bass clarinet because it was such a rare instrument and then all of the sudden Mr. Boots started up. I banged on his door to interrupt his practice and the rest history.

Mr. Jason Parks held the sheet music for three days before laying down those masterful trumpet lines. He brought several mutes with him and I sort of simply threw out when I wanted him to try a given mute when. It had not been previously written in that there would be any mutes at all so it was all on the spot come recording time. He ends up using one about 50% of the time. He used a standard classical bright mute, a Miles Davis mute (the teakettle sound) and a Wood Mute (only in the dirge of Funeral and the virtuous violin line in Faith).

Ms Deborah Katz brought us home. The final piece of the puzzle. Whereas several other professional violinists turned us down because they said our music was too complex or too high, she tackled it effortlessly.

It sounds like the violin should always be played this high, she said at one point.

Her phenomenal efforts rounded out our sound and by then Lydia and I had put the finished touches on the vocals.

Now we are at March 2006

Now it was time for Brian to shine (well those guitars are pretty nifty too)what happened next was a 3 month mixing extravaganza that saw Brian spending hundreds of ours cleaning up and balancing the sounds of the various instruments with impeccable clarity and precision.

Meanwhile it was time for me to play backseat driver and supervise Brians productivity and provide feedback, sometimes welcome, sometimes not, as he worked diligently at his task.

After Brian signed off on his own efforts he played it for me and after the smallest of tinkering we both signed off on it and sent it on its way to Mr. Cuniberti so he could touch it with his magic wand at the Plant Studios.

Now we are onto replication and reaching out to you we will have several very cool shirts and posters online soon, the album is available under the music download section of our site, and we look to gather the chamber to play some shows before long.

We feel blessed for everyone or you who appreciates and supports us and wish you all well in your worldly and spiritual endeavors.