LYNX Breaking Out was a defining recording experience for me. Although I wrote only one of the songs on the CD, the recording was fun and the experience was educational. We had rehearsed these songs to death before the recording so that we were, or, at least we thought we were ready. Andy had previous experience in recording studios so he was well prepared. The rest of us had no "real studio" experience other than using our portable multi-track equipment. So we embarked on our journey to Ontario NY, where, at Hamster Cage Studio, we would record our demo under the guidance and engineering of Tony Gross; former guitarist of Head East. Andy had us somewhat prepped with an agenda as he usually would. He was very good at this sort of thing and very organized with incredible energy. The recording process would begin in the morning with a couple of breaks throughout the day and we would tie up loose ends sometime in the evening. Tony knew we were on a tight budget and was really cool to work with so he would pretty much go above and beyond to help us out if our funds would run low. The process seemed slow at the time, but in retrospect, I had now idea before this of getting the perfect sound for every drum, every cymbal etc. The drums took a fair amount of time but to no fault of anyone. Andy did a stellar job. Billy Rock-n-Roll whipped through his bass lines rather quickly but I think he was mixed low in the final mix. When you are the vocalist, it seems to take forever until it is your turn. Being my first experience, I didn't want to miss a thing. Plus the fact that I had to lay scratch vocals down kept me there anyway. When it was finally my turn, I was so burnt out and exhausted not to mention anxiety was kicking in, that I had a difficult time getting psyched inspired so it took a little while to get me going. I think the following is the order which we recorded:

1. Living in a Nightmare
2. Live It Up
3. Critical Condition
4. Crossroads

It is my opinion that, had we been able to record three more songs vocally after Crossroads was completed, it would have been wise to re-record the first three again. In this case, the vocals were not recorded last. The guitar solos were the last parts to be recorded because there were some difficulties with the guitarists, Todd Hensley and Chad Darrah, after numerous attempts. So we decided to scrap that session and save time by letting them work out their stuff while we recorded the vocals. This would, in a half ass way, be a time saver, even though we wasted half a day getting the right tones and then trying to record solos. The guitars sounds didn't really come off as we had hoped but that was where we were least prepared. All in all it was a fun experience and we were pretty happy with our product. Tom mastered the transition to CD in 2007 and created the cover art work.

Jeffrey Harris
2008