Rain the Shining – New Born (un-mixed/un-mastered)

RtS Recording Clips

The clips (in order) are: Good Mourning Sun (version 1), Newborn (version 1), Celerate (version 2), and Good Mourning Sun (version 2)

1. Jon Anspach officially left the band about a year ago, due to a complications with time and work.  Jon was an amazing bassist and an awesome dude. We wish him the best with his future, and he is always welcome to visit anytime he wishes. For now Jonny has been filling in on the bass parts for recording, but we are looking for a new member so we can start booking more shows.

2. After buying our recording gear, and starting to officially record, we had an unfortunate turn when Jonny’s basement flooded. This flooding forced us to move from our “separate rooms” for recording, back into our “oneroom” condensed format we are at now.

Repairs in Progress...

3. Here are some photos of us in our small but comfy practice space at Jonny’s.

4. We have re-worked and recorded a number of songs, and we will try to post something soon for your listening pleasure.  Songs completed (or almost completed) are:

Newborn, Good Mourning Sun (versions 1 and 2), Celebrate,  and Shotgun Eyes

Rain the Shining – Ode to Ol’ St. Pale (acoustic) from Rain the Shining on Vimeo.

Brendan Nowlin, circa 2005

Our good buddy (and baby brother of our long-since-gone bassist, Ryan) Brendan Nowlin, interviewed me for Loyola College’s on-campus radio show around 2005. Now, whether or not this aired or if it was for his tryout reel, I have no idea. Either way, he graciously sent the recording over after digging it out from under a pile of dusty mp3s. I thought I would share it to the world. I perform acoustic versions of “Line of Fools,” “A Sudden Burst of Red” and “To Point B” (a different version) in between some questions about the band. I hope you enjoy. Thanks Brendan

Listen here:

Rain the Shining – Loyola Interview

I guess after playing together for many years, the three of us know when there’s going to be change-ups, lulls or rockin’ parts. With that said, we thought you’d like to hear a couple jam sessions from our last practice. They flow into each other, so you’ll notice some re-used melodies and textures.

(Remember, all of this stuff is made up on the spot without prior writing involved…so don’t judge)

Make it either way (Part 1)

Make it either way (Part 2)

Rain the Shining - In the Studio

Well, we’re happy to announce that recording has commenced. Yes, we’ve said that we’ve been busy working on new material, and getting everything ready for a while now, but now it’s happening. Thanks to a few new pieces of recording equipment (I’ll let Jonny write about the details on that stuff) and some much needed discipline at practice, we’ve started recording two songs, “Shotgun Eyes” and “Newborn.”

I have to say that the greatest part about recording on our own, is having the freedom to actually create while producing. In the past, we’ve been so rushed in the studio to save on studio time, that we approached the song-writing/recording process with such tunnel vision. The goal was to always nail it on the first try, and get stressed if you don’t. The basement studio gives us the ability to write bigger, take our time and actually enjoy doing it.

Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo fame puts it best: “We just like playing in the room. We think it sounds really good. And I think there’s something we deal with that I would think a lot of bands deal with, and that’s the idea of going to a recording studio and kind of tightening up a little bit. ‘Okay, this is for all the marbles. Go!’ We try to put ourselves in a setting where we’re at our most comfortable, and recording in our rehearsal space seemed like something where we might sacrifice something technically, but we might make up for that in just the feeling.”

Barricade_4Track Ryan’s 4-track version

The Day My Will Was Tried_4Track Ryan’s 4-track version

The Day My Will Was Tried_Practice Full band, practice version

Red Edges_Practice Full band, practice version featuring Derek Conover on Tamborine and Rooster Call.

Rain the Shining-Scream for Luck 8-Track recording

Rain the Shining-Ivory Majors 8-Track recording

Shotgun Eyes: