Presence & Presents:
An Historical Perspective
written by Chris Herin, 1999

Presents Of Mind was not the title we originally had in...mind. I hate to say what we were going to use because we may still use it - you never know, we may release another album. Anyway, that's not really important...It is interesting to note that we hesitated to use POM in the first place. It seemed a tad cliche within the progressive/hard rock genre we tend to operate in. The word mind seems over-used as does the brain imagery and allusion to intellect; but, as you can tell, we ignored our instincts and used it anyway! Our concerns came back to haunt us since, once committed to using POM, we saw no less than five(!) new albums being released which used mind in the title. Oh well...If we had these reservations about the title, why still go ahead with it? Good question! We really liked the multiple meanings of the title and the meanings of the words within the title. Presents as a gift, or to present an award, or to feel a presence, or to have presence; to have a mind, to mind as in to obey, to mind as in to look after; to have presence of mind, or to have a gifted mind. You get the point. Almost too many options. We wanted artwork and packaging that incorporated different messages - little twists and turns and subtleties for people to ponder.

Although the title conjured up interesting visual angles, it was even more appropriate as a theme for the lyrical content of the album. Once again, I had stumbled onto an overall "concept" revolving around some aspect of human nature. Before we knew it, we had another "semi-concept" album on our hands! Where our previous album Fence The Clear dealt mostly with persistence and uncertain outcomes, Presents Of Mind illustrates the traits of human adaptability and the capacity to cope. Not in a dry textbook sort of way, but by relating practical day-to-day experiences.

Musically there were a few goals we hoped to achieve. We wanted the music to be more adventurous and challenging, but still retain melody and the energy of rock music. Songs for music fans, not just musicians. Our whole approach to recording and arranging changed since finishing Fence The Clear. We decided to create arrangements without considering the restrictions of our live instrumentation. Some songs just wouldn't be suited for live performance, or would have to undergo significant adaptations for the stage. Although extremely happy with the final results of FTC, we were left with the feeling that some of the songs didn't sound finished. Therefore, all self-imposed constraints were stripped away and we added keyboards, backing vocals, mandolin, banjo, baby guitars, and anything else that seemed appropriate, to our hearts' content. Of course, we kept a careful watch out for the tendency to over-produce in this kind of situation - which I think we avoided. We seemed to know when a song was finished. Sometimes less is more, or less is less, or more is more - it just depends!

If some people recognize Ballad Of The Sacred Cows, The Sandtrap Jig, and Facing Failure from pre-release track listings for Fence The Clear, you are correct! Facing Failure was previously known as No Failure and appeared in demo form as a bonus track on the Japanese release of FTC. These songs weren't substandard leftovers or anything. We were just not happy with their arrangements. So, we held them back from "graduating," fixed them up, and "present" them now in their full splendor on POM. (Although we didn't change anything on The Sandtrap Jig. FTC simply didn't need another solo piece!)

The recording of Presents Of Mind took place close to home at Stages Recording in Novi, Michigan with engineer Chris Andrews. Chris has now been involved in all three of our recordings and acts as a sounding board (bored?) for various ideas and issues of performance "quality." Our original intent was to utilize the skills of our good friend Kevin Chown during the recording process, but his schedule became too hectic to remain involved beyond the pre-production phase. So we fired him! Well, not really...He had to bow out of the project so we took on the production duties ourselves, with Chris Andrews doing some co-production in addition to engineering. We did save a place for Kevin to play a little bass though. In fact, we saved a couple places for some other friends of ours: Sonya Mastick played various percussion instruments on Modification and The Learning Curve, and Matthew Parmenter of the band Discipline. played several nice violin solos on the epic (meaning never-ending) Reasonable Doubt. I'm sure you'll agree all our guests did a fine job and earned their money!

We had thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working with Terry Brown during the mixing of Fence The Clear, and planned on having him also mix POM. But this time we were a little better prepared! We had left a few things "undone" or in "take care of it in the mix" status while FTC was recorded - not knowing that we would end up mixing at a different studio. Of course Terry was gracious enough to do this extra work, even though you couldn't typically consider it part of mixing. The downside was these "side issues" sometimes broke the flow of progress and cramped us for time. If you've heard FTC you'll hear that Terry still did a great job, our roadblocks not withstanding! Anyway, having traveled further up the recording learning curve - and simply knowing how Terry worked - helped us prepare perfectly organized, cleaned, and detailed master tapes this time around.

Jeff and I made the trip to Toronto, where Terry lives and prefers to mix. Paul and Pat were unable to attend (or quite possibly didn't want to hang out with us) and missed all the fun! We met with Terry for dinner, "presented" the tapes to him, and spent the evening catching up on things. The following day Terry kicked Jeff and I out of the studio and spent the day settling into the overall sound and sonic perspective he wanted to achieve for the entire album. All we had to do was check in at the end of the day and approve his "vision" - which started with Modification - and, of course, we did! The rest of the week went smoothly with Terry hard at work and Jeff and I lounging around offering minor commentary; to which Terry would say "...I'm not working on that yet..." or "...I didn't use that part because it doesn't sound good...". Having firmly established our roles, we spent a lot of time playing pinball on "The Raven." Terry would join us on breaks. Even with its dilapidated flippers and tendency to tilt, it was still a lot of fun. Jeff was the champ while the entertaining proprietor/co-engineer of Town Music Studio, Dave Townson, came in a close second. Terry's audio skills did not translate well to pinball with myself not faring much better! It was an economy-oriented past time (about 28 cents a game) - due mostly to the phenomenal exchange rate enjoyed by US currency. The weakened Canadian dollar proved too tempting for Jeff and I and became the standing joke during the sessions. "Six dollars for a beer? Oh, wait. That's only $2 in US money." And other similar commentary. It eventually (or more likely, immediately) became irritating so we finally had to give it a rest. Savvy businessmen that they are, Terry and Dave required payment in US dollars!

During the course of mixing FTC, Terry gave us a few discs he had worked on, some of them independent projects. A couple of these featured artwork by Terry's good friend Hugh Syme. A name certainly familiar to rock (especially progressive/hard rock) fans around the world. Terry casually mentioned that Hugh would be the perfect person to do the artwork for our next album. We agreed but thought it wishful thinking...Well, as things would turn out, Hugh was enlisted to create the elaborate artistic interpretation of POM we envisioned. And a fine job he did! This is no indictment of the quality of work our friends at Bam Boom Graphics and Productions had done for us on our previous CDs. Besides, they still do everything else - and actually helped Hugh with what's known as "pre-press production" due to his hectic schedule. Hugh was also working on Rush's Different Stages, Uriah Heep's Anthology, and a few others at the same time. In fact, several times Hugh had to "let me go" since Geddy Lee was on the other line. I'm not sure why Geddy was allowed to interrupt?

But, there's a little more to the artwork story. Borne out of comments from our European and Japanese labels regarding the perceived disparity of the FTC artwork and our style of music, we began thinking of upgrading our overall presentation - to make the CD "look like it sounds." We were happy with the designs for Tiles and Fence The Clear, but, we felt these criticisms had some merit and took them under advisement. Ultimately, we decided to "step things up a notch" (as Paul would say) and Hugh was our man.

It's interesting to note that we discussed NOT using Hugh because of his long-term ties to Rush (he's done all their albums since 1975). We already were working with Terry Brown (who co-produced and engineered Rush albums from 1974-1982), and are somewhat influenced by Rush ourselves (but only slightly!). We thought maybe it looked like we didn't have "minds" of our own, or were on a quest to "be" Rush. Even though that's emphatically not the case, "perception is reality" you know! Anyway, we eventually said "so what - it's a great opportunity and quite an honor to have Hugh's skills working on our behalf - along with Terry's." Besides, Hugh has done artwork for so many bands other than Rush: Aerosmith, Queensryche, Def Leppard, Kiss, Fates Warning, Supertramp, Whitesnake, Scorpions, Megadeth, Bon Jovi, Coverdale/Page, and hundreds of others.

Much to our surprise, "artwork" by Hugh Syme was not without a hitch or two! The original version of the cover featured a bright blue sky which was deemed "too happy" by the European label. So, we asked Hugh to create an ominous or foreboding atmosphere instead. He did and it looked great, maybe a even a little better. The label then asked if the graphic detail and realism of the brain/brain-in-box was necessary. A point of contention also brought up by several Japanese labels and our North American label. This was starting to feel like a conspiracy! We were confused - it's not like we had a picture of a head ripped open with someone's brains being yanked out. It was just a brain. Anyway, Hugh stated he would not create a fake-looking brain - so that was that. Well, almost. Our North American label would not release POM with the brain on the cover. So Hugh came up with what he called a "cinema-noir" version. Essentially black and white with a Citizen Kane-Alfred Hitchcock-Twilight Zone appearance. Kind of surreal and science fiction-ish. No longer too realistic or "gross" the label liked it! Hugh liked it too and we liked it well enough - so everyone was happy - finally.

I observed one interesting spin-off benefit to having Terry & Hugh working on POM together. Both have a sincere mutual respect for each other's talents and seemed to put a little extra effort into their respective roles. Not wanting to disappoint or negatively impact the other's efforts - so to speak. Neither Hugh or Terry would admit to such a thing but I could tell! And we are grateful for their dedication.

The final step in the audio production process, mastering, had its own peculiar set of unexpected problems - of which I'll spare everyone the technical & tedious details. Let's just say we persevered and eventually finished (thanks Gary, Peter, Chris A., & Terry!). Then it was on to tackle the issue of bonus tracks. Because the release dates of POM were different for each territory, the company with the last release date usually wants a bonus track (or two) to hedge against imports. Plus, Japanese companies always request a bonus track - it's the way it is! Since Tiles is nothing if not cooperative, we complied. Ron Pangborn, Music Coordinator of WTVS-Channel 56's "BackStage Pass" entertainment program in Detroit, gave us permission to use a couple "direct-to-DAT" live performances we recorded for the show February 12, 1998. These appear on Magna Carta's June 29, 1999 North American release. The Japanese bonus track Ambition, was left unfinished during the sessions for our debut album (due to budget constraints). We finished the vocals, keyboards and lead guitar, shipped it off to Terry for mixing and it was done - just in time to ship to Japan. I recorded a new version of (yet another) short guitar melody (which had appeared on the "Standing Pavement" demo of long ago). Mostly to act as a bridge between Reasonable Doubt and Ambition. Even the South American version has Another's Hand from FTC as a bonus track. So, to summarize, each of the four (4) POM releases is different! And yes, it is a conspiracy to coerce innocent fans into purchasing as many different versions as possible to get all the bonus tracks (sorry)...

Well, now that 90% of our behind-the-scenes excitement is public knowledge, I'll close with a few quick comments. Presents Of Mind has held up pretty well under scrutiny since we finished it several months ago. None of us have had any serious lingering doubts about the final results - which isn't always the case. I should also take this opportunity to compliment my bandmates on a job well done. Everyone "stepped up to the plate" and displayed a healthy dose of presence of mind from start to finish. Each doing what had to be done and making things happen; which, when you're in a band and counting on other people, is a pretty big "present" in itself!