Building Rome

We thought it would be fun to put together a video for our “Poker Face” cover, and we want you to be in it! Here’s what we need you to do:

1. If you haven’t yet, go to this link on our website and download the song for free: http://www.buildingromerock.com/site-updates/poker-face-cover - Right-click on the .mp3 link and click “Save As” or “Save Link As”
2. Videotape yourself singing along to the song while doing one of the following:
   • Parody of a modern pop singer or boy band - anyone similar to and including Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, etc. Anything goes, from a choreographed dance production to rocking out in front of your mirror with a hairbrush.
   • Playing cards / slots / dice / whatever - anything casino-related, as long as it looks like you’re having fun!
3. Send it to us!

We’ll take all the videos we receive and edit them together to make one fantastically awesome amazing video for the song!

Some tips to make sure you end up in the video:

1. Make sure we can hear the recording and/or you singing! It’ll help us with the editing process. If you need the lyrics, you can read them here - make sure to change the he’s and him’s to she’s and her’s!
2. Be sure to use our version of the song and NOT the Lady Gaga version. Ours is faster than the original and we want the footage to line up to the song.
3. Make sure we can clearly see what’s going on in the video, i.e. keep the camera steady and have lots of light! If you’re using the video setting on your digital camera, make sure you’re using the best quality setting, if possible.
4. Have fun with it!

When you’ve got your video recorded, upload it to a file-sharing service and send us the link. Some of the sites we’ve used before are Uploading.com, YouSendIt.com, or MediaFire.com. E-mail the link to buildingromestl@gmail.com.

We’ll start editing the video sometime this weekend, but we’ll accept submissions until June 19 (a week and a half away from today).

We’re looking forward to seeing what you guys send in! If you have any questions, hit me up here, on Facebook (look up Jon Heisserer from Saint Louis), or send an e-mail to buildingromestl@gmail.com.

Cheers!
- Jon

Jon took a break from working on the album this past week to do a cover of “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga. Let us know what you think!

Building Rome - Poker Face (Lady Gaga cover).mp3

Hey everyone! Just a quick update:

1. We have 3 articles out there with our name on them this week:

   • Interview with Jon about the story behind the album, working in the studio, and what’s been going on with the band
   • Interview with Ted Bruner (Part 2) about writing “Last Time Again” with Jon (Part 1 is here, if you’re interested)
   • Feature story on Sawhorse Studios and Jason McEntire with some cool details about the recording of Nightmare (this one was in the print version of the RFT, so if you live in St. Louis, pick one up today or tomorrow)

   Thank you to Annie Zaleski from the Riverfront Times for taking the time to come to the studio and talk to us!

2. Big merch sale in the online store! Every dollar goes towards getting us on tour this fall. Click on our Merch link at the top of the page or go to http://buildingrome.bigcartel.com.

3. Still recording - we go back into the studio on June 15 and we’ll be there til the end of the month. Should have the finished album in our hands by July 23 (Jon’s birthday!). The release date is still set for October 13.

4. If you haven’t signed up to get your name in the album on our Thank You page, you have until July 1! After that, we’ll need to format the names for the artwork and can’t accept any more signups.

See you soon!

- BR

YO! This has technically been our first week out of the studio. Being in the studio six days a week, 12 hours a day for 5 weeks is definitely exhausting and I think we’re all pretty beat from it. The good news is that we think it sounds great so far, and the bad news is that we’re not finished yet! Luckily, we anticipated that this would happen and we budgeted in some extra time so we could finish it up right. Unfortunately, Steven had to leave, but he left us in the hands of Jason McEntire to help us tie everything up. Big, big thank you to Steven Haigler for coming out and doing the album with us! Some days were the equivalent of being at a music boot camp, but overall the experience was awesome. Steven is going to be mixing the album at VuDu Studios in Long Island, NY in July.

During the last two full weeks in the studio, we finished up all of the guitars and piano/synth parts and about 75% of the lead vocals (no backup vocals yet). I’ve been working on sorting out backup vocals and harmonies this past week, and we’re going back into the studio on Friday to record a string quartet on an acoustic song called “Bring Me Home,” which is the final track on the album. So I’m definitely stoked for that.

I want to thank everyone that came out and helped us record on the album. We had a lot of talented guest musicians from the St. Louis area, including Tim Convy and Tim Ferrell from Ludo, Adam Barr from The Goodtime Engineers, Dave Grelle from The Feed, Jeff Gallo and Joe Meyer from Goldtooth, and our friend Jeff Gracey.

Official tracklisting for Nightmare:

1. Intro
2. What Are We Fighting For?
3. Nightmare
4. Last Time Again
5. Doctor, Doctor
6. Sink Like An Anchor
7. Streetlights
8. The Panting Dog
9. Orange Case
10. Burn (Take Cover)
11. Haunting Me
12. Tired of Waking Up
13. Bring Me Home

The official release date for Nightmare is still set for October, and we’ll have some info on touring by mid-summer. We’re also having a big merch sale to clear out our inventory and every dollar will go towards financing us coming to see you on tour! Check it out at our official merch store or click the “Merch” link at the top of the page. See you soon!

Cheers
- Jon

P.S. Now that we’re out of the studio full time, I will start responding to the backed up MySpace messages again. We read all of your comments on all different social mediums and we appreciate every one of them. The best way to talk to me personally is through Facebook. Look up my name – Jon Heisserer – and add me!

Hey guys! Things have been going pretty good in the studio the last two weeks. Tim Convy and Tim Ferrell from Ludo came to the studio this week. Ferrell tracked some guitar on the songs “Sink Like An Anchor,” “What Are We Fighting For,” and “Burn (Take Cover),” and Tim Convy played the moog on the song “Doctor, Doctor.” Both of these guys owned it! I’m truly honored to have these guys on the record.

Other than that, we got all the drums and bass tracked during week 2. This week, we’ve been tracking guitars during the day and then my vocals in the evening. All of the songs are well on their way to being finished, except for my acoustic song, which we haven’t even started yet.

Sorry for the lack of video updates and streaming. I’ll try to remember to set it up this week, but we have been so busy that we haven’t really been able to mess with it. We’re not even taking any more days off from here on out.

Thanks for the support everyone, see you soon!!
- Jon

We just wanted to remind you that if you haven’t signed up yet, time is running out! Enter your name and e-mail address in the sign up form to the right. Your name will appear in the album under our “THANK YOU” section!

***FYI, we are using the Fanbridge e-mail system to keep track of the names for the album. Unfortunately, if you unsubscribe from the list before we back up the database for the artwork, your name won’t appear on the album!***

Hey everyone! Today is my first day off so I thought that I would tell you a bit about how the record was going. We started a little rough on Tuesday, and I think we were all a bit concerned. We didn’t have a bass player, and I was the only one who knew the songs! So Jason McEntire called up Jeff Gallo from GoldTooth and he’s now rocking the bass. One of the best fucking bassists I’ve ever played with! After 5 full days of a Steven Haigler boot camp, we finally have all of the songs arranged and rocking. Steve Haigler has been amazing. He demands perfection, and if anyone fucks up (which I have done many times) they are going to get an earful! It’s awesome, because I know he really cares about the record as much as I do.

Most importantly, the songs are turning out amazing. I truly believe that this will be a great record. We’re doing our best to make this a real record, with real performances, and no edited/autotuned bullshit. We have definitely moved more into the rock category with this album. And I am soo glad for that.

Tracking starts tomorrow, and we’re hoping to get 4 drum tracks finished on Monday.

I’m going to chillax today and get ready for tomorrow.

Cheers everyone!
- Jon

Building Rome will be recording their third release, a concept album entitled Nightmare, with platinum-selling producer Steven Haigler (Brand New, Fuel, The Pixies) at Sawhorse Studios in Saint Louis, MO from March 31 - May 15.

From Jon:

To start off, I’m a bit embarrassed about divulging the following, but I want everyone to understand where this album is coming from. A little over a year ago, I was depressed, addicted, without a band, and ready to give up on music and pretty much life itself. I didn’t even want to listen to music… and I didn’t. I barely even went outside. At my lowest of lows and in a prescription drug-induced haze, I realized that if I ever wanted to feel like living again, I had to do something. I had a few songs written at that point (mostly acoustic demos), and I wasn’t quite sure of the direction I wanted to go with a new album. On a whim, I asked myself, “If I could work with any producer I wanted, who would I pick?” I began going through all of my CDs and really listening to production qualities, and I made a list.

I started making phone calls and sent out tons of e-mails and MySpace messages to the people I was interested in working with, and I was overwhelemed with the response I got. Over the course of the last year, I have met and spoken to many incredibly talented and awesome producers. However, I can finally say that Building Rome is set to record our next album, Nightmare, with producer Steven Haigler and engineer Jason McEntire at Sawhorse Studios in St. Louis from March 31st to May 15th.

Steven has produced and/or mixed some of my all-time favorite albums, including Brand New’s Deja Entendu, The Pixies’s Doolittle, and Fuel’s Sunburn. I listened over and over again to the specific tones and vibes that he gets and I feel that it’s perfect for what I hear in my head for Nightmare. In addition, Jason McEntire produced Ludo’s Broken Bride EP, which is also one of my top albums. We’re also going to have some cool guest appearances, but I don’t want to say anything until it’s final…

Nightmare is a concept album - it definitely tells a story, but if you listen closely, it’s also a reflection of my life in the last few years and how I’ve changed. I can’t promise you that it will sound like old Building Rome. I know there won’t be a Belly Dancer Girl or a Gangster Baby on this album. That doesn’t mean it will bad, just different and new. The demos have gotten a good response from our close friends, but at this point the final product only exists in my head.

We’re going to be broadcasting the entire recording session live at our official website and our MySpace page (at the top of the page) through Ustream.tv. We’ll have a camera set up (with no sound, of course) and you can spy on us the whole time. We’ll be in the studio every day except Sunday, and I’m sure that you’ll see us doing some interesting/embarrassing things. We’ll probably do some video chat sessions through Ustream while we’re there, too, so be on the lookout for that info.

Right now, the official release date for Nightmare will be October 13, 2009. I really want to encourage everyone to please spread the word about Building Rome, because right now we need all of the help we can get. If you or your friends haven’t signed up to get a personal thank you on the album, do it before it’s too late! We’re going to hopefully start pre-orders in late August or early September (which will include some added bonuses!), and the album will hit stores in October.

I’m sorry that it took so long to release these details - I know we’ve been hinting at it for awhile, and this wasn’t an easy thing to pull off. But I’m really excited and glad that I can finally share this with everyone. I hope you’re as excited as I am.

Thank you so much for the support over the years. I wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without you.

- Jon

This week’s download is a full band acoustic version of “Ode to the Sad,” which is the hidden track on Something Left of Nothing. What do you think - do you like it better than the original? Download it and tell us what you think!

This was from a video I took in my basement while messing around with my computer’s camera. This showed up in two frames. What does it look like to you?
- Jon