HERMANO "Dandy Brown: "It seems like every time I am writing one of these studio reports I'm also including the news of a new baby, and this time is no exception... Kentucky Brown arrived about five months ago, and one month after that Preslie Leathers [drummer] was born." Based in Joshua Tree California and fueled by a desire to play emotinal driven [hard] rock, Hermano continue to blaze ahead with their latest album, called "...Into The Exam Room", due out on Holland's very own Suburban Records. "About three years ago, Hermano had just finished up our "Angry American" tour, and we were sitting on six or seven songs that we had written but hadn't had a chance to record", says Dandy Brown. "Over the next two years, we tried to find an open window to do a session, but life, work and family, as always, were the direction of most of our energies." Words | Dandy brown It seems like every time I am writing one of these studio reports I'm also including the news of a new baby, and this time is no exception... Kentucky Brown arrived about five months ago, and one month after that Preslie Leathers [drummer] was born. There were, of course, those endless nights in the shed [figuratively and literally] spent chopping through the legs of "...into the Exam Room", but it wasn't until about a year ago that we finally decided that it was time to add what we had written over that three year span to the six we already had in the wings. In one form or another, as all of the songs under some sort of transformation during the writing and recording process, the original six were: Don't Call Your Mama Our Desert Home Out of Key, But in the Mood Hard Working Wall At The Bar Bona-fide We had rehearsed 'Kentucky' for the first time about two years ago, but it really didn't come together until a few months before we started recording. "Exam Room" was written in the last month before we started tracking. 'Adoption Boy', 'Letters from Madrid', 'Left Side Bleeding', and 'Dark Horse II' were all demoed for the first time about a year ago. As for the tracking, well, as usual with Hermano it was a little bit unusual. John and I received the hard drive of demos with click tracks in May. There were no live drums or solid guitars at that point, so the bass tracks were the first recordings for the album. It was a little bit strange to do the bass tracks without the drums, but it seemed like we had gotten more used to the process from our experience with "Dare I Say." I'm not sure what everyone else used for tracking, but, for the gear folks out there, I used a '68 Jazz bass through an Amek/1176 combination. For the acoustic tracks, I played a '77 Alvarez 5022 into a Neuman/1176 combination. After I had finished the first ten, I sent them off to everyone via DVD's, and we just built from there. The other three came together in a more sporadic fashion, but overall that's how the record w as put together... bass, John's vocals, drums, guitars, mixing... in that order. There were several more songs that we just didn't have time to complete entirely, but there's always the next album for those. The album was mixed and mastered in Atlanta during the last week of July by Russ-T Cobb and Glen Schick... two of the baddest dudes on the planet. Man, what they were able to do with the collection was really amazing. Basically, we all picked up the mixes every night at our homes after the guys in Atlanta had spent the day mixing. Come to think of it, I never left my house for one part of the recording and mixing! We would listen to the mixes at night, send suggestions the next morning, and wait for the adjustments and further mixes the next evening. I believe they mixed the record in less than 112 hours. That blows my mind. Russ-T and Glen are phenomenal. As with all Hermano releases, there were a few train wrecks along the way, and lots of serious patience on the part of Suburban and our teddymonster [RAM], but I think greatest thing about "... into the Exam Room" is that it keeps that tradition that I have with these guys going... a tradition of loving the soul of all of them, and making records that genuinely display the optimism that lies at the heart of the band.