New Single Out Now!

After a year and a half in the studio, new music is finally here!  We've just released a two song maxi-single featuring two songs from the soon to be released sophomore Kiera Plan album.

We're so excited for you to hear these songs!  Here is "Right Now"

And here is "Annie" Both songs are available on iTunes, Amazon, and just about anywhere else you'd think to download music.

I'd like to thank all of the amazing people who you hear performing on these songs, we are so grateful to everyone involved for their time and talent.  Here is the full roster for each song:

Right Now
Shawn O'Brien - vocals, guitar
Tim Zaprala - bass
J.J. Davis - keys
Daniel Pawlovich* - drums
Alison Cloud* - backing vocals
Shawn Gamble* - backing vocals

* Fans will recognize Dan as former drummer for Valencia, and current frontman for his new band Mosey.  Alison and Shawn appear courtesy of their band Kick Back Tomorrow.

Annie
Shawn O'Brien - vocals, piano, bass
Vince Ratti* - guitar
Daniel Pawlovich - drums
Andrew Meoray* - cello
Rachel Minton* - backing vocals

*Fans will recognize Vince and Rachel from their amazing group Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer.  Vince has produced, engineered, and performed on both Dedication and the upcoming Kiera Plan album. Fans will find Andrew hard at work in both the Q Family Band and with up and coming hip-hop group Astronauts Really Fly.

The cover art for the single contains a fragment of the new album's cover, drawn by Matt Tyree, and colored by Val Staples.

The release date on the full album is still to be determined, but these won't be the only songs coming your way before the album drops.

So much more is on the way. For now, thank you so much for your interest and for your support!

Shawn
 

Singing It Out

Shawn, singing @ The Skylight Studio, summer 2012

After six action-packed days in the studio over the last couple of months, singing it out with producer Vince Ratti, I've managed to lay down the vocals for all ten songs that will appear on Kiera Plan: Album Two.

Vince is a beast when it comes to vocals; he has a great sense for what a song does or doesn't need, and the wheels are always turning in his head in regards to what harmonies "might be cool here."

It's awesome to have Vince's decisiveness and reassurance at the helm when we're navigating the rough seas of vocal production.  The process for vocals is extremely exciting - you finally get to start really hearing the song you've been trying to put together - but there are so many options to consider at every point in the process (softer, louder, up an octave, down an octave, more sass, less sass, etc.) that, for me, it would be nerve-racking to be making all of these decisions from behind the mic without that great insight from behind the boards.

As to the big picture, while I have recorded the lead vocals for all the songs, and most backing vocals and harmonies, there are still some touch ups and additions to lay down.  There will also be a number of guest vocalists who will be coming in to the studio to make an appearance.  With the vocals in hand, we also still have some final pieces of instrumentation to record: keys, lead guitar riffs, strings, brass, supplemental percussion, and so forth.  It sound like a long list, but this stuff can go really quickly.  Some songs could be as little as 15 minutes of studio time away from being a wrap.

We definitely want to make sure that we don't leave any great ideas untapped for these songs, and we're really excited to get the guests we have lined up on the record.  So even though there isn't a lot of red light time left for album two, the coordination of the ten or so people who will be dropping in will probably take the recording process up to the end of September or early October.  At that point though, new music will be right around the corner!  We're incredibly excited for you to hear these songs.

I'll definitely be blasting session by session updates on Facebook and Twitter, so I hope all of our Tweeps will stay tuned there.

For now, thank you so much for your interest.

All the best!

Shawn