Record is Done!

Yeah, you heard it here folks, the record really is done. This is a picture of all of us plus James and Chris on the last day. Florida sure is bright.

This is Brooks looking surprised at how well the record came out. (Actually he's feigning surprise. He knew it was going to be good.)

Other than making the best record of our musical lives, here's what you missed. Right before we left, Rob the drum tech took us to Disney World again, where Phil and Jimmy met a giant stone cat.

This is Rob the drum tech dressed as a sultan and riding on top of a giant moving elephant shaped thing, playing drums while perched 12 feet in the air. Um, yeah, that's what that is. This is actually a job.

After all this fun, Rob took us out to eat Thai food at this amazing place. He loved us so much he paid for it all. Way to go Rob! Sullivan loves free food.

This is the guy from My American Heart who took the picture at the top of this post. They are recording their record right now with James. They also made us a little jealous because we want to be James' favorites. Watch out for them studio cats My American Heart! Also, you gotta jiggle the toilet handle or it will just keep running.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a picture of Tyson playing guitar in a garage. That is all.




I got a lot of good feeback on this blog and I enjoyed sharing our time with you guys. Hopefully I'll start another blog to update you on what we do during tours. So please check out the record, I can't wait for you guys to hear it. Also, make sure you come hang out with us at shows when we come see you.

So see you soon!
Zach and Sullivan

Visits from Old Friends

Here's something that's pretty cool. We got a visit from some of our friends and former crew members Graham and Tyler.

Honestly, this blog entry is going to be a little photo excessive, but that's only because Graham's beard is so magnificent, it just begs for documentation. Graham set a goal for himself to not cut a single hair on his face for one whole year and he's done on the 25th of February. You go Graham! Maybe when you cut it off you can donate it to Phil so he can finally have some facial hair.

Graham is our old tour manager, but when he was out with us, he had a much smaller beard. This thing makes Brooks' old beard look like a preteen's peach fuzz. Lucky for you guys, I took this picture after he cleaned all of his excess Wendy's dribble off his chin. Lunch with his beard is a real hazard. I'm sure it's like trying to snack with a wombat hanging onto your chin so I have to give a lot of credit to Graham. By the way, this is our second Wendy's plug. Are you listening Wendy's? DO give Sullivan some food.

Since working as our tour manager, Graham has been working on several Underoath, Norma Jean and The Almost tours. Look for him behind the merch table during the upcoming Taking Back Sunday/Underoath tour. By the way, this is a photograph of Graham's face being lit up by 8-bit Zelda.

He begged Phil to go onto the internet and find a Zelda map for him, but sadly, nobody had a laptop with them and Graham can't beat Zelda without cheating so he had to quit.

Ok, this is Tyler, better known as Piggs Riggs. You may remember Tyler from his many months behind our merch table. Tyler looks a lot like an elf, with his elf boots and hat. Also, he usually smells pretty bad, but is a great person. He got us hooked on the show Lost so badly that we had to get a hotel room once just to watch through seven episodes of season 2. One time Piggs was getting a cold on tour but he said "Hey Cold, do you know who you are infectin'? I'm Tyler Riggs," and the cold went away. That's the way he tells it anyway.

Piggs got the name Piggs because one of the first things he did when we brought him to our house was eat about 10 servings of pasta that Tyson had made. We found him on the couch with a huge salad bowl full of it. He finished it too as I remember. Piggs is hungry.

Graham's Beard (February 25, 2006-February 25, 2007)

Beard, we hardly knew ye.

Phil's Update

(Phil relaxes on his bed while surrounded by an animal themed wallpaper border)

hey everybody,

pbuddy here, with my update on whats going on in the studio. i have pretty much been sleeping, disney worlding and being addicted to video games since my week of doing drums. most days i have overslept the ride into the studio so i get to go at the end of the day and hear whats happening with vocals. i'm so stoked i can't wait for you guys to hear this stuff! disney says hello, so do the studio piggies.

(Phil uses a computer while watching the O.C.)

perhaps we can post a picture of my bed and computer so you guys can see what has been occupying all my time of late.

love you guys!

Exclusive Justin Interview

This is Justin. We are renting out some living space in his house while we record this record. We were friends before this and he's made our time in Florida very comfortable. Here's my short interview with him.

Me: "Hey Justin, what's the best part about living with us?"

Justin: "Well, we're friends. We're boys. You know I love having you guys here. "

Me: "Ok then, what's the worst part about living with us?"

Justin: "I'm not used to cleaning up after five people."

Oh snap.

Rare Studio Cat Photo!

It's taken almost a month, but Audrey, the most camera shy of the studio cats, has finally paused long enough for me to take a picture of her. The studio cat photo collection is complete! Now we just got to finish this record and we can take the rest of the year off.



I'm kidding, we're coming to your town after this. Get ready.

Random Shots from the studio.

Pizza and Adventure

This girl is really huge because she purchased pizza for us over the internets. Thank you girl, thank you internet.
Me and Phil decided to take a late-night walk down the road. It was horrible idea.

This is Phil running from gators, which as you know, are all over Florida.

Good thing we made it so we can bring you this record.

Brooks and the Chocolate Factory

Man, Brooks is ripping through these Vocals. The dude is a champ. There isn't much to say other than that he is putting in some long hard days right now. He has just finished the first two songs and they sound amazing.

We've been doing guitar in the morning and vocals in the evening. The guys start working at 11am, and aren't finished until after midnight. It's a crazy schedule.

Tyson is undoubtedly doing the best guitar work of his life. The guy is going crazy on that thing, I'm serious. I can't wait for you guys to hear what he's coming up with.

What's up next tomorrow? More of the same!

Boo ya!

Guest Comentary by Austin the Studio Kitty

Meow.

Austin lives with producer James Paul Wisner in Orlando, Florida and is a full-time cat. In his spare time Austin enjoys sleeping and eating. He also really likes it when you pet his kitty head or help him play with his string.

Brooks starts on Vocals

Ok, so in case you forgot. This is what Brooks looks like. This picture is pretty much Makeoutclub worthy.

This dude has been working pretty hard and today was no exception. I have to say, that the dude is really singing well. He's a much better singer than he was during our last album and he's pulling off stuff I didn't know he could even do. I'm excited for you all to hear what we are doing in here cause it's crazy.

Disney Visit

This is Sean. He took us to Disney World. For those paying attention, doing things like this for us seems to be the correct way to act. Take note. He's a Filipino-viking.

Basically while poor Brooks and Tyson slaved away all day in a blisteringly hot recording studio, me and Phil and our friend Kyle went and had a great day off.This is what Kyle and Phil look like to babies. Tall and creepy with a giant silver thing behind them.

This is a picture of Phil looking creepy as he waits to ride Pirates. We really didn't spend that much time in the parks because we kept going from place to place. We went to three parks in just a few hours.

Ok, I noticed there are two things that people take pictures of in Disney World. They either take a picture of them waving in front of a castle, or they take a picture of someone wearing stupid hats like we did. A note to NASA who made these things. These helmets look good but would be terrible for actual space travel as they are made of fabric. Idiots. This is the crap that all my tax dollars are going to. Or at least they would be, if I payed taxes.

Phil and Kyle wore these around for a while to make sure Sean felt at home. There aren't many Filipino-vikings in Orange County and sometimes life can get a bit sad for him without any Filipino-vikings (or Villipinos) his age to hang out with.

If you look closely you can see that I'm down to my last piece of facial hair. It's an old favorite called the "Soul Patch," not to be confused with "Soul Plane," which was a movie about planes and Snoop Dog or something and totally different. I kept thinking girls were smiling at me all day but then I realized after each one passed me that they probably just laughing at my sweet new S. Patch.

"I wish I could grow a beard!," says Phil, as he jumps in front of a cannon. Actually I have no idea what he was saying and I just remembered as I was writing this that I actually have at least two more pictures in different places in the States of Phil in front of some sort of cannon. I gotta think about that for a bit.

Anyway, thanks Sean! Hope you had as good of a time as we did. I'm kidding, of course you had a great time, you were with us. Hey, aren't we making a record? Oh yeah. More on that tomorrow.

Bass Finished = Long Day = Crappy Blogging

"What's this a picture of," you ask? Well I'm glad you asked. "It couldn't be just a picture of a door," you say. Well, I'm saying it could be, and it is. It's just a door. I looked through my camera tonight and this was the only good picture on it from today and it's not even good. I can't even remember if I took it. It does have a strange blue light coming from somewhere though. Ohhhhh call X-files.

I probably should say that this is a picture of me feeling bad for not blogging better, but I can't lie, it's just a picture of me that Phil took a few days ago. The good news is I finished my bass parts for the album today! Boo ya! Many thanks to Chris who worked 13 hours in a row today and made me sound like I know what I'm doing.

In other news, Tyson vanished again. We think he went to Tampa. This is a picture of him doing what he was last seen doing, playing Warcraft. This is also probably what he is doing where he ran off to, so he should be easy to spot. Look for a place with power, a wi-fi connection and a coffee pot. Come home soon Tyson!

Also, this is a picture of J.P. Wisner, the fellow is who making our record. Come to think of it, I haven't seen him lately either. If you see him wandering around, please send him back to the studio, I need him to listen to this last take.

So Zach, you just recorded the bass parts of one of the most important records of the 21st century, how does it feel?

Oh it feels great, thanks.

Well, what are you planning on doing next?

I'm planning to go to Disney World with Phil.




Yeah, that's what's happening. See you guys tomorrow.

Brooks Covers Bass Days while Zach Takes the Day Off to Work

Today was a very special day, we entered the next phase of our little project here in sunny florida. No, we arent making a nuclear bomb, but you see its a record we are creating this month.

Zach started laying down some really low frequencies today, thats bass for the lamens. Along with Phils drums, it sounds incredible! We are considering kicking Tyson out of the band and just doing the drum/bass/dork thing on the road, Im not sure what role I would be playing in that one.

Tyson was steady warcrafting all day, with the occasional break to eat or bother me.


You may also notice that zach is working on his pirate's gotee, along with chris' soul patch.......this is a record full of facial hair masterpieces.
One of the studio cats attacked me today, I think she thought I had a hedgehog on my face. She was probably just trying to do me a favor.

Speaking of.... Thank you everyone who has rooted me on in my pursuit of the perfect beard. Its not been easy, but with the support of friends like you, I could go all the way.

And for those that don't like it and think I look like Charlie Manson, Im sorry.

Facial Hair Troubles

Surprisingly, after the grief I gave brooks for his beard, I accidentally grew a miniature one for myself. Even though it looks quite awesome, I have decided to shave it out of principle. Details on that to come tomorrow.

As far as the album goes, Phil finished his drum tracks today and can finally rest. He plans to sleep through tomorrow entirely and then start on the Karate classes that he's always wanted to take but never had the time for.
Good luck Phil! And remember, "If do right, no can defense."