AB VI Studio/Recording Thread

[Ubik]

I checked on www.egdirbretla.com, and it is not there.

Maybe Brian has it?

[TenaciousBe]

I checked on http://www.egdirbretla.com, and it is not there.

Maybe Brian has it?

Holy shit, that still exists? Did they buy that domain for 20 years or something?

Also, whenever I've seen that address, my brain tries to rearrange it to "brett hestla" and now that really makes me want a guest appearance by Brett on an AB record. Or, for the solo record that Brett was working on a few years ago to surface! It seems like all news of that just got dropped off the face of the earth, and any time I've tried to ask him about it on Facebook, no reply. I WANTS IT.

[AB23]

Michael Tremonti is the one who gave us all the scoopz the last few cycles. He mysteriously stopped tweeting anything back in March.

[Blackbirddd]

Michael Tremonti is the one who gave us all the scoopz the last few cycles. He mysteriously stopped tweeting anything back in March.

That's good, maybe someone dared to tell him that he needs to stop retwitting every twitt that has tagged @alterbridge

[joshuabeau]

From Tim on a post from one of the AB groups on Facebook. Nice little tidbit of info..

"The way AB worked song writing wise for years was guys would bring ideas to the table in a writing session or pre-pro and the band would craft it - it was this way before any solo project happened. This new record is different - full songs got written before hand and brought in the band leading up to recording... some ideas were born in the room leading to some epics (that seems to be how the epic songs get written w/ these guys) but most got written and brought in for everyone to put there stamp on it.
It’s a relaxed lennon & mccartney style.
What will be fun is seeing you guys comment on who wrote what song... "

[anguyen92]

I'm a bit confused of that post. I always thought how AB creates songs is that Mark and Myles always has ideas and they share them among each other when they have the chance outside of their other bands and when pre-pro comes, they all come together to form songs and Flip and Brian fills in the blanks in the rhythm section. So what makes the approach to forming songs in AB VI different? I mean it would be interesting if Flip and Brian has ideas for songs, and that would be an interesting way to shake things up, but I'm not seeing that happening for this one.

[Timotheus]

I'm really excited about that quote!

[TenaciousBe]

I'm a bit confused of that post. I always thought how AB creates songs is that Mark and Myles always has ideas and they share them among each other when they have the chance outside of their other bands and when pre-pro comes, they all come together to form songs and Flip and Brian fills in the blanks in the rhythm section. So what makes the approach to forming songs in AB VI different? I mean it would be interesting if Flip and Brian has ideas for songs, and that would be an interesting way to shake things up, but I'm not seeing that happening for this one.

I think it just means that there are more songs on this record that Mark and Myles each brought to the writing sessions / pre-pro as full song ideas rather than jigsaw puzzle pieces ("here's a chorus, here's a verse, here's a riff, here's a bridge, which ones can we slap together?"). And that last line of Tim's meaning, watching the fans try to figure out which songs were written primarily by Mark and which ones are primarily by Myles.

[AB4Lyfe]

Ok yeah that does excite me a bit!

[chtimixeur]

That's tremendous news. I've always thought they should bring full songs to the sessions instead of playing this puzzle game with parts. This way, songs will have more identity, which can only benefit the album as a whole.

[Mr. Slash]

I'm really eager to listen to songs written by Flip or Brian. Probably won't happen tho.

[AngusWolfe]

I'm really eager to listen to songs written by Flip or Brian. Probably won't happen tho.

wouldn't it be great if one of them is a secret George Harrison to MT/MK's Lennon/McCartney?

Let's just hope the other isn't Ringo.

[Andy92]

That’s cool news to hear. Definitely reminds you more of how The Beatles wrote their stuff. Glad they decided to change things up a bit!

[Ubik]

I had wondered whether them mentioning "demos" more meant they'd changed things up! Wonder whether that includes lyrics, as the guys tend to prefer to sing stuff they've written themselves.

I also approve of the plural epics. This is belated hype but hype nonetheless.

[gbruin]

There’s just so much hype for this record...

In sarcasm font, right?

Oh crap did I forget to change fonts? Damn...

But yes, Dad. Where is the hype?

It could use some more. I hate for it to feel "routine" at this point. They're the greatest band in the world. There should be a tsunami on the horizon.

[SHEAKENBAKEN]

There'll be more hype once the first single, album art, album title and tracklist/track lengths are revealed like every album cycle

[joshuabeau]

That's tremendous news. I've always thought they should bring full songs to the sessions instead of playing this puzzle game with parts. This way, songs will have more identity, which can only benefit the album as a whole.

Me too. I've wanted them to do that for so long.

[austin.]

Is it not kind of amateur to piece stuff together?

Lots of piecing together in some of marks solo stuff. So you’re afraid..... there’s a few that stand out.


“Well guys.... I have a great chorus..... but that’s it”

Ya know? I’m sure this is a common style bands do. But a whole idea, changed some, sounds better than a bunch of small ideas mashed into one.

In my opinion.

[anguyen92]

Well, Mark's solo stuff are ideas that he has that doesn't fit his other bands. Of course, it's going to be lots of piecing together since Mark feels like he wants to get these ideas out in some form and form the rest of the song that way. Heck, A Dying Machine might have been the first Tremonti (band) album where Mark really had to not throw a bunch of pieces together for 10 songs and call it an album since he wants to go all the way with the concept he had in mind.

My thoughts about the whole "piecing things together" vs "having full song ideas and getting the rest of the band to put their touches together" is this. I think piecing things together is not a total detrimental approach, especially with the way AB works with themselves, with the way they need tour a lot to make an earning, and with their other bands. I mean I don't think there's an AB song to my recollection where I feel like there's a section of the song that doesn't fit with the rest and was thrown together for the sake of it. There's always a solid smooth transition from point A to point B that works with the song.

In addition, I always thought that the Mark/Myles partnership was really good because they stated, I believe it was from the Fortress Sound and the Story documentary, that they don't come into writing/pre-production with full song ideas since they have so much respect for each other and they find the process of coming together to form solid songs both guys can get behind very smoothly. I think it can be that thing that can separates the Mark/Stapp team or the Slash/Myles team where it's the lead guitarist providing the music and the lyricist/vocalist coming up with the lyrics. It's two guitarists/songwriters having all these ideas and coming together to form some solid songs in that moment while writing together like a well-oiled unit.

Although, I can get behind the idea of having full songs already in mind before getting into pre-pro/recording. You would think both guys' well would be tapped after A Dying Machine and Year of the Tiger, but to hear that they both got great songs in mind for AB and everyone is on board with it can only be a good thing. Although, some people would like some more spontaneous moments while writing, which I think according to Tim's post, we probably are going to get anyways with any epics they have in mind. In the end, any chance they can get to freshen themselves and their songwriting style and be invigorated for AB again is always a good sign.

[gbruin]

I am really looking forward to working out who wrote what. I think it will be really interesting to hear if there is a big difference between songs that are primarily written by one guy.