OSI - Office of Strategic Influence

OSI Studio Diary by Mike Portnoy

Sunday June 2nd 2002

Travel out to the Carriage House in Stamford, CT in the late afternoon to make sure all my drums arrived safely from the last G3 show in Mexico. Spend several hours setting up (I am hopeless without Jose!) and Jim arrives late in the evening. We say our hellos and split up the bedrooms in the apartment attached to the studio.

Monday June 3rd 2002

Kev arrives in the afternoon. This was a real treat for me and also a bit strange as I haven't seen him in almost 5 years! (the last time was when he came out to see DT at the House of Blues in LA in the fall of '97) We spend a little time reacquainting ourselves and then the 3 of us head into the studio to make a record!!

We set aside these first 2 days to look at Jim's existing demos, discuss the arrangements and make the agreed changes in Pro-Tools before I start tracking on Wednesday. (Essentially this is our way of "rehearsing", but on paper and in the computer as opposed to "the old fashioned way"!!)

The first thing we look at is "Song #2" which is a bit of an epic in 3 sections. We start by adding an additional verse, B section and Chorus to the vocal sections of Part 1. We pretty much leave Part 2 alone and then make some changes to Part 3. Change what used to be an extended keyboard pad and guitar solo to a possible bass section/solo and a real cool trippy building keyboard thing. Also add a few extra bars to a few of the phrases to make them a bit odd. (I'm still fighting Jim on this one...)

This one might be my favorite of the tracks we are working with.... Probably the most Fates Warning sounding of them all, with some Tool and Metallica-type riffs throughout. Also, many sections through the middle section of this remind me of DT's "The Great Debate".... I think we are going to shoot to have Steven Wilson sing this one (although there is a cool bridge in Part 2 that I can picture Kev singing...)

The next song we look at is something that started as "Song #3" in Jim's demo form, but evolved into something Kev has already written melodies and some lyrics for tentitively entitled "Hello Helicopter". This is a pretty straight ahead song (all 4/4) with a real commercial Peter Gabriel-type edge.

The only major changes made to the arrangement were that we dropped the prechorus in favor of an extended verse, removed a bar leading into the choruses and spend some time fiddling with and changing the middle section/bridge to accomodate a few vocal ideas Kev had.

The last song we work on is Jim's "Song #4" which will likely close the CD. This is very much in a sort of "Space Dye Vest"/"Disappear" style.... Very moody and trippy. The big difference from those songs is the use of a very bizarre time signature in the form of 25/16 which most of the song is in.

Kev really had a problem seeing the vocal verses in 25, so he finally convinces Jim to switch them to 6/4, but we leave the rest in 25 so it creates a very interesting shift constantly going back and forth between 24 & 25 (and the bridge is in 9)....this was another one we pictured Steve singing.

Kev plays us a demo he made of some riffs Jim sent him and he turned it into something called "Head" which is incredibly cool and heavy. Very Nine Inch Nails. It is still undecided if we will use this track for this project or if he will hold onto it for himself to use elsewhere in the future....

Tuesday June 4rd 2002

Spend the whole day analyzing, discussing and re-arranging "Song #1" which is the big piece on the CD (should end up clocking in around 25 minutes or so....)

The biggest changes to Jim's demo is the deletion of two entire sections (Parts 3 & 7) and the shuffling around of some sections in Part 4 to incorporate some of Jim's original parts along with the version of this section that Kev arranged (called O.S.I.)

The last section of the song (which was Part 8, but now will be Part 6) is also extended to a more fuller arrangement and sound very remnant of Pink Floyd's Animals.

Right now this piece is pretty progressive and has some of the more Metal-type riffs of the album, but it will be interesting to see how this all ends up as I told Kev that I am willing to let him have some fun with the processing of the drums. Even some splicing and dicing to bring a more industrial sound and style to the whole project.....I'm all for going to some fresh new places that I haven't visited yet with DT, TA ot LTE....it should be fun!

Wednesday June 5rd 2002

Finally get to start hitting some drums today!
Phil (our engineer) arrives for the sessions and spends most of the afternoon transferring the arrangement tracks over to a new hard drive for us to begin tracking drums....finally get started around 6pm and dive into the "other big track" (the 3 parter that clocks in around 15 minutes).....

The first section is probably the slowest sludgiest thing I've ever played, but really cool and heavy. Kinda Black Sabbath-ish. As I mentioned, the second section is very Tool-ish and reminds me a bit of The Great Debate in spots.

The third section is super cool...it starts off super mellow. Very Pink Floyd live at Pompeii...but it keeps building and building and building to a climax that reminds me of Metallica's The Call of Ktulu.

I'm real pumped on this track. I think I nailed a great performance and Phil has got some incredible drum sounds happening. I don't see how or why this kind of track should be "fucked with", but I'm keeping an open mind....

Thursday June 6th 2002

Continue with my drum tracks....start off with "Hello Helicopter". I do something for this drum track that I've never done before while creating my drum parts: take direction!!

I am trying to be open minded to a new direction, so I ask Kev to come mold me as he'd like for this track....it ends up being a very cool drum track. Lotsa tribal type tom stuff (very Peter Gabriel-esque) and a bit of a Dave Matthews Band feel.

Next up I lay down a few takes of solid drum grooves for both "Head" and "O.S.I." in order for Kev to loop and sample for when he's piecing together these 2 songs.

Finish up the session with "Song #4". Experiment with many different approaches....I started off with some cool Bruford-type King Crimson grooves in 25/16, but we decide it's too busy and giving the track too much of a back beat. So I then end up going with a more subtle approach....Ride and Hi-hat grooves and cymbal embellishments. And then I end up adding some truly crazy drum patterns to the bridge and the end section....very strange song, but really cool.

Friday June 7th 2002

Finally start digging into "the big tune".....start off with Part 2 which is all instrumental and all in 11/8. I think I blew a few loads over this one and did some really crazy shit!

About half way through tracking, I have to leave for a few hours to go to Melody's school for a Father's Day party. : )

So Jim records his acoustic guitars for Hello Helicopter while I am out...

Return at the end of the night and spend a few hours finishing up Part 2 as well as laying down some drums to a possible alternate heavy bridge for Hello Helicopter....(can't decide yet if it should stay mellow or get heavy....)

Saturday June 8th 2002

Continue to plow through the "big track". Start the day off with 2 of the more mellow, Kev-driven sections (Part 4 and Part 6). Once again, I am letting Kev "direct" me for these 2 parts....At times I get a little frustrated and lose my patience because I end up playing things I normally wouldn't have played...but then I realize that is the whole purpose of this approach and I try to be open minded and just go with it.

Both of these sections end up sounding incredibly Pink Floyd-ish. Part 4 reminding me of something like "Hey You" and Part 6 reminding me of something like "Mother". In the end, I'm glad I had Kev direct me through these, because it got me to play simpler and it is really what these 2 sections really needed.

Now it's time to unleash the beast again (me!) and get back into the remaining heavy/prog sections. Next up is Part 3 which is the vocal section that follows the instrumental stuff I did yesterday. This is pretty much all in 7 and has some killer riffs and grooves. (Reminds me of old Fates - circa "No Exit")

Last up for the night is Part 5 which is once again in 11 and pretty progressive. I had to be on my toes for this and really keep my thinking cap on as it has alot of weird time signatures and very syncopated parts. After some work, I nail it and pull out some real cool parts! (that's why I get the big bucks kids!)

Decide to call it a night around 2am and finish up this last section tomorrow for the last day of drum tracks! : )

Sunday June 9th 2002

Last day at the Carriage House!
Start off by finishing up the end of Song #1 Part 5 which builds to a great climax....

Finish up the session with myself and Kev recording a version of Pink Floyd's "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" (don't know if this will make the final CD or if it will be a bonus track....) We played this together live and got it in one take! Very moody and intense...It's actually incredible how much Kev's voice sounds like Roger Waters!

That's it....the making of another masterpiece! (in my humble opinion...) :) The tapes will now get sent off to Sean Malone where he will add his bass parts and we are also planning on having Steven Wilson do a few vocal (and anything else he may want to add) spots....

Looking foward to hearing the final product soon...and for you all to hear it too!

Mike Portnoy
New York
Monday June 10th 2002 1:37am EST

Excerpt from a BraveWords interview with Jim Matheos

"But even with so much on his plate, the New Hampshire-based guitarist was clearly most enthused about OSI, whose debut album, Office Of Strategic Influence, will be released by InsideOut on February 18th. BW&BK #67 will have a full feature on the record, but here are some teasers excerpted from Matheos' interview:

On Portnoy: "We're great friends. On a professional level, he's just an amazing drummer. I love everything he does. Watching him live 40 or 50 times and listening to him on record a million times is a completely different experience than watching him in the studio. I was blown away by him. This was something we wanted to do for a long time, and it was a really great experience."

On Moore, with whom he collaborated on the last two Fates Warning albums: "I can't say enough good things about Kevin. I'm a huge fan of his, and I think the guy's a genius. Any time I can work with him, it's great. I'm in awe of his talent."

On PORCUPINE TREE vocalist Steven Wilson, who guests on one OSI track: "This was kind of my wish-list of people who I admire and who I'd like to work with. I first started talking to Steven about a year and a half ago, when I approached him to maybe produce the next Fates record. Things just didn't work out schedule-wise, but I knew I'd want to work with him sometime in the future. When (OSI) came up, he was one of the first people that I thought of. I sent Steven some of the material; he liked it; he had a hole in his schedule; and that's pretty much the end of the story."