The Long Unawaited FIRST Lowtide Album! - REMASTERED

[Brett]

I know most of you guys have heard this (it's on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, etc.), but some may not have and since I put the second CD we did up, here's the first, and you can again just stream all the tracks. I like to be a completist.

We recorded this in 2006, finally finished it up in 2008 and released it then. So we're on the Van Halen album release cycle, one every like 10 years. Be on your toes for our third album due to be released in 2028.

We recorded the drums in the same studio for both our CD's. We do have a different drummer on this one. Our drummer for the last 11 years came onboard just after we finished recording this, so while his name is on the credits, he actually didn't play the drums on this. But HE IS our drummer, and in my mind he played on it. But because of our previous drummer's connections we got to record the vocals for free in this amazing vocal studio...wish we had that the second time. The owner of the studio is actually the guy who does all the sound for the Hollywood Bowl and the LA Philharmonic. It was this amazing little studio in Culver City with like $10,000 microphones recording us yelling "fuck" and off key nonsense into them. Exactly what they were designed for!

I never was happy with how this came out. Couldn't stand the guitars, they don't sound like we really sound, the second album is much closer. I hate all that reverb he put on all my leads, I thought it was cool at the time, but quickly realized it sucked. While the same guy mixed both albums, the second time I really wanted him to strip down all that reverb and processing from this one which he did. A lot of these songs have changed in the last 10 years, I wish we could go back and fix them with all the changes, but that's kind of what albums are...a snapshot of your music at the time. I've learned to accept how they came out. A couple of these we actually wrote most of while we were tracking the drums, almost like a real recording artist. Like the song "Why?" we literally had nothing but a part of the main riff which everyone liked, so Dave and I pretty much came up with rest in like 30 minutes, and we just tracked the drums. We thought it would be cool if we traded off on the main solo, so we shifted the chord progression up for the part he solos over because he wanted to be in A. He wrote the lyrics the day we were doing the vocals.

Oh the one thing I did do for these is I remastered them. I didn't like how they were faded out originally, so I cleaned all that up, and some of the levels weren't even the first time, so I fixed that. I gave the songs a little more life adding an exciter plugin to them, and I think it sounds a tad better than they did when first put them out there. I took the overall levels up too.

Ok that's it. Enjoy!

[RRvh1]

I still have the two CDs you sent me; the first album and the advance copy of your second one - complete with the Emperor's handwriting! Haha.

[Brett]

I still have the two CDs you sent me; the first album and the advance copy of your second one - complete with the Emperor's handwriting! Haha.

Dude you’re gonna be rich!!

[Dave's Dreidel]

Your comments reminded me of how you helped me on one of my mixes when I was struggling on getting the vocals right, "less reverb, more echo".

[Dave's Dreidel]

I have always LOVED the little turnaround you do in Left for Dead at 1:36 before the solo. Awesome tiny riff. That's a great tune, I have it on a lot of my playlists, you guys got the rocket sauce together on that one.

[Brett]

Your comments reminded me of how you helped me on one of my mixes when I was struggling on getting the vocals right, "less reverb, more echo".

Yes reverb is the devil man I have really discovered that. Haha.

[Brett]

I have always LOVED the little turnaround you do in Left for Dead at 1:36 before the solo. Awesome tiny riff. That's a great tune, I have it on a lot of my playlists, you guys got the rocket sauce together on that one.

Thanks dude I wish we could re-record that one because it’s way better now after playing it for so long. That song is actually all me, I wrote everything on that, music and lyrics. I struggled for a way to get into that solo and I can’t remember the song now, but there was someone’s tune that triggered that idea.

[Dave's Dreidel]

I may be wrong, but I thought you once said Dokken's Standing in the Shadows inspired parts of the song.

[Brett]

I may be wrong, but I thought you once said Dokken's Standing in the Shadows inspired parts of the song.

You know what I think you’re right actually. Good memory.

I totally ripped off Sleepless Nights for the song Take What’s Mine FYI.

[BlofeldsCat]

Nice work!

[Dave's Dreidel]

You know what I think you’re right actually. Good memory.

I totally ripped off Sleepless Nights for the song Take What’s Mine FYI.

We were trading song writing rip off stories. Mine was Run Riot by Def Leppard.

[RRvh1]

I used to have a 'set and forget' delay on my guitar. About 250ms with a couple repeats at about 20℅ mix level. Haven't done that for a while though, and now hardly use delay at all. Just a digital plate reverb pedal for the most part. Go figure...

[Brett]

I always have my delay on. That’s my reverb.

[RRvh1]

I always have my delay on. That’s my reverb.

I used to be like that, and probably will again at some point. Or use a combination of both. Not even sure when or why I got away from using delay, full time? I guess it might tie into me not gigging or recording anymore, as I used to use it a lot in those situations.... I supposed just for practicing, I want the guitar to be pretty dry. I DO love fooling around with 'Cathedral' type effects and noises, though!

[Brett]

When I’m just practicing I keep everything really dry too. I’m talking more in a playing live situation...or recording. And when I record, I record everything dry and then add the verb/delay afterwards. I don’t want to mask my mistakes with that stuff, I want to play it right so that when you put that stuff on it, it sounds good.