Mastery
How did you come about finding the people to flesh out the band to help create the sound you were looking for?
Being able to play with whoever you feel the most comfortable with is actually one of the better benefits of being your own band for me, I always get excited before playing with someone new or listening to ideas of those who are coming from a different background then me, I just feel like I get to learn so much and you never know what you might end up getting :-) most of the musicians on the album are from the Salt lake City area, people I got to meet in bars and shows, handed them a ruff demo of my music and ask them to participate.
How was the recording process? Did everything go smoothly or were there times where there was tension involved with ideas between members?
Most of the recording went pretty smooth actually; of course that there was some tension from time to time but the studio is such a stressful enviermeant that I couldn’t expect otherwise. I tried to pick people I can relate to by sharing the same passion create and have an open mind about music like I do and I think I did succeeded in this respect. The album featuring a phenomenal cast of players and I just couldn’t pull it off without them.
Was it difficult to mix so many contrasting genres together to create such a cohesive piece of music as this?
Difficult is not a term I would use, challenging perhaps? Yes, writing and recording an album featuring such an extensive line up and use of multi genres was quite an experience, I was writing heavy tunes before and since I really do enjoy many styles on the musical scale the blend of various and sometimes contrasting elements came fairly spontaneously, I just had fun experimenting and mixing all I love into one ball and tried not to limit myself to any genre definition. What was most challenging is make sure nothing clash and the music will still have its natural flow, parts were worked on for months and even in the studio we had to vote against sections at times that there was too much going on.
Were there any specific bands/artists/musicians that inspired this album's creation?
Nope…. At list nothing I could write off hand, I enjoy many styles of music aside the territory of heavy music and been getting inspiration from bands who helped defined music as we know it rather then anything else I could put on my record player. I was high on Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and Miles Davis at that time, also 70s psychedelic rock bands such as Iron Butterfly or Jefferson Airplane.
What made you decide to have Neil Kernon handle the mixing duties?
I've been a fan of Neil's work ever since I heard his work on Nevermore's "Dreaming Neon Black", the production on this album just blow me away right from the start and was obsessed to work with him eversince. We've been talking about doing this album together for years and he was really involved even before I knew what the album gonna sound like.
Neil is great to work with and his contribution on this album is amazing! He is without doubt the one to be credited for organizing the chaos in our vast orchestration and giving the album its clean sound.
Are you guys going to be touring or is it primarily a studio project (considering the schedules of some of the other bands you're affiliated with)?
As of yet Subterranean Masquerade is only a studio project but that would change soon as I have plans of taking the show on the road in support of the album, I just recently moved to Brooklyn and looking into a touring band but once the line up issue will finalize I hope to travel many new places and play my music to fans in person
So what's next for the band? Have ideas for new music already started to spring up?
First we are getting ready to lunch the promotion campaign for "Suspended Animation Dreams" we have a new site design with lots of cool feature www.submasq.com and working into establishing a street team and bringing the music out to the world
As of new material; I'm currently hard working on the follow up for "Suspended Animation Dream" and the closing chapter of the "X" Trilogy. The material getting shape really nicely, having been traveling India for a little while I observed many of their traditional music culture and been mixing it with the Subterranean Masquerade sound and since I am incapable of making the same album twice so expect something fresh from our future work.
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