This Is My Rifle: “Pyramids In Stereo” Has Arrived! (Album Listen & Download) Posted by Jason James on 11/28/12 | Filed under Downloads, Mixtapes, This Is My Rifle

Right now as I'm writing this, I am currently sitting on the train making my way from my 9-5 office job to a production meeting for what will ultimately become a video for the second single release from this album, "Forgetting How To Dream". As I sway back and forth amongst the packed crowd of other 9-5ers, I'm trying to think of the best way to introduce "Pyramids In Stereo", but my mind keeps trailing off and wondering how or if I will have time to grab something for dinner and when I can squeeze in a quick load of laundry since I am officially out of clean clothes. Oh, and I literally just remembered that I have to update mine and Rodney's bios for when our website (https://mwoc.com) hopefully makes it's debut sometime tomorrow (November 28th). To make a long story short, I'm fucking exhausted.

From the very beginning of this album my life has been complete chaos. While still riding the high of "Marvelous World Of Color", Rodney and I were determined to continue along the wave of positivity and jump straight into the next project. Once I had about 10 songs written I was ready to return to the studio when it came to my attention that my usual recording home had been dismantled and sold. So until I found a new atmosphere to record in that I was comfortable with, this project was put on hold indefinitely.

After a few months of searching I ultimately decided to record this album at Promised Land Studio located conveniently in my home city of Richmond, BC. Aside from having known the owner and engineer, Steve, for quite a few years, it was also the last studio that my close friend Rasul recorded at before his untimely passing. Having been one of the few people that had the privilege of hearing his last album as he envisioned it from start to finish, I thought that maybe I could pick up on his energy and push it into my music. He was an incredible MC and an amazing friend, and so I felt that it would be the best place for me to lock myself into and work from.

Early on it became apparent that working with a new engineer was gonna be a far greater task than I anticipated. For the first 8 months I recorded and threw away more songs than I ever had before. I don't blame Steve, the engineer, for the lack of solid music being created at that time- I had been spoiled during the previous years by having an engineer at my disposal who knew exactly how I was supposed to sound and when I wasn't up to par. And because I had become accustomed to working with somebody who was aware of how neurotic of an artist I really am, we didn't find that necessary creative flow until the final 4 months of recording, which also happens to be when the bulk of this album fell into place. Promised Land is a fucking top-notch studio and Steve is an equally capable engineer, it just took us a bit longer than I expected (approximately 15-20 songs) to discover the hidden magic that exists between an engineer and an artist only other OCD perfectionists would know about or understand.

For mixing and mastering I took the album to my long-time engineer, Adam Nigro, and because the album had been recorded in a different studio with a different engineer, it took him a few months to figure out exactly how the album was supposed to sound. He fought through an endless maze of frequencies in pursuit of a perfect sonic balance, but more often than not came out slightly lopsided. In fact, he ended up mixing and mastering "Life As We Know It" a grand total of 16 times until he finally conquered it. I can honestly say that he went to war with every song on "Pyramids In Stereo" and refused to give up. He twisted knobs and pushed frequencies until he was deaf and even then he would turn down the volume and stare at his computer screen, relentless in his search for that aforementioned "balance".

Now here we are, 27 months later and presenting the result of what truly was the most challenging experience of my life. Rodney and I both sacrificed everything we had to get here and we poured every ounce of blood, sweat and tears we could conjure into it. I suffered immensely throughout the process of bringing this album to life and I think next week I will go further into detail about it as I return to my regular post as RefinedHype's undisputed king of conspiracy. But for now, I've reached my stop and I am scanning the surrounding area for a McDonald's or a dollar pizza joint. So much like the beginning stages of the album you’re about to download, this article is being temporarily put on pause.

Wish me luck, and thank you for reading/listening.

(Jason James is an artist, freelance columnist and writer for RefinedHype.com. You can listen/download his last two albums, "Marvelous World Of Color" and "Pyramids in Stereo" and you can contact him here and here.)

See Also: This Is My Rifle: “Tomorrow” (Listen)

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