I mentioned in a podcast last month that we had a collaboration in the works with Philly band, Beauty’s Confusion. They are a great up and coming band so I’m excited to be doing something with them. They just sent us a copy of their recent album, which is really enjoyable. I knew quite a few songs already because they are pretty generous about sharing their music online, but there were a couple sweet tracks I hadn’t heard before, like “City.” Actually, if you haven’t heard BC yet, you should go check out their download page at beautysconfusion.net or visit their myspace page. Anyway, Skip is working on a final mix now, which I’m looking forward to hearing and to sharing with everyone on a future podcast. Oh, I should mention that this is the first time Ryan’s gotten involved in an internet collaboration. I’m really stoked he liked the song enough to take some time out and go into the studio with me to work on it. Depending on how busy we are promoting the new album, I might get him to do an official Lovespirals mix of it, too. Time shall tell…

Man, they didn’t get around to making our changes and sending out a new proof today. Ryan seems pretty stressed out. A whole week of production time down the tubes last week and now no early start this week. Wahh wahh wahh wahhh (sad slide trombone sound)…

Sheesh… sometimes it seems like we’ll never get the new album out. It was totally done last year, aside from mastering and artwork. We started mastering it around New Years, I seem to recall. But then all this rain came and our studio roof was leaking so we had to get that fixed. While we had the guy working, we figured we’d get our electrical upgraded in there, since nothing was grounded, so that took a bunch of time. Before you knew it, any potential summertime release was out of the question. I was still hoping to get it out in early fall somehow… But now the artwork is getting delayed over at the plant. I thought we had all the kinks worked out, but their artist still found errors that had to be fiddled with and in the process somehow moved the main cover image over a half inch and didn’t notice it on the proof! Now it’s Friday, so we may not see another proof until Monday. Boo!

Haha, apparently “Trouble” was used in an episode of that E! channel show, “Gastineau Girls” sometime this year! I don’t know how, but I know I saw that show one night and though it was kinda crazy. It’s like a reality show about a rich mom and her hot daughter just, like, trying to be sexy and cool all the time. I can see how that song is perfect for the show though, with that chorus hook “I’m old enough to know better – you’re just trouble!” Kinda makes me want to see it, actually, just thinking about it.

Which reminds me, I noticed that “Popular” DVD is available at Blockbuster so I’m going to check it out.

I guess we were also used on a show called “Taste of America” which sounds like a Travel Channel show. Hopefully they were enjoying a summer wine or eating on a yacht, something sweet like that. Ah well, any publicity is pretty nice. Especially non-gothic publicity. Heh heh!

At long last, we have sent off the CD master and artwork for production! I had a panic attack yesterday when I realized that I did not have color separations for the disc artwork, but then Ryan remembered that his old pal from Mexico, Roberto, was not only proficient in such matters – being a graphic designer – but recently moved nearby. Lucky for us, Roberto was more than willing to drop by and help us get all our unruly files into order. Not only did he create the color separations, but he cleaned up the Chillcuts logo and gave me a pretty thorough crash course in Photoshop pre-press techniques. In turn, I loaded him up with CDs, postcards, photos, and posters, plus we shared a tasty bottle of Rose and some of my home cooking. Always best to mix pleasure with business! It looks like he’ll also be helping us to get together some much needed business cards and new band glossies. It’s so good to have a friend connected to the print business! What a life saver! Muchas gracias, Roberto!

Just thought I’d address the fact that we’re lagging on getting out the new podcast… There’s a few reasons for this. One, I am totally wrapped up in designing the album art, which always takes longer than I think it will because I am such a perfectionist. Two, we’ve had no less than 3 weddings to attend in the last 2 months. Three, it is too fricken hot to go into the studio right now. We’re in the midst of a record high heatwave for this area, and there is no airflow in the studio, so once those monitors and computers come on, it heats up real fast! Maybe I’ll break down and try recording something using my Griffin iTalk peripheral, just to get through this little phase, or maybe I’ll send out this Lovespirals/LSD Chillcuts feature I put together about 2 weeks ago but haven’t had time to convert and upload to Chillcuts yet. I dunno yet. Anyone have a preference?

I’ve always hated working in Quark and view it merely as a necessary evil when going to print. I have been known to throw a cat across the room in frustration when working on a project… I’ve been trying to translate my CD design from Photoshop to Quark and was getting really frustrated yesterday working up the disc art. Anyway to make a long story short, a cool old friend of ours was nice enough to let me check out Adobe’s InDesign and WOW! I love that program! Why have I not used it before? I worked up the disc art in no time and feel much more confident about it than I did my Quark document. The learning curve was really quick and the whole experience was much more intuitive. Hooray for Adobe!

Been meaning to give an update. That very same day I prayed a muse would visit me for the Free & Easy artwork, well, I guess she heard, because I had a breakthrough. Got the cover figured out and Ryan loved it. Also came up with the inside 2 panel concept. I’m just not sure about the back cover now… Sometimes I wish I weren’t such a perfectionist. I think I could get a lot more done if I weren’t so picky.

We’ve pretty much got the master disc together for the new album, but now we’re stuck on the artwork. That was kinda the case with Windblown Kiss, as I recall… Back then, we flew out to San Fran for a whirlwind photography session with Susan Jennings, but this year she has been too busy to hook up, so we’re trying to go it alone. We’ve been crazy mad busy, too, honestly. Even with the last album, I put together the cover only to have Projekt reject (or should I say rejekt) it and had to start over. I was lucky to find a few nature shots alongside the band photos that were pretty cool.

This time around, I think Ryan would like to try something different from his past albums. You know, everything up to now has been an indistinct fuzzy image made up more of color than form, in the tradition of early 4AD and Projekt. Now that we’re on our own, I think we want something more representative of us. I’ve been tossing around various ideas for the cover, but I’m not sure anything has quite stuck yet. Plus it’s been so fricken hot that I just don’t feel creative. Especially not sitting here at my computer in this bright hot room. Yuck. I just pray that some muse appears and rescues me!