Racing the hours - the demo

A very prolific day at the studio. We started by listening recordings of Nuno and Linx and then we started the hostilities by recording all drum tracks for 'Racing the Hours'. There was also time to mix 'Doppleganger' with Joax doing a great job while Mike was creating some cool riffs to 'Nanoworld' instrumental section. We will re-start the writings next week to get more or less 14 tracks ready (to choose the best ones for the new album) until December 22nd. Sam and I went to a fast food later at night and we had a cool chat about the future songs and what we want to achieve with this album as a band. We have the belief that with the 3rd FS album we will be kicking some ass off:)

Writing

Today Nuno wrote and recorded his bass lines for 'The Hill' and 'An Outer of Body Experience' instrumental/vocal sections.
Mike and Linx are writing and arranging their own parts for the other songs.

Doppelganger

A big smile on our faces as we listen to our recordings of Doppelganger...it's still a demo but sounds fenomenal!This song has many cool stuff (metal edge, progressive, back vocals from all of us, great crunchy guitars, huge balance - no guitar solo:)
We are moving on the right path for a great album, and we love this new direction!
More news next Thursday...

"Doppelganger: I was yours, now you're mine"

Recordings for demo

We have been recording bass parts for 'Nanoworld', 'The Hill' and 'Doppleganger'.
I've recorded my guitar parts for 'Doppleganger' and 'The Hill'.

Tomorrow there will be more recordings on drum tracks, guitar and bass.
Linx and Mike will be recording their own parts for all new written songs until the next week-end.

All is sounding pretty good, really heavy, emotional and progressive - the way we like!:)

Mind Over Matter and Nanoworld

Yesterday we were jamming around the riffs of 'Mind Over Matter' though we were kind of unispired and didn't get any conclusive structure. Nuno has 2 great bass riffs and Linx has many
vocal ideas - all are really good and we must write this song with extreme care; it's one of those tracks that is developing and not a 'in your face' direct music. We also had time to record 'An Outerbody Experience' drums tracks has a demo.We defined that Nanoworld will have a strong instrumental section - this will become one of the best Forgotten Suns songs ever, I bet on it!

Today we will be working more recordings and maybe some writing too.

Forgotten Suns at Aula Magna - the photos

Here's the link to the website of Nuno Lourenço - our official photographer
http://www.nunoaovivo.blogspot.com/


Have a look at some cool FS pics both in S.Alquimista and Aula Magna

Making of Nanoworld(3001)

Bad weather in Portugal today; according to our schedule this was the last day of the week to write more material so we spent our time around Nanoworld concept and we decide that we go for a mix of a movie script and a strong instrumental section.
This is the time when I got my feet on earth and start asking myself "where the hell do we get all these music, all these riffs and sounds?" - creativity, it's a ray of light through pouring rain.

We have a solid structure until we start the instrumental section, and again a great balance between guitar and drums. Mike is doing great keyboard and Nuno's approach on the chorus reminds me Rush and U2. Linx is still working the vocals, he did a great chorus line and he actually doubled the chorus to got a funny Smashing Punpkins feel on it. It works!

Next week we have the instumental of 'Nanoworld' and 'Mind over Matter' to write.

Nanoworld(3001)

This morning Sam and I jammed on 'Nanoworld' riffs; we got some interesting passages though today we didn't focused on writing but instead in record more ideas for written tracks(Doppleganger, The Hill). Linx is working on lyrics for many tracks (Racing the Hours, News, Flesh&Bones, Doppleganger and An Outerbody Experience) while we are working 'Nanoworld' and 'Mind over Matter'.

While chating with Mike on our way home he was telling me that after so many good vocal parts for the album now it's time to work our arrangements to get more instrumental parts and have our technique and 'madness' out of our fingers:)
We have at least 4 more tracks to be written (6 with Nano and Mind over Matter) so there's plenty of room for it!The challenge is made...

9th and 10th

Yesterday we were working on 4 tracks at the same time - We re-shaped 'The Hill' a song written in June and we added a guitar solo that was written by Mike and I 13 years ago!!!It works great and gives a extra push on the song.
The second part of the song is called 'An Outer Body Experience', fantastic ending - is all I can say...

Then we layed our hands on 'Nanoworld(3001)' a very cybernetic track, great ideas from
Nuno on bass for this one!It will be another killer live.

With Linx on studio we worked some riffs for 'Mind over Matter' and had some time to re-shape the end of Pinpoints...

lots of work on the studio as you can see:)

Writing Days

21st November 2006 - on the studio today I got some free time to watch in detail the DVD that our dearest VJ (Marta Machado) got us with backstage, sound-check and concert clips of Fish' opening at Aula Magna 10 days ago! I got all chicken skin with our Angels' Embrace version and how Linx dedicate it to Fish...it will be in our memories forever!!!

There's an huge distance between how we write our songs today compared to what we did on the Fiction/Snooze days; we tooked several months to write those albums (because of our lack
of experience but mostly because we lacked stability in our line up as a band).
Today we can write 4 tracks in a week like we did with 'Racing the Hours', 'The News', 'Doppleganger' and 'Flesh&Bones' while maintainig the fast pace easily!

It's been very rewarding to work on studio since we decided to finish the writing of 14 tracks until Christmas; we are doing some of the best ever Forgotten Suns' music and collecting targets day after day - we're absolutely sure that we found our single of this album on 'Doppleganger'. Nuno layed his bass lines today and it's a powerful track with all the essences we wanted: with FS trademarks but also with a strong sense of heavy futurism and use of technology...

We are now creating new concepts for future songs...we have at least 4 stories in our minds
-'Nanoworld(3001)' ; 'Mind over Matter'; 'In This' ; and to recover a old track called 'Lost back Home' - tomorrow we will start working on a idea from Nuno 'Strap', a very interesting tapping sequence on bass with the ideas that Sam, Mike and I got while we were chatting and drinking coffee. Those ones mixed with an old epic vocal idea of Linx will be a great track!

A funny detail is that for the 2nd time, while we're going home, someone has ideas and we record them on mp3' player/recorder and on my digital camera - it happened with Mike's ideas for 'The News', it happened with me for the same track and happened with Linx today while he was driving us home, we believe those ideas will fit into 'Mind over Matter' in perfection!!!

More tomorrow:)

Flesh & Bones

Yesterday we finished another track - Flesh & Bones, and goes 8 for the album!!!:)
This song is divided in 2 parts, the song and the grand finale which is becoming one of my favourite sections of the new material.
We spent all day in studio to build a solid structure and today we will make a review of all written tracks.
Here's the total of songs by order of making:

-Outside In
-Flashback
-Pinpoints
-The Hill
-Racing the Hours
-News
-Doppleganger
-Flesh & Bones

We have fresh concepts for at least 14 songs and that's the target until Christmas.

Doppleganger - Flesh & Bones

Last friday we finished another track! We got 'Doppleganger' really fast, just in about 4 hours and it's one of the most straight forward songs we have now - a killer live track for sure!!!

In the end of the day, Linx and I started to create another song, it's called Flesh & Bones and it will be completed today at the studio, I see it as a cross between Zack Wylde (Ozzy era), Marillion's guitar approach, Jorn Lande (due to vocal parts) and we are imagining the end with an Orchestra arrangement a la Metallica's Unforgiven...

let's see how it goes today:)

Instrumental parts 4/4 - 5/4 - 6/4

Another great day at the studio!
We re-wrote the 'News' track and shaped it to what we believe is the best structure; this song is an enciclopedia of all bass techniques: tapping, slap, scales, etc etc; Nuno is actually doing a great job!
Linx has already a big part of his vocal lines aligned to work a lyric on it; the 1st verses section has a Chris Cornell(Soundgarden era) approach and we go a little more towards Russel Allen (Symphony X) on the chorus. Depeche Mode and Dream Theater are also big influences on the vocals for this one.

We worked a big section of the instrumental that originally was created by Mike and we're using it on the song. We spent all afternoon creating the best moods; I like a lot the 'Belewish'approach on guitars just before the 4/4 section.

At the end of the day Mike, Linx and I spent some time discussing new concepts for other tracks and suddendly something very curious happened...suddendly, one of the riffs I use in all our soudchecks to test my guitar sound on the monitors made 100% sense with a part of a lyric for a new song.
Immediately I showed it to Linx who started to write a lyric for it on the spot; we had our brains and imagination working very fast and in a question of minutes we had a new structure and a new song. Sam and Nuno will love it for sure.Here I can listen to Ramstein, Metallica, Linkin Park and Jo Satriani influences. In my opinion this is the single for the new album!! It totally rocks and it's called "Doppleganger"!

'News' - new theme on the making

We started the day with Sam and I jamming around the Chorus section for a new track; when the rest of the guys arrived we started jamming around Mike's ideas and in some guitar riffs.
Nuno was really inspired today and so was Linx; we got a good vibe and really got things going fast. This new track is really something very inspired and has a fantastic concept of us doing a newsflash like on TV...so far we have reached the 1st chorus and will work things better tomorrow. Today was teamwork all the way in high level, always great this way:)

here's the pics of the day.

Facelift

What we had yesterday... and what we have on the end of today...a real facelift:)

I brought the question to the studio and we made a general review to the song: the intro was very long and somehow tedious because it's was just guitar and drums and lots of riffs in odd times...
We decide to throw away the weaker parts and to keep the best ones that fit the song better by spreading them all around the music. With this spreading, there is new vocal sections to be written and a new location of the guitar solo (in the middle of the song, instead at the end).

The map of the music is now:

Intro Riffs (shorter version)
Vocal A - "How's your time today..."
Bridge 1 - "Night for day"
Chorus 1
Keyboard solo
Vocal A + altered guitar
New vocal section (Flamenco-prog Riff)
Metallica's approach section
Guitar solo
Bridge 2
Chorus 2
Final section - "Always repeat"

Nuno 'Strap', the bass man in action (picture above)

Back to the writings

Day 1 at the studio after the Aula Magna adventure!
Today Sam, Mike and I arrived early in the morning and we discussed some ideas for the new tracks while we were turning on our machines. Nice concepts on our schedules for future songs folks!
We are now writing a new track called 'Racing the Hours'; this track is half written since the first sessions we had on June, but now we are re-doing it, re-shaping it and giving it a new face:)
Linx, who was also on studio in the afternoon has new melodies and lyrics to work tomorrow when we get into the vocal sections; what he has so far is a killer lyric and a super chorus, we're really anxious to see where this track will lead him on his vocal approach.

This is some of the heaviest and progressive material we write so far in our lives!

Nuno 'Strap' will arrive on studio tomorrow and I will have the pleasure of 'toast' his fingers with the new riffs we've created today:) He will nail it in a second for sure...(wanna bet?)

Here goes Sammy and a friendly 'up the irons' and Mike on keys...mmm, is this the Oasys that will be played by Herbie Hancock at the Coliseu?Great!:)

Aula Magna with Fish

Last night it was special!A night full of happenings and emotions, the venue was packed with 1600 souls and they were deeply enthusiastic. Fish and his band would be performing Misplaced Childhood for the last time and we were the opening act. We knew that among the crowd there will be around 150 Forgotten Suns' fans but the feedback was tremendous and we felt really touched with the applauses right at the end of the 1st song...!We leaved the stage after a 45 minute set and people were stand up, applauding and asking for more!
For us it's part of a dream we had when we formed the band back in 92 - to open for Marillion or Fish. 14 years later it really happened!
All members of Fish' crew and musicians are really nice fellows and it was cool to speak with them on the backstage.

This is for sure a chapter that can't be missed in any biography of Forgotten Suns...

PS: we asked for Fish' permission to use part of the lyrics from 'Forgotten Sons' track - of the debut album from Marillion - and we made an interaction with the audience.
For those who didn't nailed it on the spot, that was the reason why we end up to decide for the name Forgotten Suns back in 92:)...it was another 'momentum' of the night!

Tomorrow we restart the writings of our 3rd album intensively and on a daily basis until Christmas, so prepare yourself for photos, videos and lot of new info for the next couple of weeks:)

Interview Lx Jovem

Last monday, the band gave an interview to Lx Jovem website www.lxjovem.pt. Part of the interview will be aired on internet during the interval of Aula Magna' concert. Linx, Nuno and Sam answered some 'tricky' questions about Fish and our music...I got some pics from Sammy's cell phone, here's the best one:)

Fish Concert at Aula Magna Live on Internet

The Forgotten Suns opening and Fish' full concert will be broadcasted live on internet at
www.lxjovem.pt website; those who can't be there can follow the performances and interviews to both bands.
Don't miss it: 11th November 20:30 GMT

Santiago Alquimista - view from a fan

These photos, taken from a mobile phone, are from a very special friend of the band.
He's the type of person who follows our concerts note by note and this time at Santiago Alquimista he took some shots and sent us via email; we don't care about the quality but
we do appreciate his enthusiasm and friendship about us and our music. Thank you Pedro,
c-ya in Aula Magna!

Hard Club pt.2

Photos credited to Mr.Luis Filipe Costa
http://picasaweb.google.com/fLiPadO/ForgotenSunsEtherealTimeless

Hard Club photos

Here's some pictures of Forgotten Suns live at Hard Club exactly 1 week ago; you can find more of these at www.prog-pt.com - all photos by Mr.Spulit

Forgotten Suns opening for Fish - 11/11/06

After 2 great nights at Hard Club (Porto) and Clube Lua(Lisboa) the band's next live step will be at Aula Magna as an opening act for Fish and his Return to Childhood Tour.

An historical moment for the band since the author of 'Forgotten Sons' lyric/track (last song from marillion's debut album) will be performing on the same stage!

The Forgotten Suns show will start at 20:30.

Clube Lua 12/10/06

Another great night for Forgotten Suns, this time it was more people on the audience and less stress before the concerts. Mike did some improvements with the pre-production samples live and we did a high quality show. 'Flashback' and 'Outside In' were touching perfection and the feedback from the fans is pretty good, we love to play the new songs on stage!!!

A special word for Timeless band and crew for their kindness in inviting us for these shows, and for the support! Best wishes for Dawning Light DVD!
Also would like to leave a word for Ethereal and Hunting Cross; high musicianship and powerful songs guys!!!

There will be pics of both concerts soon...

Next stop Aula Magna 11th November 20:30 opening for FISH!!!

Hard Club 10/10/2006

Wonderful night for Forgotten Suns at Gaia (Porto), we arrived our homes late in the morning...just writing these lines for you and upload 2 pics then need to take sometime to rest.
Here's the playlist of the night:

Intro
Pay the Price
Senses
Wartime
Struggle
Flashback
Outside in

Last mix touches

Today we will spend all day in studio, starting with a reharsal for the next shows and then mixing the demo.
Yesterday we were working on Outside In(side) all day long. Sounds huge!

Forgotten Suns Live in Porto

It will be our first time at the capital of the North - Porto!
We've been in Aveiro, Guimarães, Vizela and a little bit far in Gouveia; but this time we will
be in the center of the underground (sometimes mediatic) music scene at Hard Club Gaia.
The last time we've been there was to see Symphony X and Stratovarius; also when Linx and I went to see Dream Theater's Train of Tought at the Coliseu.
Now we will have our mates of Timeless and Ethereal to share the stage..Wonderful!
Be there!

Final Mix

3rd October, 10:00 a.m.
Sam, Mike, Strap and I sat in front of the tv screen on our studio and got our attention focused on the S.Alquimista show and all details filmed by Sammy's cam; it was almost like seeing a drummer's instructional video...almost:) But it was cool to take individual and group notes.
Mike tested his OASYS and Sam did the griffin logo on his drum kick, it was a great night for FS!

On the afternoon we were working on 'Flashback' mix. First with drums and bass and then, with Linx on studio; we worked the guitars, keys and vocals. I leaved the studio while the vocals were being worked and I carried a sensation that we have the best mix (and the best engineer with us - Joax) ever on Forgotten career...and it's not finished yet. Marvelous production with accurate performance and tight sound. We're on the edge of something very special for us...let's see what the future reveals.
More work tomorrow!

here's a pic of Santiago Alquimista for you...

Santiago Alquimista - 30/09/2006

Great times on stage last night, it was just amazing to feel the audience and their applauses while singing along with us the riffs and lyrics!
There will be photos of it on the Burning Suns website (www.burning-suns.com), on our official site and here on the blog, in the next hours.

Next stop, HARD CLUB GAIA - 10th October with Timeless + Ethereal
Prepare yourself for a heavy night!:)
Be there!

Forgotten Suns dates

If you are a serious Forgotten Suns fan we advise you not to fail the following dates:

30th September - Santiago Alquimista (Forgotten Suns full show)
10th October - Hard Club (Porto - with Timeless + Ethereal)
12th October - Club Lua (ex-Musicais - with Timeless + Hunting Cross)
11th November - Aula Magna (opening for Fish - Return to Childhood)

The band has been busy recording & mixing their pre-production for the III album and reharsing the sets for the mentioned shows. There's lot's of interesting surprises prepared for you...

Be there!

16th September - mix

Joaxe and I were in the studio mixing guitars for the demo; it's clear we're increasing the production quality even in this stage of the mix...there's also some sampling already introduced on 'Flashback' all sounding perfect.
Linx recorded his vocal parts for 'Outside In(side)' also improving the first rec's approach.

Reharsing and mixing

The schedule until the end of September will be of total focus on our reharsals for the upoming shows and mixing the pre-production/demo.
The S.Alquimista show will have a larger set of songs and we're looking forward for this show, it will be the best Forgotten Suns' set list up to date; we're testing new songs, new equipment and it will be a show on our own, don't miss this one!!!

The support concerts for 'Timeless' and 'Fish' will be smaller sets but we're preparing a 45 minute hell of a show; both different but equally powerful according to taste.
We have agents on the field to get us more dates until the end of the year, so stay tuned for more news very soon...

Forgotten Suns e Carlos Tavares

Recording vocals until friday

Linx will be recording his vocal lines until Friday according to our schedule. We have more equipment on studio to improve the pre-production quality. I'll post some pictures and video of the sessions along the way.

Vizela 11th August 2006

We had a very special night at Vizela, we made a great concert both as a group and individually and yet we performed for the biggest audience we ever had in our short live career.
The detailed and well organized event by Mr.Carlos Tavares is something we won't forget, he was supportive and for sure one of the biggest promoters of progressive music in Portugal nowadays.

About the concert; we made a very cool jam session for the first time on stage and that was the highest moment of the concert and so was 'Flashback' (a killer live song).

Next live concert will be at Santiago Alquimista 30th September 22:00, we will
make some musical surprises so....don't miss it!

Here's the playlist for that evening and some pictures:

Live Intro
Pay the Price
Senses
Strange Affair with the Night
Struggle
The Final Sentence
Jam Session
Flashback
Betrayed pt.1 (extended version)