Mainstay is BACK BABY!

What up everyone?

We are back in the studio - back Minneapolis - back to the future...of Mainstay. That made no sense.

BUT - we ARE back. After being on the road with The Afters for 5 weeks, and then some one-offs, and the almighty GMA week in Nashville, we are finally back home making the rest of this record and let me tell you, we are STOKED.

We have been tracking electric guitars and some keys and pads, and it is going really well.

With a random twist toward the middle of the project, we decided to go back and record 4 BRAND NEW songs we just finished! HA! Didn't expect us to pull that one on you, did ya?

Now that we are back, we are going to keep posting pics and info on here every other day or so, so keep checking back cuz this is when the record gets good! All the "ear candy" (musician term for special little musical flavors produced by random guitar, keys, loops, pads, xylophones, shakers, tambourines, flutes, accordians, french horns, and 50 year old synthesizers) is going to start coming out now, so these are FUN TIMES! Are you excited?!?!?! .....no? Well can you PRETEND you are excited? YES!!!! SWEET!

love you all

Justin

Dan's tattoo! Oh yah...and some studio stuff

Hey everybody! We are hard at work here in the studio - we are into everyone’s favorite part of the record - tracking electric guitars! We pulled out a huge arsenal of pedals and amps and are SUUUUPER stoked on the tones we are getting.

This week we also finished the first batch of 8 demos with drums, bass, acoustics, a basic electric part, and a scratch vocal. We are bouncing them off of the powers that be in hopes of picking a first single for radio - exciting!

Also, Dan got a KILLER tattoo on his leg - check it out!


It hurt really badly but Dan-o sat like a champ and made it happen.

This week we head out on tour with The Afters and Our Heart's Hero - so check out our myspace and come out to a show! We would love to hang with you and shoot the breeze.

myspace.com/mainstay

JA

Minnesnowta. Yah, I said it.

Acoustical Guitar tracking!

After a few midwest shows and some healthy drives, we hopped back into the studio this weekend to start playing them-thar wooden guitars what have the pretty chords and whatnot.

Big Minnesota surprise though - while tracking acoustic guitars this weekend we got blizzard-ed in! Is that a word??? Sure.

We got snowed in completely, and so we had a ton of time to sit and track acoustics. It snowed 13 inches in a few hours and we were completely stranded at the studio. SO...we put our heads down and started tracking the acoustics and got 6 songs completely done!

After emerging from the studio, we found our producer’s car COMPLETLEY buried in snow! Huh. Cool.

We are cruising through these puppies, and are starting electrics hopefully next week. We have a few more regional shows this next week, and then we head out on tour with The Afters - AND WE ARE COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU!

...unless we aren’t. But we are coming near many-a-town on this tour, so come out! Say hey! Do all sorts of stuff! ???

With so much drama in the LBC, it’s kinda hard to be Mainstay and hard being me. I don’t even know what that means.

Love you guys!

JA

Mainstay Studio Updatementfulness - 2.19.07

Bass-stay!

Dan is hard at work. Bass is getting finished for the first batch of songs today and it sounds great! We are all super stoked as we hear these songs coming together...the tones are PHENOMENAL. Luke Fredrickson (our producer) is a great engineer and has been doing an amazing job of capturing drum and bass tones - he has been producing/engineering for about 5 years and this is only the beginning of his promising career in music.

We take off tomorrow to play a few shows in the midwest and then we will hop right back in the studio for another week. Then guess what we will be moving on to...GUITARS!!!! HOORAY!

It will be time for Scott and myself to start shredding. Nonstop. Constant 80’s guitar solos on most of these songs. It just feels right. Break out the whammy bar. Dust off those old Steve Vai VHS tapes. We are going to fingertap until the cows come home. And oh....they will come home. Just you wait.

Stay Tuned!

JA

St. Valentine's Day means bass tracking in the land of Mainstay

Mainstay Studio 2.14.07

Today is St. Valentine’s Day! Or as some of us like to call it...National Loneliness Day. I think I need to track down that St. Valentine and ask him how he achieved sainthood.

Drum tracking is done! Ryan knocked out all the drum tracks and we are moving on to bass guitar! Hoo-ray! Dan finished 2 bass tracks yesterday and is cruising through more today.



We have 13 songs done on drums so far, and might even track a few more later in the process...we want to have a ton to choose from, and even more so, we want to have the RIGHT songs on this record.

More importantly, and extremely sadly, Mainstay has officially left Silver Lake Road. As of Jan. 1st, Mainstay moved out of our “band house” up to a northern suburb of Minneapolis. We were sad to leave our old place where we have many, many memories after living there for 4 years. But don’t let that fool you...we will still make many-a-trip...DOWN SILVER LAKE.

Stay tuned! More to come! Sharp broadcast! Lotta hustle on the floor...really liked it

JA

Mainstay Studio Update! 2.12.07 - Drums!!!

Mainstay Studio 2.12.07



Tracking Begins! That’s right! We are plowing our way through drum tracking...and Ryan is dominating the world with his vicious, yet sensitive drum stylings!

It’s still unbelievably cold up here, but Ry’s drumming is keeping us all unbelievably warm. That was unbelievably cheesy. I apologize.

Working late nights...eating lots of Cheez-its...playing lots of Mario Kart...tracking in the studio is not for the weak of heart! No no!

Nor is it for the weak of vehicle! We had many an automotive woe this week. We decided to take our van in to Tires Plus to get some work done, but they couldn’t get it done in time due to an error they made, so they gave us one of their trucks to use. Ok. Cool. Or maybe not. About 40 miles away, the transmission on the truck they had given us decided to quit working in the middle of the road! Cool. Thanks, Tires Plus. The only gear that SLIGHTLY worked was reverse, and so we had to drive 2 miles BACKWARDS to drop the truck at Dan’s house.

As if that wasn’t enough...Ryan’s car broke down because of the cold, and being stranded when it’s 15 degrees below zero is not a good thing!

BUT! We are persevering! Ryan is almost done with drums and Dan will be starting bass this week. What a solid rhythm section - RhythmStay. Booyah. Peace up...A town’s down.

JA

Mainstay Mondays begin!

Hey everybody!

As many of you have heard, Mainstay is heading back into the studio to record our sophomore release! And as a result, we have decided to do something special - we want to give you an intimate look at what it's like to record an album. We are doing something called "Mainstay Monday" on BECRecordings.com and giving you these studio journals and videos...EVERY MONDAY! That's right - EVERY MONDAY! I guess that may have been obvious when we termed it, "Mainstay Monday" right?

Are we excited??? Yes we are! We are excited for many reasons...here are some of them:

1) We are recording here in our beloved home of Minneapolis, Minnesota! woohoo! We have enjoyed being home and seeing our families and friends so much, and it's been a great season to focus on writing for this record. The only drawback to being in Minnesota during January is that it's COOOOOOOLD! It was 15 degrees BELOW ZERO this weekend!

2) We are making this record with a hometown producer and friend of ours - a diamond in the rough - Mr. Luke Fredrickson. Luke is young, talented, and stoked to make this album. His engineering and producing skills impressed us, and the synergy between us and him has been phenomenal during the demo and pre-production phase. Now it's time to start tracking!

3) We are tracking the record in some cool places...an old, vibey church sanctuary, a killer house in the suburbs, and a great studio in Minneapolis. This album will be vibe central...which is what making a great record is all about - capturing the vibe and message behind the songs. Which leads me to my next point!

4) These songs are coming straight from our hearts. We enjoyed making our first record, and feel good about it. However, on this new album, we are pouring EVERYTHING of ourselves into it. God has been working on all of our hearts and challenging us to re-evaluate why we do music, and what our goals are in doing it. I have a desire on this record as a lyricist to let the world know how badly I need Jesus, and how I fall short daily. I struggle and I sin. I doubt and I hurt. But in the past 6 months, Jesus has been working on my heart to draw me closer to Him than I have ever been before. I want my heart to spill out in these songs, because I believe in being vulnerable and I hate facades. We hope these songs speak truth into peoples lives and we pray that the hope of Jesus Christ will be revealed in their hearts. That is what we are called to - not smiley, fakey, cheesy Christianity, but hoping in Christ through the truly hard seasons of life. Hoping in Christ that He is bigger than our sin. Hoping in Christ that "nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:38-39) Constantly hoping in Christ, and ONLY in Christ.

SO!

You need to keep checking back on BECrecordings.com and myspace.com/mainstay to watch this record happen! We want you guys to be in on this! We are so thankful for each and every one of you that has bought a record or a t-shirt, told a friend about us, gave us an encouraging word, given us a place to stay, or supported us in any way, shape, or form - you guys make this worth it. So thank you!

Allright - keep tuning in for Mainstay Mondays - we are gonna do stupid stuff...whip "cookies" in the snow (it's a Minnesota thing)...track vocals and drums and guitars and bass and keys and harpsichords and lyres and jazz flute...all SORTS of crazy stuff!

We love you

Justin