Building Rome

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, without a band, and ready to give up on music. I didn’t even want to listen to music… and I didn’t. I barely even went outside. 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

This week’s download is a song called “Chasing Angels” that we recorded shortly after Something Left of Nothing was released (if you’re a long-time fan, you might have heard it up on our MySpace page a few years ago). Download it and please let us know what you think!