As Jones & Fischer rehearse three times a week preparing to go in the studio to record our second album, emotions are running high. There's a lot of stress in making sure all twelve of our songs are rehearsed enough as a band so that we knock ‘em out in the studio in a decent amount of time; because, well, time is money. We are confident in the songs we wrote, but a little nervous about what the public response will be. Above all other emotions is excitement! Excitement to manifest something that once started as just an idea in our heads into a full production that will be shared with thousands of people who will peer into our souls. 

This is our second album as a band, but somehow it feels like our first considering our debut album was mainly a mix of songs that Darin and Caleb wrote separately. It was very obvious who wrote each song; not only by who sang it, or by reading the back of the album, but the writing style, music composition, and feel were different as well. Darin tends to lean more towards rock, classic rock, and southern rock, and if you've ever met his grandpa (who raised him), or heard him sing, you would understand why. Caleb on the other hand leans more towards the twang side of things. If you've ever been to Texas, where Caleb was born and raised, you would also understand why.

After two years of playing together, we've come to mix the two pretty well. I'm in no way saying that Country Rock has never been done before, however, the biggest compliment we keep getting is "there's no one to compare you guys too."  Sounding like a previous artist can sometimes kill your momentum, and in some ways your career. In the music business you do have to stand out by being unique, but at the same time stay relevant enough to keep your audience's attention. 

Picking songs for an album isn't easy. There is a certain finesse in choosing songs to go on an album. It's kind of like drafting college athletes to a professional league team. There are also some questions that should be answered before doing so, like: What's the message behind the album? How do I want it to feel? Who is the target audience? Here are some things we have considered while preparing for this album.

Just because you have it, doesn't mean you should use it.
We had at least 20 extra songs that didn't make the cut for a couple reasons.
1.) That’s way too many songs for one album.
2.) We rated each song to find out which ones were the best in lyrics, arrangement, mood, composition, melody, uniqueness, and harmonic progression. The ones that scored the highest made the cut. That’s not to say the others were not good, they just didn't fit for this album. Who knows, maybe some of them will be on the next. Plus it’s always good to have extra, which brings me to my next point. 

Always have back up songs.
Sometimes when you go into the studio and start the recording process, songs don't come out as they expected. Some songs sound better live then they do recorded. Having songs to replace on the spot will save you time and money. 

Does it fit with the overall theme?
This ties into the question from before on what we wanted to say to our audience with this album, and how we want it to feel. In particular, one of the main things that was important to us was to have more songs we both collaborated on, unlike the first album. We also wanted songs that people can really enjoy at our concerts with a drink in their hand. Lastly, we wanted this album to be fun and uplifting. The last album had more negative subjects than positive, so we decided to go the other direction. But don't worry, there is a heartbreak tune on there for you folks on the rebound. 

Track order. 
Even though music is going mostly digital these days, track order is still important. The average listener's attention span is a lot shorter than we'd like to think. Just like how most people probably won't make it this far in this blog. So we try to keep our best songs in the top 5. We also tend to separate songs with similar moods, keys, and style. This keeps the listener interested throughout the album. But when in doubt, go with your gut. This is where finesse comes into play.

We have a great recording team and are extremely excited to be working with them. We've recently connected with a producer from Nashville who we are honored to have work on our album. And our sound engineer is the best they come as well.
 
We'll be in the studio all week! Sign up for our email subscription to get access to photos and behind the scene videos during the whole process.
 
Thanks for reading folks.