Thinkin’ of You, making an album

Our new album, Thinkin’ of You, has been a labor of love. Spiral Rhythm is excited to share our new music and celebrate spirit with song. We supported each other creating an album through a pandemic and the loss of our dear bandmate PJ Seale. We have grown with learning, creativity, and experimentation. We have evolved spiritually on our musical path and birthed music on our spiritual path. We share, with love, our journey to create Thinkin’ of You.

There were many new things happening with Spiral Rhythm. One of the biggest was deciding to take on the challenge of recording and producing an album ourselves. There were many aspects to our decision to record the album ourselves.

We had 6 songs ready to record and others presented for consideration and Spiralizing.
We have access to equipment and a dedicated space for the band to record.
Working in an outside recording studio as independent artists is expensive.
PJ became ill and to have her on the album we needed to work with her abilities and schedule.
The pandemic, event cancellations and travel limits, gave us time to record.
Meeting up in 2s and 3s, in a private space, was a better option for keeping us healthy and safe.
Doing it ourselves allowed us to take our time in the learning process and not pay, at least in money, for mistakes in the learning process.

Knowing we needed a better recording space Ric and Kira DIYed a recording ‘booth’ from bi-fold wood doors (upcycled), shag carpet (Yule gift) a staple gun, glue, and hook & eye connectors. This made for versatile arrangement of the space for different configurations. We also added a happy face, named Fred, as an audience member on the inside wall to keep our spirits and energy up.

“It can take effort to project your voice while looking at a wall, our friend Fred helps.” – Kira Lang

“I love being able to have a home studio available for the band’s needs…For me, it helps to create a consistent environment which is good for creativity.” – Jon Skoglund

About recording with 7 people Ric said, “Two words: herding cats”. He shouldered the task of recording and production for Thinkin’ of You, learning in the process. Performing for years, and listening to a wide range of music, doesn’t completely prepare you for music production. Ric’s main takeaways are developing patience and learning to be humble.

Ric used the program Waveform, for recording and mixing the music. With a friend’s tutoring, Richard as a resource for sound knowledge, and YouTube video tutorials, it has been a learn-by-doing process.

Usually, when a song writer brings a new piece to the band, we ‘Spiralize’ it by allowing band members to add their own flavor vocally and instrumentation. The songwriter usually has an idea of the sound they would like, and we build on it together and add sounds we think would enhance a piece. It helps keep everyone invested in our music and involved in its evolution.

Sometimes a new song comes together easily, and sometimes it goes through several changes and even performances before we decide we’re ready to record it. In the recording process we can hear what each person is playing or singing, and it can help us tighten up our performance, or make us decide to change something for future stage performances. When drums are on top of each other it can sound like a rumble instead of a rhythm and that comes out when we record and listen back, then we rethink what we play on stage.

We sometimes struggled with vocal fatigue, because of social distancing. We weren’t performing or rehearsing together and practicing at home was more difficult with home schooling or caregiving. When someone was able to get together to record, spend a few hours singing, and rerecording a song it can strain the vocal cords. Singers Saving Grace helps a lot.

“For me it’s fun working in stereo and separating the sound, especially with as many people as we have in the band trying to get everybody a little space in the stereo realm was interesting and fun, and kinda hard at times.” – Ric Neyer

It isn’t easy negotiating the expectations of the song writer and the performing members. One important aspect of being an artist is learning to finish a project even if it isn’t exactly what you envisioned. Ric said, “I felt like he was letting the band down when things weren’t perfect.”

We listen back to the recordings as a group to see what needs to be changed before finalizing. A heavy emphasis is given to the song writers’ suggestions in the final editing of a song and we feel it’s important that each performer can be heard in the process as well as on the final mastering.

In 2022, when we began performing live again, we decided to make a limited run of 100 CDs of songs we had ready. The album, Thinkin’ of You – Mini ’22, had 9 tracks, one of which was a second version of Flow Like Water. It gave us a little feedback from our fans and a little more money to work with for publishing our full album.

For the Mini album Kira used a photo of her front porch for the cover. We decided to use a photo of the band in the same location with an iPad picture of PJ. We did a photo shoot one Wednesday rehearsal in January.

We somehow managed to take a few photos with everyone smiling, eyes open, looking in the relative direction of the camera.

Most of our covers were artwork by a band member, this was a chance for Kira to show the artistry of photography and set design.

“I was hoping to add a lot of interest in the photo with things I love, instruments we use and a comfortable rustic vibe. Like sitting out on your front porch, drinking coco, and watching the world go by while playing music with your friends,” says Kira Lang. “The mini ’22 cover photo empty of people, with a feel of waiting, preparing, and inviting was meant to contrast with the full band photo, a porch full of family and homey feeling.”

“This is my family. I found it, all on my own.” – Stitch, from Lilo and Stitch.

The back cover of the album with the Mini ’22 album photo in the background.

Here’s a little info about each song on Thinkin’ of You:

Peace Prayer is a chant created by Jon in 2019. It was put thought its paces at drum circles and shows before it came together in its current form for the album.
My Roots go Down, by Sara Amis, was inspired by Sarah Pirtle’s song of the same title but with different lyrics. We Spiralized it with a new tune in the most delicious ooey gooey fashion. Richard added a bassline, it has a soulful layered chorus with Kiki, Ric & Jon, and a duet by Kerri and Kira.
Thinkin’ of You was written by Ric as he was headed home from a cancelled family reunion due to a pandemic shut down in 2020. It became a song we performed in our streaming concerts and conveys our feelings of missing our fans, friends, and family.
We’re Home by Kerri was performed for the first time at PSG, 2019. It celebrates going to the events and sacred spaces that are home to our spirits.
Within Me, 2020 by Ric Neyer – “I’m part of God, a part of divinity, the one that all is.” Combining the physical, dance, drum, and song, with the spiritual divine.
The River Flows, 2022 by Kiki, “is a song of empowerment and warning, a rallying call and a reminder that there are consequences to the choices we make, and a price to be paid though it must sometimes struggle to persevere, life will find a way.”
Come to the Dance is a wonderful song by Arthur Hinds, originally performed by Emerald Rose, that Arthur Hind has kindly allowed us to cover. Kira choreographed a tambourine dance to go along the vision in her head when hearing the song for the first time.
Rhythm Of The Drums is a fun song with drumming, rounding and lots of energy. It’s like being in a drum circle.
Green Warrior, written in 2015, was the last of PJ’s songs we recorded. We were blessed to be able to have her on this album and to shoot video for this song with her for our first music video.
Flow Like Water, 2019, was written by Ric as a ‘sort of’ challenge to write a chant while using one of Jon catch phrases.
Life’s Illusion by Ric 2019, is a positive, uplifting way of dealing with struggles and making the most of life.
Happy Sacrifices is a chant of change, giving up what no longer serves you, holds you back and using positive sacrifice to manifest what comes next written by Jon in 2019.
Jam and Toasts – Ric was pleasantly surprised the band wanted to perform it and add it to the album. With ren faire, SCA and/or larping history, we quickly embraced its good cheer and added it!

“I think this is our most personal recording of any of our CDs” -Jon Skoglund

After surviving a pandemic, losing friends & family, and many of us struggling with health issues over the past few years, this album has been a healing experience for us. We hope you enjoy it.

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Subscribe to the new Spiral Rhythm YouTube channel for new content and music video to be released this December.

Buy our music from us or on Bandcamp to support our future production of Spiral Rhythm music. You can also find lyrics and more information about each album on Bandcamp.

We have started recording our next project, an album with different styles of music for dance. We hope to release some singles in the new year and are excited to be working on new music.

For more information about Spiral Rhythm, including their collected articles here on Pagan Song, their bio, and links to Spiral Rhythm’s site on the web, check out the Spiral Rhythm page on Pagan Song

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