Getting the ball rolling on a new record is a daunting and dubious task for a local band.
Recording studios are expensive, and finding the right professionals to help put the music to disc is never simple.
But East Lansing's The Flow took matters into its own hands and built a home studio to record its new album "Aurelius," which will be available at the band's CD release party tonight at Rick's American Café, 224 Abbott Road.
"We were able to take our time, hear how everything sounded and put it together as best we could. The main reason for doing it was to have the time to be creative and not get charged by the hour like we would in a studio," bassist Brett Bielski said.
The role of the studio also played part in naming the new record.
"We live on Aurelius Road and since we recorded the majority of it here in our home studio, we thought we'd call it something accordingly," drummer John Cassidy said. "The band lives here, we recorded here, we wrote the songs here - it just sums up the whole experience for us."
The Flow broke into the local music scene in 1999 and a plethora of names were discussed to label the intent of the band's music.
"We were trying to find a way to describe the way we play and communicate with the crowd musically," Cassidy said. "One of our missions is to get everybody dancing and state that we're here to party and to play good music - that's what The Flow stands for."
Tonight, the band will perform songs from the record, older originals and covers of high-energy dance grooves that fuse reggae, calypso, funk, Afro-pop and jazz.
"This is our CD release party for our debut album and everyone who's been checking us out should definitely be here for this," Cassidy said. "It's a special night for us and we want to celebrate with all the people in town that we can."
As for the record itself, the band couldn't be happier.
"'Aurelius' represents a self-produced portrait of our creativity and collective efforts as a band," singer Ted Moss said. "Our intent was to capture the essence and vibe of our live performance and forge it onto an album. I really believe we hit our mark."
