Aqueous

Here it is!

The first Free Kittens album ever released!

The album is free to download from our music page, (we actually can’t charge for it, since it was recorded in a government sponsored training facility at ACC Brandon) but we’d love you to paypal us a donation for it!

But WAIT! We’re going to offer you an awesome deal! If you donate $15 for the cd? We’ll give you a copy of the disk printed up all nice, and signed by all the members of the band, and we’ll ALSO give you a handmade CD booklet, with all the lyrics, and some cool info about us making the Cd. (If you want us to ship it to you, it’d be cool if you could give us another $5, if you don’t? We’ll still mail it to you, it would just be nice if you could help us out. Especially since it’s free for you do download one, but it does cost us money for the CD printing, shipping etc on the “deluxe” copies)

And if you don’t have money to donate? I propose a deal, when you download our album free, you have to share it with at least 2 friends.

Thanks for the support, and enjoy the album!

Since we don’t really have a printed case, with all the cool liner notes and stuff, we’ll try to put the equivalent of that up here on the site so its like you have it yourself.

First, Here’s a link to the photo gallery from our first day in the studio…

Here!

So this CD is kind of the result of the last year and a half of sporadic practices, breaks, great shows, late-night-bus-trip-songwriting, 15 hours in a studio, and the belief that what we had was a little too good not to record and share. We recorded all the instruments on February 27th in the studio at ACC in Brandon, and Joel went back and recorded all of the vocals a week later on March 6th, and Alex has put in endless hours on the production of the album since.

A few fun facts about the CD

The Cello on Ghosts of you is actually a Sampler in the ACC studio that Joel played. We wanted to get an upright bass or cello but on such short notice we couldn’t find someone who knew how to play one and wasn’t busy. In the end it’s not a big deal, because the sampled cello sounds so real it may as well be.

We have only every played Wash Away right through once. The first time we played it we got most of the way through, (far enough to solidify the structure) and stopped, then start from the top and hit record. The original vocal track Joel sang to keep everything together wasn’t actually the lyrics to the song like it was in the others, it was simply cues for chorus, bridge, solo, prechorus, etc, so that everyone knew where they were, since because of how we recorded we needed to do vocals separately later anyway. So what you hear on the album is our first try at the song. None of the guitars, the bass and the drums were ever re-tracked. The solo in that song is also one take. The only guitar lead that isn’t one take on the album is Ghosts, in which we used the second take of the solo at the end, cause Joel decided it wasn’t worth being picky so late at night, cause that take wasn’t bad. (He now wishes he’d tried it a few more times)

Somewhere New, is a song that Joel did live (guitar and vocals at the same time, as if it were at a show) in one take, because he brought his acoustic guitar on the day he drove back to Brandon to do vocals. He’d never sung it through before, just had chords and a melody in his head, and went for it. We thought it was worth a spot on the cd, so it made it.

The scream on Disappear only took a few takes, and there were actually a few good ones, but because he was so close he kept trying to get one that was better. The first time it was recorded, Joel and Alex both laughed, because it was so awesome. Joel still doesn’t really know how he screamed like that, but he’s pretty sure he was doing it right, since it didn’t hurt.

3 bags of Halls Vitamin C were consumed during the making of this album.

Alex came up with the name Aqueous, because we had decided that Rain would be first and Wash away would be last, and we realized this meant the album started and ended with a song about water, and therefore a water based title would make sense. We were looking for cool ones, and then he just mentioned that he’d always liked the word, and it seemed fitting. Sounds cool, too. It’s also interesting because a lot of these songs are kind of about moments or changes in life, and in some senses, moving past them, and I (Joel) kind of chose to take the title to describe shedding these things in the sense of water dissolving things and washing them away. Maybe no one else thinks of it that way, but I kinda do.

Here are the Lyrics to the songs. If you want to know what any of them are about, feel free to ask. (Don’t be surprised if the answer is “I don’t know, nothing, really”)

Rain:

The cracks in the pavement, turn to canyons at your feet, everything is wilting, its a whole new kind of heat
And the sun is edging closer, and the desert sucks you in, and you scream
The fire’s burning brighter, making ashes out of all of your dreams

You burn out, you’re not so perfect here today, your superficial world’s dried up, and you can’t make it rain

the old woman in the corner, looks you dead into the eyes, you feel your blood start pumping, as she sees right through your lies
when she’s ninety five and smiling, and you’re a coward, you’re afraid, you run away.

Drop out, Fade away, like a dead star

Assassins:

I’ve got a killer in my pocket and its smiling back at me, running so that no one knows exactly where I’ll be, the cost has already been paid but you wont find any relief, all of this is torture we’ve disguised as a release

when four white walls become my shield, because their photographs will not decieve, I’ll hide away, afraid to leave, talk to myself when I can’t sleep
cause we’re all lying through our teeth, there’s no one who we all believe, stay out of this battlefield, or shake its hand, and die.

why do we set ourselves to die, to make us feel like we’re alive, to put my life in hands that I don’t trust, and I don’t know. I’m always running for my life, never setting foot outside, maybe I’ll only feel relief when its time for me to go

 

Ghosts of You:

Maybe its a sickness, but you wont give it a name, are you as happy as you think, or is it driving you insane, because I’ll take the friendly smile, though it will never look the same, because you think its all erased, when you wake up whole again

You’re a sculpture made of glass, You cast no shadow on the floor
and I’ve never seen you stare with hollow eyes before,
you know it burns into my mind, every time you fall apart,
and I never sleep at night, because I’m haunted by these ghosts of you

Don’t go where I can’t hide in you, it’s not who you are to me, I don’t want to chase you down this hallway filled with all your shattered dreams, its not you who says these things, they’ll never set you free, But I can’t stop them all from taking every perfect memory.

I’m haunted by the ghosts of things I didn’t even do. I’m haunted by the ghosts of you.

 

Disappear:

I will wash you off of me and give you back your memories, cause I’m sick and tired of losing sleep when you’re the liar and the cheat, don’t come near me with those hands don’t pretend I act that way, don’t tell me who you think I am to cover up for your mistakes

don’t be nice, it sickens me you can’t have what you want from me, don’t try to fix the damage cause you can’t, lie to all your friends it seem you don’t know what you believe, pushing with these silly games but I won’t be what you want me to be

I wont miss you I can’t wait to get you out of here
I don’t want you I can’t wait for you to disappear.

 

The Bomb Inside Your Head:

You’ll crumble yet, I won’t forget, And I’ll still burn, when you regret, so get away, there’s nothing left, For you to take from this

In what world did you ever think that I would fall for these?You’re games and tricks and plans to try and dig in underneath, keep digging, reaching, and you’ll only find out how I scream, Cause you’re a bomb, and we both know that I’m the trigger

Talk to me, I’ll make you tick, words wont get you out of this, I’ll be the bug, that makes you itch, that only acid will burn clean

You can write a million letters
they’ll be ashes in the end
you can attack me cause I know
that you don’t realize what you did.
Tell me that you know me
until all your lies are fed
until you leave,
I’ll always be the bomb inside your head

 

Somewhere New

So many friends we made, songs we sang, Words that we saved So many trips we made, smiles we gave, Friends we embraced So many gravel roads, hands to hold, Nights on the phone, So many letters and stories told, But where did you go? Where did you go…

Either you’ve grown and I’ve stayed the same, Or I stayed home while you went away, I would have written you everyday, If I’d known you would find somewhere new

So many pictures and memories, Still in the frame, So many stories that we could tell, Of all of those days

You used to use words like refuge and safe, Your constant, your place where things were okay, But we haven’t spoken in so many days, Please don’t let me be replaced.

 

Wash Away:

You know the flood is coming, you can feel its weight, feel the pressure that its placing, feel it all fall into place.

You can’t handle the water, as it rushes across the floor, you can’t handle the water, as it washes away your soul

You’ll stand before a tidal wave, with tricks you try to save, but you have heard the imminence, you wont stand it its way.

So open the door and let it take you, open the door and let it flow, open the door and let it wash you away, open the door and just let go

the wave will follow you, no matter where you stay, someone always sets it off, you’ll never run away.

 

All songs by Joel VanKoughnet, Alex Robinson, Sam Tomlin and Jurgen Kaminski.

Vocals: Joel VanKoughnet

Guitars: Jurgen Kaminski and Joel VanKoughnet

Bass: Alex Robinson

Drums: Sam Tomlin

Cello in Ghosts of You: Joel VanKoughnet

All Tracks were recorded and mixed by Alex Robinson at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon (In room 404, or Studio 404 as we like to call it).

Thanks to Jeremy McGill for keeping the website running (a lot of the stuff involved in the album online, like, firstly, the site itself, as well as the new music player for the album) is done by him.

Thanks to Animal for inspiring us.

Thanks to our families and our friends for the support, in getting us shows, in coming to our shows, in inspiring us to write songs or in helping fund our crazy hobby, and thanks again for listening. Hope you enjoyed the CD!

Joel, Alex, Jurgen, and Sam.

Free Kittens