Seconds Prior's Practice Space

Hey y'alls! It's been a long time. What's new? Uh huh. Uh huh. Awesome! We've been busy doing DIY packaging and whatnot for the album, New Words For Water. It's really satisfying to be hands on with the stage of production, but it is ridiculously time consuming so thank you for being patient with us. I know you basically already have the album as a listener to our podcast, but if you want a hardcopy go to http://etsy.me/LBcdbV . This video that you're seeing was one of those day off, don't feel like cleaning the house, hey what's this do, sort of things. Hope you like! And don't worry, I'm still writing. Once I get something complete I'll pop it up on here. Til next time, you wonderful things! -Strawberry

Good morning, y'alls! This is a cover that we're working on for Running Scared. There's no vocals but hopefully there are enough small changes throughout the song to keep it from feeling empty and repetitious. Hope you like! And I hope you check out the review for our new album "New Words For Water"(http://www.theequalground.com/1/post/2013/06/seconds-prior-new-words-for-water.html). I'm happy to report that we successfully confused and delighted the writer! Be excellent to each other! - Strawbs

It's here! Our full length album, New Words For Water, available to you for free as a thank you for sticking with us for this long. We've even got a few covers on here for you as a bonus: Riot Act (originally Elvis Costello) and Leonard Cohen & the Wondrous Boat Ride (mash-up of the Willy Wonka song and Who By Fire). We really hope you like it! If you want to download the tracks separately, go to secondsprior.bandcamp.com. The full album is there for free (sans the covers). And if you really really like it and want to donate to help us make another album, click on the Paypal link while you're waiting for the download to finish. Either way, let us know what you think! Thank you, as always, for listening to the sounds we make! - Strawberry @secondsprior facebook.com/secondsprior gmail@secondsprior.com secondsprior@gmail.com

This is a little different. Usually I post new songs that I'm working on, but this really isn't a song per se. Basically, since the mix and mastering of the album is nearing completion, we're trying to think of ways to get our name out there. One of several ideas was to submit a little ditty to Comedy Bang Bang's podcast for their plugs theme. If you haven't listened to their show, then what heck?! Just kidding. They play user submitted theme songs before the guests plug whatever they're doing. That's what this is, sans vocals We'll get some goofy lyrics about plugs in there eventually and send it on out. At that point the title will be some plugs pun, I'm sure. Right now, this is just a place holder title lifted from a line in Fastball's "The Way". You'll notice guitar on here. Don't get excited. I'm still a keyboard guy all the way. - Strawberry

It's amazing what you'll do to put off doing laundry on a Sunday. So I added some bass, some drums, some strings, and some guitars. So there you go. I was worried that I might have overdone with the strings, but I think the feedback transition helps bring it back around at the end. We'll see. Hope you like! - Strawberry

Yes, we're still alive! Although our internet presence has been more or less comatose during the past few months, we've actually been quite busy and productive. We've hired Bill Scott, a friend of ours with much better ears and much better equipment than I've got, to mix and master our album. He's done a first run through for seven out of eleven songs and I am sincerely excited about how everything is turning out. More on that as it develops. This is the first song I've written in a while. Since I didn't have my recording equipment readily available today, this is actually a midi track. And since midi tracks sound thin to me, I added some distortion to give it needed color. The final version probably won't be distorted at all. I called it "Ed Wood" because I just re-watched the Tim Burton film of the same name, and it seemed to fit in a weird way. It's like naive optimism trying to persevere in spite of everything pulling it down. Hope you like it! - Strawberry (p.s. Go to mixlr.com/seconds-prior to hear live and sloppy practice recordings every Friday night. Older broadcasts also available.)

So here is the latest version of Fanfare. I look forward to Sunny writing lyrics for this one so we can get a new title. Anyways, I've added some bass, some fake guitar, and some totally unnecessary nature sounds at the end. Waves coming to shore. A campfire crackling. Don't worry, they are way in the background. - Strawberry

Not much to say about this one. It's a lot fuller now with the bass. I'm not sure if the quiet part into the build makes sense, but I'll sleep on it I guess. Overall I'm happy with it. - Strawberry

We're almost there. After this song, I only have one more post that's just a bass upgrade. Then I have a fuller version of Fanfare for y'alls. But first, Flowerbeds. This used to be called Churrs and Rolls but then for a brief time we had vocals on it and the name was changed to suit the lyrics. Most of those old lyrics have been scrapped, but hopefully whatever new words we come up with to sing will fit with the new title. Was that boring enough? Then away we go! - Strawberry

So this isn't much different from the previous version except for, you guessed it, some added bass. Even the bass itself is fairly minimal. But I'm committed to posting any new versions, regardless of how minor. Plus it's Sunday. I promise, the next few posts will have far more substantial changes (like you might have noticed in The Butcher). Thanks, friendly fellows and enjoy! - Strawberry

You remember The Butcher? Well now it has bass. It's certainly not a subtle bassline, but needless overactive music is sort of my thing. Enjoy! - Strawberry

Another installment of my series of mild improvements through bass. I know, it's not much of a change but whatevs. This sort of closes out a chapter for me. I wrote bass to the last seven songs that needed it, and now I don't have any lingering parts or unfinished bits (aside from vocals that Sunny has to write). So once I've finished posting all of these, I'll be working with a clean slate. Probably for the first time in almost 10 years. So weird. Anyways, hope you enjoy! - Strawberry

I know it's not a very dramatic change, but this is one of six or seven songs that I only recently added bass to (preposition). There will actually be a newer version of this song coming at some point because I lost the other individual keyboard tracks and only have a single mixed copy of all of them. It may seem like that should be fine but I actually have to have the individual tracks separated if I want to play the song live ever. I already have the piano and strings taken care of but those weird backing sounds came about accidentally the first time so there's no way I can recreate them the same way. Whatever I end up recording this time around will probably be much different, so stay tuned for that. - SB

I love two-minute songs. As you may already know from the previous posting, the song name didn't come out of a moment of pride. It was more meant to be a sarcastic and bitter title. But I must say, I am very proud this song. - Strawberry

The song title made a lot more sense when it was just piano played an octave or two higher than what you hear on the recording. Now that it's played lower, it sounds like hippos at a dance party. This is one of those songs where I had the first two parts for a long (loooooong) time but couldn't figure out what to do with them. Seriously, I want to say a year and a half and even that's being conservative. Per usual, the drums are spastic and there's a build. Enjoy! - Strawberry

So I'm not sure if instrumentally I can call this song finished, because normally I have at least three keyboard layers before calling it quits. But on this one I've only got the original piano and the fake bass. It feels like I might clutter it a bit too much if I add another layer, but I don't know. I'll sleep on it. Forgive me if the mix isn't perfect. I'm using a pair of old headphones as the monitors, and I'm sure it sounds a lot different on actual functioning speakers. - Strawberry

This is the only song we have where the vocals came first, an oddly enough it's one of our first songs that came together. It was an interesting challenge and I'd love to be able to do it again. -Strawberry

The title for this song came from a poem of mine that was rejected from publication. It was describing the sound of an industrial air conditioner. Originally, there was no piano double on the distorted melody. It was only meant as a guide for Sunny, because he said it sounded too muddled the way it was. But it quickly stuck. -Strawberry

This song underwent probably the second most rewrites in our entire catalogue. And, even though it should feel overworked to us, it's actually become one of our favorites to play out. The pulsating backing track that you hear 2/3's of the way through the song helped a lot. I got the idea from a Super Furry Animals song called Night Vision. In that song, when it seems like it should get loud and crazy, it becomes really muted and bass-y. I loved the flip, so I did my own version of it. -Strawberry

*Disclaimer* The placeholder title for this song has nothing to do with the Muslim faith. It came from the sound sample that used to be in the song. Sunny had started using a digital recorder to get field recordings with the intent of having them as sound samples. Most of them didn't work out, but there was one that sounded like a man saying "Ick Alah" and then almost the sound of someone scratching a record. We had it as a part of the song for a long time but cut it towards the very end of the writing process, because it seemed extraneous. When Sunny writes lyrics, I promise we will have an acceptable title. Until then, I apologize for not being more clever. -Strawberry