In the studio with Everett’s Moondoggies

Everett band, the Moondoggies, have been in a Woodinville studio the past couple of months wrapping up its new record.

The journey to complete the band’s third album started when they finished their last record and has had them in and out of the studio since September. After a lot of hard work, the finished product is almost ready.

“We’ve been working on it since we finished the last one, but we started recording Sept. 24,” Moondoggies singer Kevin Murphy of Everett said. “Did about a month there (at Bear Creek Studios).

“We had a couple false starts for this album. Scraping some songs altogether … going back to others left behind.”

During a recent visit to Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, I found the band members and producer huddled around the sound board going over a song a few seconds at a time, section by section, until they all agreed that every instrument and the vocals in that small part sounded just right.

Each member of the band had a notepad full of suggestions and took turns sharing their concerns and ideas with the rest of the group as they worked through it together. Though this process was clearly business for these guys, you could tell they were having fun.

A well-placed “The piano dropped a hair in that spot” or a “bring the guitars up a bit right there” and everyone is pleased with the finished product.

While the song finally plays all the way through from start to finish and the chorus chants over and again, “I can see a lot better now,” I am dreaming of when this record will be done so I can just sit and listen to it from start to finish.

The release date for the album is still not determined and neither is its name.

“I have one idea but I’m not ready to share it. It’s a lyric in a song called ‘Back to the Beginning,’” Murphy said.

With the album almost ready to go, the Moodoggies are discussing holding an album listening party at the Skate Deck in Everett. They joked about buying plastic flowers for girls and holding races at the end of the skate session like when they were young, but admitted that at this time it may just be a funny idea.

“I think one thing that keeps developing is our ability to entertain musical ideas that seem goofy or out of our normal realm,” Murphy said.

“Making different types of songs. There’s more variety in it that way. I already wanna make another. Keep moving.”

Steven Graham is a Herald blogger who writes What Radio? You can email him at steven@whatradio.com.