The recording of the new Zilch album is coming along well.  We have 16 songs of drum tracks done, thanks to Mark Graalman of Sanctus Real volunteering his time and efforts.  He did a great job.  Many of the songs have guitars done as well and Dan is working on bass as we speak.  There will be a total of 17 songs to choose from to make the final record.  I am really liking the songs a bunch and think the fans will as well.  As of right now, it should be in stores sometime in the Fall of this year.  I hope to have everything recorded and ready for mix and mastering by the end of March.  I think that is very doable.  Lately I have been in touch with Jason Halbert, who was the original keyboardist in Zilch and he is sending me a bunch of photos and stuff from our early days in Zilch, which I will post on the site when I receive them.  Who knows, I may get up the courage to ask him to put some synth stuff on the tracks... Anyway, Zilch is busy now that the New Year has come and we think it will be a great year.  Who knows, we may even do some shows...  anything is possible.  MLT

We certainly wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a blessed and happy New Year. Things have actually been hopping at Zilch central. We have new drum tracks done on 7 new songs and the rest for our album will be done in early January. In a perfect world, we'll have the album done in February and in stores sometime in the early fall. It's taken a long time but I feel like we have finally gotten out of the starting blocks and are on the way to a record, hopefully of quality. Much thanks to Dan Gartley and Mark Graalman of Sanctus Real for playing on the stuff. We are doing some updating here and there of the website and setting up a myspace page as well, so stay tuned. We'll add some video where we can and keep you posted on the process of making the album, as of yet untitled. The album will definitely be about our beliefs in God and our journey in this life of faith. In updating the website, we have also changed our email address to get rid of the ridiculous amount of spam that would fill up our account each month. You can get the link on the contact page. We would love to hear from you if you care to write. God bless and may the next year be better than before... MLT

It's been a strange but good Fall thus far. After being crazy busy all summer into September, I have had a bit of time off. I got the G5 back and it's in better working order than before, thanks to a new friend, Jon Kelly. It turns out that there has been a recall on the power supplies on early G5's and mine is one of them. Anyway, I got it back and have not used it too much, as I've been writing for my solo record. I promised myself that I would not record a thing until I've written all the songs, because it is really easy for me to get sidetracked with all the tools and instruments at my disposal in my studio. I wanted to write an album like they did in the old days of the Brill Building in NYC, where people like Carol King, Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka, Lieber and Stoller and folks like that worked in little office cubicles with a piano and pad and pen. It forces a certain level of work to make a good song that is interesting before you add the colors of the recording process. As of right now, I have half the album written and hope to get the rest done this week. Then I'll kick into record mode and probably have a friend engineer while I play the instruments. Anyway, Dan and myself are also set to pull some Zilch songs out of the can and redo drums with Mark from Sanctus Real in another 2 weeks, so I'll have that going as well. I'm looking forward to it. Anyway, the new RK Christmas album is in stores and it turned out really well. The packaging is really good and fits the album. Check it out. We did it all for you, the fan... MLT

A computer on the blink can force some much needed time off and that's where I'm at right now. I went to turn on my G5 last night to finish some demo mixes for a band our label is looking at and it wouldn't turn on. Next thing I know, I'm smelling ozone and it looks like the graphics card in my computer may have fried. I hope that's it, because that is a quick fix, but it may be a day or two before I can have someone look at it. No worries, as I'm not using the studio right now and am concentrating on writing some songs for my record with just guitar or piano or ukulele for now. I'm heading up to Ohio next week for a few days off and to visit some relatives and friends that I have not seen for quite some time. My best buddy back home has a boat and I think we and our families are going to head out on the water for a day. I'm looking forward to that, as I pretty much worked all summer and had no time off for fun. The House Of Heroes record is done and so I'm pretty much off for now. Dan is on tour with Sanctus Real this fall but they are mainly doing weekends, so we have talked about trying to pull the 2nd Zilch record out of the can and get it ready for public consumption. I shouldn't be too hard and it would be good to get that out and done for my own piece of mind and for you, the fans... I'll keep you in the loop. That's it for now. MLT

The Relient K Christmas album is mixed, mastered and done and ready to hit the stores sometime in the end of October. We're all really pleased with how it turned out and I think the fans will enjoy it very much. I'll keep you posted. House of Heroes is moving along well and we'll pick back up on it next week. It will go to mix on the 4th-6th of next month and we are quite excited to get it done and set for release. Not too much else going on. I did have something really cool happen recently. My folks bought me my first acoustic guitar when I was in 3rd grade and it's the instrument I learned to play on. I had loaned the guitar to a friend of mine just out of high school and tried to teach her how to play. She did really well and I pretty much forgot about it, as I had other instruments and was primarily playing electric by then. I had not been in touch with my friend for 25 years and a mutual friend of ours connected us by email. Long story short, she ended up sending the guitar back to me and it's been really cool to have that back. I have a lot of history with the guitar and it brought back some great memories when I first opened the case after all these years. I cleaned it up and put new strings on it so it's in good working order and set about playing it. It still plays decently and more important, it's my first guitar. You can check it out in the pic and see some history. Thanks, Sandra, for sending this old guy back... MLT

The Relient K Christmas stuff is recorded and going to mix this week, so I have been busy editing and sending songs to JR McNeely to mix. I basically go through each song and get rid of noises, hums and buzzes, coughs, rattles, and whatever else has nothing to do with the music and then send it to mix. I think the album comes out in late October or early November, but don't quote me on that. It will be out way before Christmas, so that's the main thing. I get a few days off later this week, which I am looking forward to. I'm a bit burned out and a couple of free days can make a big difference. I pick back up with House Of Heroes on the 20th and should have that done in the first week of September. It's going to be a kick butt record and those that have heard the mixes of the front half of the record have relayed to me that they think it's pretty amazing. The vocal stuff alone is worth checking it out, as almost all the backgrounds are the 3 guys around a mic and it has a Beatle quality that you can't get when you sing each part separately to a track and blend it after the fact. I dig it a ton. Anyway, it still looks like I get some time off in mid September and October, so I am already planning the solo and Zilch music being recorded. I'll keep you posted. Anyway, rock on and God bless. MLT

I'm back in the studio with Relient K, which is always a pleasure. We are working on some new songs to complete a Christmas record we had started a few years ago that has never been officially released. I guess now with the new songs, Capitol with make it official, as it will be a significant upgrade with many new songs and a new mastering of the record by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, NYC. Things are going well and we should be done tracking by the end of the week. It's funny because we have progressed so much (they as a band and I as a engineer/producer) since we started this thing years ago, that it will be an interesting listen and a bit of a challenge for Ted to glue it together. At the least, it will be a good holiday listening with all the different aspects of Relient K thrown in for good measure. I would imagine the album will get a new title as well since so much material is being added and changed. Anyway, a fun time should be had by all. On another note, House Of Heroes 2nd album is half done and mixed and is turning out fantastic. The vocal stuff on it is amazing as we went back to the old school of the 3 guys all singing harmony around 1 mic, like The Beatles and then tracking it multiple times. It sounds amazing and there is some pretty incredible parts going on. I am very pleased with it so far and we pick up on the back half in another week or so. Stay tuned. It looks like I may have a window of time to myself in much of September and October, so I will be working on my stuff and me and Dan have threatened to pull out the tracks of the Zilch album we have in the can and add some stuff for mix and release. I hope to get some of the artists I work with to contribute to it as well, so we'll see how it goes and I'll keep you posted. Blessings. MLT