Rehearsals

Hello,
there has been a time since my last entry here again...just a quick message to let you know the band is in the process of moving to a new studio with better conditions; meanwhile we're rehearsing and preparing the line up of songs at a friend's studio with Sammy again performing with his Sonor kit and my 4x12 cabinets roaring high n'loud.

We will kick off with a full show at Santiago Alquimista, it will be a great concert so we expect your presence there, if you are a true proghead you shouldn't miss this one....

regards
Rick

New Demo & Rehearsals

Just a quick run on this corner do drop a summary of what we've been doing...
We are closer to debut the new website, the last details are being polished and there's plenty of new info to read and listen.

Here are some pics of us during the rehearsals for the following shows and some other of us with Marta Machado our live VJ. She's collaborating with us for our new demo presentation while I was finishing the demo mixes.

Check out our myspace for a quick preview in one of the demo tracks:

http://www.myspace.com/fsuns

cheers

Rick

Live dates/Studio report

Hello there, we're back on earth to give you a few more lines about Forgotten Suns daily work. We hope you've spent a good time during the pause on this blog and we have some news for you that you might enjoy...;)

We started 2007/2008 season on 3rd September; in the last couple of weeks the band has already finished a new demo, now with Paulo on vocals and improved instrumentals. I think we did a very good job, we were quite demanding and meticulous during both recording and mixing stages and this will eventually lead us to a new record deal.
Any of the ways, we will start to re-write all album songs (which means upgrade them!) and we will do the pre-production starting in October.

Meanwhile the band will debut live with new singer Paulo Pacheco on the ranks, there's 4 live dates scheduled so far and more to come:
-09th November at Santiago Alquimista (Lisboa)
-29th November at In Live Caffé (Moita)
-05th December at Aula Magna (Lisboa, opening act for Fish)
-06th December at Europarque (Stª Mª da Feira, opening act for Fish)

Paulo Pacheco features on the 2nd Project Creation' album 'Dawn on Pyther'.
Another excellent album by Mr.Hugo Flores featuring great musicians singing great songs!
http://www.myspace.com/projectcreation

keep tuned,

regards
Ricardo Falcão

Work in Progress

Today I'll be on studio with Mike until Paulo goes in to record more vocals. We have been locked in producing our 3rd album’s demo for quite some time now but the sound quality is now amazing. These days are precious for Paulo's integration and interaction with the band which is the biggest task for us actually. We are getting great results and we’re adapting ourselves to another musician, it’s another depth and another approach on vocals which gives us a different musical shape. We’re quite happy with the results and we sense good news ahead very soon.
We are editing the demo until 8th July and then we will make a break returning back on work for this album on 3rd September.

Vocal recordings

Another Sunday afternoon at the studio recording Paulo's vocals...

E.T on bass & growling vocals

Cool afternoon o studio today; we got Nuno recording is low vocals on 'Racing the Hours' and the bass intro for 'Outside In'...Nuno on the pic with his E.T left hand pose...
We spent the whole afternoon mixing the demo tracks and we scheduled the July/August period for the studio, there will be plenty of activity at Forgotten Suns' camp!

cheers
Rick

Vocal recordings

Another nice end of the day recording vocals, Paulo is delivering some amazing takes and we're upgrading the recordings day after day. Today we had 2 beatiful guests on studio who helped setting up an even higher mood on studio, thank you Rita and Xana;)

We ended up the session by listening the instrumental section of 'Outside In' and we left the studio with a big smile on our faces...;)

more posts tomorrow,

cheers

Rick

Mixings & Recordings for demo

We've been on studio all day mixing and recording vocals later in the afternoon. We're on our way to get the best sound; Paulo is getting the vocals done and sounding great!

10 hours on studio, I'm a bit tired so I'll post more reports tomorrow,

cheers

Rick

Heavy Fuel - keyboard production

Just a quick note to tell you we've been on studio the whole weekend producing the keyboards. Mike is doing a very intensive and amazing work, it's without a doubt the best keyboards layers and solos we ever had on Forgotten.

I did some re-recordings on 'Ouside In' guitars, now they're breathing has we like;)

More work on studio tomorrow...

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...

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