Tuesday, April 2, 2013

We are Like the Spider. We Weave our Lives and then Move Along in it. We are Like the Dreamer. Who Dreams and then Lives in the Dream.

The new Koala album, "We are Like the Spider. We Weave our Lives and then Move Along in it. We are Like the Dreamer. Who Dreams and then Lives in the Dream." is out an available for download on our bandcamp.

The album was written and recorded in 2011, mixed in 2012, and completed in 2013.

Each song is based on a dream from a different band member.  Dreams have been a source of inspiration for me for almost as long as I started writing music - so being a part of a project where dreams were the source material for all of the compositions was a dream come true.  The album follows dream logic and aims to musically recreate these four movies that were made by our subconscious minds.  

We recorded most of the album in July of 2011 at the Recording Company in Boston - recording all the basics live in a 36 hour lockout, and then overdubbing all the other textures (which often help depict the setting or events that are happening at that point in the dream).  All of these textures we created musically (rather than using a field recording or a sample).  For example, here's a picture of us using hollow tubes to recreate the siren's that were in my dream:

In that 36 hour lock out we - had our tape melt on us and we had to re-record a tune, had the support of some great friends who popped in, as well as the help of our good friend Keith Nelson who was our engineer, drank a whole lot of coffee and seltzer, and even found a mysterious collection of honey bears on the roof:


The following night after the 36 hour lockout we played our last show.  We played our new album in it's entirety for the first time as well as some older favorites.  It was a bittersweet celebration with great friends of the three years Koala had been together.

(photo courtesy of Peter M. Loftus)

Shortly after that, the band members of Koala have left Boston one by one - but despite being on oposite ends of the country, we slowly but surely continued to work on the album and now in April of 2013 the album is finally completed.  

The tracks that we were once called "Mike's Dream", "Kenyon's Dream", "Orion's Dream", and "Jame's Dream" are now: 

1. In Burden's Grip
2. The Dream That Ended The World
3. Chasing Rain
4. The World That Ended The Dream



I am extremely excited to be able to share this record of strange rock music that we started working on 2 years ago - so without further delay,

ENJOY!!! 

Mike