Join us this coming Friday, January 13th at the Green Plow Cafe in Redmond, OR. The Green Plow is quickly becoming one of our favorite venues to play music in Central Oregon, especially when paired with great bands like The Hollands!

We pushed, and we pushed…but I know as a growing vocalist the worst thing you can do is put yourself under pressure to sing. I moved, leaving the finished instrumental tracks on the studio hard drive. We said goodbye.

I arrived in the high desert of Oregon, a three day drive, to a new house with a trunk full of guitars. Moving took it’s toll, keeping me busy with the odds and ends of life…yard work, unpacking, meeting new people.

after two months I dug out. I got the instrumental mixdowns from Scott and set up my new home studio. I worked on the vocals, taking my time to deliver the best performances possible.

By December 1st I finished vocals! Then on to mixing…and mastering at Basecamp recording studios. Release of Winteresque in 2012 is eminent!

This brings you up to date on the story of Winteresque. There is still much to be written, the release, the tour, album reviews and interview spots. Even more exciting, sharing the music we’ve worked on for so long with our friend and fans. Thanks for being a part of the story of Winteresque!

Keep an eye out for tour dates…we’ll be all over the Northwest spring of 2012.

Dan Bosman of Scented Vinyl let us release hold the first phase of our album release at the Mars Cafe in December 2010. This was momentous…the best album yet, self recorded and produced and released with a great backing band. Still…I wanted Winteresque. I had been playing the songs live, sharpening parts and watching the crowd for reaction. By this time I had nine songs, plus the idea to rerecord two previously recorded songs.

We were growing in depth, building the skills, and the set of microphones that would allow us to make no compromises in recording Winteresque.

But of course, there was a new challenge that was facing us. I was moving to Oregon in the mid-summer, giving us a tight deadline to complete tracking.

Meeting once a week in Scott’s rented basement/studio we applied more rigor and discipline than ever to getting the right sounds. We split duties, co-engineering and co-producing. I played some keys and organ, Scott played guitar. We were starting to overlap. The only question was, would we finish in time? (Part 5 – Coming Soon!)

I had been reading up on modern architecture, and modern philosophy, and these ideas eventually spilled into the music I was writing. “Modern Love” was the first song written…originally spelled “Modyrn Luv,” but thankfully changed!

The thesis was love…very different stuff for a Finn Miles album! Modernity and how the new world can be difficult on love and on lovers. There are great distances, distractions, and a lot of band influences. It’s all caught up in the chorus “I confess I haven’t a clue, when it comes to loving you, Modern Love, what have we done?”

The songs came quickly, it was faster working without Scott, but not necessarily better! I found this out engineering and producing myself at our studio in Des Moines, IA. Our dear friend Matt had let us use a quarter of his house as a studio, as long as we shared our music with him. Good deal. Good friend!

Now comes the real confession…Scott is the true multi-instrumentalist. All the wonderful production on the first two albums, with horns and drums and keyboards…that’s him. I found myself stretched to try to play drums, keyboards, harmony singing, and percussion, none of which I had never seriously attempted before. I did pull Scott in to play drums on one track, trumpet on another, and sing a few harmonies, but I promised I’d keep his involvement to a bare minimum. Somehow, the album came together. I played keyboard and percussion for the first time on a recording, as well as slide guitar and full production.

Over the recording process we had managed to become involved with a label, Pinnacle Records, out of Ames, Iowa. Our friend Darren was the machine behind Pinnacle, helping to master the album, as well the press release and even playing in the band for the CD release party at the Vaudeville Mews! (read on for Part 4 of this thrilling tale)

Kickstart Winteresque with us!

I even started a Kickstarter project in anticipation of starting the album. I was playing with a great six piece band, getting good gigs, doing radio interviews. Life was good.

It was good, but in some ways paper thin. The band was superb, but all part of other projects as well, and over a few months they mostly drifted into other backing bands. The Kickstarter didn’t really “kickstart.” It went splat. It turns out these crowd-sourcing tools work great if you have a crowd ready to give. I didn’t. Then…my brother got engaged. A happy event…but a death knell for Winteresque happening in 2010.

Fortunately I had plenty of shows lined up at coffee houses and small venues…and I could always go back to looping with the Boss RC-50 Loopstation. Still, I was ready to record…so I decided to take a step of audacity.

I would write and record an album of “new” material while waiting until we could work on Winteresque. Thus, the idea for the “Modern Saints EP” was born.

Read on to Part 3 or the Winteresque saga.