Weed. What a wierd little town. It's way up in the Cascade mountain range, at the base of Mount Shasta, which is believed to have super powers like Magneto. Seriously, ask some of the hippies that live out in the town of Mt. Shasta. So anyway, we get to Weed a day early and Greg Shivy, the co-owner of Radiostar Studios, allows us in to get all settled in that day. We go and buy REAL food, like BEEF and MILK (not melk). Within a few hours we have all of our gear and luggage inside and it already feels like home. We have a huge DVD library at our disposal, an X-Box and PS2, a ping-pong table, exercise area, kitchenette, beds, etc.

Greg's a super nice guy with a lot of cool stories. We're in Studio B and are told that From First to Last will be getting into Studio A in a couple of days. They show up on Tuesday (we got there on Sunday) and Kale', the guy from Radiostar that's co-engineering for Ross Robinson (producing), shows them around Studio B while we're in there in our pajamas and wife-beaters. Jon and Joe are on the X-Box while Nate, Josh, and I are playing Skittles poker in the corner. The guitarist, Michael, decides he wants in on the Skittles poker and the band's videographer comes and records us playing poker...it was kinda awkward. I guess they'll be releasing a DVD along with their CD. I wonder if we'll be on it...

So on Monday, we met Rich Veltrop and Sylvia Massy-Shivy, our producers, and we get set up to record. Sylvia wants to hear all the songs we've prepared and tells us we have enough time for five songs. So we play for her and she likes the following: Boy, Fil, Detonator, Ann Taylor Must Die, and Charcoal and Razorblades. Man, Sylvia is sooo cool. She just exudes happiness and positivity. She's the kind of person that when she walks in the room, everything is suddenly right in the world. She and Rich really like Detonator. Oh, and Rich is the coolest too. He's really direct and has an amazingly attentive ear. He hears EVERYTHING. It's crazy. And to add on top of that, he's really detail-oriented. ...I miss them...

Josh starts recording drums that night and finishes up the next day. Wednesday is Radiostar's day off. The next few days are spent recording bass and guitars. What that means is Josh and I spend like 9 days doing nothing...just laying around. Josh played a lot of XBox and even cooked. I read a lot: Anna Karenina, Memoirs of a Geisha, The DaVinci Code, 4 Harry Potter books...

The following Monday, Lindsey (Nate's girl) flies into Medford. She bought us food and drinks. Awesome! On Wednesday, we take a drive up to Mt. Shasta and eat at a Mexican restaurant in the town below. The chile was not so exciting. We start on keys and vocals on Thursday. The songs are coming together and I can still remember the excitement, particularly from Joe, Josh, and Nate, who had never been in a studio before. Wes Borlin (sp?) shows up on Thursday (I think). He's recording bass for From First To Last. He spent a lot of time with his cell phone jammed into his ear, so I didn't get to talk to him. I didn't have anything to say anyways. "um..hi. I like that one song, Rollin'" I didn't even bother.

So that sums up the order of events, I guess. Throughout the two weeks we were there, we ate at the Hungry Moose a couple of times, went out for a few drinks, saw some of Sylvia's home movies with System of a Down, went bowling (Rock 'n' Bowl baby!!), played some pool at a dork hangout (they had D&D setups there!!), went on lots of walks around town, got arrested, took a tour of the Weed museum. hehe

I have pictures!! See the photo album!!