Building Rome

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

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

We just posted a new video on our YouTube page! Jon went to open mic at Picasso’s last night and did some Alkaline Trio covers with Keith from The Dead End. One of them is up now – it’s a cover of Private Eye, with some random guy we’ve never met before on the drums. Jon kept screwing up the words… here it is:

Hey guys! First of all, I would like to thank everyone who came out to see us at A Very Ludo Christmas ’08. There is nothing better than playing in front of a sold out crowd at The Pageant! We are working on a video of the show, and pictures are up on our Photos page as well as our MySpace page and our official Facebook page.

Now that the show is over, we are working full time to finish writing our upcoming album, “Nightmare”. We’ll be going into the studio soon and plan to release it this summer. We’ll also be touring extensively throughout the summer and fall, so stay tuned for dates. The album is about 85% finished as far as writing goes and we are currently demoing the songs. Writing a concept album is PRETTY FREAKIN HARD! But it’s coming along well and I cannot wait to record and release it.

If you haven’t heard already, we would really like to have each and every one of your names on the “Thank You” section of the album booklet. Go to the sidebar on this site or our MySpace page and enter your name (or alias) and e-mail address in the box at the top of the page. Many of you have already signed up, but we don’t want anyone left out! The signup form will disappear before we go into the studio, so get on the list now and tell all your friends. (FYI, you must enter a VALID e-mail address, and you don’t have to be a member of MySpace or any other site to sign up!)

I’m going to start writing in my blog again. Do you ever read stuff that you posted online and then cringe to yourself? Yeah, I never do that. You’re weird… We’ll also continue to make short videos in our free time. If you haven’t seen the promo video we did for A Very Ludo Christmas, go to our Official YouTube page and check it out. It features an Andrew Volpe shrine (just like the one in your closet!)

If we haven’t responded to your MySpace/Facebook/anywhere message, it’s because we are incredibly backed up. We will respond to everyone. It might just take longer than a turtle who just joined the track team… he eventually makes it to the finish line…

Love,
Jon
Building Rome

We’re still making some minor adjustments, but for the most part, the new website is up and running!