Dear friends,

It's Monday morning and I woke up in my own bed with the sun shining.  Although the weather in Holland is not too bad, it sure is nice to be home in California.

I have to be careful not to hype it too much but we left Amsterdam on such a high.  This new record is really "Venice".......everyone that visited the church during our recording was really blown away.

The last 3 days of recording were the most important.......the vocals.  Most of the vocals were recorded with the 4 of us up on a stage that they built in the middle of the church.  We were facing each other in a circle.  Each guy had his own dedicated microphone, but there were also ambient or room microphones that capture the sound of the 4 of us as a group as it sounds in the beautiful and natural reverb of the church.  When I heard playback on some of the songs, it's almost like 3-dimensional sound.  There is an energy on these recordings that was missing on the past recordings.

All tracks were cut live with the full band.  Most of the vocals were cut live with all 4 singers......this was key to capture that "venice live" vibe.

During the entire process of recording, we were often stopped by the beautiful church bells of a nearby church.  We would wait for them to stop and then continue recording....well, on the last note of the last vocal recording, we all were holding our notes out and as the band track was fading, the bells started ringing....we left it on the recording because it was so appropriate.

Well, there's still much to do regarding album artwork, sequencing of songs, picking songs, etc., but overall the second-to-last stage of this album is complete.

I would like to thank Amber and Matt for all their hard work in helping find new ways to reach that next plateau.  Also, there are too many Venetians to mention here that are volunteering to help out as well.  WE CANNOT DO IT WITHOUT YOU GUYS.....FOR THAT WE ARE EXTREMELY THANKFUL.

I will list these people in the near future but have to get back to hugging and kissing my wife and kids.

Please be patient for this new album.....there's rumors of 12" limited edition vinyl's being printed.

I really think this one will make everyone happy.

We love you and again appreciate all the support.

Pictures are coming soon.

Gotta make breakfast for the kids......Daddy's home!

Michael - Venice

Well guys,

Today was an amazing day in Venice history.

Not only did we cut 5 tracks today, but the first 3 were cut live with 10 string players.  It was an amazing thing, to hear our new songs fully realized.  These musicians were so good it was scary.  Our good Dutch friend, Gerbrand Westveen, arranged the strings, and I think when you hear them you'll agree........he knows how to bring the best out of the Venice songs.  (Gerbrand was the arranger and conductor of the Gelredome show we did with De Kast....."Baby's Calling"....."One Quiet Day"!)

I remember playing the very first song this morning with the strings, and I turned to my left to look at Pat and he had tears in his eyes, as did I.  It was definitely an emotional day and one that couldn't have gone better.

That being said, this morning, before we left for the studio, I was a wreck.....not knowing what to expect.......It's quite a bit of pressure to play a song live with 10 pros sitting in front of you....also hoping that the actual arrangements would be as expected.

The string section was so impressed that we were actually recording the songs live with them, and they were not just playing to a pre-recorded track.....it was magical indeed.  Many of them offered to play live with us in the future, and we've also made some new fans.

If you really think about it, we'll be making an entire record in a little more than a week's time.  That's really amazing in this day and age.

Every day we get faster at cutting the tracks.

We were also lucky to have Marius Suiker join us today, to help take some photos and shoot some video.....Thank you Marius.

Well, I'm dead tired from an awesome day, but wanted to catch you up on the "Hot News!"

Gotta be at the studio at 10 tomorrow.

I will try to post a photo or two of today's activities when I can go through them.....busy, busy!

Hang in there....every day we get closer to the release of the new album.

Adios muchachas and muchachos,

Michael

Hello everyone,

Although today was a short day and somewhat boring to music lovers, we were able to set up our instruments, get comfortable in our new home and play through some of the songs to check instrument balance, etc.

Tomorrow will be the starting of the actual recordings, although there are still some details to work out.

We shot some video today, but you will have to wait to see that.  I will go through the limited photos I have from today and try to post some soon.

Talk to you soon,
Michael - Venice

Dear friends,

Today was our last day before we start the recording of the new Venice record with Universal / Flow Records.  This is a very exciting and somewhat unknown journey we are about to embark on, but I have faith that great things will come from it.

Tonight we had an amazing dinner with all involved......the band, the label, management, and most importantly, the hi fidelity recording company...Turtle Records.

Tomorrow will be out first day of setting up and starting the new album.

I will do my best to shoot some photos, videos, etc. and to keep you posted with short diary entries like this one, but I can't promise too much.  As you might know, I play guitar and sing in the band.

Anyway, more to come soon.  Please send good energy in our direction and stay tuned for the next exciting episode of....."Venice in Amsterdam"..............Hey, that's a good album title.

See you soon.

Michael - Venice

Hey everybody.  This is Kipp Lennon, writing on behalf of my cousins and brother to give you a little update.  Well, we finally finished writing and rehearsing a bunch of new songs, and we're flying over this week to the Netherlands to record our new album.  We've got a lot of great new stuff and we're fired up to get started.

Here are some of the song titles:  "The Lost Weekend," "Rewind," "One More Song," "Weight Has Been Lifted," "I Thought You Would Be Here," "Not Enough For You," "Radio Game," "My Life Is Like A Movie" and a lot more.  You obviously don't know any of these songs yet, but imagine a lot of polkas mixed with opera and elevator music...  Well, I don't want to give too much away.

On the 1st of May, our pal, keyboardist Nick Bult, flew here to LA from Holland for a week of rehearsals with the four Lennons, Mark Harris on bass and Jamie Wollam on drums.  As most of you know, each of these guys brings such a great vibe to our shows and songs.  We can't wait to make the actual album now.  We'll be recording it at a beautiful, old, wooden church in Amsterdam over the next couple of weeks.  We'll try to check in now and then with a progress report while we're there, and maybe some pictures as well.

Anyway, we thought some of you might like a glimpse into what these rehearsals looked like, so we threw together this little slideshow. (When I say we, I mean, of course, Matt Levitz with some help from us.)  Special thanks go to Matt and also to our main gal Friday, Amber Guerra, for once again going above and beyond the call of duty, taking the time to come down and hang out and get some nice shots to document the rehearsals.  The final preproduction stage!

Thanks folks, and we'll talk to you soon.  Adios!