The Mines ~ Blog

Friends of The Mines,

We are happy to announce the rocket has left the pad!  Our 3rd CD, “Fear Is Easy” is now available as a download and/or physical CD from our website, or from us directly if we happen to cross paths in your town. (It will be available on iTunes in the next few days, so check the store daily and you’ll be rewarded!)

Listen Online and Buy Now

The planning for this CD started nearly 2 years ago.  We had written and arranged the songs since the release of “People Music” during rehearsals & shows and were really happy with them — it was time to record. We brought on producer/engineer Joel Ferguson (Papa Vegas, Verve Pipe), to bring magic to the recorded versions — and his contributions were outstanding!

We mastered the CD at GBP Studios, where the mixing board from the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studios now resides, giving the final album a brilliant shine and warmth.

The photography for the CD came from acclaimed photographer Thomas Hawk, who generously allowed us to choose whatever we wanted from his vast collection. 

Listen Online and Buy Now

You can listen all you want — to the entire album — on our website right now, so go check it out! 

More show announcments coming soon. Stay tuned.

Greg, Ethan, Troy, Todd
~The Mines

I know, I know, stop talking about the new cd and just release it already!  I would if I could, believe me.  But hear me out…

First of all, to bring everyone up to speed on what I’m talking about… We, The Mines, have been working on our 3rd CD, “Fear Is Easy”, for over a year now.  We had no idea it would take us this long when we started, but when you’re a part-time band like we are, and the intent for this CD is to take more time to experiment with sounds, parts, etc… in the hopes that the quality of the final product will be that much better, then it’s bound to take longer, and the hope is the final product will be worth it.

So anyway, on or about mid-November, I personally had had enough of this cd: the songs, the recording process, the mixes, thinking about what else the songs needed, listening to each part over and over and over, etc… Basically I was fried and really needed to step back and take a deep breath.  So I stopped.  I told the rest of the guys I just needed to step away from the process — and they continued working with Joel (our producer) without me. 

So for most of November and all of December, I didn’t listen to any of our music… didn’t play it… didn’t really even think about the band.  And that’s a strange thing for me since we’ve been living and breathing this thing since March of 2004 when we first started jamming together, and I tend to always be thinking about it in some way or another. 

Well not only did I step away from the band for awhile, I also got to step away from work, and the good old United States, and even North America for awhile… How’s that for a change in perspective? My family and I just returned from almost 2 weeks visiting family and friends in South Africa, where I did happen to hear a couple of Mines songs when they played on my brother’s ipod while we were out driving one day — but those were from People Music. Other than that, I’ve heard nothing of The Mines recently… Until tonight.  So my veins were completely Mines-free when I climbed into my car with no intention of listening to “Fear Is Easy” and decided to put it in the CD player, to give it a fresh listen.

On the way home from the movie theater tonight, having finally gotten a chance to see “The Social Network”, I popped in an old mix of the 9 songs we’ve been working on for so long — not even the latest, most worked-on mixes — (I haven’t even heard those yet actually).  The mixes in my car, weren’t even “mixes” really, just output from the computer that happened to have all of the parts for each song on it, with not a lot of effort to make the individual parts work together to paint the picture, the sounds were just all there, blobbed together.  And I listened, and listened, and listened…

Well, I wish I could say “wow” and you’d believe me.  I wish I could type “you’re really gonna like this” and you’d get it.  I really wish I could say, Merry Christmas, the CD’s getting duplicated as we speak, or head on over to http://store.theminesonline.net and download the new songs right now!

But I can’t, because we’re still working on it. 

Let it be known that the official line from us, The Mines, is that “Fear is Easy” is the best collection of music we’ve ever done!  And, really that’s not just a line.  We really believe it — or at least I do — but I bet the other guys would say it as well.

After stepping away from it for a month and closing my eyes and ears and just letting it sit for awhile, even just listening to the not-so-mixes, I can tell.  Even with my guitar too loud, or burried, or Todd’s drums not eq’d to melt your face yet or whatever… it’s still really exciting, and I think you’ll think so too. 

So sit tight people.  Please bear with us during this “under construction” period.  Traffic will start flowing any day now.  Or next week… ok more like bear with us for a few more months.  We’re going to do our best to wrap this up neatly ASAP — certainly before the next holiday season approaches us!

Download a few more tracks from iTunes while you wait.  I hear you can get the Beatles on there now!  If you like that sort of thing.

Greg
(for the rest of The Mines)

For those of you keeping track, it has been over a year since preproduction began on our album “Fear Is Easy”.  Never in the past have we taken so much time to get the music right, and I can proudly say, never have we been so proud of what’s happening. 

And….

Tracking is almost complete!  There are a few auxiliary pieces left to layer and tweak, but we are nearing the final stretch of the recording process.  In a few weeks we will begin mixing and then it’s on to mastering and duplication!

For those of you who have eagerly awaited its release, I’m so happy to say that it will have been worth the wait.  During the recording process it’s easy to feel like a slowly wilting houseplant, reaching deep for that 23^rd take, but after listening to some preliminary mixes I can see that the work has not only paid off, but this will definitely be the most monumental Mines release.  The magic we were digging for has indeed been found, and we can’t wait to bring this stuff to the surface to share with you.