We have been a band from the end of 2005 and somehow (known as the Open Fire Curse) managed to always take infinitely too long on our albums. We wrote our first batch of songs/album (“Built to Abandon”) in summer of 2006 but through endless bullshit we weren’t able to record til spring 2007, and the pressed CD came out in Oct/Nov of 07, with a mostly different line up, a semi different sound and a new batch of songs. Those songs took us another year to get out (“To the Ends of Ivalice”) and nearly another year for the next couple songs with another new line up and a an even more significant sound change (“Slaves EP”). Needless to say, this band has had its share of problems and then some.

2009 felt like our year, and we tried hitting the road to build momentum to this album that we had brewing. But like every time OF tried to move forward, a line up change or two would happen and that altered the course of the band. The drummer of the time, Wilson, and I hashed out nearly 12 complete songs for a new album (including 2 of 3 songs from SLAVES and a couple old tracks). Some of the riffs off Slaves date back to material I wrote in 2004-2005 while looking for a band. And then Wilson couldn’t tour, so we had to get new members. We tried touring but only to have things implode from personal bullshit.

After having dedicated a few years, thousands of dollars, and every ounce of creative energy I had into this, having the band “break up” on tour was pretty fucking heart breaking. On top of that, I came home from that tour to a horrible personal situation that left me further in one of the worst depressions I had ever been in. So I attempted to move forward with my life, and not focus on being in a full-time band/no longer “dedicating” myself to music. I know how corny it is to say this, but from these feelings came some new riffs that after showing Fisch, I couldn’t let them go unheard. We set out to just finish/rewrite the album, get a couple of people together to help us record it, and then maybe play a show to celebrate it. That was early 2010.

After learning all 12 songs with our new bassist and drummer, both of the new members told us they were so into the material that we shouldn’t just be a recording/studio band, but that we should really try to make things happen again. So we gave it a shot. A few great shows later, we started recording the album in July 2010. Drum tracking went incredibly smooth and Daniel killed it. Him and I argued a bit on how certain parts should go, but I really hope he’s proud of what he’s done. Guitar tracking went next. We attempted a method similar to what a lot of our favorite artists have done and that was record multiple guitar tracks with multiple amps. What we weren’t capable of doing was what most professionals do: record the tracks clean then re-amp the signal into whatever amps and cabs you want to create multiple tracks of the same thing. We were idiots, and we recorded everything twice.

It took a long, long fucking time to record everything twice, perfectly, on time. Also, each guitar track had 2 mics, so there’s 4 guitar tracks for each main guitar, with 2 guitar parts running 8 guitar tracks. If we tracked 3rd guitar parts, that was sometimes adding up to 10 guitar tracks. With bass we luckily did it a little smarter, but there are 4 bass tracks ! Theres one part on the album that if you count every guitar and bass track, there are 16 tracks !

Needless to say, we took a couple of months doing this as we only recorded a couple of days a week and a couple of hours a week due to limited schedules and us not being able to afford to go into a “real studio” and do things the “real way”. Then vocals came up. Besides the fact that I am the worst perfectionist, I admittedly have a weak voice. There were days I could track for about 2 hours at a time, there were days I walked in, did two words and hated it completely and had to call it a night. I (stubbornly) refused to put out a garbage/half assed product since I had already invested so much of my life into it. I wanted it to be perfect. I didn’t want to look back and go “fuck, I love this part ! Except I wish I sang this one line better…” and I took my sweet time on writing the lyrics. I rewrote “I Despise” about 3 times completely over. I wrote some lyrics and vocal patterns to “Curse of the Quixotic” five minutes before I recorded them. We didn’t finish the silly vocals (hence why it sounds ridiculous and unfinished) for the goofy bonus track that John, Daniel and I wrote. We never even tracked “gang vocals” for this album, something that was extremely enjoyable on previous recordings.

Ahren Lanfor and Randy Wheeler both did huge favors for me and the OF guys by doing this album for us, and thus we had to go by their availability when it overlapped with ours. Combine those two things with real life, and it made it damn near impossible for the album to get finished. Randy, who was supposed to mix and master the album, went through some huge personal issues and couldn’t finish the album, but I (foolishly) held out for him to be able to do it when he had time. We waited months and months but it never came to be. By the time it finally got done tracking, we already had a half new line up again, and were trying to book tours. Misery Signals, a band who had (obviously) huge influence on us asked us to open a string of dates for them, and we couldn’t have been more excited, but due to real life, our tour fell apart, and thus the band fell apart. The album was in a status of total limbo, and basically the entire band quit. Everything I had worked for since 2005 had completely fallen apart in my hands again, and this time it felt like (it was) my fault. The album title, I Am the Curse, wasn’t just some lyric. It is representative of everything in my life. Everything in life is a choice, and every negative impact in my life is a result of my own choice. Some might argue about outside interferences, but those outside influences (other people in my life, environments I’ve been in, etc) are only a part of my life because of me. It is my own fault. This all happened in the fall of 2011. I let the album languish a few months as I tried to get my life back in order, once again trying to move forward without dedicating my life to a band or music.

In the spring of 2012, Ahren contacted me and told me he would mix and master the album for me if I would like him to. After some long thought, I agreed, and in June, he delivered the final product. but there was a catch. Ahren mixed the album how he imagined it should sound. Not based on my wants/how I envisioned it, not based on what the band wanted. He took our recording and made an album with it as he saw fit. So what you hear, every little thing on hear is out of his choice. How loud vocals are or the kick drum or the bass tone, all of this based on his choices. This isn’t the album I envisioned, but its a fucking great album. He did a great job on it. There are things on here I would change, but I wouldn’t be the world’s worst perfectionist if there wasn’t, now would I ?

Fitting in with the Open Fire Curse, in planning a release and final show for this thing (October 20th 2012), I picked out an artist, paid him to do the art and agreed on a deadline. After some communication and two months after the deadline, he told me he can't do it and is in the process of paying me back. So, another thing different from how I envisioned this : there is no big/creative artwork. I made an image on Photoshop, and made a lyric sheet for you all to download if you want. Sorry it isn’t glamorous, but nothing ever works out how we want it.

Source : http://iamthecurse.com/