House of Ghosts is nearing completion!

There’s a lot that goes in to making a record: writing the songs, road-testing them, pre-production… but for me, the biggest milestone is always finishing the drums; whether it’s using found objects, like on A Failed Breakup and A Sarcastic Tango, using percussive sounds created entirely on my guitar, like on We Are The Architects, or using a full studio drum kit like on Made a Mess, Waking Up Is A Letdown, and now House of Ghosts, finalizing the drum tracks always feels like the tipping point, where the structure and foundation of the record is complete, and all that’s left is to add the finishing touches.

That’s why I’m crazy excited that this past weekend, my co-producer Eric Bertagnolli came in to the studio for two days, and knocked out all the remaining drum tracks for the record.

This also means there’s a finalized track order!

1. The Things You Couldn’t Find
2. House of Ghosts
3. Fresh Out Of Love Songs
4. Skip
5. The Photograph Lies
6. If I Had Happened
7. The Last Sunset
8. A Work In Progress
9. The Year We Came Alive
10. Starting To Believe

In the course of recording, Eric broke one of this sticks, so I got him to sign it for posterity:

With the drums complete, I expect I should have the rest of the tracks complete and sent over to Eric for mixing by the end of November!

I’ve also got a nice batch of shows coming up this month, including a show at The Winchester in Lakewood, Ohio, opening for a couple great acts on tour:
I The Victor (Atlanta, GA)
Fletcher’s Grove (Morgantown, WV)

That show’s happening Friday, November 3 – you can find the Facebook event here.

Here’s a list of all the shows I’ve got on the calendar this month:

As always, there’s a chance a few more dates may pop up on my calendar – you can always find all the upcoming shows on my Tour Dates page.

Finally, since we just passed my favorite holiday (Halloween), Allow me a little self-indulgence in sharing this year’s costume (and a LOT of self-indulgence in the presentation of the costume in poster form!) You can’t see all the details in this, but the accessories included a functioning walkman with a playable cassette copy of The Awesome Mix, Vol. 1. It’s the little details that matter!