Our Band's First Album

[Arbys550]

Our band Kitchen Sink just released our very first album! We're a prog band with some sparse jazz influence and some light metal. This is all of our first forays into the world of music. The production quality is questionable but we think the composition is strong.

 

We definitely learned a lot and grew a lot as musicians and songwriters in the process of making this. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Credits:

Spoiler

Lineup:

Donovan Myers - Electric Guitar, Bass
Phoenix Myers - Drums, Keyboards
Anthony Nunez - Lead Vocals (Tracks 1, 2, and 7)
Genna Preston - Lead Vocals (Tracks 3 and 5), some Keyboards (Track 3)
Joe Preston - Acoustic Guitar, Trombone
Jake Walden - Lead Vocals (Track 3)

Writing Credits:

Kitchen Suite - Joe Preston, Donovan Myers, Phoenix Myers
Outside - Phoenix Myers
La Bestia - Joe Preston
Clown Analysis - Donovan Myers
Once Upon a Time - Joe Preston
Jacob's Lullaby - Phoenix Myers
Clandestiny - Donovan Myers

Mixing by Aaron Young
Album Art by Madeline Curtis
Sound Engineering by Keegan Welka

 

Additional Details:

Spoiler

Band History:

 

The band started with the core group of Donovan, Phoenix, Joe, Genna, and Jake. We are all cousins, are musically interested, and like a lot of the same bands. We started by writing a series of joke songs that ended up on a short EP that's on Youtube called "Cooks Crew," but soon after, decided we wanted to do something more substantial. That's when we decided to write more serious "prog" stuff. We all really liked old-school prog bands, especially Genesis, and were also heavily inspired by an obscure modern band called Bubblemath.

 

As we got more serious, Genna and Jake started to lose interest in the band and started to drift away as vocalists, leaving the core writing group of Joe, Donovan, and Phoenix to work on composition while we looked for another singer. Eventually, with the entire rest of the album written and recorded without vocals, Anthony Nunez was brought in to finish vocals on Kitchen Suite, Outside, and Clandestiny.

 

Tracking was done in the Preston's basement with one mic and Audacity. The album was mixed by Aaron Young and the cover art was created by Madeline Curtis.

Our writing process is very individual, not collaborative, which we think led to a wide range of writing styles between songs. Each separate song was written by only one member, with one exception. La Bestia was the first song written, along with another song that we decided to use as a bonus track called "Snow." Then came Once Upon a Time, Jacob's Lullaby, Clandestiny, Outside, and Clown Analysis. The last song written was Kitchen Suite, which was the only song we collaborated on. This led to us calling it a "Suite" because it seemed too disjoint to be one song.

Individual Song Background:

 

Kitchen Suite:
This song is actually split into multiple sections. "Conception" starts at 0:00, "The Fungus of Eats" starts at 1:37, 'Duggle" starts at 4:47, "Journey" starts at 7:31, "Redeem" starts at 11:09, and "Arrival" starts at 13:31.

 

This song started with Donovan writing "Conception." He wanted the album to start with a bang and give a good introduction as to what the rest of the album would sound like. "The Fungus of Eats" was written by Donovan, Phoenix, and Joe from a jam session. "Duggle" was written by Joe. "Journey" was written by Donovan. The chord progression for the trombone solo was born out of a jam session.

 

The song tells of a magical fungus with life-giving properties that is known by all but only sought out by one individual. The story is a metaphor for Joe's discovery of prog and the way that prog rewards listeners who choose to take the time to get to know it.

 

Outside:
This song was written over a long period of time by Phoenix. It tells a tale of introversion and what it's like to feel detached from those around you. This was inspired by "Everything" by Bubblemath. It was created by experimenting with different sets of maj9 chords until it sounded right. The middle section was written by Phoenix improvising a drum section and then writing the chords and melody after. The song had no end chorus initially, but Donovan and Joe pressured Phoenix to add one.

 

La Bestia:
This song tells of a beast stuck in a tar pit, who, despite his desperate situation, decides to keep strong and trust that he'll get out one day. This was the first song we wrote and the first we recorded.

 

Clown Analysis:
This song was written with the last section first. Donovan wanted to add a short, creepy, complex instrumental to the album. He wanted to take "Entry of the Gladiators" and add a rhythm section of changing time signatures to create some sort of creepy circus. At first it sounded awful, so he changed it to a cycle of odd time signatures that had the same length as 4 bars of 4/4 so the melody would still fit into an odd time signature setting. Because the melody was so chromatic, he found that he could pretty much choose any chords for the guitar and keyboard and it wouldn't sound too bad. The distorted organ sounds in this song and in Clandestiny were inspired by the band Van Der Graaf Generator.

 

The first 2 minutes of the song were written after the final section. Donovan wanted to keep the song fast-paced and not give the listener a chance to breathe.

 

Once Upon a Time:
This is a fantasy song about a seaside kingdom and focuses on the daughter of a ship captain. The young girl awaits his return from his voyage, living vicariously through his journeys. She fantasizes about one day riding the waves with her father.

 

Jacob's Lullaby:
We felt we should have some sort of short, spacey interlude to precede the final song, so Phoenix whipped this one up. The title refers to Jacob's Ladder, the final ascent your soul takes into heaven after you die. Jacob's Lullaby is an attempt to capture that process in sound, although the concept was made up posthumously after the song was already written.

 

Clandestiny:
This is the first song Donovan wrote for the album. The song wasn't supposed to be that long, but it ended up ballooning into 16 minutes. "Clandestiny" is a fake word Donovan made up that he thought sounded cool. It is the noun form of "Clandestine," which means something that is kept secret and hidden from enemy espionage. It is a word typically used in a wartime context, and this context is used as a metaphor for the decision to keep one's art hidden from other people.

 

The protagonist believes other people will inevitably misunderstand his work and dismiss it due to flippant reasons, which angers him. He feels the only way to stop his anger is to never tell anyone about the art he enjoys, thus practicing "Clandestiny." He treats his mind as a secret that he feels he must keep from "the enemy," which is the people around him. The song illustrates this concept by looking at the protagonist's point of view, and how people hate music they've never taken the time to try to understand. The lyrics mirror Donovan's actual experience, although exaggerated in some spots.

 

Musically, Donovan tried to emulate more complex passages from bands like Dream Theater, Van Der Graaf Generator, Wobbler, and Bubblemath in the middle section, with changing time signatures and lots of dark and heavy harmonic structures. The final section before the chorus reprise was inspired by the section at 7:01 of "The Cinema Show," by Genesis.

 

The album name was made "Clandestiny" because originally we wanted to keep the album a secret to avoid embarrassment. This mirrors the concept of the song so we decided to use it as the album name.

Influences on the Album:

Genesis, Bubblemath, Van Der Graaf Generator, Dream Theater, Tool, Wobbler, Seven Impale, Louis Armstrong, Thank You Scientist

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by Arbys550

[Eon Toad]

Only a couple songs in so far, but this is some cool stuff.

[OceanMadman]

I really like the second song, nice stuff.

[Human Being]

On 3/8/2023 at 7:08 PM, Arbys550 said:

Our band Kitchen Sink just released our very first album! We're a prog band with some sparse jazz influence and some light metal. This is all of our first forays into the world of music. The production quality is questionable but we think the composition is strong.

 

We definitely learned a lot and grew a lot as musicians and songwriters in the process of making this. Enjoy!

 

 

Just gonna paste your YT Description info here as well. I started listening and I'm on track 3 just passed 24 minutes now. I dig it man. Really like the latter sections of Outside; the stripped down breakdowns that maintain soothing melodies. Good stuff :)

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

* * *

 

Debut album by Kitchen Sink

Buy at: https://kitchensink2.bandcamp.com

0:00 Kitchen Suite (Conception/The Fungus of Eats/Duggle/Journey/Redeem/Arrival)

13:48 Outside

20:04 La Bestia

29:13 Clown Analysis

32:52 Once Upon a Time

41:29 Jacob's Lullaby

44:12 Clandestiny

 

Donovan Myers - Electric Guitar, Bass

Phoenix Myers - Drums, Keyboards

Anthony Nunez - Lead Vocals (1, 2, 7)

Genna Preston - Lead Vocals (3, 5), Keyboards (3)

Joe Preston - Trombone, Acoustic Guitar

Jake Walden - Lead Vocals (3)

 

Mixing by Aaron Young

Sound Engineering by Keegan Welka

Album Art by Madeline Curtis

 

Released: Feb 17, 2023

 

[Arbys550]

On 3/8/2023 at 9:09 PM, Eon Toad said:

Only a couple songs in so far, but this is some cool stuff.

 

On 3/13/2023 at 10:52 AM, OceanMadman said:

I really like the second song, nice stuff.

 

On 3/19/2023 at 10:32 AM, Human Being said:

 

Just gonna paste your YT Description info here as well. I started listening and I'm on track 3 just passed 24 minutes now. I dig it man. Really like the latter sections of Outside; the stripped down breakdowns that maintain soothing melodies. Good stuff :)

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

* * *

 

Debut album by Kitchen Sink

Buy at: https://kitchensink2.bandcamp.com

0:00 Kitchen Suite (Conception/The Fungus of Eats/Duggle/Journey/Redeem/Arrival)

13:48 Outside

20:04 La Bestia

29:13 Clown Analysis

32:52 Once Upon a Time

41:29 Jacob's Lullaby

44:12 Clandestiny

 

Donovan Myers - Electric Guitar, Bass

Phoenix Myers - Drums, Keyboards

Anthony Nunez - Lead Vocals (1, 2, 7)

Genna Preston - Lead Vocals (3, 5), Keyboards (3)

Joe Preston - Trombone, Acoustic Guitar

Jake Walden - Lead Vocals (3)

 

Mixing by Aaron Young

Sound Engineering by Keegan Welka

Album Art by Madeline Curtis

 

Released: Feb 17, 2023

 

 

I'm glad you guys are enjoying it! I guess I should've put in a bit more info in OP. I've got a whole writeup of the band's history on our Bandcamp that I can put in a spoiler. I'm Donovan Myers, the guitarist btw.

[DrWho42]

listening on bandcamp now!

[Linuxmaster1992]

Damn, this is chill. Imma follow you guys on bandcamp

I love the trombone here, absolutely radical!

[HorseJockey]

Just gave this a listen and enjoyed it quit a bit. Stand out tracks for me were La Bestia and Clown Analysis. I am an absolute sucker for horn work, this reminded me of an improv jazz get together I used to frequent back in the day. I also really enjoyed your "questionable production quality", I think you folks did a fine job there. I really enjoy the jam band quality that the recording has, it feels raw but not unfinished. Congrats on release, look forward to hearing more!

[Barondante]

Yeah, you guys have a really good singer, and the music very assured. I personally think good melodies and composition win out every time over production not to say the productions is bad. But yeah, quite like this... I bought it on bandcamp my name is Wolfwatching on there. Unfortunately I've to wait a certain amount of time to have the same name on Doomworld... anyway best of luck.

[Arbys550]

On 3/23/2023 at 4:50 AM, DrWho42 said:

listening on bandcamp now!

 

On 4/14/2023 at 11:17 AM, Linuxmaster1992 said:

Damn, this is chill. Imma follow you guys on bandcamp

I love the trombone here, absolutely radical!

Thanks so much! Glad you guys are enjoying it!

 

On 4/18/2023 at 9:56 PM, HorseJockey said:

Just gave this a listen and enjoyed it quit a bit. Stand out tracks for me were La Bestia and Clown Analysis. I am an absolute sucker for horn work, this reminded me of an improv jazz get together I used to frequent back in the day. I also really enjoyed your "questionable production quality", I think you folks did a fine job there. I really enjoy the jam band quality that the recording has, it feels raw but not unfinished. Congrats on release, look forward to hearing more!

Nice to see some love for Clown Analysis, that was my song and I got pretty off the rails with it. My motto when writing that song was "objectively bad, subjectively good." I think it's probably the hardest song for people to enjoy who aren't in the target audience.

 

As for the hearing more part, the band broke up after me and my brother moved to Virginia to start our careers, so no more from this band. Me and my brother are gonna try to start another band though, we've learned a lot from this and we've got some really promising compositions cooking.

 

On 4/19/2023 at 12:09 AM, Barondante said:

Yeah, you guys have a really good singer, and the music very assured. I personally think good melodies and composition win out every time over production not to say the productions is bad. But yeah, quite like this... I bought it on bandcamp my name is Wolfwatching on there. Unfortunately I've to wait a certain amount of time to have the same name on Doomworld... anyway best of luck.

Thanks for the purchase! I told myself I'd be happy with this album if we could provide joy to at least one person in the world, and it looks like we've done it!