Well, today we finished mixing Raise It Up Bring It Down. We have been working steadily on this project since January. This is the longest we have ever taken to track or mix. This is also the most involved I've been in mixing. John did a great job. We changed up the toolbox this time around and mixed the whole project in the box. New to the set-up are UAD cards and Rascal Audio's Tonebuss. Both of those pieces of hardware really warmed up the mixes from the bottom. Looking forward to sending the tracks off to Bob Olhsson tomorrow for his mastering magic.

Kudos to our whole team for a project well done. Looking forward to sharing it with you--the CD should officially drop on November 19th.

I am a few weeks away from releasing a new CD called Raise It Up, Bring It Down. We have worked on it for almost a year and it has been an arduous process for many reasons. First, this project is more like two EPs than one CD. Fourteen tracks, half secular/spiritual, half unmistakenly Jewish. We approached each song on its own merits, many of them we performed live during the year to figure out how we wanted to cut them.

Even when we thought we knew, we went back to the drawing board more than once on a few. At first I thought this was due to my lack of focus, but now looking back, I am confident in saying that I think we experienced some real growing pains as a band and production team. We changed our process, we upped our toolbox and we are exploring new ways to approach my writing. We have become closer as comrades after a couple of real knock-down, drag-outs and have weathered our first real difficulties as a group.

I am so grateful for a team that is strong enough to disagree, but not disband; to be able to love through hard times and prove to eachother that the music we make together is not the only reason we are together. We genuinely like eachother despite all of our foibles, imperfections and quirks. We are a happy, sometimes dysfunctional family in it for the long haul. As we wrap this project up, I am proud of the music, the messages and most of all, us--a team of genuine friends and music makers.