hello all.
been awhile, true. too much happening and at the same time not enough. wanted to wait til there was some real update on the adventure.

so first, wanted to expand a bit on "duncanville", us getting our start (duncanville is located about 30 miles south of dallas)...tim and i met here in 1983. tim had a band called REGENCY..and that's about it. duncanville was a strange place to grow up, somehow looking back there always seems to be a dark cloud associated with it..then again, who doesn't say that about their "home town", cliche'. so i'll leave it at that. although i have to admit realizing this is where we'd do some overdubs (thanks to mark) was shocking. and honestly, tim and i couldn't even remember where the main exit was, cedar ridge..how could we forget? but it slowly started coming back when we passed duncanville high school, looked brand new i might add. unrecognisable. once you're in the studio here you could be anywhere. cool place. and cool people. i have a knack for ending a conversation and then adding a few more thoughts. i learned it last december after the polyphonic xmas show.

so, the album...tim finished scratch vocals with lyrics as of this evening, my bday by the way. we're headed to dinner with evan and jennie. king congleton is running some rough mixes of songs with the vocal. we wait.

we're leaving for chicago soon and need to get the choir some music! will be another spontaneous adventure. choir is quick though, a special trade achieved thru by always being last to record in this group and usually at 2am and of course "with very little time"....fun.

songs are getting to a place of real excitement. went and saw pilotdrift the other night (easily one of the TOP performing bands out there right now..would hate to come on after them) and then ventured off to the new good records where we played the roughs on the new system there. there were about six of us and we listened til 3am..tim cut the floor up with his new and improved moves! i think we all did. was definitely a high moment thus far associated with the music.

will update in chicago. the girls are getting ready.
xoxo
julie

The Fragile Army

well, we've been back in dallas for a few days now. it's great to be home, and the few days off were so needed before hitting the studio again. this time we're out at spaceway in duncanville. apparently mark led us to this studio, b/c tim and julie had no idea of its location until the day before, which was extremely surprising to them b/c that's where they got their start. sort of like coming full circle. by no means in the sense of ending where you started, but more like the scene in "the wall" where young pink keeps running across the soccer/football/whathaveyou field with the sun glare in the camera lense; something significant in your life that keeps popping up, no matter how infrequently.

anyhow, now it's my turn to step up to the plate. it's been such an interesting, fresh experience watching the songs evolve over the past month. annie and ryan did some amazing stuff in minnesota, a lot of which has made me rethink parts i wrote over just piano, bass, and drums. it's almost better this way b/c it's forced me to reexamine what i have and decide what i truly like about each part. it's also quite a challenge keeping track of all the different sounds i'm using and the tweaks i'm adding. it's not like we've been playing these songs live for the past few months. before i know it the album will be done, we'll be working up our new live set, and i'll be asking myself, "now, how did i do that again?"

evan

dallas, texas..we are home. gotta say after twenty days we were ready. felt like we were in a trance and never coming back. started wondering if it was a good or bad thing :)

went to good records party upon returning, not sure how..we were running on a few hours sleep...it was great, very festive...although we were in a complete daze i felt very sentimental...along with many others..felt like an end of an era somehow and in more ways than one..saw king congleton and his girlfriend lisa there along with some of the spree...and many other faces we haven't seen in a long time...i wondered how anyone (spree) could find the energy to get there after the twenty day journey...craziness i guess, especially john..i figured we'd ruined him for life!

to sum up last few days of pachyderm is tough...most important thing is we finished most guitars and annie and ryan pulled some out..we're happy with the sounds thus far and know there's much work ahead.,..we have some rough mixes and drove around this morning listening a bit in the car...truthfully scared to, nervous we'd been in the zone out there in those woods too long losing a bit of reality...but the feeling was one of great relief and inspiration...completely stoked to hear the rest of the band make their mark now on top of something darn good...taking tomorrow off and headed back into a dallas studio tues., no rest for the wicked

looks like evan hisey will start and tim will work on vocals this next week, then the choir in chicago at end of month...and finally, percussion, strings, horns, flute, theremin...audrey may actually come in a couple of days this next week..she's great about experimenting on the fly and giving material something unexpected..i need to call her

hope all is well and you enjoy the photo, king congleton, genius.

xoxo
j team (as annie would say)

apparently you're only able to attach 5 photos to each post (and apparently fizty has to play out of 5 amps), so here are some more to go with "the love below."

sorry for the delay in the post. have been really busy since we last "spoke." jennie (jk) and the kids being here lifted our spirits so much; we understandably got sidetracked.

on a nonmusical note, we got to take the kids on a nice little adventure on one of the many trails behind the house. oscar found a paw print that scared the charles dickens out of us. i thought bears are hibernating this time of year. i don't know what else it could be (the foot [size 9] beside the print is mine for perspective). anyhoo, it's amazing out here. we've seen beaver, wild turkey (the non-101 proof kind), deer, jackelope, etc.; forunately no bear. and if you've ever been in charge of 3 kids on a trek over an icy bridge over a raging(?), ice cold river (read: creek), i feel for you. even as i took the picture i feared the thought of telling tim and julie that their j-bird had fallen just a few feet to his demise. not quite ready to be a parent. kudos to all of you who are!

before jk and the kids left, bw (who rivals fitzy and mike's culinary skills) whipped up a killer batch of spaghetti (both carnivorous and veggie). the kids helped with the garlic cheese bread through jk's ingenious Q/A game.

today tim decided to redo some of the bass tracks with his new axe. actually, our new acquaintance jim leverton dropped off one of tim's repaired acoustics and showed a recent luthierian(?) project of his. i subsequently used it to get some much needed fire wood.

also, today it snowed again like nobody's business. compare the first pic of the studio to today's. since then the snow has melted off twice; everything in today's pic is oh so fresh. hopefully you can see from the studio pics how refreshing it is to see the outside world while you're working. windows are virtually nonexistent in a studio environment. it's such a simple concept, but pachyderm is the only one in my experience to grasp it. fortunately, seeing the sun go down lets annie know that it's time to watch "project runway." (let's just say we're hoping she gets her priorities straight really soon. daniel's good, but chloe's the ringer; just my opinion, though.)

evan

p.s.--pink and white tulips are the new red roses!

HI JULIE AND TIM,
I FELT I HAD TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT EACH PERSON I MET AT THE STUDIO AS EACH ONE HELPED ME CHANGE MY LIFE FOR THE BETTER.
PLEASE POST IT ON YOUR SITE WHERE YOU SEE FIT.

LOVE MIKE=THE SPREE CHEF


THE POLYPHONIC SPREE

I FEEL SO BLESSED TO HAVE BEEN ABLE TO CONTRIBUTE MY PIANO PLAYING TO THIS WONDERFUL GROUP AND NEW ALBUM.
THE JOY THAT EMANATES FROM THESE SPECIAL SOULS EACH IN THEIR OWN WAY IS OVERWHELMING.

JULIE HAS THE ABILITY SOMEHOW TO HOLD IT ALL TOGETHER AND SEE THE REAL BIG PICTURE. GOD BLESS HER I DONT KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT PLUS 3 ADORABLE BRIGHT SMART AND TALENTED KIDS THAT HAVE ENOUGH ENERGY TO POWER NEW YORK CITY!

TIM HAS TO BE ME IN A DIFFERENT BODY AS HIS VIEWPOINTS RE. MUSIC, CREATIVTY, AND POSITIVE ENERGY, AND INSPIRATION ARE A MIRROR OF WHERE I COME FROM. THE ULTIMATE BAND LEADER. HE WOULDNT ACCEPT ANYTHING BUT GREAT RAW ENERGY AND INSPIRATION FROM ME. HE CONDUCTED ME BY THE PIANO THROUGH ALL MY PERFORMANCES FROM FROM A DISTANCE OF 1 FOOT AS IF THERE WERE 100 MUSICIANS PLAYING ! WHAT A GIFT. ILL ALWAYS TREASURE THAT!

BRIAN IS A GREAT DRUMMER AND WONDERFUL GUY. HIS DRUMMING HAS WONDERFUL INTENSITY AND ENERGY AND VERY ALIVE AND I LOVED CO-CREATING WITH HIM.

MARK COMES UP WITH CATCHY BASS LINES AND HOLDS THE FORT DOWN WITH A GREAT GROOVE AND IS VERY ADAMANT TO GET THE PERFECT BASS PART. HES A TERRIFIC GUY AND AN ESSENTIAL TO THE GROUP. IM HAPPY TO KNOW HIM.

JOHN IS A PHENOMENAL PRODUCER. SO FOCUSSED ITS 'STUPID'.
HE REALLY KNOWS WHEN YOU ARE HAPPENING AND CAN DIFFERENTIATE FROM A PROFESSIONAL PART AND A MAGICAL PART. KEEP IT UP MAESTRO! HE ALSO HAD TERRIFIC ASSISTANCE FROM BRENT WITH HIS MANY SKILLS.

ANNIE IS BLESSED WITH THE GIFT OF MUSIC. JUST HER BEINGNESS WITHOUT PLAYING A NOTE IS VERY POWERFUL. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR HER.

RYAN HAS A SMILE THAT CAN MELT YOU AND A TERRIFIC GUITARIST AND A KNACK FOR CATCHY RIFFS AND VERY DEDICATED IN A BEAUTIFUL WAY TO THE SPREES. I LOOK FORWARD TO MAKING MORE MUSIC WITH HIM.

EVAN IS NOT ONLY A VERY CREATIVE KEYBOARD PLAYER AND HAS A GREAT SENSE OF SOUNDS PLUS SEEMS TO HAVE A VERY BIG BRAIN AND MANY ABILITIES GOING ON SIMULTANEOUSLY. SCARY! ANOTHER VITAL PRESENCE TO THE BAND.

JENNE IS AN ANGEL FROM ANOTHER PLANET AND A TREASURE TO HAVE AROUND. SO INCREDIBLY WARM.

NOW IM MISSING OUT ON THE OTHER 15 OR SO MUSICIANS WHO WERENT AT PACHYDERM STUDIO SO ILL HAVE TO WAIT TILL THE NEXT TIME TO COMMENT ON THEM!!!!! I SUSPECT ALL QUITE MAGICAL.

IF WE ALL REMAIN TRULY HUMBLE THIS MUSIC WILL BRING GREAT JOY TO MILLIONS OF PEOPLE.
MIKE GARSON 2006

hello on tuesday

guitars done on almost four songs...annie and ryan rockin, knocking em out! to answer someone's question about release date, its' scheduled for july 3, 2006.

bubba is coming in tomorrow, we're on the hunt for some sushi..having withdrawls here! then he'll begin tp ack up the gear and drive out early sat. morning...in the home stretch

we get in sat. morning to dallas and will go to good records...it's our final day there at old location..chris has been puttin gin some nutty hours to make it all happen...if ya live around dallas, you should go! even if ya don't! opening new good records feb.16...HELP!

bye
jd

sunday night

mike cooked a thankgiving meal..amazing..that guy has some crazy superpower with food..he takes our odds and ends and makes these phenominal dishes,..anyway, he went into town and bought everything yesterday morning and started preparing...spent today on and off as well cooking...at 5pm it happened, possibly the best thanksgiving meal ever..so we sit, stuffed but satisfied

the music...our fourteen tracks are on their way...we begin in the morning with a whole new thing..guitars, sounds and evam, i say "evan" cuz he does something different from the idea of just a "keyboard" player..he's sort of a secret weapon..

we picked jennie and kids up yesterday from airport and they were so excited...they've been sledding and going stir crazy at the same time! and eating plenty of s'mores! they also did quite a bit of swimming today and tonight...before mike left oscar played some piano for him..the kids met him when they were younger and now they seem much bigger, more aware

check out the poly forum where it says "song titles/contest"..gives ya an idea of what we're up to

bryan is packing up the drums tonight...mike left..mark is done...most will be leaving tues..tim, myself, annie, ryan and evan will stay til the 11th to see what we can see....

listened down today to most tracks in a row for first time and thought it was still pretty awesome, fingers crossed...don't wanna toot our own horn :)

xoxo
julie

woke up to phone call from jennie letting me know that our loft back in dallas is practically flooded for the second time this week due to a broken drainpipe. i feel so bad for her having to deal with it alone, but there's nothing i can do from all the way up here. so i drown my sorrow with a few rounds of sledding! talked with her again a few minutes ago but didn't have the heart to tell her. she'll read it here first, and i'm sure i'll get a phone call shortly thereafter... can't wait for her to get up here with the kids tomorrow. they're gonna love all the snow.

john was holding his breath watching bryan take a few goes on the sled. a broken arm wouldn't do us any good with three more drum tracks to lay down. tim of course couldn't stand it watching fitzy, bryan, and me having all the fun, so he gave it a try. ran into a tree the first time; serves him right, though, b/c he was talking smack telling us we were doing it all wrong.

evan

friday morning........woke up to a massive amount of snow and it's still falling heavily..we're hoping it goes all weekend, we texans don't get to experience this very often..the house we're in is up high over the hills with loads of trees and a stream alongside, tough isn't it? :) the kids and jennie will be pleased coming in tomorrow, it's gorgeous.

tim is building a fire and mike has started on a lunch dish for the day, meatloaf. we have alot of catching up to do, yesterday was a bit off. got a late start and weren't quite "feeling" it on the planned track...so the guys moved on to another and it looks like it's gonna come out stellar...finishing bass this morning after mark picks up stephanie from airport and then onto another song..we have only a few left, putting us at fourteen strong

i might mention that over the last five minutes, tim and mike just put out a fire here in the kitchen, the meatloaf caught on fire! a picture would be great to accompany the entry but it happened so fast and we were just freaked out so....have to imagine the moment. i'm watching them now get things under control and although it was scary, it's funny now..evan just walked in and asked if there was a fire in here!?

about food...we had our first, official outing as an entire group last night...the engineer here, brent and his wife, wendy, their daughter, kitty and their friend laura invited everyone over for dinner..WOW! it was delicious and they have the most amazing home...just a mile from where we're at...was such a nice break and even though we've had plenty of home cooked meals here at the house, it's all beginning to taste the same..i'd say the change in environment, company and spices was a welcomed change by all. they were quite generous too,,,nice wine and food, good music and laid back..not to mention some hilarious conversations! so thanks to them we should have a great, productive day today...

we're starting to realize that the entire session sounds like it's based around food! and in ways it is i admit...but, trust us, we're determined to deliver you guys something special and will do...we still have much work ahead but will at least leave here with fourteen songs that if they had to stop there, would be killer songs! we loaded our plate basically! before coming out here, it felt like a mountain and we were anxious..now the confidence is up and we're well on our way

it looks like a white xmas here right now

xoxo
julie

p.s. from evan: just added a pic of brent and wendy's jackelope that he bagged here in cannon falls last winter. they have it proudly displayed over their fireplace. apparently this neck of the woods is overrun with them. also wanted to mention that besides the great food and company, it was such a treat to see their three pups, romeo, jack, and rocky. made us all miss our critters back home (willie, zot, galaxy) even more.

hi, all. just wanted to let you know that i finally got around to posting some pics, so be sure to scroll down and check them out; i added them where appropriate. i'll try to keep up with it better.

i'd also like to wish everyone a happy groundhog day! we haven't seen any groundhogs up here, but tim did almost get attacked by a beaver while fishing the other day (you can see a tree chewed down by one in the pics below). and i don't know if it was intentional on tim's part or not (i personally didn't realize the actual date until well into the movie), but yesterday he threw in the DVD "groundhog day," which i've seen about 50 times now. never gets old, though—bill murray's finest moment in my opinion. soon after, fitzy and bw accompanied me into town to get some water. (aside: got a great pic of fitz on a cannon outside the local VFW. he loves to pose for the camera.) on top of the date coincendence, fitzy pointed out that for him, annie, and me, our stay up here is exactly like the movie. we wake up, have some breakfast together, practice some, eat, mill about, eat, pop into the studio to see what's happening, eat, practice... the three of us are chomping at the bit to get over to the studio and do our thing (and getting fat in the meantime). i've had a couple bouts of cabin fever so far. we're trying to use our time wisely, though, working on the songs (which are basically brand-new to us) here in the house. as i'm writing this, fitzy is downstairs (loudly) experimenting with two delay pedals feeding back on each other, making some crazy sounds.

oh well, that's about it for now. gonna go practice some more. or maybe i'll eat...

evan

would not let you down..must share at least something about today..we are all done for the day/evening and listening to the band america in background while working on dinner..never knew they had so many hits and even some worthwhile..jeez

hits were easier i guess back in the day when songs actually could be musical and have feeling and there were no time limits..taking whatever time it took to say what it needed to..

now we're on to bruce springsteen...i actually played it for john cuz he loves him and has tried to convince that bruce is wonderful..i just never got it i guess, except for born to run, what a song! and now he is pointing out what bruce and polyphonic have in common, i see it alittle..the spirit i guess...wanting to be triumphant and hopeful

so, here's the story..mike finished a couple of tracks on piano and tomorrow we start our few final tracks..two being again, working titles, called ten times before (my fave) and left them on the floor, a pop oddessey....we gotta get done, drum rentals expire on monday and mike leaves monday...time to move on to evan, annie and ryan..bryan teasley says he might come up but never heard back..hope he comes..stella, oscar, julius and jennie will be here sat. afternoon..YES! it better snow on friday like predictions say....kids think you can control that stuff

well upon saying goodbye i will mention that ryan cooked some tasty burgers tonight..beef and veggie...we're all here again, in the same room and everyone on their computers, actual verbal conversation happening tho, no IM'ing each other...something is happening now, i hear bets going on between john and bryan, what song has the drum machine, blah blah.................john is online looking for the facts so he can prove bryan wrong..ok, bryan is wrong..i told him not to bet!!

going to bed..glad we can entertain ya a bit here via internet/blog/blogger, etc..thank chris penn, his idea..also, evan and i picked out some pictures today to post but internet was down while we had time..now if we put them on we'd be interrupting the bruce sprimgsteen celebration..boo hoo

xoxo