We are happy to announce that we have finished up our third record The ART OF LOSSES.
It has been a very interesting process full of hurdles and new beginnings.
You might not have seen us around Seattle lately.
We have been recording in a studio deep in the woody mountains of Maine.
It has been a process that we had to work through and a steep learning curve as well.
This is the first record that we have fully engineered + recorded ourselves.
It takes awhile to amass the equipment necessary to record to a level that we required and still
further with much trial and error to write the songs and record it with some level of proficiency.
I guess all the years of working in studios in Seattle and up and down the west coast all comes
trickling back in what you hope are golden drops from the gods!.
We had many of those “oh yeah” moments. “Remember when he was doing that?”, “Oh. that’s
what he was using for that sound?”
It took longer than expected but we feel it was worth the weight. during the process our lives
changed for the better in some ways. We lost some who were near to us. Those experiences were
sure to wash over us and color the sound and direction of where we were going with the record.
You don’t always know where it will lead you.
Many times we started in the morning with a clear vision of where the record was going and then
as if completely on its own, it would carry us along with it until stopping in what was found as
its personality or true expression.
The natural reaction is to try to reign it in, to somehow shape it into what you think it should
be, what it should sound like. Ultimately, I think the songs triumphed. The sounds were created
using organic and electronic instruments. Something that we as a band probably shied away from
during our earlier recordings. Thinking in some way that “you must sound a little more one way,
so we can’t use that instrument, synth or whatever”

That was out the door on this batch of recordings. Whatever midi sound, patch or effect was used
as necessary if it felt good to us we found that it usually sounded good as well at the end of the
day. This was extremely liberating for us from a writing+producing perspective.

The process of writing at late night hours started at some point – I can’t remember exactly when.
We would start up in the studio around 11:00 pm with an idea or sound that was in our heads,
fire everything up, then work out some rudimentary beat and melody and just build the song
from there. We ended up scrapping a bunch of those songs, but. sometimes it works to flip
schedules and sometimes you come out with a far flung idea that was executed with a little too
much zeal!!

It isn’t important either way. As long as you have explored the idea creatively and to it its fullest
you have probably learned something about your writing or voice that you can catalogue as
something that works or doesn’t work for you. Then you can then judge whether you want to
pull from that part of yourself or just leave it well enough alone. Quite often, the later!

Something in the range of 60 recorded songs were brought to the table and up to a point of a
solid, produced demo quality recording. Not so hard to do once you get your work flow right.
On the contrary it became much harder to stay objective with all the new songs that were
flooding in and to scrutinize and critique which ones were the true “keepers”

and which ones were just playing up to our egos with their sonic flattery and newness.

If a song is just an extension of ourselves it can be quite dangerous territory to bask in your own
self adoration. The story the greek god (Narcissus) that loved himself so much that while looking
into a pool of water, he fell in and drowned, so mesmerized by his own reflection. The
Greeks being great appreciators of art, I am sure they realized this and perhaps were warning
artists of their possible folly.

In the end, we settled on 12 songs. Though, many more have even seen further treatment to the point of being mixed and ready as for completion. They will sit with the other wallflowers waiting their turn until someday someone will
pull them from obscurity and lift their 1′s and 0′s souls from the plastic and silicon hard drive
where they have grown so cold. They will breathe the breath of live into them and give them
wing to fly forever in the universe as far as satellites can carry them for all time…… until that
day, they shall remain: quiet, and wait.

12, 12, seems like such a paltry number not even an unlucky 13. But surely enough for one’s
listening pleasure
It feels like maybe you have not chosen just the right songs at the end. That you somehow could
have written better ones. That you should have learned more in all the songs you had written or
great ones that you basked in while listening saying to yourself saying “I could write something
like that! I have that depth inside of me, I have that ability – I just have not exercised it yet. My
true voice will emerge and then it will be great.”

The search will go on forever. As long as we are alive.

I think in the end that is what you end up living for. To prove yourself to yourself. That you
exist. That you were alive and that you mean something?

Editors note: I got up this morning and spilled this out. Oddly enough, it was a PBS
documentary on wolverines that I watched last night that inspired it.

Pocket by theblakes

Art of Losses by theblakes

It will be out soon and we will tour to follow the record.
looking forward to it!

With this book, Jarvis has created a snapshot of a city’s culture through its people. And it’s inclusive. Descriptive rather than prescriptive. It’s a 100, not an exclusive the100, and it invites each of us to survey our own surroundings, our lives, our friends—and those not yet our friends—that make up the place we live, whether that’s Seattle or anywhere else. Individually, the images and words here introduce you to 100 engaging and important people. Collectively, this portrait of a city tells a fascinating, interwoven story about a unique and vibrant place.

Beyond the photos and commentary by Jarvis, there are pithy musings by a select handful of subjects on the topics of art, food, community, region, culture, and film. In addition, many of the subjects share their favorite things, places, and doings in and around the Seattle that they have explored, discovered, and rediscovered time and again.

More about the project here http://s100.chasejarvis.com/people/theblakes
All proceeds go to amazing non-profit arts and culture organization www.4culture.org

Finally got our masters back for the new Blakes record.  It is looking like it will be called “Low Low” 13 songs. It  definitely sounds different then “Souvenir”  More in the vein of  60′s girl group arrangements with a post punk rhythm section. ?? How can one describe there own music? I can’t. Anyway that should be available soon! Our project BEADS is also doing well with a new record being finished up  and mixed this week. Full of great songs. totally different then the last BEADS record ” No One Knows” So, lots going on with us we will let you know more as it unfolds!

Things got a little crazy in Humboldt County. I contracted a fever  and or food poisoning. I wasn’t sure i would make that one but once i got on stage …well you know the rest. The 2 encores with an 1 hour set was it for me and i collapsed in the van immediately after. Great show though and fun.  We are on the 101 heading south at the moment. We pulled over in a little town and Bob walked into a record shop and got conned into unloading a  truck full of records, boxes of whippets and a bunch of glass bongs. 20$ bucks later he is a happy man!