Making of an album...the III

Metal From Milan interview with Forgotten Suns

2010-04-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

Hello to all,

In between writings and recordings of the upcoming material the Radio Show "Metal From Milan" will do a live-interview with the Portuguese Prog Metallers from Forgotten Suns at Friday, April 16 ! Make sure to listen and tune in. More info about Forgotten Suns at www.myspace.com/fsuns

Worldwide broadcasting - the interview will be in English.

Where : www.rampartradio.com or www.dyhardradio.com
Radio Show : Metal From Milan ( with DJ Nik )
What time : 22.00 CET (09:00 in Portugal)
When : Friday, April 16, you can follow all online through the website of the radio station

Keep your attention on some interesting revelations that the band might announce on the interview...

best regards
7hawk

Mission Accomplished! - (the last post)

2009-01-06T07:44:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

Forgotten Suns wish you a fantastic 2009, that all your dreams may come true - ours are surely close to happen!

This is the last post on this blog, which means we have finally come to the end of this long "making of" and as mentioned on the subject we have our mission accomplished for this one.

Right now Shawn Gordon, President at ProgRock Records has sent us a preview of the fantastic artwork made by Thomas Ewerhard at Design & More. We are receiving previews from the Ultradisc Factory and the artwork prints done by Andrew Householder look great indeed!

Meanwhile and in late after hours schedule, Chris Brown at Murfreesboro, Tennessee USA sent me a message saying that the album is full mastered and that he's only making the final audio tests.

The making of Innergy took many months and several posts. It was a real pleasure bring you the updates, sensations and the images of this complex procedure - making an album is really something fantastic. Hope you felt some of the satisfaction we had while doing it.

Musically speaking I believe we have made something of great value, this is an album made with all our heart and all our passion for progressive music. We really overpassed all our expectations with each other and this is surely a landmark for us as a group.

Technically speaking or should I say in terms of Production, Mike was the corner stone of it. His recording techniques and engineering work was so passioned and so decisive that we should build him a statue! We really make a great production duo and so we build Mediaforce for granting the band all the best in terms of production and studio works.

We surely went up to a new quality level with this one...

I will not reveal anything more, there will be other times and ocassions to make it even properly...

We hope you enjoy all tracks, keep an eye and your ears on our new upcoming album, you surely have many parts to dig out;)

You can make a reserve of your copy at: http://www.progrockrecords.com/shop/view.php?id=186

All the best from guitar land,

7hawk

I N N E R G Y - the new album

2008-12-11T10:13:00.000-08:00

Finally!!!

I can announce in our 'making of' blog the name of our new album - hooray!:)

Check the official website frontpage so we can know more about it!
www.forgotten-suns.com

all the best
7hawk

Overdubs

2008-11-09T03:22:00.000-08:00

These pics are from last thursday night at the studio doing some overdubs on vocals, we used our new room built from scratch to make it happen!:)

Friday and yesterday's schedule was filled with exploratory sessions on the new software and we have already achieved great testing results...this means even a better sound, yeah!
We are re-shaping the mixing during November and we expect to finish it on the end of this month.

Right now we're very close to announce our new label, mastering enginner/studio, graphic designer for album artwork, album's name, final tracklist and more details of the new upcoming album - stay tuned

best
7hawk

New album update

2008-11-03T04:20:00.000-08:00

Hi folks,

it's been a while without news but that's the usual tip that we are heavily drowned in work - so it was and will be during November.

Mixing an album such as this one it's very like living on the edge both of time consumed, mental agility and technical knowledge.
It's funny and quite rewarding for us that this aspect of the production will be quite apart from the future listeners' minds but so close to our perception of how big this album is.

Last thursday on studio with Mike and Sam we spent an hour reviewing the whole album for corrections and overdubs and it was a growing feeling among us song after song - this album it's the best of us ever and something we will be very proud of for many years to come.
We are now introducing new software and some new hardware on the mixing process to increase the quality of our sounds.

I'll kept you updated,

best
7hawk

Mixing

2008-09-26T00:57:00.000-07:00

Hello folks,

Got some time in the morning to get you updated to our mixing process, it's been around 8/10 hours per day but things really sound powerful and better than anything we've done.

To get you an idea of what Mike and I are doing here goes the thing:
First step, we've created a frequency chart for all instruments by the way they were recorded and according to their natural EQ rules - we apply those frequencies as a global base to start the mix but all songs are different so after a while we have small different adjustments done.

We set up a very interesting operation to work the drums applying the effects ('Verby') on a perfect dry/wet system, we got great room and definition - Sammy's performance is great as you will notice in the future so, if the drummer is good it's a nice ahead start;)

Bass and guitar world is working with maximizers, peak removers and compressions we have our Cubase 4 working great. There are some delays for solos but this album is 80% crunchy guitars so it's really a fast job to get there for the right sound.
Keyboards sound amazing on the mixings, just some frequencies to work so that the low strings doesn't kill the 7 string guitar riff on 'Phenotype' - anything else is sound great.
Mike have a new Korg M3 and will overdub some sounds soon on 'Flashback' and 'Nanoworld'

Vocals is a work in progress, there are plenty of ways of doing it and at the 3d song we finally get the fastest and efficient way of get it out better - Nio is singing with great passion and it's a perfect debut for him.

I could lay all information for each instrument but I don't want to sound a pain in the a** so, let me cut here and tell you that things are going on the schedule.
Right now we're on the middle of the process.
I'm laying my hands on 'AOBE' today which is the 5th track being mixed - in the pocket already:
'Flashback', 'Doppelgänger', 'News' and 'Phenotype'.

best
7hawk

Live at Bragança

2008-09-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

Hello folks,

Just a quick escape from the studio while we're mixing the album to reveal some pics that arrived today to my hands.
It was with immense pleasure that we accepted the invitation from the C.M of Bragança to perform in such historical place and because this is a very well known vacation place were Mike and I have related people and families.
For me it was a long time wish that came true - another one in Forgotten Suns' history.

This was also a very interesting night because it was the debut show of our singer Nio, so this was a night that we all will remember.
It was as cold as if we were in the center of the North Pole but we handle it with ease and we did a great show by debuting live some new tracks and arranjements.

We did a very interesting line-up by performing 'Wartime' and 'Betrayed pt.I' of the Fiction Edge cd; 'Senses' and 'Strange Affair with the Night' from Snooze album, we dived into a cool 'Brigantia Jam' then into 'Flashback',
'Phenotype','Outside In' and we closed the show with 'Racing the Hours' of the new upcoming album.

There will be some new dates to be announced soon for the end of October...

...now back to the studio,

best

7hawk

Summer Date & Mixing

2008-07-27T06:39:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

the band will perform live in Bragança, one of the oldest historical towns in the North of Portugal.
It's with huge pleasure that the band accepted the invitation and will do this special concert interrupting the mixing process and then ending the season for some brief and deserved vacation days off.

The show will be next 14th August, 21.30 at the Praça Camões- see ya there!

The mixing process begun with our choice on Mr.Daniel Flores at Sound vs Science Studios in Stockholm but after we start working together on the first songs became evident that we weren't seeing the same type of production for it - so we decided to bet on our own experience and we're already mixing it from the very beggining - we are absolutly sure and convicted of the sound we desire for this album, so our ears didn't betrayed us with Mr.Flores work, it was a matter of production's taste.

We did a big upgrade to our recording studio and convert it into an amazing production room, we are doing it all with the newest and powerful Cubase 4 among other terabyting stuff:)
First song in the mix desk is Flashback and already sounds f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c!
Has I wrote before, there will be short chances of write in the blog in the following days (we're damn busy as you can see) but keep your eyes open on the new website that will online before 14th August with tons of news.

*****This show will have many appealing motifs attached, be sure that you don't miss this one*****

LBL & Cascais Prog

2008-07-11T04:53:00.001-07:00

Dear fans,

it's with some surprise we see 2 of our shows being moved to other dates, next year as it seems.
Our next date is 8th November in Bünde-Westafallen (Germany) at Prock Fest 08.

The mixing process will continue and there will be a longer period without posting here.
For all the fans and friends of the band we are reaching a decisive stage of our new album, the mix and mastering - we will return with a great album!

best
7hawk

Mixing & Listening tracks

2008-07-01T03:01:00.000-07:00

Just a quick hello in the blog to let you know that we've been busy working the final editings and the last pack of songs will travel to Stockholm very soon. We have some overdubs to do and some final samples on Mind Over Matter and Outside In to fill in.
After listening the yet unmixed but already edited songs, I have to tell you I'm more than proud of my band mates for what we achieved musically, our best as musicians is tottaly there, I don't see the time to take it live (yeah!!!)

best
7hawk

Final takes

2008-06-07T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hello folks,

after some days under a flu attack (Mike, myself, Nuno and by coincidence our swedish mixing engineer Daniel Flores too) we are approaching the final recordings. I closed my guitar recs for this album on Thursday afternoon. My last take was on the melodic and dramatic solo of 'Nanoworld'...I couldn't look for a better way of close the recordings by imagining us on stage performing live while I was recording this section, it will be a killer live moment for sure!
The last hours of guitar recordings also were spent on re-doing tracks for 'Mind Over Matter', 'AOBE' and as mentioned above on 'Nanoworld'. There are solos on these songs with wah and in particular, whammy pedal - which is a debut on albums and a last addition to my rig.

best
7hawk

Flu anyone?

2008-05-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

Hello folks,

it seems that there are some virus out there in the last days, Mike and I got sick since yesterday though Mike has already recovered and is on studio right now recording his last parts of 'Outside In' and 'Nanoworld'. I'm still at home with my guitars and some interesting National Geographic and Canal Historia to relax and recover fast. I believe I can close my guitar recordings for this album on Sunday and also some back vocals for 'An Outer Body Experience' and 'Mind Over Matter'.

Here goes 2 pics of Nuno 'Strap' while recording the instrumental section of 'Outside In' and Mike on the same instrumental section...

best

7hawk

Solos & Adrenaline vs Perfection

2008-05-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hello folks,

The last 2 days at the studio have been of pure adrenaline. Mike and I were 12 hours each day recording the keyboard parts for the instrumental section of 'Outside In', recording guitars for the same track, improvising solos for 'Racing the Hours' and fighting against the adrenaline of soloing at 180 bpm and get it all in perfection. It's amazing how things work when you want to make the most difficult and technical part sound like a bad ass pro player: you got to overcome the adrenaline, went beyond the task and get it done as easy as sweaming the sea of traquility...'Racing' solos are the fastest we ever did in our discography so far.

Today Nuno has already recorded his parts for 'Outside In' and Mike will record some final sections of 'Nanoworld'. Our target is to have all recordings done until this friday and then 1 week more to do final editings before send 5 more tracks to Mr.Daniel Flores in Stockholm.

regards
7hawk

Outside In

2008-05-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

23rd May going to 24th...

In the same day that Daniel Flores confirmed that he has received the package with the first group of 4 songs in perfect condition, I'm doing another post on the making of blog! Today I have some pictures of this week at the studio: Thursday and Friday (22nd & 23rd).

We are recording the last track for the album - Outside In - which in fact was the first track to be written for it!:) Yesterday we did some bass incursions on the new instrumental section. For those who were at Aula Magna and Europarque and still keep some memories of this song, I can assure you that it developed into a incredible sick track. It has the longest and powerful musicianship we aimed since we decided to write this album, it's a very complete piece of music: has a huge concept, groovy riffs, great vocals, tremendous bass lines, hot solos from both guitar and keys, a big unisson, full of odd signatures on drums...what else can I say? Yes, it's a lot of work and gives us big headaches at the end of day...

Today Mike and I were at the studio and we finalized the keyboard parts for the unisson then we ended up the day by record all guitars for the instrumental, after that we were deadly tired. While driving home, we look like kids who did they're first cool song ever:)

I found some time to upload some pics (sorry for the low quality) but here goes:

. Myself at the studio and my Amsterdam Cherry 7 string before recording Outside In instrumental
. Mike looking at a music catalogue, cooking some plans for his live setup...
. Nuno and Mike recording the keyboard unisson
. Some scores and tablature of the big unisson
. Mike and his K2661 today on studio
. Panoramic guitar view, my Whammy was on the box today...
. Me while recording the instrumental section of Outside In

Powered by...

2008-05-12T06:01:00.000-07:00

Some pics of the last days at the studio, we've been powered by Red Bull as an exciter for the solos, Mike on the 2nd and 3rd pics recording the end section of 'News' (I still can see his forearm popping once in a while) and myself with my new Whammy pedal yet in the box...

Back Vocals

2008-05-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

Busy weekend at the studio, yesterday in the afternoon Mike, Sam, Nuno and I did the back vocals for Dopplegänger...it was the funniest moment since we start recording, there's a sound file I will upload in a future post that best describes what happened...(lol)
Later at night we went into Sammy's home studio at we listened the drum tracks which are amaaaazing to our ears. From that point, we're sure that Mr.Flores will have enough quality material to cook a fabulous mix and mastering.

Today Mike and I were in the studio producing the samples for 'Racing the Hours', 'Flashback' and 'An Outer Body Experience' - first tracks will follow from Lisboa to Stockholm during this week and we will continue our recording and production process for the last tracks until the end of the month.

best
7hawk

The News Today

2008-05-10T05:55:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post from the studio (I brought my portable to work with Mike), we're recording the instrumental end section of "News"...seems like his forearms are increasing with the resistance and strenght he needs to get that section done...kind of Popeye:)

Yesterday we did another long studio section recording bass tracks, guitar solos, vocals, back vocals and samples. Be prepared for a great surprise...

best
7hawk

Solos, Vocals and Samples

2008-05-09T00:41:00.000-07:00

Another long run at the studio during yesterday, we've been very busy recording solos, vocals, bass lines and today we'll make some production for 'News', 'Mind Over Matter' and 'Racing the Hours' with sound samples and Reason 4 loops.... "the fight goes on":)

best
7hawk

58 days

2008-05-06T03:53:00.000-07:00

Yep, the title of the post is the actual number of days we took so far to record and produce the new album!
It's been a long and meticulous process. 9 tracks on 65 min of the most progressive and prolific music we did ever!
We've been recording and editing drum tracks, doubling guitar layers, improvising solos, recording bass lines, adding tons of multi-keyboard sounds and recording vocals. It's been a long process but we're quite pleased with the results achieved so far when tracks are so 'naked' yet so beautiful:)

There are many episodes I can't post on time because we're on studio over 12 hours a day sometimes and we felt like a bless when we hit our beds but, I was amazed with the keyboards of 'Racing the Hours' one of my fave tracks - it took me 7 hours with Mike to make it happen though it made me think how genius this guy is with his keyboard sounds - I love this song!

The first tracks will travel to Sweden in mid May while we finish the remaining of the album, we are very proud of work with Mr.Daniel Flores - Sound vs Science Studios in Stockholm to mix and with Mr.Mats Lindfors for the mastering...this will surely turn this album into a huge sounding masterpiece.

I will had more posts soon,

best
7hawk

Recording Guitars

2008-04-26T15:03:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

Today Mike and I arrived at the studio in the morning to record some serious heavy guitars. While I was picking up my 7 string red devil from the case and warming up I got absolutly amazed by the work Mike did on 'Mind Over Matter', 'News' and 'Nanoworld' during this week- what a killers!!!

That was a hell of a tonic for what's coming after:)

Great sounding riffs and I'm pretty pleased with myself today, we got great results and the finest crunch guitars we've ever heard in years. Our recording techniques are improving and so our fingers...

Work goes on Monday with the final part of 'Nanoworld' and for the 2 remaining tracks: 'Outside In' and 'Racing the Hours'.

Have a good weekend;)

7hawk

24th April - a date to remember...

2008-04-24T01:47:00.000-07:00

...the band did one of the most enthusiastic gigs on 24th April 2001, it was the release party of our debut album 'Fiction Edge'...7 years ago!
Here stands a review on the day after the show: http://www.dprp.net/concrev/forgottensuns.htm

Today we are on studio recording the 3rd album. Mike spent the last 2 days around his world of keyboards recording 'Mind Over Matter', 'News' and 'Outside In'.
I'll go in for my guitar parts on 'News' and 'Nanoworld' this afternoon. Nuno did 'Nano' on monday with great new approaches and extra bass solo:)

Everything is ok according to our schedule and the work will go on until 15th May...I'll add some pics on following posts.

Studio update - 20th April

2008-04-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

We've been recording for 1 month and 10 days from now, there's no much time has I would like to have in order to post regularly...I just can reveal that there will be a lot of surprises on this new album.Prepare your eyes and ears:)

We are now recording the final 3 tracks and we plan of send the material to Stockholm to the hands of Mr.Daniel Flores after 15th May, the last day of recordings according to our schedule.

On the pics, there are images of 'Phenotype' tracks on cpu, me recording guitars with my Bo-El (Amsterdam Cherry MC-7) and Mike and I on studio (he's been incredibly great on recordings and edition).

C-ya

7hawk

Band Recording - no comments

2008-04-15T12:17:00.000-07:00

Studio Update - one week

2008-04-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

we are deliverin' the goods at the studio in order to get the best of us. It's been intense in many ways...we're delighted with the performances and sounds! On this subject, Mike has been the recording tech of the moment and he's been very meticulous with EQ's and gate tightness, so I think that many of the credits for the recording quality are his exclusive;)
It's really a great feeling to sense that things are not yet mixed and already sound so good...

We've been in touch with Daniel Flores in Sweden so we're aiming middle May to send the material for mixing.

We have already recorded 6 tracks with full bass and drums, 4 tracks with all crunchy guitars and 4 tracks with all keyboards. We're close to finish the first half of the recording process.
Right now, while I wrote these lines Nuno is on studio recording some cool bass slaps.

There will be some news soon on our website so stay tuned for more info...

An Outer Body Experience...

2008-03-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

30th March 2008.
We're taking up this Sun(ny)day to rest some hours. We've been on studio recording and we have already 4 tracks completed with drums, bass and keys. I'm starting my recordings this monday and we're aiming to have 6 tracks done until next week. The rec times of our schedule are perfect.

So far we are really happy with the performances and the sounds.

C-ya soon with more news...

regards
7hawk

Bass recordings

2008-03-22T05:05:00.000-07:00

Hi,

just a quick note to let you know that our bassman recorded 'Flashback' and 'Phenotype' during his first 5 hours session on studio. The bass sounds amazingly tight and there are new details popping here an there. Nuno is a fantastic musician!

During this weekend we're editing drum and bass tracks, next song that follows is 'Dopplegänger' on bass and keys.

I preview to attack my guitar recordings on the end of the week.

More news soon...

stay tuned;)

7hawk

Strings - 7th World

2008-03-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hi,

today Mike is on studio recording keyboards for 'Phenotype', seems he did a great work on 'Flashback' which was recorded yesterday. I'm at home preparing myself for the new step which is: recording! This album has a different level of technique and precision so I'm burning my fingers up to the metronome:)

Today I also got my guitar strings for this album, D'Addario XL-7 string .009-.054

Pic of the day...the fucking strings:)

best
7hawk

Iron Cobras - the evil twins

2008-03-15T16:46:00.000-07:00

We took the morning to rest a few more hours than the usual and we entered studio on the afternoon for 5 hours of work around drum tracks for 'Flashback' and 'News'.

Sammy is doing great and really fast recordings, today he closed 2 more songs covering 15 more minutes of music for this album. It's really cool and interesting to listen these drum recordings as being the bones of the album...I'm constantly wondering and singing for myself the yet unrecorded parts and this album is becoming a monster day after day...

While I was on control of recording drum tracks Mike took some time to work new sounds on his Oasys, in fact, he will record his first tracks on monday. Mike and I have scheduled "a duel at the sunset" when the solos recordings for this album arrive;)

Nuno will also initiate bass recording this week, he has great bass lines to register in all songs.

We're sailing big musical waves now, here are some pics of today...Sammy's Cobras on the beginning of the session waiting for another 5 hours of intensive pressure:)

The markers for 'News' and Mike tweaking and play new sounds...

stay tuned!!!

7hawk

Drum Recordings

2008-03-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

On 10th March we started to record Sam's performances on his red drum kit, it's been 4 days and he got Dopplegänger, The Hill, An Outer Body Experience, Phenotype and Mind Over Matter...he's been recovering from a flu that striked him a week ago, so he's been a brave bastard and, let me tell you, that he's taking huge takes from these sessions!!!:)

More tracks will be done in the next days.

Everything is going according to our schedules, we took 2 entire months to re-write the album and lyrics and also pre-production. We're set to start recordings of both guitars and keyboards during next week until mid April and then Mr."Snake" will enter studio to do the vocals - there is a ton of work for us to cover in the following weeks.

It's been great times on studio, we're filming it and we'll make a director's cut somewhere in time...

all the best

7hawk

OFFICIAL RECORDINGS

2008-03-06T14:35:00.000-08:00

Hello there,

We've been on studio all day doing some sound checkings and we will kick off with the first official recordings tomorrow with Sammy on drums.

It's been 2 months to make all writings/pre-production and we will develop 'Evil Twin' during this period of recordings, so eventually that would end up as the last track to be done...

We will now sound test guitars, bass and keyboards in order to prepare the 'harmony trio' to record after the first drum tracks are done. There a lot to explore on this album and we expect to deliver the best performance and production ever!

Meanwhile all lyrics are finished except 'Nanoworld', to be done in the next few days.

Our singer is also preparing his parts to enter studio on April.

The track list is as follow and not by any specific order:

- The Hill
- An Outer Body Experience

- Nanoworld

- Outside In

- Flashback

- Evil Twin

- Racing the Hours

- Mind Over Matter

- News

- Dopplegänger

- Phenotype

more news tomorrow

best

7hawk

Lyrics

2008-03-04T13:07:00.000-08:00

Today I'll be at home working on the remaining, yet undone, lyrics. I'm almost close to end the writing lyrics process and I'm anxious to start recording guitars - I did some upgrade to my equipment with more software from Line6, I'll be working more sounds for the album and for my live setup on the following weeks.

Yesterday I also spoke with Sam and Mike and we're on our way to start recording the first drum tracks of the album during next week; looks everything is working full power on studio and the pre-production sounds really powerful.

I've finished 'Mind Over Matter' lyric at 03:00 a.m today and I'm on my way to finish 'News' until tonight.

Discipline+Excitement+Creativity+Passion= Great Music...my golden rule!

best

7hawk

Evil Twin

2008-03-03T16:12:00.000-08:00

Monday, March 3rd.

Mike, Sam and I on studio finished the solos section for 'Mind Over Matter' we got all chords flowing and settle which parts are destined for each instrument.

Today we also started the writings for 'Evil Twin', we have already a great intro and we're developing it on the following days.

This is an instrumental track and it's a short nightmare to play to resume it quickly...190 bpm /8 our highest rotation until today.

Our devil drummer on the pic;)

more news tomorrow,

best

7hawk

M.O.M - lyrics and structures

2008-03-01T13:24:00.000-08:00

We spent all day around Mind Over Matter, I'm almost 100% done with this lyric; this is a track with the same needs of big production like 'News', other tracks like Flashback or Racing the Hours are more "in your face" songs.

I got the lyric done while Nuno and Mike were recording their reference tracks, it came out really natural and once again Mike delivers some great sounding chords on verses:)

This track's end is probably the best combination of "symphonical power chords" meets "shredders on steroids"...it's becoming another great moment of this album!!!

more news on monday,

PS: Mike and Nuno preparing themselves for their backing vocal growlings on M.OM...

over n'out,

7hawk

Feeding from music...literally:)

2008-02-29T11:52:00.000-08:00

After 4 days working we finalized more song structures - News, Mind Over Matter, Dopplegänger - all were reviewed and we are just working minor passages on M.O.M track. During these days we had some writing challenges with the above tracks but we achieved great results that will result in even better songs after the perfect recording & production. We will jump into Evil Twin instrumental during this weekend and that will close the writings for this album...I'm sure that many details, sounds, small passages and vocal lines will be re-shaped until and during the recording process.

Sammy will be working his chops on the first finished reference tracks and soon we will open the new stage: the official recordings!!!*****

There's some pictures of us on the writing sessions, I did 8 pics and here is some description attached:

1. Nuno 'Strap' Correia, iron fingers:)

2. Sam and I after finishing the 'News' song writing, smiling...

3. Feeding from music...literally!

4. Power chords during the recording of reference tracks

5. Snake recording vocals lines

6. Sam and Snake today recording reference tracks

7. Reference tracks

8. Mike staring at the camera after a great keyboard solo

Dopplegänger & News

2008-02-25T14:25:00.000-08:00

Monday 25th Feb...
Today we were a bit tired due to this never ending sequence of writing days; this meant that we just needed a few more hours than the usual to make our creative engines work full power:)
After we make it, we finalized 'Dopplegänger' as I previewed it and I'm happy that this track will have a double solo section with Mike and I shredding the boards...4:00 minute track and my bet for 'the single'.
Then we had 6 hours of writing for 'News'...uff, I have to admit that I arrived home brainless but what we did was something really special, I leave the description for yourselves when you'll listen it - i'm thrilled with this track!!!
It's a piece of music based on Mike's riffs and his "extraordinaire" Korg Oasys, the lyrics are almost finalized and on Thursday this track will be done for sure.

Time to rest now...

best
7hawk

Schedule

2008-02-24T13:34:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from yesterday while we were listening the new material as promised on the previous post.

Right now we are heading towards the final writing sessions - there is still 'Dopplegänger', 'News', 'Nanoworld' and 'Mind Over Matter' to order ideas and turn them into real music.
We are sure that tomorrow 'Dopple' will be done, we did most of the writing for it on Saturday's afternoon so tomorrow we will initiate another of the remaining tracks. We expect to close this writing stage in the following 2 weeks (incl. lyrics and experimenting vocal lines) and start recording drum tracks on the first days of March.

Snakepit

2008-02-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

Today Sam, Mike and I finalized 'Racing the Hours' with a fantastic end...great idea by Sammy on doing an extreme vocal section, a clinical keyboard riff plus a cromatic shredding on guitars to turn it real, a great finale was done!No doubt!:)

On the afternoon, Nuno joined us and we worked around 'Doppelgänger' structure. This is a great single, it has the power of bands like Rammstein or Metallica and the melodic parts are very Joe Satriani- speaking from a guitarist point of view.
Later on our 'Snake' joined us and we had some time to listen and analyze new ideas; it's always great to re-listen our songs in sequence even without all tracks and production made, it reminded us one more time, that this is an album with big balls. We're sure that a new chapter on our lives is being written during these days...

I will upload the photos of today on my next post,

best
7hawk

Work in progress

2008-02-21T10:13:00.000-08:00

Hello folks,

today Nuno, Sam and I arrived early in the morning on our studio and I've linked the unison to the last written sections, we did a new scheme of passages and recorded it up to the metronome...152 bpm, by the way;) This track is 9:30 minutes in lenght and has a killer instrumental section, really sick prog track - one of the album's highlights for sure!
On the afternoon, after some pizzas, Sam and I started 'Racing the Hours' clicktracks. Just guitar and drums and the song already kicks ass!

More posts tomorrow,

best
7hawk

Outside In Instrumental

2008-02-20T13:01:00.000-08:00

In the following of our amazing creative monday, I've been working around a unison on guitars for 'Outside In' instrumental section and just ended it a few minutes ago, it's fucking hard to play it to the metronome...any I'm really curious to work it full band tomorrow, hell ya!;)

I'm almost 70% to the end on lyrics and now I finished 'Dopplegänger', so there's only 3 more tracks to work concepts and do research for lyrical content.

Brains on Fire

2008-02-18T15:01:00.000-08:00

A great day at the studio!

Sam and I had one of those magical creative hours with plenty of good heavy/progressive riffs going of our hats all day long...absolutely great*****

more news on Thursday night;)

best

7hawk

Claudine

2008-02-15T15:38:00.001-08:00

The subject of this topic is a private joke between Mike, Nuno and I...well, sometimes when you we are more than 6 hours working non-stop our brains plays tricks on us:)

Today was another frenetic day, we did some bass recordings for 'Outside In' and then we worked around 'An Outer Body Experience' song structure. Mike and I eventually tested all possible chords (really all) and we came to a very beautiful end for this track...I had to change my lyrics for this part of the track as I previewed, man it was a good challenge!!! I'm sure Paulo will have a good time recording these sections when we went on studio. This is a track that completes 'The Hill' as a part II; all fans of Rush, Marillion or Dream Theater will like this track for sure due to it's melodic composition.

One of my faves for this album up to the moment!

Home sweet home

2008-02-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 13th February, o1:34 a.m...

I finished the lyric for 'An Outer Body Experience', I'm thrilled to show it to the guys of the band and really curious to see the changes happening after we start to work it on studio.

Home sweet home, I really like to write lyrics on a cpu with a cup of hot coffee or some cold beer to bring some inspiration. I spent almost 6 hours today finishing the last part of the song and I'm really proud of it, I hope you all enjoy it while listening to this album in a near future...

I stayed at home to work more lyrics while Mike and Sam are on studio today recording more clicktracks, keyboard tracks, messing around with DFH and the new upgraded toy called Muse Research.

Building an album

2008-02-11T10:23:00.000-08:00

Day after day the rhythmical base and song structures are being made for each song. Today we did "Outside In" and we got half of the tracks done - we are still working the new instrumental sections for it so we need more hours to bring it to a final version. The cool part of being a progressive band is the change of rhythms and measures, this track has 4/4, 7/4, 5/8, 2/4 and some of them are interlaced like in the 3rd verse (the crazy one) in which bass and guitar are in 7 and drums in 4 or in the next section in which bass in 4 and drums & guitar are doing a change between 7, 8, 7, 8, 7 at the same time... Those who don't know how measures works, it means we are sometimes together and sometimes on the up beat playing the damn riff.... aaaaargghhh!

Click tracks

2008-02-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

Post of the day to leave some pictures and a debriefing of today's work. A sick with the flu Sammy, Nuno and I were on studio today recording the click tracks for 'Flashback', we did some takes and got it done with ease. I showed some more lyrical ideas to guys and that was pretty much of all we did today...next rounds includes the click tracks for 'Racing the Hours' and 'Outside In'.

have a nice weekend;)

Meters

2008-02-08T11:42:00.000-08:00

Today Sam and I went to the studio to work around meters for 'The Hill'.

We did some serious arranjements to improve the already powerful low tempo beat which this song is all about. Very interesting rhythm analysis on this track also because of the hidden details from Sammy's drum kick and Nuno's fretless delightful passages. On the lunch break we got up with Nuno 'Strap', our bass player and we got the pleasure of the presence of Mr.Tiago Machado, an excellent musician(keyboard player), who got drowned in his neverending 'dourada' dish..."this looks like the bottom of the ocean" - laughs!:)

Nuno joined us in the afternoon and got time to work a great riff, maybe for 'Dopplegänger'...?- time will tell.

I, as usual in the last weeks, got myself in front of the cpu screen for hours working more lyrics for 'An Outer Body Experience' - Nuno's shredding on my side all afternoon was somehow inspiring, though completely out of creative frequency(lol) - I'm knowing myself better as a writer and this a fantastic world that pushes my inspiration and creative mind to a whole new level!

Progressive massacre...

2008-02-06T12:57:00.000-08:00

Hi folks,

Just a quick mail to let you know that today was a very prolific day working around 'Outside In' instrumental sections.
We got plenty of riffs and way ahead rhythms for this song, we were totally creative and it was a revealing day: we are on our way to a great progressive album, that's for sure!
More work tomorrow, Friday and Saturday so there will be more posts during the following days.

Here is a pic of us at the end of today's progressive journey...what a fuckin' day!!!!

Midi, Meters and Lyrics

2008-02-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

Hi folks,

We were back to our studio for more jams, writing lyrics, doing meters and planning the sequence of songs for the album.

Sam recorded the reference drum tracks for 'Flashback' and we are scheduled to do our parts on Wednesday - we also will work around the new parts of Racing the Hours both instrumental and lyrics. Mike has new sounds for his Oasys and they seem like big inspirational tools to my ears, he always has some cool tricks and crazy/beautiful riffs he throws down each time he put his fingers on keyboards - that's why I call him the 'Merlin' of keys. Today I heard great stuff for the end sections of 'The Hill' and 'An Outer Body Experience'...can't wait to put my chorused distortions over it!!!

We got our planning over 'Outside In', 'The Hill', 'An Outer Body Experience' and 'Doppleganger' so we already know what are the best and weaker parts, we will focus on them and try to apply our concepts - all of these will be the following tracks in which we will put our spider hands and brains on!

Here I leave some pictures of the day, there's a lot more to come in the next days...

Videos, Interview and Studio works

2008-02-01T05:24:00.000-08:00

Hello friends,

yesterday Mike and I were on the FS base to wire all equipment and prepare everything to the pre-production we will be doing during February.

As announced on our website we have chosen Daniel Flores (Sound vs Science Studio) as our mixing engineer and Mats Lindfors (Cutting Room Mastering Studio) so our 3rd album becomes a masterpiece; has everyone who is a prog&metal lover knows, Sweden has been a big factory machine of high quality music productions.

I wanted to work with Daniel since the Snooze album and his works with Mind's Eye are the proof of his qualities both as producer and musician! The Cutting Room has been a place were bands like Rammstein, In Flames, etc have been mastering recently so...all said!

Today I'll leave here some links to Forgotten Suns videos at Aula Magna and the interview I gave for Via Nocturna Radio Show on 30th Nov 2007:

Interview Via Nocturna - 4 parts(portuguese only) : http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=27030451

Mike's Keyboard solo on Senses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R80f9aWJy94

Betrayed End Section : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab03RQWqaT4

The band will be working on studio at high rotation during February, there will be more live dates for 08 to be announced soon...stay tuned!

Drummer from Hell

2008-01-29T02:30:00.000-08:00

Today is a day off at the studio for myself and Nuno, Sam and Mike will be there working.

Yesterday we had a very prolific writing session which got us even more enthusiamed and confident for the coming month. We were working around the instrumental section of 'Racing the Hours' and we incorporated a guitar solo in the middle of what we had done previously - remember that we had written almost 70% of the album before Paulo 'Snake' joined in - we also worked the 3rd verse riff instrumental in a change of up beat/down beat at tempo...Sam spent some time working drums for all those riffs and let's say that we have a real vibe of metal in this track.

We also decided how it would end so this track is almost done and we are now heading towards 'Outside In' instrumental section for an upgrade, this is a track we have been performing live so we already know what we want from it.

Here is a pic of our Drummer from Hell;)

Instrumentals

2008-01-28T01:38:00.000-08:00

Hello again, another sunny monday morning and we're heading to the studio.
Today we'll be working on the instrumental and end section of Racing the Hours as well as planning the month of February. There are still 8 songs left to work on, so February will be a very busy agenda for writing/pre-production.
The following track should be the pair 'The Hill' plus 'An Outer Body Experience', these two tracks were written has being a sequence for the album's end...let's see what happens in the next few days; anyway I'm working on more lyrics and there's a lot of work to top on the remaing tracks.

Just a quick reminder that Sammy and Nuno will be out during next weekend performing with Ava Inferi (KJB/Barcelona and Sala Live!/Madrid) and Timeless (Dvd Presentation at In Live Caffé) respectively.

Men on a mission - no comments

2008-01-25T10:09:00.000-08:00

Picks, Lyrics, Riffs...somewhere in time

2008-01-20T13:43:00.000-08:00

Hello there,

Sunday night, 10:00 p.m...
My weekend has been very relaxing and inspired in many ways ...I got more lyrics done for 'The Hill' and I'm very proud with the results so far. Right now I feel my writing skills improving each time I sat at the monitor screen - I like to write lyrics at the CPU with all internet favourites opened for references. All song titles have been inspired on internet resources so we can start considering this album has a product of the cyber world from the very beginning...

It's been quite a challenge to make high quality lyrics supporting our concepts compared to our previous albums, but, I've been preparing myself for quite sometime by reading a lot from books, magazines or newspapers...on my trip to London I got time to buy some books that would work as "investigation material" as well as inspiring from the artistic point of view; that gave me a lot of insight and confidence to simply...let it flow:)

I've been delaying the following part of the post due to the amount of work I have with (for) Forgotten, my guitar studies as well as my classical guitar teaching. But I wanted to mention it here since 5th December 07, a few minutes after our opening show for Fish and now it's the ideal time for it.

Forgotten Suns have been collecting fans for quite sometime, we have also collected some other type of listeners, though some are worth of mention and once again (I've done him reference here after our Santiago Alquimista show on September 06 with his mobile photos) I would like to thank Peter 'Pine' Pinheiro for his honesty, friendship and support and also for the gift he sent me - a Somewhere Else' Steve Rothery's blue pick.
After our first show at Aula Magna I remember to throw him my pick while we were leaving the stage so I believe this is some sort of kind reply, thank you Pedro - Steve Rothery is the super melodic guitar player and one of my biggest musical root references as you know...

Since I received it from Rita(my wife) after we left the stage and since we didn't saw each other since then...here are the pics and some photos of myself while writing at home with my 6th string Bo-El.

all the best
7hawk

Bass & Guitar

2008-01-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

Hello again!

To wake up early and to be on studio at 10.00 a.m was our goal, we had a few hours available to work the riffs and harmonies of 'Racing the Hours' and I came to found a blonde bassist recovering from a flu attack, his eyes were half closed...oriental type, anyway we were really enthusiastic about working our riffs and having a definition about this song structure.

There's no doubt about the opposition and progression that this song has itself compared to the 4 minute lenght approach like we have on other tracks (Phenotype or Flashback).

In the next few days I'll be working the lyrics for other tracks and preparing more riffs to work out this friday when we got ourselves back on studio again.

C-ya
7hawk

Racing the songs

2008-01-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

Hello dear internet surfer,

this night post comes from a "mind full of riffs & odd signatures" guitar player who had a sick day on studio writing one of the most fantastic Forgotten Suns' songs ever - Racing the Hours.
It's funny, Sam and I got into the studio today almost in the same mood like we were in the first Racing the hours session, on which we wrote all the original sections, and guess what?Yep...we did a very interesting face lift to it, kind of a 5 times better track now, I'm thrilled just imagining to play it live...;)

Inspired by the new rehearsal place and by our small jam, I got a groovy riff that decisively changes the whole structure and the new chorus is nothing but pure dinamyte!
I'm doing some homework now for lyrics and vocal melodies and will work out a clean guitar part that will be a small and smooth feather falling on Hell - the type of contrast I really enjoy;)
I think this album will be something very special and this song...

Dinamic duo

2008-01-04T09:52:00.000-08:00

Hi,

while on studio today, Sam and I got the recording machinery working properly for the following work of setting meters and record song structures.

We got "Flashback" drum and guitar tracks in a 'flash' and we are now heading towards "Racing the Hours" - while cheking my guitar sound I felt hugely creative and got some riffs in the vein of Flashback, maybe we will have some new sections on other tracks, or maybe who knows...a new entire track:) Anyway, we record them for what Future reserves.

This weekend there's a lot of 'homework' to be done; we're back on business on Monday.

Cheers

7hawk

Pre-production

2008-01-03T00:37:00.000-08:00

First New Year’s post.
We've been thru a long period of writings, a demo, rehearsals, then some concerts during the last 6 months - it's been an enriching time for us.
Now we’re about to go for the final writing details and pre-production; what we’re doing is to prepare the whole song structure & metronome foundations on which Sam will lay his drum tracks so the other instrumental parts can follow next.

I've been thru a very creative day, last 29th December, and got my cell phone at hand all day long recording all the riffs that came to my mind...it's the result of go on short holidays without a guitar:)

Sam and I will be on studio today (I’m on my way there while writing) to plan the whole process and to define the last details – it will be our daily job on the next few weeks so it’s something we are seriously committed to.

I’ll keep you up with more news during this period,

Happy New Year 08!!!
7Hawk

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2008!

2007-12-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

Dear folks,

the band wish you all a good time during the Christmas and New Year festivities; we hope all your wishes turn real during 2008 - we're sure it will be a great season for us all.

Peace & Trust

Ricardo, Mike, Sam, Strap & Snake;)

Opening for Fish - a brief encounter

2007-12-13T04:51:00.000-08:00

Hello friends,

Today, 13th December 2007, I got some time to sit down on my desk with a cup of coffee near me and some refreshing 10 hours of sleep backing me up. I've been into UK after Fish concerts on a short vacation period just arriving on Tuesday morning - London is a milk-shake of cultures and a beautiful land. Got some good time there and as always it was a cultural enriching experience. Despite the terrible weather (rain and freeze) during the weekend it's a must have trip for anyone. While there, Led Zeppelin gave a concert at O2 'The Bubble' which I was not available to see since I got my scheduled tickets for Tutankhamun exhibition just 400 yards away from the O2 venue...

5th December - Aula Magna - Lisboa

Everything set to return on a venue we love since some of our biggest influences and best artists performed there in the past - Dream Theater(Scenes from a Memory), Steve Vai(2 times), Fish(Misplaced Childhood 06) or Pat Metheny Group. Stepping the same stage where all of those great musicians were too is always something very rewarding - for me is a growing up feeling and kind of a happy nostalgia too.

Mike and I went to the studio to check if everything was ready to go; there I got in touch with our singer who was in deep suffering knowing that he was still under a flu attack, and completely lost his voice or to say the least, 90% of it. Anyway it was an important move and we all decided not to cancel the shows.
When we arrived there, Fish' band was already doing their sound-check and it was possible to see that the PA and lights were better than last year show; also Fish got more equipment to this tour: video projection, more back up guitars, keyboards, everything was upgraded, that was a positive influence for us too. I think JDO Productions and Mr. Nuno Silva should be proud and congratulated with that.
Our sound-tech crew was amazing since the first minute, great vibe between us!

In the backstage and dressing rooms we came to shake hands and speak with Fish, Frank, Steve and everyone else. They also felt it as a re-encounter, we have some pictures of it and we're collecting more from friends and people who post them on the net during the following days.
The band mood was great, Paulo was a bit worried because he knew that these two concerts were seriously compromised by his vocal problem though, with great courage we walked into the stage and we did our best.
It was a chronological set.
We started with an extended 'Betrayed' version from the Fiction Edge album, then we went to the 2nd album with 'Senses' and the last part we did a new track, which is on our myspace 'Phenotype'. To end also new tracks 'Flashback', 'Nanoworld' intro + Jam Session.
The aftermath was a time to recover Paulo's voice and protect him from the cold weather. Tomorrow it would be a new day.

6th December - Europarque - Stª Maria da Feira

One O'clock p.m we were on our way to the north. Strap, Sam and I along with drummer Miguel Samora (he is Sammy's brother and he's been an important drum tech/mental support on our last shows since we got Paulo with us) got some cool chat about general music and individual perspectives. Miguel share the same progressive mind though we live it on a different way - Music is a never ending world!
We were very surprised with Europarque conditions, it's a beautiful venue and acoustically well prepared. We realized it better when on stage during sound-check. We did it quickly and while arriving to the restaurant something was about to happen...

It is clear that when a band is on stage performing everything can be heard on the back stage hall and rooms. It did happened with me, I listened the whole Fish' performance at Aula Magna in the back stage, loud and clear.
I believe that Fish was aware of Paulo struggle both physical and mental to do a 2nd round within 24 hours - doing Aula Magna in that way, showing up for some of our oldest fans, being a new member of the group...it was not a kid's stuff. I was chatting and moralizing him during the walk until the restaurant so we both entered the restaurant side by side when we heard a Scottish accent calling us...

- "Hey, what's happening, what's the problem?"
- "I'm recovering from a flu and somehow I lost my voice...it hurts when I try"
- "Is it a chest or head pain?"
- "Both, it has been terrible days for me..."
- "Ok my friend, don't worry. Before the show just go to my dressing room and I'll give you some of my own vocal healers. I know what you're going through and you shouldn't worry, everything will be all right!"

Before the show Paulo went to Fish dressing room and he returned to our room very surprised with the power of Fish' treatments, it looked like his voice had improved in just a few minutes and he was smiling, ready to hit the stage.

This is a gesture of a noble person, a true professional and a great man.
We have to thank Fish for everything and for his true care and support of Paulo and the band.
We felt it and we did a great performance that night. In fact everyone felt it, in the backstage there were congratulations from everyone and the techs loved it too. Fish' road manager told me: "It takes a lot of character to play like this, I'm in this business for many years and you guys were just great, congratulations!"
After everything was set to go home, we enjoyed the show on the front seats and listened to Frank's incredible solo on Cliché and Incommunicado to the very end.
Nuno 'Strap' Correia and Steve Vantsis took some pictures and talked about Spector basses, Frank and I got some time to talk about his set up (we both use Line 6) and it was a cool mood in the air...maybe we see each other sooner than the next Fish release...for now it was just a brief encounter.

Thank you to my long time friend Filipa Bastos for these wonderful pics;)

Sound-check at In Live (29/11/07)

2007-12-02T05:01:00.000-08:00

In Live Caffé/Via Nocturna interview

2007-11-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

Hi,

the In Live Caffé gig was a great evening, there will be some pictures soon to show.
There will be an interview with a member of the band airing on 30th November 21:30 p.m at http://www.rrt.pt.pu for Via Nocturna Blog in the following of the Band of the Month election.
Check out this cool blog: http://www.vianocturna2000.blogspot.com/

regards

(portuguese)
Na sequência da eleição dos Forgotten Suns como Grupo do Mês de Novembro, decorrerá uma entrevista com a banda na edição de Via Nocturna(http://www.vianocturna2000.blogspot.com/) desta sexta feira, dia 30, pelas 21:30hrs. Pode ser escutada, para que é da região de Moimenta da Beira/Lamego, em 90.5 ou 100.8 ou para quem é de mais longe em http://www.rrt.pt.pu/.

Prog Work

2007-11-22T12:29:00.001-08:00

Today we gather on studio to define the 2008 schedule, we will be finishing the writings for the 3rd album between December/January.
There's still many music, new sections and lyrics to be done so we can consider this album a true and actual sounding FS masterpiece.

There's prog work to be done in themes like 'Doppelganger', 'The News', 'Mind Over Matter' or 'Racing the Hours' - others like 'Phenotype'(which it's demo version is on our myspace running), 'An Outer Body Experience', 'Outside In' or 'Flashback' are closer to their final version.
We preview the recordings & mix between January/April for a late 2008 release.

You can catch us live next 29th November at In Live Caffé,
c-ya there!

New studio - closer to recordings

2007-11-18T10:37:00.000-08:00

We have been a bit busy in the last few days moving to a new studio.

Now we're heading towards a new home for the band were we can write, rehearse, record and with a production environment so we can work in perfection for long seasons. The biggest upgrade is the drum section, now 'Sammy' will just use the electronic drums for demoing and his red Sonor kit for the real thing! We can crank the amps at last;)

We are now entering a new stage for this album, it's almost sure that we will had 2 or even 3 new tracks to the ones we have already. This means we will enter 'writing mode' in the next days: more riffs, more breaks, more solos, more vocals, more lyrics - we love it!:)

This will give us a more tight sound for this album and a sort of refresh since our last writings.

For those who missed the Santiago Alquimista concert, there will be a new chance to catch us on the road at In Live Caffé(Moita) next Thursday, 29 November - be there!

Live at Santiago Alquimista

2007-11-11T05:25:00.000-08:00

The debut of Paulo "The Snake" Pacheco was a huge sucess!!!

The venue was full of new fans and old friends while

the band got a good vibe all the way with time for many new arranjements, sounds, solos which kept the audience very enthusiasmed until the end.

We managed to experiment 2 new tracks of the upcoming album: 'Phenotype' and the intro of 'Nanoworld', has we expected they are killer tracks:)

Our regards to all who went to see us, musicians and non-musicians, we're very happy for your consensual support!

There will be more pictures of this night at the official website in the next days, keep tuned!

all the best

Spider pigs

2007-11-06T02:16:00.000-08:00

Some pictures of the band during a pause at the rehearsals on Shakra studio...funny mood going on;)

c-you Friday at Santiago Alquimista!

http://www.santiagoalquimista.com/

Phenotype Video (demo version)

2007-11-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Know more about phenotype here

Rehearsals

2007-10-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

Hello,
there has been a time since my last entry here again...just a quick message to let you know the band is in the process of moving to a new studio with better conditions; meanwhile we're rehearsing and preparing the line up of songs at a friend's studio with Sammy again performing with his Sonor kit and my 4x12 cabinets roaring high n'loud.

We will kick off with a full show at Santiago Alquimista, it will be a great concert so we expect your presence there, if you are a true proghead you shouldn't miss this one....

regards
Rick

New Demo & Rehearsals

2007-10-03T03:27:00.000-07:00

Just a quick run on this corner do drop a summary of what we've been doing...
We are closer to debut the new website, the last details are being polished and there's plenty of new info to read and listen.

Here are some pics of us during the rehearsals for the following shows and some other of us with Marta Machado our live VJ. She's collaborating with us for our new demo presentation while I was finishing the demo mixes.

Check out our myspace for a quick preview in one of the demo tracks:

http://www.myspace.com/fsuns

cheers

Rick

Live dates/Studio report

2007-09-13T04:51:00.000-07:00

Hello there, we're back on earth to give you a few more lines about Forgotten Suns daily work. We hope you've spent a good time during the pause on this blog and we have some news for you that you might enjoy...;)

We started 2007/2008 season on 3rd September; in the last couple of weeks the band has already finished a new demo, now with Paulo on vocals and improved instrumentals. I think we did a very good job, we were quite demanding and meticulous during both recording and mixing stages and this will eventually lead us to a new record deal.
Any of the ways, we will start to re-write all album songs (which means upgrade them!) and we will do the pre-production starting in October.

Meanwhile the band will debut live with new singer Paulo Pacheco on the ranks, there's 4 live dates scheduled so far and more to come:
-09th November at Santiago Alquimista (Lisboa)
-29th November at In Live Caffé (Moita)
-05th December at Aula Magna (Lisboa, opening act for Fish)
-06th December at Europarque (Stª Mª da Feira, opening act for Fish)

Paulo Pacheco features on the 2nd Project Creation' album 'Dawn on Pyther'.
Another excellent album by Mr.Hugo Flores featuring great musicians singing great songs!
http://www.myspace.com/projectcreation

keep tuned,

regards
Ricardo Falcão

Work in Progress

2007-07-05T03:28:00.000-07:00

Today I'll be on studio with Mike until Paulo goes in to record more vocals. We have been locked in producing our 3rd album’s demo for quite some time now but the sound quality is now amazing. These days are precious for Paulo's integration and interaction with the band which is the biggest task for us actually. We are getting great results and we’re adapting ourselves to another musician, it’s another depth and another approach on vocals which gives us a different musical shape. We’re quite happy with the results and we sense good news ahead very soon.
We are editing the demo until 8th July and then we will make a break returning back on work for this album on 3rd September.

Vocal recordings

2007-07-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

Another Sunday afternoon at the studio recording Paulo's vocals...

E.T on bass & growling vocals

2007-06-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

Cool afternoon o studio today; we got Nuno recording is low vocals on 'Racing the Hours' and the bass intro for 'Outside In'...Nuno on the pic with his E.T left hand pose...
We spent the whole afternoon mixing the demo tracks and we scheduled the July/August period for the studio, there will be plenty of activity at Forgotten Suns' camp!

cheers
Rick

Vocal recordings

2007-06-26T16:09:00.000-07:00

Another nice end of the day recording vocals, Paulo is delivering some amazing takes and we're upgrading the recordings day after day. Today we had 2 beatiful guests on studio who helped setting up an even higher mood on studio, thank you Rita and Xana;)

We ended up the session by listening the instrumental section of 'Outside In' and we left the studio with a big smile on our faces...;)

Mixings & Recordings for demo

2007-06-25T15:50:00.001-07:00

We've been on studio all day mixing and recording vocals later in the afternoon. We're on our way to get the best sound; Paulo is getting the vocals done and sounding great!

10 hours on studio, I'm a bit tired so I'll post more reports tomorrow,

cheers

Rick

Heavy Fuel - keyboard production

2007-06-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to tell you we've been on studio the whole weekend producing the keyboards. Mike is doing a very intensive and amazing work, it's without a doubt the best keyboards layers and solos we ever had on Forgotten.

I did some re-recordings on 'Ouside In' guitars, now they're breathing has we like;)

More work on studio tomorrow...

Dream Theater & Studio

2007-06-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday was a great night at Porto’s Coliseum with Dream Theater and their Chaos in Motion Tour – opening act by Riverside.
I travelled early in the afternoon with Mike so we got plenty of time to talk, to enjoy the ride, and of course, we analysed all our work so far with Forgotten Suns. We had time to talk about the new songs we plan to write: the concepts and aesthetics. It’s such a fantastic moment to plant the seeds for the new songs, to talk about an idea and to have the perception that soon it will be done…probably better than you thought it would ever be…
It’s great to know we’re still focused after such a long period on studio and that we share the same goals in life, both musically and personally.

Returning to studio, more precisely today (22nd June), I spent the morning finishing the lyrics for “Mind Over Matter” and “The News” while Sam was doing some mixes in his drum tracks – which are sounding great by the way!

In the afternoon I re-recorded the rhythm guitar for “Outside In”. The first recordings were sounding a bit muddy and flat so Mike and I got the job done in a pair of hours.
We will be on studio tomorrow and Sunday.

“Up the irons!!!”

Rick

Lyrics and Demo

2007-06-19T16:36:00.001-07:00

Today I got earlier in the studio. I felt inspired and got some time to write the lyrics for 'The News' a fantastic new track we're writing. Actually, this song was almost written in December 06 but we never ended it and never had the lyrics finished too...just the chorus, which I also wrote myself at the time.

Today it was almost completed and lyrically sounds huge. It's very easy to write when there's deep concepts and such good music behind; I think this track is one of the highlights of the new album. When Mike arrived on studio I saw his eyes shining with the power of the song, he loved the lyrics by the way!

We spent our time recording keyboards and doing production on 'Outside In', we will eventually re-record the guitars on this track during Friday morning to get an even better sound.

Paulo is still recovering from the flu which affected him during this week so he wasn't on studio today.

We also had time to jam some new ideas for the instrumental section of Doppelganger, this will be a kick ass song my friends!!!;)

cheers

Rick

Studio writings

2007-06-18T16:15:00.000-07:00

Another cool day at the studio, Sam and I were listening all tracks, we took notes of weaker spots and changes to improve the songs.

We did our schedule until December 07 and there's a lot to do at Forgotten Suns camp... Some surprises for the old fans until the end of the year;)

Tomorrow Mike, Paulo and I will be on studio recording vocals for 'Racing the Hours'. Mike will be doing some keyboard recordings too and testing new production samples.

I will post some late night pics,
cheers
Rick

Recording vocals and keyboards

2007-06-17T04:35:00.000-07:00

We have been on studio recording Paulo's vocals for 'Racing the Hours'; his performance was full of power and feeling, there's no doubt that this demo will sound great - unfortunately he was with the flu since yesterday and his voice was not 100% so we decided to move the sessions for Tuesday.

We spent some time around the new equipment, got time for some EQ on guitars and then we finished the day by recording the last keyboard parts for 'Outside In', there's also new riffs and chords from Mike on this track.

On our way home I was speaking to Mike about the new ideas, the new songs and he enjoyed it a lot. We will be doing around 14/16 songs total until July 30th.

Day at the studio & interview at Prog-pt.com

2007-06-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

Today Sam and I went to the studio to listen the keyboard production and to give a review on the already written songs for some re-arrangement ideas.

We have great upgrade ideas on Doppelganger, Pinpoints, Mind Over Matter and The News.

There's great musical ideas and concepts for the new songs...

Tomorrow and Sunday Paulo will be on studio recording his vocal lines for the demo, I'll post some pics here at the end of the day...

cheers,

P.S: There's an new interview with Paulo and myself for Prog-Pt, interview by Mr.Spulit: http://www.prog-pt.com/

Keyboards & production

2007-06-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

After a few days off we're back for another report.
Mike spent the whole weekend recording the keyboard parts for 'Outside In' and 'Racing the Hours', then we'll be on studio by tomorrow to listen it.
We also will test new recording equipment (an upgrade for the studio) by recording Paulo's voice, he as been working his parts and for what I listen for ‘Phenotype’ he’s doing it great!

We preview the end of this demo during next week - with the mixing and all the production that this demo will include (bios, photos, videos, band interview, etc) it will be very complete. Part of it will be available on our Myspace website (www.myspace.com/fsuns ) - our apologies for the long period without the official website, we are doing our best to return on the net with a new layout and high quality.

We will officially start the 3rd period of writing next Monday 18th June 2007.
I had some time to think about new concepts since we will write 3 or 4 completely new tracks.
We are also ready to re-write some parts from the previous tracks so they can sound
ok to our ears and fit in this album; we are doing lyrics and we’re inspired for the writing days that will soon arrive.

More posts soon,
Cheers
Rick

Guitar Day

2007-06-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

Another busy day at the studio recording guitars for our new demo, there's many new details and the music is sounding superb.There's more space between instruments and yet without mixings and production sounds good. We recorded from 14:00 to 21:00, my brain completely evaporated,even though Mike and I left the studio really happy with the results!!!(hell yeah).

Next days will be to record the remaining keyboards on 'Outside In' and 'Racing the Hours'.

Bass tracks - Racing the Hours

2007-06-03T04:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 2nd July during the afternoon: the scheduled date to record Nuno's bass tracks for ‘Racing the Hours’.
It was one of the hottest days in the last few months so we felt all a little tired though we managed the recordings and performance as usual.
The bass sound is better than ever, both Nuno and Mike got a fantastic sound by
tweaking the compressors and pre-amps in a specific way…also Nuno’s technique helped a lot for the final result.
Nuno re-invented the bass for the bridge and there will be a new guitar approach for this section.
All bass tracks are recorded for this new demo.

More posts during the week,
regards
Rick

Outside In demo

2007-05-31T14:45:00.000-07:00

Another cool day at the studio recording guitars for 'Outside In' - one of the best songs of the new album!
The ryhtym section is grooving too much, great work of Sammy and Nuno on this one. I worked out new approaches in 2 sections of the song and only left out the guitar solo for tomorrow or maybe Saturday.
Mike will be recording the keyboards during the weekend while Nuno and I will record the guitars for 'Racing the Hours', the next track on schedule.

Paulo went to the studio later and we closed the day working on the vocals for Phenotype.

more reports soon,

regards
Rick

Outside In - bass tracks

2007-05-27T04:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday, 26th May 2007 -16:00...

Nuno, Mike and I arrived at the studio to record 'Outside In' - Nuno 'Strap' delivered the goods. The bass tone is really good and it was one of his best recording sessions. Mike is improving really fast as an engineer from session to session and again we really worked well as a team; this track as several bass and drum's upgrades since the 1st demo we recorded in July 06.

We promised Nuno a printed t-shirt with all of his 'pool takes'...(private joke).

All guitar and keyboard parts are scheduled for this week, then we move to Racing the Hours.

Vocal recordings and mixes will start in about 2 weeks.

more news soon

regards

Rick

Phenotype - the demo

2007-05-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

This week we had Paulo on studio(on tuesday) to work the new vocal approach for Phenotype with great results. It's really rewarding to have him on the band; we're opening new horizons and expanding our ideas along with great teamwork. We're still working the vocals for the demo with his/our new ideas during next week and soon we'll be recording the final takes.

Today Nuno and I recorded the final details for Phenotype, the track has achieved another dimension since the last demo we recorded on December 06.
We'll be on studio next Saturday to record 'Outside In': bass + guitar + keyboards!!!

Have a nice weekend;)
Rick

Friday at the studio

2007-05-19T04:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I arrived early at the studio to workout and record my guitar parts for 'Phenotype', Mike is doing a great job on keyboards and engineering for this song; we're preparing the mix so Paulo can lay is vocal lines next week.

I had time to write more lyrics and develop the concept for 'Mind Over Matter' & 'The News' - both songs in preparation.

Sammy is away for some days while mixing the 2nd album with Ava Inferi, though all drum tracks to 'Outside In' are recorded so we will start the guitar, bass and keyboard recordings during this week.

Have a nice weekend!

Rick

New singer, new demo, new breed...

2007-05-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

As you probably read on the Official website we have a new singer: Paulo Pacheco

There's nothing much to be said when someone enters or leaves a project: we are all
human, we are all different people and things will be different on Forgotten Suns from now on!
We're extremely confident on our decisions and choices, so we know that only time will prove to you the weight of our new path.
There are new boundaries to be crossed, new visions to share; we're entering a new Era...

Today Mike, Nuno and I were on studio recording the new demo we're working on.
Nuno did an excellent bass work for 'Phenotype' and I recorded all rhythm guitars
only leaving the delayed verse lines to be worked tomorrow morning.
There are many upgrades from the original version for this track since what we did in November…

More news soon, stay tuned

Rick

Studio update - Side projects

2007-03-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

Hello fellows,

it's been a time since the last post (late January I think) so here's an update to everyone:
We decided to make a break on the intensive days at the studio and we're using this time to reflect on each note and written words on the last 6 months - it's a lot of stuff and there's a lot to digest. We're expecting news from our future label and we're closer to get a decision here.

In the meantime, the studio has been upgraded with new equipment and we're increasing the quality of our recordings and production. This is something very important for future works.

Band members are using the reflection period to work on side-projects:

Mike, Sam and I spent all days in studio since January writing and performing songs for the EP of a new metal band called 'Ceinwyn' with Ana David on vocals. This is a great band and we're thrilled to work together and doing such creative material. It's been a fantastic experience!
I'm doing both guitar and bass work on studio.

Sam is also reharshing with Doom Metal band 'Ava Infieri' and will be entering studio on April to record drums tracks. It's Ava's 2nd album for Season of Mist label.

There will be more news on the following days,

regards folks!

Minds over Music

2007-01-19T01:21:00.000-08:00

A week of work and we are close to the end for Mind Over Matter; this track is a bit complex, though it's sounding easy to the ears which is interesting.
Yesterday, we wrote all sections and all riffs until the 2nd chorus and started the grand finale, it will be a live blast!! In the end of the day we worked the instrumental's final section for this track, it's kinda 'Van Helsing' mood and there will be many solos here(bass and drum solos too) , lots of details on this one - this is a 'shreder's' instrumental:)
Still a part of the instrumental to do and the 'finale' to close the song.

More news next week:)

Mind Over Matter & The News

2007-01-17T15:09:00.000-08:00

We moved forward on 'Mind Over Matter' writing and we got a solid structure until the 2nd chorus, there's an instrumental section to work tomorrow plus the grand finale... then the writing will be all done!
The guitar parts are making sense now and we're getting a sound closer to Nanoworld and Racing the Hours on this track also.

We recorded the guitar and bass parts for the demo of 'The News' during the afternoon, great job by Mr. Nuno on bass (slap and slap and slap:)
Linx is working the lyrics and there's a taste of fantastic in the air...let's see what he will write for these ones!:)

Mike is doing his first recordings and we're experimenting new recording techniques - achieving great results...nice strike Mike!

Writing

2007-01-16T01:22:00.000-08:00

It's 9:20 in the morning and I'm on my way to the studio, we have a lot to work on 'Mind Over Matter' song though, there's many riffs that are already written that can be used.

The chorus for this track is great; in fact the concept started when I saw a Discovery Channel program on TV about the human brain capacity and future powers like healing, moving objects...there's a lot of research in US institutes about this, it's very deep and interesting.

Most of the ideas for this song came when we listened to a riff by Mr.Nuno on our old studio, so his riff has at least 1 year, then when Linx and I were on our way home he got very inspired and started to sing riffs...these riffs led to a session where Mike, Sam and I got other ideas...
so let's consider at this point that we have 95% of the overall writing done and that we just need to put an order on 'Mind' ideas to have 100% final score. After we finish the demo recording for 'Mind Over Matter' and 'The News' we will start to work on pre-production.

Pre-production means that we will be doing arrangements, sounds, effects, guitar/keyboard/bass solos note by note, vocal lines, back vocals, etc etc etc....

16th January - back to studio

2007-01-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

That's right, we will return to studio next tuesday to finish the writing of 'Mind Over Matter' and to record guitars, keyboards and vocals for 'The News'.

I'll post some pics then, have a good weekend!:)

Label and back to studio

2007-01-11T01:56:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

This is our 1st post of the new year; we wish you all a great 2007!!!

Has you know, we did a great effort to finish the writings for the new album before Christmas, though, there were 2 tracks that remained unfinished - 'The News' and 'Mind Over Matter'.
We will be gathering today to speak and to align some ideas about written songs and about the making of the 2 tracks above mentioned. We have some days off so we will accelerate again to finally give an end to the writing process.

We can assure you that this album will not be released under the label of Magic Rope Music, in fact, this album will be released under a foreigner bigger label that we will not reveal until it's all black on white. We are confident to give you more info about this at the end of this month.

Next posts will follow soon...

Band Recording - no comments

2006-12-21T16:19:00.000-08:00

Nanoworld guitars

2006-12-21T01:04:00.000-08:00

Nuno and I spend all day recording "Nunoworld"...ops, 'Nanoworld':)
Linx wrote all the lyrics in the afternoon and again it's a great vocal work, hard one to sing...
At night Mike and I finished 'Flesh & Bones'.

Today it's another recording marathon, great!:)

Phenotype

2006-12-20T01:10:00.000-08:00

I was recording 'Racing the Hours' with Nuno until 15 o'clock; then we jumped into 'Nanoworld' drum tracks in the afternoon and finally at night Linx recorded amazing vocals for 'Phenotype' - we're on our way to a monster album!

Magic path - 18 December report

2006-12-19T01:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Mike, Sam and I jammed on 'Mind Over Matter' ideas - we're still inspired after the 'Nanorworld' experience; we nailed an intro very quickly, then we picked the bass riff from Nuno and Linx' stuff and got a basic structure that we recorded to work later on...it's another great track on the making.

In the afternoon Mike recorded his parts for 'Phenotype' and for 'Flesh & Bones' - tremendous organ sound from his Oasys for the chorus and final section!!!
We got out of the studio very late, so here's my morning post and I'm on my way to the studio again.

Final Week 2006 - writing

2006-12-17T04:07:00.000-08:00

There's already a Christmas feeling in the air and everyone shopping for the celebration night 24 to 25 December...well, at least our wifes were:) We've been deeply focused on the studio since 11th November and we have a personal deadline at 22 December (we have 5 more days of writing ahead).
This week we will record everything that's still missing, write 'Mind Over Matter' and maybe even another track...

Here goes the tracklist so far:
-Racing the Hours
-Doppleganger
-Flashback
-Outside In
-Pinpoints
-Phenotype
-Flesh & Bones
-Nanoworld
-The News
-The Hill
-An Outer of Body Experience

-Mind Over Matter?
-.....?:)

Nanoworld - final chords written today

2006-12-16T15:25:00.000-08:00

Just a few minutes ago the final chords of Nanoworld were written!
The song has about 12 minutes lenght and 6 of them are one of the best instrumental extravaganza we made so far...
Mike and I went to the studio in the morning to work the unisson section, then Sam joined us in the afternoon to make it until the end.
We all left the studio with a big smile on our faces;)

Invited Guest - Nano instrumental

2006-12-15T15:58:00.000-08:00

Today we were visited by Mr. José Carlos Maltez our dear friend and the webmaster at Burning Suns Fan Club(www.burning-suns.com).
He was the first to listen the new material we wrote since 11th November and the first once to see how we develop our ideas on the spot - thank you JC for your patience today:)

Sam, Mike and I jammed on Nanoworld riffs and got some cool stuff going on; tomorrow Mike and I will start working the guitar/keyboard arrangements for this one.

At the end of the day Joax and I recorded 'Phenotype' guitars (with JC listening) and also 'Flesh & Bones' - only the guitar solos still missing on this song.