VENICE Kipp Lennon Lead Vocals Mark Lennon Lead Vocals Michael Lennon Producer Acoustic And electric Guitars Bass Keyboards Vocals Pat Lennon Acoustic And Electric Guitars Vocals “Venice Is The Best Vocal Group In America Right Now. They're Better than Anybody Else I Know. They're Fantastic. I’m A Student Of Harmony. That’s My Thing. I Love All Kinds Of Harmony. But I Particularly Love theirs Because It’s So Natural. It’s Not Like Anybody Else’s. Very unforced Very From Their Hearts. I’ve Been Telling People About Them since The First Night I Heard Them. I’ve Told Everybody I Could Find That they Were The Best. This Is My Favorite Band In The World.” --David Crosby "Venice One Of My Favorite Bands Is Quintessentially Californian With soaring Harmonies. We’ve Played Together At Numerous Benefits And At each Other's Concerts. What They Do Is Sing Amazingly. There Are Two lead Singers There Are Four Harmony Parts A Lot Of The Time And What It most Resembles Is CSN Or Sometimes Sly And The Family Stone. Well Anything Unique Is Pretty Hard To Describe But That's The General Musical terrain. They Sing And Play Their Asses Off And I Have Seen Them Knock out Many An Unsuspecting Crowd. On Two Separate Occasions I Booked them For Large Outdoor Venues Where We Were Doing Benefits And They took The Audiences Who Had Not Come To See Them Completely By surprise. It's Such A Pleasure To Play With These Guys Because They have That Power." --Jackson Browne In November Of 2005 Venice Began Writing For Their Tenth Studio Album. This Time They had A Very Specific Direction To Guide Their Creative Energies. They Had Recently Signed with Universal Records Who Had Released Their Biggest Selling Album To Date “Two Metre Sessies ” And The Label Loved The Intimate Mood Of That Album And The Mellow Side of The Band That It Represented. So They Asked Venice To Essentially Come Up With “Two Metre Sessies Part 2 ” Only With New Material This Time As That Album Had Been A greatest Hits Set . Because “Two Metre Sessies” Is A Collection Of Songs That Venice Performed Live During the Taping Of The Television Program Of The Same Name All Of The Tracks Had Been recorded With The Whole Band Playing Together At The Same Time. This Created A Feeling of Immediacy And Presence That Both The Band And The Label Agreed Has Been Missing from Venice’s Previous Albums. So It Was Decided That In Order To Maintain The “Two Metre Sessies” Feel This New Studio Album Should Be Recorded The Same Way Live. Kipp Lennon Explains The Overall Concept. “We Wanted It To Be Spontaneous And Loose and No Overdubbing Or Fixing Wherever Possible. Mellow And Moody But Also Fun And energetic Along The Way.” So The Band Began To Collaborate. First During Frequent Writing Trips To “Hideaway Hill” Their Family Home In Vista California And Then Later At Each Other’s Houses In Between family Responsibilities. For Michael Lennon The Knowledge That They Would Be Recording This Album Live In The studio Brought A Freshness To The Writing Process. “In A Sense ” He Says “the Songs Had to Be Great In Their Simplest Form. We Knew We Couldn’t Rely On Fancy Production To Make them Shine. They Would Have To Survive With One Guitar Or One Piano And Vocals.” Once The New Batch Of Songs Were Developed Enough To Start Playing The Rehearsal process Began. Every Song Had To Be As Finished And Tight As Possible By The Time They got Into The Studio So Rehearsing For The Recording Sessions Was Very Similar To The process Of Rehearsing For A Tour. Explains Michael “This Rehearsal Process Really Enriched The Songs. Having Musicians that You Really Respect To Bounce Ideas Off Of Is Invaluable. Even If Someone’s Idea doesn’t Work It Often Triggers Another Idea That Does.” In The First Week Of May 2006 Two Weeks Prior To The Scheduled Recording Start Date Venice Began An 11th Hour Cram Session. Dutch Keyboardist Nick Bult Flew To California Where He The Four Lennons Bassist Mark Harris And Drummer Jamie Wollam Spent An intensive Week At Michael’s Guest Cottage Fine-Tuning The New Songs Together As A Band. It Was Long Days And Hard Work But Mark Lennon Also Remembers The Fun. “We laughed Ate Drank And Worked Out All The Arrangements Together In A Relaxed atmosphere ” He Says. After Nick Returned Home The Band Continued To Massage The Songs Right Up Until stepping Onto The Holland-Bound Plane One Week Later. Then On May 18th Recording For the Album Began. Their Studio Was De Singelkerk An Old Wooden Church In Amsterdam. Why A Church Instead Of A Traditional Recording Studio? Michael Explains “The Room itself Has A Beautiful Natural Reverb That When Controlled Is Amazing Sounding. Also The old Wooden Construction The Wood Plank Floors And The Leaded Glass Windows Gave It A very Warm Feel.” Mark Recalls The Atmosphere. “Three Stories High It Had A Great Acoustic Sound That We took Advantage Of. They Had A Reception/kitchen/office Area Where We Made Our Tea And checked Our E-Mails. There Was Another Room We Used For Our Huge Group Lunches And dinners Where We Rarely Talked About The Recordings And Just Took A Real Break And laughed At Each Other’s Funny Stories And Stupid Jokes.” The Band’s Original Idea Had Been To Record The Music And The Vocals At The Same Time But Due To Technical Limitations They Were Only Able To Do That With Three Songs “Ashes in The Snow ” Which Is On The Main Album And “We’re Okay” And “Katrina ” Which Are On the Bonus CDs. For Everything Else They Were Forced To Change Their Game Plan. They wound Up Recording All Of The Music First With The Band Set Up On Two-Foot-High Stages In a Circle Facing Each Other. Kipp And Mark Stood Outside In The Hallway Singing Reference vocals Into Microphones That Could Only Be Heard In The Musicians’ Headsets. Individual mics Were Placed In Front Of Each Instrument And Then Ambient Mics Were Set Up Around the Room To Capture The Blended Sound Of The Band As They Played Together. Once All The Music Was Laid To Tape The Instruments Were Cleared From The Room And It was Time To Record The Vocals. New Stages Were Built Six Feet High This Time And They were Again Arranged In A Circle Facing Each Other. Once Again Ambient Mics Were Set up Around The Room To Augment The Signals From Each Vocalist’s Large Vocal Mics. According To Michael “The Lead Vocalist Would Sing His Part At The Same Time We Would sing The Background Parts. The Pressure Was On Not To Screw Up The Other Guy’s Take But It Felt So Good To Sing Together In One Room At One Time!” Because The Band Was So Well Prepared They Wound Up Cutting 18 Tracks In Only 10 days. No Small Accomplishment Considering They Had To Keep Tearing Down Their Entire setup To Allow For Regular Church Functions. But Michael Believes That Working So Quickly really Made The Music Come To Life. “It’s Not Always Ideal To Make A Record In This Short amount Of Time ” He Explains “but I Think That’s When People Really Deliver. In The End It keeps A Raw Imperfect Vibe That Adds Energy To The Final Project. Time Restraints Keep you From Over-Thinking And Over Tweaking Things. You’re Forced To Rely On Your Gut instead Of All The Little Voices In Your Head That Are Telling You ‘Maybe This’ Or ‘Maybe that.’ “ “It Felt Like We Were Making An Album In The 60's Or 70's ” Kipp Adds “when You Just Dove in And Cranked Out An Album. We Were Lucky That We Didn't Have Enough Time To Get Too picky About Anything Spending Hours Overdubbing To Make It ‘perfect ’ Which Can End Up sounding Sterile And Lifeless. We Also Have Noticed Throughout The Years That All Of Our favorite Albums By Other Artists -- Huge Historic Influential Artists -- Have Lots Of Little imperfections In Pitch And Performance But It Was The Overall Vibe That Grabbed The audience. The Song. The Energy. So We Strove To Not Beat Up Our Performances Too much. We Would Say ‘Rock And Roll...’ And Move On. It Was Liberating In A Way.” Michael Continues “Although At Times It Was A Bit Stressful And Uncomfortable The experience Of Playing Together As A Band Was Awesome. When Five Musicians Are laying Down A Track And You Make A Mistake On Your Part That Ruins The Other Guy’s greatest Take That’s The Down Side. However When Someone Plays A New Part That wasn’t In The Take Before And That Triggers Another Guy To Play A New Part And Suddenly we’re In Uncharted Territory That’s Exciting. It Doesn’t Always Work But The Journey Is amazing And Most Of The Time It Lifts The Track To A Whole New Level. There’s Something great That Comes Out Of Musicians When They Are Put In That ‘do Or Die’ Situation That cannot Exist When They Know That You Can Just Push Stop Rewind A Bit And Punch In again Before Their Mistake.” One Of The Highlights Of These Sessions Was The Day May 23 To Be Exact When They were Accompanied By Ten String Players On The Songs “Too Late For Me Now” And “Ashes in The Snow ” Plus The Bonus CD’s “We’re Okay.” When The String Musicians Arrived Many Were Surprised To Learn That They Would Be Performing Live With Venice Because their Typical Process Is To Play To A Pre-Recorded Track. Michael Remembers “Although It Was Our Dream To Have Live Strings On The Album I Was a Bit Apprehensive When The Day Came To Record Those Three Songs. But The Moment they Started Running Through The Arrangements I Looked Over At Pat And He Had Tears In his Eyes As Did I. It’s One Thing To Hear Strings On A Record But To Stand In Front Of Ten live Players Who Are Playing A Song That Kipp And I Wrote Was One Of The Highlights Of My career.” Adds Mark “The String Section Brought An Elegance A Richness And A Unique Feeling that Only A Live Orchestra Can Bring. It’s Funny But Every Time We’ve Had Any Kind Of orchestration With Any Recordings Or Concerts We’ve Done We All End Up Crying And hugging Each Other With Tears Of Joy Because Not Only Are We Lucky To Have Them There But The Chords And Notes They End Up Playing On Our Stuff Always Seem To Be Exactly what We Would Have Written. Everything Reminds Us Of Our Favorite Movies That Had similar Soundtracks That Made Us Cry And Shaped A Lot Of Who We Are Musically Today.” The Band Decided To Name To New Album After The City They’d Recorded It In “Amsterdam.” Kipp Explains “Michael Said He Liked The Idea Of Calling It ‘Venice In Amsterdam’ Because It Was Cool Sounding. You Know The Two City Names. And because We Were Recording It There And We Have Spent So Much Time In Amsterdam Over the Last Seven Years In Some Ways It Is Like Our Other Home Town. Then We Thought That title Might Confuse Some People Because It Sounds Like A Live Album So We Just shortened It To ‘Amsterdam ’ Which We All Loved. It's Also Cool Because The Beach Boys once Recorded An Album In The Netherlands Called ‘Holland.’” The Title Holds A Special Meaning For Mark. “To Me Amsterdam Is A European Mirror Of our City Of Venice California In A Lot Of Ways. Artistic Free And A Melting Pot Of All cultures And Lifestyles. Kind Of Like Our Music!” Kipp Agrees. “There Is A Certain Vibe That Is Particular To That City That We All Love. Beyond The Obvious Cliché Image People Have Of Amsterdam As A Legalized Pot Zone and Red Light Districts There Is A Beautiful Vibrant Old City With A Proud History And culture. Artistic Historic Mellow And Alive. Modern And Traditional. Similar To Venice beach But They've Got Us Beat By About 500 Years Or So.” The Band Flew Back Home To America At The End Of May But In The Following Few Weeks In Between Local California Venice Gigs Michael Returned To Holland Twice To Oversee The album’s Mixing. The Final Result Is A New Collection Of Songs That Is Near And Dear To The band’s Heart. “When I Listen To This Album” Says Mark “it Feels Like I’m Seeing A Private Live Show In A great Sounding Room.” “To Me ” He Summarizes “There Is No One Way Or Only Right Way To Do An Album. You just Try Different Things And Celebrate That Time In Your Recording Career. Have Fun While doing It And Look Forward To Surprising Yourself On The Next Recording Venture.”