Portland Senator

It’s always sunny…

If you’re reading this you’ve either come from upon it through our website or you were unlucky enough to find this through Facebook, Twitter, or StumbleUpon. Anyway we will assume that you are interested and continue to use way to many words to describe a fairly simple idea.

We are always in the process of thinking about what is next on the musical horizon. Right now we are in the process of a few things that fall under different factions of our umbrella of things to do. They are as follows:

1. Spread the word - this is a typical goal but equally as important as we are approaching the digital release of our debut album which has been floating around since June of last year as a physical album. We are looking to get the attention of local music blogs, news, radio and television to promote the disk and our upcoming summer plans.
2. Release the album - digital releases are a lot more cumbersome than we expected. Our target date is sometime near Valentines Day. (A box of chocolates and a record make a great gift).
3. Book the summer - as it stands now it’s looking like we will have a full summer. The idea is to split the summer up into two distinct mini-tours: one with a full band and one with a simplified acoustic show for smaller more intimate venues. We plan on going anywhere we can play, and where people will listen. Also look for us on your street corner.
4. Play the summer - we. will. play.
5. Write/Record - I think our next release is going to be an EP of sort with a much higher dose of quality tunes over a shorter amount of time. It will be perfectly and sonically digestible. 
6. Go to the beach.
7. Interact with you, the fans, more.

We hope we can keep everyone in the loop. It’s our resolution. Looking forward to hearing from you all. As usual tell everyone. Buy an extra CD, use it as a frisbee or coaster, burn it for someone, and blast it out of your car.

Website Redesign

http://www.portlandsenator.com

In going with a new album, we decided to go with a new website. Much more graphically oriented we wanted to showcase some of the art and photographs we have gathered over the past two years.

We set up an online store in order to sell the copies of the album through the inter webs. We also have handmade and designed t-shirts made to order on there as well.

Studio Session II

Our second studio session consisted of recording seven new songs over the course of two days. These songs were originally written on acoustic guitar, but we arranged them as a full band during our rehearsals for the final studio session. Recording such “green”  songs so quickly after writing them was a new and challenging experience for us. We were hell bent to record the entire album live, while leaving dubbing (which means going back and recording on top of an existing part)to a bare minimum.

Some of the biggest changes to existing songs came from both “Names” and “Stay with Me”. “Names” was originally recorded in January but was lacking something musically, so a solo section tag was added to feature both Jake and Lucas on guitar. Written about three years ago, “Stay With Me” perhaps had the biggest change made to it, which was a meter change to feel more like a swaying/embracing characteristic.

Mixing and mastering the album was the most challenging part of the entire project. Getting the right sound in order for every piece of color to blend together aurally was quite the task. Without the expertise of Peter Davis at Signal Sound Studios, we would have been dead in the water. Pete had the unique ability to understand what we meant in words and apply it to the mix.

The next step in the process is to finish the album design and layout and schedule the production of the physical packages. Stay tuned!

Live Shows

May 14th - Second Saturday - Collingswood, NJ

May 19th - Jed Williams Studio - Philadelphia, PA

May 28th - Croc Rock - Allentown, PA

May 29th - The National Underground - NYC, NY

June 11th - The June Fete Village Fair - Huntingdon Valley, PA

June 13th - The Tritone - Philadelphia, PA

June 14th - The M-Room - Philadelphia, PA

June 15th - Oakmont Farmers Market - Havertown, PA

June 17th - Siren Records - ALBUM RELEASE SHOW - Doylestown, PA

July 26th - Keswick Coffee House - Glenside, PA

July 27th - Oakmont Farmers Market - Havertown, PA

July 29th - PPL Park - Philadelphia Union - Chester, PA

Let us play for you.

We are currently in the process of booking shows for the summer. We’ll be playing anywhere and everywhere. Our hope is to branch down into Baltimore and Washington D.C., along with some western Pennsylvania shows. Of course we’ll be doing the local shows, but if you know of any places outside of Philadelphia that you want to see us play, send us an email at booking@portlandsenator.com.

Making it sound right.

One of our biggest challenges with this album is getting it to be a true representation of our sound. Every track on the disc is, and will be, done live with vocals and all. And after sitting on the first half of the record for some four months now, and compiling a litany of other records that we want ours to sound like, we have a pretty good idea of the overall sound in terms of mixing that we are going for. The hard part comes in accomplishing “the perfect sound”, which in our ears is mixing it so that the slight imperfections in each track are mixed in such a way that it gives life and character to each song. Achieving that feeling of reality on the record is what we want. And the direction that things are going, we are well set to do that.