10/07/2024
Listened to the master recordings of our new album late last night and nearly shed a tear. It's really real now.
I've put every available ounce of my soul and investment into making this thing the best body of work yet.
Byron focused on elevating our sonic approach and our overall sound to places we hadn't traveled before. We're finding new ways to tell our stories while living through them simultaneously. To say I'm proud of the music we've made together is an understatement. I'm honestly a better person for having made these albums together and this one I think is going to blow expectations out of the water.
We also passed the engineering/mixing/mastering torch to my long time friend and trusted creative partner Rob Mertz, who was responsible for helping me craft My Own Private New Hampshire, Empathy & Emptiness For Those in Empty Nests, Not Having A Good Day, Life A Subisidiary of Currency, and The Howling Man. Safe to say we knew we were in good hands, but wow... having done the last couple records ourselves, both of us learned so much about what more we can do to make our sound distinctly ours.
To make the show match what we're trying to feel we had to call in some trusted partners to make this thing pop. None of our live show efforts would be possible without Patrick Ellis who has been doing our co-partner, and live sound/lighting engineer for the last 3+ years now, even for us, this will be the biggest Hellhound event we've done to date in scope of stage production. In addition, our good friend Adam JumpTown created a special menu to parallel the feeling of the night, and help create a sense of home in our Gate City Hip Hop experience. Attendees will get to eat, and enjoy instrumentals, and socialize before the featured performance. Daniel Guy, a wonderful human whose become a great friend whom we met through this thing of ours, and has now built his own photography platform Dymez Productions and will be running our Polaroid Photo Booth so everyone can keep memories of the night. 3/4 of the Hellhound Publishing roster including our brothers Ocho Phono, Evan Pott, and Evan Gilhooly will be playing instrumentals to set the night off as well as our good friend Graphic Melee from Portland, ME.
I know I've been going on about this for a long time, and also having daily battle royale with getting my content about this stuff seen and engaged, but I know there are a bunch of you out there who understand what we're trying to do, and want to see us win. Even in the moments I've felt lowest and struggled to see this thing through, I'd get an email for a ticket purchase notification or a CD Pre-Order, and it would remind me of how special it is that people still want to hear what I have to say after all this time.
Many friends of mine aren't around to tell their stories anymore for one reason or another. Admittedly I'm not always the most grateful in my existence but these highlights within the chapters of my life remind me that I am a work in progress and that it's okay to not have it all together so long as the WORK is in PROGRESS still.
We're doing everything possible to make this show celebrating the album an experience unlike ever before. If you ever thought about taking a risk on me, or making a drive to NH that maybe you wouldn't for just anyone, or checking out something maybe you wouldn't normally, I implore you to gamble on me, my team, and the experience we've worked so hard to create for you.
With love and sincerity,
Cody
