October 27th, 2008

It's great recording in the Fall in Texas! The leaves don't really change color the way they do in Michigan, but still, Meryll has always had a history of working during this wonderful season. We played our first few shows and wrote our first few songs in the Fall of 2003, recorded "You've Got Cousins" in the Fall/Winter of 2004, and now here we are. Did I mention how excited I am that Jason Martin is coming over to work on the record? Do yourself a favor and go listen to "We're The Ordinary," "Fell In Love at 22," or "Your Company." That's just the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

I've been working on the artwork for the new album, trying out some ideas. I've always wanted to record an album with the artwork already fully completed, so as to be inspired by it during the recording process. Not sure if that's lame, but oh well.

This guy sitting behind me in this really quiet coffee-shop won't stop talking on his cell-phone. I guess it could be worse -- it's not like I am working on a big important thesis or something.

Kyle will be coming back to Texas for about a week during the New Year holiday. We have a few shows in the works which we will let you know about as they are confirmed.

-Andrew

October 19th, 2008

I took the Greyhound down to Houston to see Tambersauro play their CD release show. It really was an incredible set! I was impressed by the sheer power of the band, as usual... I would recommend buying a copy of the album right now.

As far as Meryll goes, I am still finishing up the songs for the record. Jason Martin will be arriving in only a few weeks. It is crunch time. Here are some of the names of songs from the new album:

Katillus
Vacation Green
My Left Side
Cass, Ark

Hopefully you will be hearing these soon!

-Andrew

October 14th, 2008

You know, to be honest, I go back and forth on whether or not it makes sense to log on to our website and tell you all as much as I can tell you. One thing I always enjoyed about being a Huntingtons fan was that the band members would always be on their website interacting with us fans. I always thought that that was really special. I grew up a big Baseball fan, and the reality is that pro athletes are not accessible. Chances are extremely slim that your favorite player would ever reply to your email, or answer your questions in the alley behind the stadium. Those are things that bands like the Huntingtons always did for me.

But don't get me wrong -- I'm not delusional enough to think that we have millions of adoring fans that are aching to know what type of microphone I sang into on our first album. But hey, if any of you are curious, I'll tell you.

November 8th is growing near! It's hard to believe that a month from now, we will probably have the next album completely recorded to tape. I still remember going to Whataburger with Jeff Price on Louetta down in Spring, TX on the first day of recording for "You've Got Cousins." It was raining I think, and I felt so excited to be doing what we were doing! Most of my memories of preparing for that first album revolve around dorm rooms at the University of Texas. We actually somehow got away with practicing in my dorm room on the 2nd floor of Jester. Most weekends we would be playing in Houston or Waco, and I would have to check out one of the carts from the front desk downstairs. While everyone else used them to load clothes and computers, we would roll past with a PA, and a stack of amps. Fun times.

If you have listened to "Happened" you know how obsessed I can get with the past. But I don't want to get stuck on the past right now. I'm still working on finishing up the songs for this new album. I would say I've got about 6 or 7 songs that are done. There are about 4 more that I have been working on for a while, and might be good, but with which I am still on the fence about. I took some photos last week that I am considering for the album artwork. I'm about to head over to Walgreens and pick up the prints. We'll see what happens. The pictures from "Happened" were developed at the Walmart on Brockway in Saginaw, MI.

I get these weird thoughts about whether or not too much info ruins the experience. What I am getting at, is I consider listing the new song-titles, lyrics, and maybe even posting demos for you to hear, but then I worry that it will ruin the effect of putting the actual record on once it is out next year. What do you think? Maybe it really doesn't matter. In fact, it probably doesn't matter. I'm excited to make another album! :)

I've been watching a ton of Pete and Pete lately. There's just something about it.

-Andrew

October 5th, 2008

Friends!! Where are you right now? What are you doing with your days? Email me and say "Hi" for once!

I am pleased to announce that we are scheduled to record the 3rd Meryll album for Esotype from November 8th - 14th at the studio that I run! Jason Martin (Starflyer 59) will be coming to Texas to work on the album with us. I am excited for you all to have this new batch of songs. There is no release date set, but I'm sure it will be sometime in 2009. I've been working hard on recording the pre-production demos and I'm pretty happy with how everything is coming together. Some of these songs were written on the road during the Parks & Rec Tour, while a few are even fresher than that.

In other news, the Meryll tour vehicle is history! Some of you might remember the whole band pulling up to the venue in a '98 Buick Lesabre. Well, the Salvation Army towed it away as a tax-deductible charity contribution, so none of us will ever see it again. The battery was completely dead, so I was unable to eject the CD-R of new Meryll demos from the CD player before they took it. I wonder if anyone will ever hear it?