Dream Theater & Studio

Last Wednesday was a great night at Porto’s Coliseum with Dream Theater and their Chaos in Motion Tour – opening act by Riverside.
I travelled early in the afternoon with Mike so we got plenty of time to talk, to enjoy the ride, and of course, we analysed all our work so far with Forgotten Suns. We had time to talk about the new songs we plan to write: the concepts and aesthetics. It’s such a fantastic moment to plant the seeds for the new songs, to talk about an idea and to have the perception that soon it will be done…probably better than you thought it would ever be…
It’s great to know we’re still focused after such a long period on studio and that we share the same goals in life, both musically and personally.

Returning to studio, more precisely today (22nd June), I spent the morning finishing the lyrics for “Mind Over Matter” and “The News” while Sam was doing some mixes in his drum tracks – which are sounding great by the way!

In the afternoon I re-recorded the rhythm guitar for “Outside In”. The first recordings were sounding a bit muddy and flat so Mike and I got the job done in a pair of hours.
We will be on studio tomorrow and Sunday.

“Up the irons!!!”

Rick

Lyrics and Demo

Today I got earlier in the studio. I felt inspired and got some time to write the lyrics for 'The News' a fantastic new track we're writing. Actually, this song was almost written in December 06 but we never ended it and never had the lyrics finished too...just the chorus, which I also wrote myself at the time.

Today it was almost completed and lyrically sounds huge. It's very easy to write when there's deep concepts and such good music behind; I think this track is one of the highlights of the new album. When Mike arrived on studio I saw his eyes shining with the power of the song, he loved the lyrics by the way!

We spent our time recording keyboards and doing production on 'Outside In', we will eventually re-record the guitars on this track during Friday morning to get an even better sound.

Paulo is still recovering from the flu which affected him during this week so he wasn't on studio today.

We also had time to jam some new ideas for the instrumental section of Doppelganger, this will be a kick ass song my friends!!!;)

cheers

Rick

Studio writings

Another cool day at the studio, Sam and I were listening all tracks, we took notes of weaker spots and changes to improve the songs.

We did our schedule until December 07 and there's a lot to do at Forgotten Suns camp... Some surprises for the old fans until the end of the year;)

Tomorrow Mike, Paulo and I will be on studio recording vocals for 'Racing the Hours'. Mike will be doing some keyboard recordings too and testing new production samples.

I will post some late night pics,
cheers
Rick

Recording vocals and keyboards

We have been on studio recording Paulo's vocals for 'Racing the Hours'; his performance was full of power and feeling, there's no doubt that this demo will sound great - unfortunately he was with the flu since yesterday and his voice was not 100% so we decided to move the sessions for Tuesday.

We spent some time around the new equipment, got time for some EQ on guitars and then we finished the day by recording the last keyboard parts for 'Outside In', there's also new riffs and chords from Mike on this track.

On our way home I was speaking to Mike about the new ideas, the new songs and he enjoyed it a lot. We will be doing around 14/16 songs total until July 30th.

Day at the studio & interview at Prog-pt.com

Today Sam and I went to the studio to listen the keyboard production and to give a review on the already written songs for some re-arrangement ideas.

We have great upgrade ideas on Doppelganger, Pinpoints, Mind Over Matter and The News.

There's great musical ideas and concepts for the new songs...

Tomorrow and Sunday Paulo will be on studio recording his vocal lines for the demo, I'll post some pics here at the end of the day...

cheers,

P.S: There's an new interview with Paulo and myself for Prog-Pt, interview by Mr.Spulit: http://www.prog-pt.com/

Keyboards & production

After a few days off we're back for another report.
Mike spent the whole weekend recording the keyboard parts for 'Outside In' and 'Racing the Hours', then we'll be on studio by tomorrow to listen it.
We also will test new recording equipment (an upgrade for the studio) by recording Paulo's voice, he as been working his parts and for what I listen for ‘Phenotype’ he’s doing it great!

We preview the end of this demo during next week - with the mixing and all the production that this demo will include (bios, photos, videos, band interview, etc) it will be very complete. Part of it will be available on our Myspace website (www.myspace.com/fsuns ) - our apologies for the long period without the official website, we are doing our best to return on the net with a new layout and high quality.

We will officially start the 3rd period of writing next Monday 18th June 2007.
I had some time to think about new concepts since we will write 3 or 4 completely new tracks.
We are also ready to re-write some parts from the previous tracks so they can sound
ok to our ears and fit in this album; we are doing lyrics and we’re inspired for the writing days that will soon arrive.

More posts soon,
Cheers
Rick

Guitar Day

Another busy day at the studio recording guitars for our new demo, there's many new details and the music is sounding superb.There's more space between instruments and yet without mixings and production sounds good. We recorded from 14:00 to 21:00, my brain completely evaporated,even though Mike and I left the studio really happy with the results!!!(hell yeah).

Next days will be to record the remaining keyboards on 'Outside In' and 'Racing the Hours'.

more posts soon,

cheers

Rick

Bass tracks - Racing the Hours

Saturday, 2nd July during the afternoon: the scheduled date to record Nuno's bass tracks for ‘Racing the Hours’.
It was one of the hottest days in the last few months so we felt all a little tired though we managed the recordings and performance as usual.
The bass sound is better than ever, both Nuno and Mike got a fantastic sound by
tweaking the compressors and pre-amps in a specific way…also Nuno’s technique helped a lot for the final result.
Nuno re-invented the bass for the bridge and there will be a new guitar approach for this section.
All bass tracks are recorded for this new demo.

More posts during the week,
regards
Rick

Outside In demo

Another cool day at the studio recording guitars for 'Outside In' - one of the best songs of the new album!
The ryhtym section is grooving too much, great work of Sammy and Nuno on this one. I worked out new approaches in 2 sections of the song and only left out the guitar solo for tomorrow or maybe Saturday.
Mike will be recording the keyboards during the weekend while Nuno and I will record the guitars for 'Racing the Hours', the next track on schedule.

Paulo went to the studio later and we closed the day working on the vocals for Phenotype.

more reports soon,

regards
Rick

Outside In - bass tracks

Saturday, 26th May 2007 -16:00...

Nuno, Mike and I arrived at the studio to record 'Outside In' - Nuno 'Strap' delivered the goods. The bass tone is really good and it was one of his best recording sessions. Mike is improving really fast as an engineer from session to session and again we really worked well as a team; this track as several bass and drum's upgrades since the 1st demo we recorded in July 06.

We promised Nuno a printed t-shirt with all of his 'pool takes'...(private joke).

All guitar and keyboard parts are scheduled for this week, then we move to Racing the Hours.

Vocal recordings and mixes will start in about 2 weeks.

more news soon

regards

Rick

Phenotype - the demo

This week we had Paulo on studio(on tuesday) to work the new vocal approach for Phenotype with great results. It's really rewarding to have him on the band; we're opening new horizons and expanding our ideas along with great teamwork. We're still working the vocals for the demo with his/our new ideas during next week and soon we'll be recording the final takes.

Today Nuno and I recorded the final details for Phenotype, the track has achieved another dimension since the last demo we recorded on December 06.
We'll be on studio next Saturday to record 'Outside In': bass + guitar + keyboards!!!

Have a nice weekend;)
Rick

Friday at the studio

Yesterday I arrived early at the studio to workout and record my guitar parts for 'Phenotype', Mike is doing a great job on keyboards and engineering for this song; we're preparing the mix so Paulo can lay is vocal lines next week.

I had time to write more lyrics and develop the concept for 'Mind Over Matter' & 'The News' - both songs in preparation.

Sammy is away for some days while mixing the 2nd album with Ava Inferi, though all drum tracks to 'Outside In' are recorded so we will start the guitar, bass and keyboard recordings during this week.

Have a nice weekend!

Rick

New singer, new demo, new breed...

As you probably read on the Official website we have a new singer: Paulo Pacheco

There's nothing much to be said when someone enters or leaves a project: we are all
human, we are all different people and things will be different on Forgotten Suns from now on!
We're extremely confident on our decisions and choices, so we know that only time will prove to you the weight of our new path.
There are new boundaries to be crossed, new visions to share; we're entering a new Era...

Today Mike, Nuno and I were on studio recording the new demo we're working on.
Nuno did an excellent bass work for 'Phenotype' and I recorded all rhythm guitars
only leaving the delayed verse lines to be worked tomorrow morning.
There are many upgrades from the original version for this track since what we did in November…

More news soon, stay tuned

Rick

Studio update - Side projects

Hello fellows,

it's been a time since the last post (late January I think) so here's an update to everyone:
We decided to make a break on the intensive days at the studio and we're using this time to reflect on each note and written words on the last 6 months - it's a lot of stuff and there's a lot to digest. We're expecting news from our future label and we're closer to get a decision here.

In the meantime, the studio has been upgraded with new equipment and we're increasing the quality of our recordings and production. This is something very important for future works.

Band members are using the reflection period to work on side-projects:

Mike, Sam and I spent all days in studio since January writing and performing songs for the EP of a new metal band called 'Ceinwyn' with Ana David on vocals. This is a great band and we're thrilled to work together and doing such creative material. It's been a fantastic experience!
I'm doing both guitar and bass work on studio.

Sam is also reharshing with Doom Metal band 'Ava Infieri' and will be entering studio on April to record drums tracks. It's Ava's 2nd album for Season of Mist label.

There will be more news on the following days,

regards folks!

Minds over Music

A week of work and we are close to the end for Mind Over Matter; this track is a bit complex, though it's sounding easy to the ears which is interesting.
Yesterday, we wrote all sections and all riffs until the 2nd chorus and started the grand finale, it will be a live blast!! In the end of the day we worked the instrumental's final section for this track, it's kinda 'Van Helsing' mood and there will be many solos here(bass and drum solos too) , lots of details on this one - this is a 'shreder's' instrumental:)
Still a part of the instrumental to do and the 'finale' to close the song.


More news next week:)

Mind Over Matter & The News

We moved forward on 'Mind Over Matter' writing and we got a solid structure until the 2nd chorus, there's an instrumental section to work tomorrow plus the grand finale... then the writing will be all done!
The guitar parts are making sense now and we're getting a sound closer to Nanoworld and Racing the Hours on this track also.

We recorded the guitar and bass parts for the demo of 'The News' during the afternoon, great job by Mr. Nuno on bass (slap and slap and slap:)
Linx is working the lyrics and there's a taste of fantastic in the air...let's see what he will write for these ones!:)

Mike is doing his first recordings and we're experimenting new recording techniques - achieving great results...nice strike Mike!

Writing

It's 9:20 in the morning and I'm on my way to the studio, we have a lot to work on 'Mind Over Matter' song though, there's many riffs that are already written that can be used.

The chorus for this track is great; in fact the concept started when I saw a Discovery Channel program on TV about the human brain capacity and future powers like healing, moving objects...there's a lot of research in US institutes about this, it's very deep and interesting.

Most of the ideas for this song came when we listened to a riff by Mr.Nuno on our old studio, so his riff has at least 1 year, then when Linx and I were on our way home he got very inspired and started to sing riffs...these riffs led to a session where Mike, Sam and I got other ideas...
so let's consider at this point that we have 95% of the overall writing done and that we just need to put an order on 'Mind' ideas to have 100% final score. After we finish the demo recording for 'Mind Over Matter' and 'The News' we will start to work on pre-production.

Pre-production means that we will be doing arrangements, sounds, effects, guitar/keyboard/bass solos note by note, vocal lines, back vocals, etc etc etc....

16th January - back to studio

That's right, we will return to studio next tuesday to finish the writing of 'Mind Over Matter' and to record guitars, keyboards and vocals for 'The News'.

I'll post some pics then, have a good weekend!:)

Label and back to studio

Dear friends,

This is our 1st post of the new year; we wish you all a great 2007!!!

Has you know, we did a great effort to finish the writings for the new album before Christmas, though, there were 2 tracks that remained unfinished - 'The News' and 'Mind Over Matter'.
We will be gathering today to speak and to align some ideas about written songs and about the making of the 2 tracks above mentioned. We have some days off so we will accelerate again to finally give an end to the writing process.

We can assure you that this album will not be released under the label of Magic Rope Music, in fact, this album will be released under a foreigner bigger label that we will not reveal until it's all black on white. We are confident to give you more info about this at the end of this month.

Next posts will follow soon...

Band Recording - no comments

Nanoworld guitars

Nuno and I spend all day recording "Nunoworld"...ops, 'Nanoworld':)
Linx wrote all the lyrics in the afternoon and again it's a great vocal work, hard one to sing...
At night Mike and I finished 'Flesh & Bones'.

Today it's another recording marathon, great!:)

Phenotype

I was recording 'Racing the Hours' with Nuno until 15 o'clock; then we jumped into 'Nanoworld' drum tracks in the afternoon and finally at night Linx recorded amazing vocals for 'Phenotype' - we're on our way to a monster album!

Magic path - 18 December report

Yesterday Mike, Sam and I jammed on 'Mind Over Matter' ideas - we're still inspired after the 'Nanorworld' experience; we nailed an intro very quickly, then we picked the bass riff from Nuno and Linx' stuff and got a basic structure that we recorded to work later on...it's another great track on the making.

In the afternoon Mike recorded his parts for 'Phenotype' and for 'Flesh & Bones' - tremendous organ sound from his Oasys for the chorus and final section!!!
We got out of the studio very late, so here's my morning post and I'm on my way to the studio again.

Final Week 2006 - writing

There's already a Christmas feeling in the air and everyone shopping for the celebration night 24 to 25 December...well, at least our wifes were:) We've been deeply focused on the studio since 11th November and we have a personal deadline at 22 December (we have 5 more days of writing ahead).
This week we will record everything that's still missing, write 'Mind Over Matter' and maybe even another track...

Here goes the tracklist so far:
-Racing the Hours
-Doppleganger
-Flashback
-Outside In
-Pinpoints
-Phenotype
-Flesh & Bones
-Nanoworld
-The News
-The Hill
-An Outer of Body Experience

-Mind Over Matter?
-.....?:)

Nanoworld - final chords written today

Just a few minutes ago the final chords of Nanoworld were written!
The song has about 12 minutes lenght and 6 of them are one of the best instrumental extravaganza we made so far...
Mike and I went to the studio in the morning to work the unisson section, then Sam joined us in the afternoon to make it until the end.
We all left the studio with a big smile on our faces;)

Invited Guest - Nano instrumental

Today we were visited by Mr. José Carlos Maltez our dear friend and the webmaster at Burning Suns Fan Club(www.burning-suns.com).
He was the first to listen the new material we wrote since 11th November and the first once to see how we develop our ideas on the spot - thank you JC for your patience today:)

Sam, Mike and I jammed on Nanoworld riffs and got some cool stuff going on; tomorrow Mike and I will start working the guitar/keyboard arrangements for this one.

At the end of the day Joax and I recorded 'Phenotype' guitars (with JC listening) and also 'Flesh & Bones' - only the guitar solos still missing on this song.

Mind over Matter - first impression

Yesterday we had another pair of busy hours at the studio; in the morning Sam was doing the drums for 'Racing the Hours' (one of my fave) and we made some improvement on 'Phenotype' structure, now sounds even better.
I got some time with Joax to make some minor changes on the mixing for 'The Hill'.
In the afternoon, Nuno and Sam recorded their parts for 'Phenotype' demo, it's one of the most catchy songs of the album - without a doubt!:)
Nuno and Linx recorded their ideas for 'Mind Over Matter' before leaving and then Sam, Mike and I got really inspired and worked the chorus plus one of the riffs for the instrumental section - another high FS moment my friends:)

Tomorrow there will be more posts with crazy pics, don't miss it...

Said and done - Phenotype (Garden of Creation)

3 hours around the new riff, some glue here and there including the time to pause and reflect about it, also to record the basic idea while we were writing and performing, a final mental stretch to make a progressive approach for the end of the song and...it was done.

The small idea that Mike played on piano in the previous day gave us another powerful mini-track with 3:50 lenght but with an incredibly 'Mr.Heavy meets Mr.Cool' energy...Linx is now developing the lyrics for this track in the next few days.

Today we will have the mix of 'The Hill' ready has a demo and we will be developing more instrumental for 'Nanoworld'. There will be more recordings for Flesh & Bones eventually.

I'll make a late night post with the de-briefing, c'ya there folks.

An Outer of Body Experience

Yesterday we jammed on the instrumental section of 'Nanoworld' and got more steps ahead in the song, it's really hard to play because the cold weather frozens our fingers...fortunately our ideas & riffs are colder than ever:) - Nuno on the image...freezing!

Great work from all members on 'An Outer of Body Experience' - this track has the vibe of tracks like 'Routine'(Fiction Edge album) or 'The Final Sentence'(Snooze album) but it has all the ingredients of a classic Forgotten Suns piece of music for the future - deep lyrics, great singing; melodic chords and out of control mood for guitar solo; high quality production on keyboards à la Mike 'Merlin', solid bass and a bass solo with a jazzy edge and splendid work of Mr.JC Samora on drums - fantastic tom section between the 7/4 intro!
A word for the brave José Machado 'Joax' for doing a great recording and mixing work on the last few days of recordings.

While I was closing my guitar case I heard a great sequence of notes from Mike, who was just walking his fingers on his grey beast...immediately I told him to repeat the last notes and I believed we have now the basics to another great track - we both agree that it would fit the concept for a new track called Phenotype(Garden of Creation).

Let's see what today brings...

Time for a snack - don't disturb (band working)

Another nice day of creativity flowing on the studio, we jammed on 'The News' instrumental section and now we have a good block of solos (keyboard vs. guitar) and a fine link to Mike's chords to end it. When our heads are hurting at the end of the day it means we had a good time and we're on the right path:)
Well, you can see us on the 'pause for our little snack' - yes we spend all days until sunset and after on the studio. Also Linx writing more lyrics for 'An Outer of Body Experience' - great lyrics my friend!:)

sunday report - a new week begins

Yesterday we didn't jammed because I was the only one at the studio, the guys couldn't make it so I used my time to listen all recorded ideas and work some new riffs out.
The instrumental section for 'The News' will be improved, right now it only consists of a keyboard structure so it need some hours of writing (guitar, bass, drums) to be perfect.

A new week begins, it's 8:32 a.m and I'm on my way to the studio...we have until 22nd December to finish the writings for this album.

I'm sure that this album cuts with the sound from our previous albums; it's more 'in your face' and 90% of it it's prog-metal attitude and sound. Everyone is doing a great work and we're almost near the target (14 songs) so then we can have enough room to decide which ones fit better.
This album will be a thick wall of sound and it's not a concept (that's the 1st cut with the past).
It will reveal a more personalized band because the sound of tracks like 'Doppelganger', 'Flashback' and 'Racing the Hours' will turn them to be true classics - i'm 100% sure of it!:)

I believe that we will pick the instrumental section for 'Nanoworld' in the morning and record guitars for 'An Outer of Body Experience' (AOBE) at the end of the day.

Sunday at the studio - new ideas

We'll be jamming and preparing work for the following 2 weeks we have left so we can finish the writing process on 22th December. I'll be doing a late night post today with some results
and new ideas.

Recordings

Just a quick note to make a briefing from yesterday's work at the studio: Sam recorded the drums for 'Flesh & Bones' and so did Nuno. Mike recorded keyboards for 'An Outer of Body Experience' this way we have advanced some recording work.
This weekend I'll be on studio with Linx to analyse/record and make more lyrics for the created songs. I'll be working on the guitars for 'Flesh & Bones' and 'Racing the Hours' too.
Next monday we will be writing new material, there's an instrumental section for 'Nanoworld' to be made and there's many riffs for 'Mind Over Matter' that we need to put in order to make a brand new track!