behind the scenes

Recording Joe Stamm Band’s Next Album

THE DRIVE

Completely uneventful. Perfect. Got a donut and a delicious coffee at Tim Horton’s. Also paid for our most expensive tank of gas ever, topping the $140 mark. But no worries, because you guys covered all of that.

ARRIVAL in pittsburgh

Pulled into a Giant Eagle, where 4 grown men shopped groceries together. We bought lunch meat (from a package, because we hit the deli counter 5 minutes too late), oatmeal, fruit, chips, frozen pizzas and taco supplies. Against Dave’s better judgment, I resisted purchasing the XXL “STEEL CITY DAD” t-shirt. In all, the bill was around $300, but you guys covered that too.

DAY 1 - monday, may 11

We got to the studio at 10am. I wore my new Bash Brothers t-shirt and a Rickey Henderson folder held my lyrics sheets - I wanted to channel that late 80s, Oakland A’s championship mentality.

It took a few hours to set up and dial in sounds. But we were tracking our first song by 1-ish. We cut a song called “Mine,” which I don’t think I’ve ever even shared with the WHITE KNUCKLE CLUB. It was quickly apparent that my vocals still hadn’t recovered from the cold that had put me down the 2 weeks prior. But the band sounded great. And I’ll just have to go back and finish vocals on another trip (update on that later).

I invited Eric James and Max Somerville to join our session. Eric is kind of a utility guy for CWG’s band The Allegheny High and Max is their keyboard player. Albert Torrence is of course producing, but he plays all the acoustic parts and spinkles in other performances throughout these records.

We finished the day with a song called “Low Spot” (a song I have shared with the WKC) and pizza by the tray (which you guys, again, bought for us). Monday turned out to be the shortest work day of the trip, logging only 11.5 hours.

day 2 - tuesday, may 12

Time to get serious. I put on a Terry Bradshaw t-shirt. Let’s make a record and start a dynasty.

We recorded songs called “Stay Up On Your Horse” and “Let’s Get Drunk And Dance.” I danced in the merch booth, but I didn’t get drunk. Nor did I ride a horse. My voice felt great, but it also continued sounding like I was singing through clogged sinuses. Which I was.

A feller named Cody Alushin, who travels around with CWG and the boys, spent the day with us taking the pictures in the gallery below (and a couple videos that I’ll share once the album is out). We ate Thai food, but nobody got too ambitious with the spice level. Amico (Allegheny High steel and banjo player) picked it up along with a crate of 24oz Miller Lites. The Thai was great, the beer was probably gross. But Tim had a couple.

We worked for 13 hours, went back to the house, and I stood outside my shower for 20 minutes trying to get the water temperature to a spot that wasn’t scalding or freezing (that was the one glitch about this house). Then I watched another episode of Dark Terminal and slept good.

DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY, MAY 13

Ya know what?…I don’t know what shirt I wore on Day 3. I just know that by the time you’re walking into a studio for the third straight day, after a couple 12 hour marathons, you can feel it.

But I do remember we cut songs called “Welfare” and “Take It Slow” (a Christmas song I shared with he WKC last year, but the kind of Christmas song I think you can listen to all year….it’s like one of those movies that has Christmas in it, but isn’t really a Christmas movie…like Grumpy Old Men or Die Hard. It might be my favorite song on the record so far).

Honestly, the rest of the day is kind of a blur. We slugged it out for another 12.5 hours. Albert is a machine. He just keeps going, adding parts, setting up mics, adding more parts - percussion, guitars, keys…he pretends to be tireless, but surely he was tired of us by the end of these 3 days. He’s full of grace and patience though. His personality is absolutely ideal for a producer. He has resolve and vision and never gets high or low. Albert is steady. And relentlessly productive.

I picked up chicken wraps for everyone and popped a Labatts Blue Light. I listened to Albert, Eric and Dave place 379 guitar parts down. We finally packed up all our shit and left, 6 songs in the hopper. We sat sat on the back deck around a patio table and decompressed for a couple hours, slept, got up early, drove home.

and here’s a video of tim hitting a cowbell

And in the meantime…

WHOA. YOU guys are funding the crap out of this album 🤯

Honestly, I never expected this kind of response when I gave you guys the opportunity to literally put your names on this record. But as I write this on June 16th, you’ve already invested $18,322 into these songs! 🤯 “Thank you” just doesn’t quite seem to cover it. But for now, it’s all I have. That’s 51% of the estimated budget. Absolutely amazing.

A COUPLE NOTES ON CROWDFUNDING GOALS:

• I used our actual expenses - tanks of gas, lodging, etc. You have funded all of those specific costs. However, it became quickly apparent, for example, that a lot of you liked that $108.20 tank of gas price point. Instead of limiting it to the 12 tanks of gas we need for the two sessions, I did not cap the amount y‘all could purchase. One, so more people could get involved. And two, so those extra “tanks of gas” could go towards the less specific and sexy expenses (stuff like studio costs, post-production, etc). As a result, we’ll be able to keep funding the album gradually, communally, without someone needing to step in and throw down $12,000 🤣 (but ya know…feel free to do that too 😅).

• I think I should cap the amount of Executive Producers at 12, though- one for each song on the album. There’s only so much room on the back cover of the album jacket. We currently have 2 spots left. So if you’ve been considering this level of commitment to the album, try not to wait too much longer.

• A recent development means I need to adjust my original estimate for the total album budget…which leads me to my next question….

WHAT’s NEXT?

Next sessions!

• AUGUST 17-19 - VOCAL SESSION WITH SURPRISE GUEST ARTIST: I can’t tell you who, yet, but I’m so thrilled this person has agreed to be featured on one of these songs. I can promise it’s not who you think. But a lot of you are gonna be really excited about this.
  
  Anyways, this is the unexpected session that wasn’t built into my original album budget. I’m going back a couple days early to polish up my vocals from the first batch of songs. So I’ve got to add in a few more nights of hotel rooms, an airline ticket, car rental and studio costs. I’ve updated the Album Partner Opportunities Page, and the budget numbers, so folks can contribute to those expenses, as well:

• SEPTEMBER (EXACT DATES TBD) - BAND TRACKING SESSION 2: Both us and CWG/The Allegheny High are off the road in early September, so we’re aiming to get this album tracking wrapped up then.

RELEASE DATE?

Way too soon to say.

Assuming both the August and September sessions go as planned, wrapping up post-production and getting mixes completed will be largely dependent on Albert’s spare time, which is very limited (take a look at CWG’s tour this year 😄). But I’m hoping that’ll all get worked out over the winter, which puts a release date sometime in 2027.

in the meantime…

We’ll be prepping for September, making demos and picking our final batch of songs.

We’ll keep touring and selling merch to cover any remaining costs that don’t get fan-funded.

I’ll be releasing a new EP in the Fall that I recorded with The Allegheny High back in January (and is a total separate project from this album 😊). More on that soon.

josh’S REVIEW:

I played the rough tracks from Session 1 for Josh - our WHITE KNUCKLE CLUB Administrator - and here’s his real-time reaction:

so hang tight.

And obviously, feel free to contribute more if you desire. Album Partner Opportunities remain open.

I’ll keep this page updated throughout the whole album-making and release process, as I have more news and developments.

THANK YOU FOR GIVING A DAMN!

Peace, love and new albums forever,

Joe

PS: More ALbums/opportunities to partner:

I also have an EP coming out this Fall, and am working on a new Memoirs style acoustic record. See below for chances to contribute and be accredited on this albums, as well:

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

Bill & Sandy Reese
Craig Eckert
Zach & Missy Scantland
Kyle Schmiesing
The Marshall Family Farm
Molly, Clark & Della Sweeney
Katrina Boyle
Stan and Carma Sturtz
Sheila & Steve Grubb
Vern Powell, CJF, TE, AWCF American Farriers Association

ALBUM CONTRIBUTORS

Jenny & Lirpa - Spencer Bakken - The Durkee Family - Jordan Roling - Jon Thibaudeau - Tim & Andrea Barrett - Matthew & Tayler Tollefson - Brett Johnson - Scott Staples - CJ Bruser - Craig, Sharie, Wes Heim - Jessica Schalkowski - Cynthia Wolfe - Stacy Connelly - Kaine and Amy @ Never Again Acres - Matt Thibaudeau - Cameron - John Tucker - Cortney Schafer - Jared & Stephanie West - Cory White - Laurie DeFord-Mirus - Larry Luzier and Tracy Cottone - Jason & Hilary Ruyle - Connor and Natalie Steffes - Kent and Dee Argenta - Bobby & Lisa Kennedy - Renee Morgan - Gary G$ Harvey - Beckett & Blakely Dickerson, and Hutchens Hays - Zachary Hollenbeck - KDN - Jason Janusziewicz - Sean & Victoria Wiedel - Dwight & Sarah Weber - Lincoln & Leo Weber - Brad Lindgren - Molly, Clark & Della Sweeney - David A Buckler - Eric Gregerson Music - Tammy & Kevin Maki - Jerry & Gail Stowell - Marty & Eileen Wagner - Lance & Katie Otto - Jaqsyn Elise Otto

NOTE: IF A NAME IS MISS-SPELLED ABOVE, OR YOU WISHED TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS, OR ANY OTHER CHANGES ARE NEEDED TO HOW YOUR CONTRIBUTION WILL APPEAR IN THE ALBUM PACKAGING, PLEASE EMAIL ME DIRECT AT JOE@JOESTAMM.COM