Beginning in November of 2012, Suuns (Ben Shemie, Liam O’Neil, Max Henry and Joseph Yarmush) and long time friend, Radwan Ghazi Moumneh of Jerusalem In My Heart, rented a studio in Montreal for seven days. The idea was to collaborate on rough sketches of song ideas and to complete as much recording as possible without discrimination. The session was successful, yielding many vibe-laden songs featuring heavy analog synths, Arabic influences and electronic sensibilities.
After the session, the recordings laid dormant. Both bands were releasing albums, touring was to ensue shortly. Some editing time was squeezed in between tour dates but a full year passed before the songs were heard by an audience. The collaborative band did a live show at Pop Montreal 2013 then another the following March. It was then that the project was kickstarted into gear. The band over-dubbed and re-worked the songs in the summer of 2014 and finally, during a stretch of touring in October, finished the vocal overdubs and mixing.
Moumneh did the tracking and most of the mixing while Max Henry of Suuns handled some of the mixing duties as well. As Suuns’ Shemie is quick to point out, “It’s not a Suuns record, it’s not a Jerusalem In My Heart record. It’s really a product of 5 musicians that had spent a lot of time on tour listening to music together.” Suuns and Jerusalem In My Heart will see release on April 13th via Secretly Canadian.
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