Finespun's unreleased album...

I was in Finespun for 2 1/2 years. During this tenure, the band rehearsed a lot, played many shows locally and throughout the country, and wrote an album. We played a few packed houses, and a few empty ones. All of this was done DIY, despite being told the band had a record deal when I joined (I came to find out over time there wasn’t one, just a loose relationship with Rat Pak Records).

Nine months after our bassist left the band, we couldn't find a permanent replacement and we didn't have a plan for the future. We spent those 9 months tracking the new album we wrote on my Pro Tools rig when we weren't auditioning bassists. I brought that rig to and from the band spot multiple times a week outside of work; to record when I was there, and work on the sessions when I was home. We also prepped a temporary fill-in bassist for a few out-of-town shows with regular rehearsals. Those shows would be among our last batch together.

When I sat down with the remaining members and communicated that I was leaving - and why I was leaving - I asked them if they'd like to follow through with completing the album we collectively wrote. I asked if they'd want to come to an agreement to release this album that we were all proud of. While the the ex bassist waived any desire to receive credit when he left, I felt I had contributed too much to allow a release without my consent or receiving appropriate credit (writing, performing, engineering, and production credits, all which I would ultimately be due) and I communicated this. I didn’t get a concrete answer. I was told they had to think about it. Despite that response, I took it upon myself to continue mixing and producing the Pro Tools sessions that I had for each song, so that we would have completed versions of these songs, and I communicated this to them. I thought it was fair to have completed mixes for us to enjoy considering the work we put in, and I was willing to make that happen on my own. If the mixes were to be released I expected to be a part of that release and have an agreement in place to get proper credit. I mixed this album in my spare time - about 20 hours a week - over about five months after leaving the band, and asked for nothing in return.

We communicated via email over this time and the exchanges were civil. I sent mixes a few times throughout the process, and was given notes on how to improve the mixes, and I followed through on going back and making adjustments based on those notes. They sent me an email revisiting the conversation about receiving credit for my contributions, asking for clarity. I made myself even clearer, expressing in detail, but essentially, that I simply wanted to receive credit for what I contributed if there was a release. I got no response about this issue. At the end of the year I reached out and again asked if there was an update about a plan for a potential release of the music at some point, and waited a week and a half to be told there was no plan, but that might change based on hearing more mixes.

After five months of work, I sent over what were the final mixes. In response, I was ultimately told that they didn't think it was worth continuing the band musically, and they asked me to send over wavs of each song for mastering (I had been sending mp3s). I was working on an outdated computer with old software and the work I was doing was pushing the technology to it’s limits and I was running out of hard drive space. I had already bounced mp3s, and now I had to go back and re-bounce each song as a wav. My belief, was that if the songs were mastered they would be for personal use, as they had told me they didn’t want to continue, and I requested to be sent a copy of these eventually mastered mixes.

After agreeing to bounce and send the wavs, I was then asked to send over all of the files for all of the sessions for every song and given more notes for improving the mixes. I reiterated that the mixes I sent were final, and that I wouldn’t bounce and send over the wavs if they weren’t satisfactory, as this was more work on my part after all I had done in the last five months after leaving the band. In response, I was again asked to send the wavs and all of the files for all of the sessions for each song. I agreed to bounce each wav and send them over, but I communicated the technical limitations that I had to send over all of the files. The sessions are very large files which are difficult to send digitally (there was no web platform at the time to handle transferring that many gigs), so I would have to bounce each track of each song one at a time in real time, and send them in increments over a very long period of time. It would easily take months, if not longer. On top of this, I never got a firm answer about a potential release, or an agreement to include me in one. I was told the band wouldn’t continue musically, but not that they wouldn’t release any music. They already had full mixes of every song, and every audio file except my guitar parts and the production edits I did in Pro Tools. From my perspective, I had more than held up my end of the agreement we discussed. So, I sent over full mixes of each song in wav format over time (good enough to have mastered), but I didn’t send the session files. I had spent hundreds of hours over the last five months working on completing music for a band I was no longer a part of. I believed I had done my part. We could all enjoy these songs as they were, or they could master the wavs and release them giving proper credit. It was time to move on.

It's a shame those songs never saw the light of day. Regardless of the quality of songwriting, performances, production, or recording, we were proud of what we did. I especially thought the songs I wrote, guitar parts I wrote, and the tone I achieved were killer. I slaved over the mixes and production and was proud of the result despite not having a pro-quality studio.

So, if you got this far, you may be wondering why I would share this story online. Well, if you go to the band's website, at some point a blurb was posted about the 'unreleased album' and ‘ex guitarist' and how he 'sabotaged the final album the band wrote and stripped out his parts and kept all the music hostage for himself locked in Pro Tools on his hard drive’ (see screenshot below). I'm sharing the other side of that story. Important details were left out of their side, making them look like victims in the aftermath. Sadly, this was a common tactic used too often during my tenure, and it’s disappointing to see it passive/aggressively pointed at me on the internet. I don't remember sending mixes without my guitar parts, and I don't have any mixes of the songs that aren't complete. Even if I did that, I know I sent full mixes of every song in multiple file formats good enough to master and release, and they have a copy of every file except my guitar parts and my production edits. I'd say they only have themselves to blame for not following through with mastering the mixes I completed and sent, and releasing the album giving everyone due credit.

www.finespunmusic.com

If this snapshot in time intrigues you and you're interesting in hearing the unreleased album that this tension bore the fruits of, contact me: Steve.Licata@gmail.com

Here's an alphabetical track listing:

Already Over

Bleed For You

Dearly Departed

Face Down

Letting Go

Never Had a Choice

No Coming Back

Save Me

Ties That Bind

Wait For It

Watch A Shadow

Watching Shadows

Who's Sorry Now