The Circus Alive
Recorded at Welcome to 1979 in 5 hours
On November 4th, 2022 I wrote the song "Crash to the Ground" at my brother's place in Kentucky. I sent it to the Circus Queen. Four days later I'm playing the song live at an open mic night in Nashville.
I decide to write a concept album. Rules are to play all of the parts live with no computer control. There is my normal voice and a vocoder. Neither are allowed to sing at the same time. I bought a Yamaha YME8 midi splitter to change the direction of control on the keyboards.
I put the deposit down at the recording studio on November 19th with only 2 songs written. I wrote 8 more songs over the course of the week. I picked sounds for the final song, but didn't compose it. On December 19th, 2022 I walked into the studio with a Dave Smith Prophet Rev 2, Korg Opsix, Roland JD-Xi, Roland JX-08 Boutique, Roland R-70, and PRS Mira. In 5 hours I recorded 11 songs to tape.
The last 3 songs (Wake Up, Hurry Back, and Exodus) were recorded on the first take. "Exodus" was written and performed ad lib while the tape was rolling.
The album was written and completed 45 days from start to finish. Check it out: https://harryrooster.com/the-circus-alive
